spirit of norm smith

Can’t possibly see Sparrow staying in next week. I’ve been a supporter but he has lost something this year. This week he had too many missed tackles. He was easily too often outmuscled in the contest. Lost so many stoppages and clearances. One clearance from 10 centre square and about 15 stoppages. Not alone but was clearly not interested or lost any sense for the contest. His miss in the 3rd quarter… 30 metre out, clear by 10 metre from any opposition. Could have run in and kicked any easy goal. Instead he “chipped” in to the behinds and hardly made the distance. Compelling that he was lacking any confidence or interest.

Longmuir comments in the presser … “ teams have been bringing numbers up to try and nullify our stoppage work because it's a real strength of our game, but we've got to maintain a mindset to be decisive and get on the front foot." Didn’t see any evidence that our coach or coaches implemented this block the stoppage strategy. (?!?!)

With regular footy talk !!!

Not even mentioned in the presser. Soft journalism

Demons' lost the contested ball battle 141-105. Goodwin. "That's been one of the strongest things in our game for the last five weeks … so it wasn't just the hitouts. It was a combination of all that within our game, and we'll own it, we’ll lean into it. And we'll come back better next week." blah blah. Corporate Speak. “Lean into it”. Will we “pivot” to “align to our strategic imperatives “. Goodwin speak is becoming NAUSEOUS!!

Question 1. So we lost Jackson and recruited Grundy. We then traded away Grundy after a short (chickened out) experiment. Problem… 2024 why no Plan for a backup ruck to support Gawn or a plan B for when/if Gawn gets injured? (That’s poor list management. Poor coach management). Question 2. Other clubs can set midfield defensively when Gawn is a dominant ruckman. Why couldn’t we? We got smashed. We couldn’t setup to stop them coming out the front through stoppages or from the centre square!!! Clearance. Spread. Run. Freo goal Question 3. Out the back? Why did we concede 13 goals from turnovers. And the 5 goals for Freo by forwards being all alone in forward 50. Defenders playing 15 metres off their players ??? Why ? How? Question 4. Tackling? Why and how did Freo keep breaking tackles or would get handballs away to running players even with two tacklers !!! lots to discuss

Disposal efficiency top 3 Petty 15 possessions. DE 100% AMW 11 possessions DE 90% McVee 21 possessions. DE 86% bottom 3 Turner 7 possessions DE 28% Viney 23 possessions DE 60% Billings 18 possessions DE 61%

Viney 5/10 - his heart BUT please take first option!!! Please!!! Caught or Smothered DONT THINK !!! Do!!! May 4/10’- tough and hard but loose!!! FFS Lever -1/10- couldn’t do anything right fumbles, slip, turnover, outmarked … worst gsme ever !!! Bowey -4/10 … average !!! Missed kicks and tackles; just stays in Langdon 7/10 yes he actually gave a damn; ran and tackled at least Rivers 6/10 - tried and tried but outclassed Salem -3/10 - looks slow and his kicking is slow and up !! Slow decision making Neal-Bullen -3/10 no influence. Poor tagging hand as he fumbled and stumbled Petty 4/10- overwhelmed but not disgraced , competed hard vanRooyen 5/10- just needs to take his opportunity. Compete hard Moniz-Wakefield - 4/10 let down by experienced teammates; ok in patches McVee -7/10. Our best player. Skilled and reliable. No false moves McDonald -3/10 / oops. Slow today. Finish line is 5 weeks away Windsor 4/10 - at least he runs and showed some heart Sparrow - 1/10 - poor and poor and poor ; slow and fumbled. Why is he playing? Turner -3/10- battled but outgunned by Freo defenders. Fritsch 3/10 - poor today - needs to compete Chandler 4/10 -two goals but otherwise chased grass Oliver 3/10 - battled but outclassed; handballs to no one Tholstrup - 1/10 - caught three times when clear as was run down - little spatial awareness Pickett - 2/10 - fumbles and stumbles and miskick and fumbles and slip over !!! Melksham -5/10 - created goals - kicks accuracy but at times had no forward pressure Billings - 3/10 - did ok. Sub next week as time suits him umpires 1/10 🤮💩🤮💩- on Dockers payroll votes. 3 McVee 2 Langdon 1 Rivers

6 McVee 5 Langdon 4 RIV 3 JVR 2 Petty 1 May mids. Horrible. Oliver. Sparrow. JV7. ANB. Kozzzy. All were horrible. defence. Lever was worst game ever.

Out. Sparrow Salem in. K. Brown Gawn McVee. May. Petty. Bowey Lever AMW Lingers. JV7. Windsor Anb. Tmcd. Pickett Fritsch. JVR. Melksham Gawn. Oliver. Rivers Int. K.Brown Tholstrup Turner Chandler sub Billings emerg. Hore. Howes. Tomlinson

PREMIERSHIP DEFENDER 👏👏👏👏🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 Play him as a key defender Not a key forward He’s a good contested mark.

Lever was horrible. Worst game ever. Outmarked. Fumbles. Stumbled. Missed tackles. You name it !! If he’s was a different name, he’d be dropped !!!

Goodwin said we shouldn’t focus on what happened in Alice Springs. He should have !!! Clearance - spread- run - goal. Rinse and repeat as the commentators said. Goodwins showing arrogance right now!!!!

Viney 5/10 - his heart BUT please take first option!!! Please!!! Caught or Smothered DONT THINK !!! Do!!! May 4/10’- tough and hard but loose!!! FFS Lever -1/10- couldn’t do anything right fumbles, slip, turnover, outmarked … worst gsme ever !!! Bowey -4/10 … average !!! Missed kicks and tackles; just stays in Langdon 7/10 yes he actually gave a damn; ran and tackled at least Rivers 6/10 - tried and tried but outclassed Salem -3/10 - looks slow and his kicking is slow and up !! Slow decision making Neal-Bullen -3/10 no influence. Poor tagging hand as he fumbled and stumbled Petty 4/10- overwhelmed but not disgraced , competed hard vanRooyen 5/10- just needs to take his opportunity. Compete hard Moniz-Wakefield - 4/10 let down by experienced teammates; ok in patches McVee -7/10. Our best player. Skilled and reliable. No false moves McDonald -3/10 / oops. Slow today. Finish line is 5 weeks away Windsor 4/10 - at least he runs and showed some heart Sparrow - 1/10 - poor and poor and poor ; slow and fumbled. Why is he playing? Turner -3/10- battled but outgunned by Freo defenders. Fritsch 3/10 - poor today - needs to compete Chandler 4/10 -two goals but otherwise chased grass Oliver 3/10 - battled but outclassed; handballs to no one Tholstrup - 1/10 - caught three times when clear as was run down - little spatial awareness Pickett - 2/10 - fumbles and stumbles and miskick and fumbles and slip over !!! Melksham -5/10 - created goals - kicks accuracy but at times had no forward pressure Billings - 3/10 - did ok. Sub next week as time suits him umpires 1/10 🤮💩🤮💩- on Dockers payroll votes. 3 McVee 2 Langdon 1 Rivers

Lost clearances 47-15 Hitouts 47-9 Sparrow. Effort. Slow or weak. 💩💩Fritsch. Weak today. 💩💩 Lever. Embarrassing all day. 💩💩 Tackling. All day. Allowing Freo to get handballs away. 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Gave up 13 goals from turnovers. Gave up 5 goals out the back and to the goalsquare. Goodwin !!!!💩💩 Rinse and repeat. Its stoppage spread goal 💩💩💩💩 All day. Tackle. Tackle. Brace for contact. Handball away. Handball away. 💩💩can’t stop the run and spread.

Let’s trade away Grundy Let’s not replace Grundy If Gawn gets injured then … we are farrrrrkd!!!! That’s on Goodwin.

4th qtr JVR miss from 18 metrs out. 💩💩Sparrow. Effort. Slow or weak. 💩💩 Lever. Embarrassing all day. 💩💩 Tackling. All day. Allowing Freo to get handballs away. 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 4th goal from goalsquare. Goodwin !!!! stoppage spread goal 💩💩💩💩💩

Billings. Saints still laughing. He’s goalkicking his skills his tackles are POOR. WEAK!!! He can’t even score from 35 metre out!! 💩💩💩💩💩💩

3rd goals out the back - dees turnovers - May to sparrow 💩 Viney. Pickett. 💩 Sparrow 30 metre out in front miss 💩💩 Anb 25 metre out - kick on the full 💩💩 Pickett. Chasing grass still 💩💩 Riv 50 out pass to Viney 40 out why? Viney can’t kick 40 💩 Chandler. Goals. Riv to Chandler. Melksham to Chandler. 👏👏 Melksham to Petty goal 👏 3 qtr clearances Freo 10 Dees 7 Frees Freo 4 Dees 5

It can. Freo kick straight then it’s another shocking 92 point flogging !!! Dees need to show heart and strategy. Glad Goody got Fullarton to replace Grundy. Glad McAdam and Billings were recruited. 28 year old fragile types with no ticker.

1st half. 20c Dry conditions scores Freo. 51 Dees. 21 👏👏Riv. May. McVee. Lingers just Ok. Turner. JVR AMW Viney the rest are very disappointing very disappointing - uncompetitive 💩💩💩Petty Sparrow Lever Pickett Fritsch. Lever. Fritsch. Sparrow. Lever. Salem. Chandler. Lever. Bowey. Tmcd. Tholstrup. Pickett. Lever. Oliver. just Ok. Turner. JVR AMW Viney 🤮🤮🤮umps Freo free kicks 11-4. 💩💩💩clearances 24-3 💩💩💩marks inside 50 12-4 Goodwin. no ruckman !!! Smashing !! FFS. Tell them. Don’t kick it to Darcy or Pearce or Jackson. Run it !! Goodwin Mids. Get goal side Get into the contest !!! Pickett - I love you But you’re playing midfield and just 2 disposals- worst half ever - fumbles every contests - missed tackles , miskick, falls to ground all the time.

Clearance 18/1

Clearances 14-0. !!! 14 to nil !!!! Viney. Pickett. ANB getting smashed. Wtf.

Pickett slow to dispose 💩 Fritsch poor kick into F50💩 Fritsch miss tackle 💩 Tmcd too slow 💩 Chandler miss from 25 metres 💩 sparrow and Salem are passengers … one disposal each !!! 💩 McVee 👏 may 👏 Langdon 👏riv 👏

Going… BBB (retired). Schache (delisted) Hunter (delisted) Farris-white (delisted- Cat B) Js29 suspended Gus10(medical retired) On the edge … Sestan to be decided. Tmcd and Melksham Likely to seek other opportunities- Tomlinson