3 things learned from Rd 7 vs Fremantle 2024

[muzzyahoy]

1. Not sure how our AFL team has soo many VFL players.
2. I'd rather watch VDM make a bad a decision than struggle to make one at all. He's had 50 games to figure it out and hasn't. His ineptitude to play this game at it's highest level sticks out like dog's balls, pun intended.
3. It pains me to say it, but Jack and Caleb just don't have the yard it takes to play this game anymore. In a season it's passed them by.
4. Get rid of Lobb so Darcy can come on even stronger still. If it's not evident that he just gets in the way by now, I don't know what it'll take

[jDogs]

1. When we are off, it's so obvious to the eye that it just becomes frustrating to watch. During that period when we were pushing them and couldn't get ahead of them, it's almost like there were paranormal forces at play that simply wouldn't allow us to get on top. You just knew it wasn't going to happen. So tilting.

2. The fact that Lobb was first in line to start the season ahead of Darcy is hilarious to me.

3. We are going to be finishing fairly low on the ladder and we don't have a first round draft pick.

[Mantis]

I didn?t catch all the game but my obs were:

1/ Bevo is loyal to his own detriment. Hearing that Garcia was going to be sub before Libba was a late out has me ****ing filthy. Like what the actual ****!

2/ Daniel gets moved around because he has no role in the modern game? it?s moved past him really quick.

3/ A midfield group of Macrae, Treloar and Bont makes me squeamish.

4/ Ed is a defender. The game is a turnover game, not clearance and he?s more important for us behind the ball.

[Scorlibo]

1. We can't get belted through the midfield and still expect our defenders to intercept the ball.

2. Bramble and Gallagher are well past their use by date in the senior team. Both have been poor for weeks.

3. Our coaching group is poor on match day. Daniel sent to tag - never done that before. Garcia pegged for the sub role (what more could he have done in his role last week?) Richards not working through the guts, and lacking competitiveness behind the ball, but no change made.

[ratsmac]

1. We are a solid bottom 8 team. Good enough to rough up some also-rans but no where near good enough to beat top 8-10 teams.

2. The buck stops with Bevo. I have been a supporter of his because his coaching record is better than anyone we have had before him. But I thinks his time may be up. If he is not getting results, we can't hang on and hope that the .miracle of 2016 will happen again. We need a fresh voice I think. Prove me wrong Bevo

3. Daniel is off the boil. I have been too stubborn to believe it before even though it was staring me in the face. I still believe he can get back in form but it will have to be at Footscray.

[Dry Rot]

1. A three tall forwards forward line does not work, at least it does not work with our team. See #2

2. Our forward defensive pressure is almost zero. Almost every time we turned over the ball the Freo defenders just walzed through.

3. The tackling technique of most of our players is really poor.

[bornadog]

2. Our forward defensive pressure is almost zero. Almost every time we turned over the ball the Freo defenders just walzed through.

Stats show we are the third highest for tackles inside 50

[Bullies]

1. A three tall forwards forward line does not work, at least it does not work with our team. See #2

2. Our forward defensive pressure is almost zero. Almost every time we turned over the ball the Freo defenders just walzed through.

3. The tackling technique of most of our players is really poor.

I think the 3 talls can work if you have the right smalls crumbing in the forward line. This is something we don't have. VDM has no goal sense whatsoever and can't read the play yet is a full time forward. This crap about him being a role player - spare me. If it is pressure or tackling that he is in the team for then get someone from Melbourne Storm who can do it properly.

We need Clarke to show what he has got. Was surprised we didn't go for Ginninvan when we knew we wouldn't be getting Watson.

[Glove38]

1. Darcy is unbelievably exciting

2. We have too many players that either pick and choose when they going put it all on the line. Its why we are so inconsistent. Are we too driven by emotion as a team? The good teams just get it done week in week out. We seem to need the drama and those emotional ups and downs are draining. Collingwood is probably the exception here they seem to thrive on it.

3. Naughty has forgotten to mark above his head. Once the stickiest hands in the comp he rarely seems to take one grab marks anymore. He has become an almost man. Just when you think he's got it he just loses it at the third attempt. He is stronger now than he was as an 18/19 yr old - so I assume this is a combination of drop in confidence and the way we take it inside 50, although we have always been bad at that. For his position he is rated as average for contested marks (1 per game) and below average for marks inside 50 (1.6 per game). These should be his strengths and it has me wondering whether we could be using him more effectively. Can we teach him to get some easier possessions on the lead inside 50 rather than requiring him to take big pack marks? He is doing an incredible amount of running up the ground to be our get out of jail but Im pretty sure our opponents are pretty happy him doing that.

[bornadog]

1. Darcy is unbelievably exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch/_dF24pu3Zxo

[D Mitchell]

Incisive, Glove38. I, too, don't get why the effort looked to be so different against Freo than against Saints, perhaps it was really the effort put in by the opposition. Why is the team sometimes on and, more often, not on ? That's the real mystery, the key to wins and losses. Naughton's a marked man, he has to compete against 2 teams, fellow forwards as well as the opposition defence, his sticky hands don't get to it. I thought that with Ugle-Hagan out and Naughton immediately bagging 6, that might have signaled the benefit of at least not having other forwards competing against him, not so. Blame the mids for bombing it in ? There's a difference between bombing it in under pressure/no other option and putting it where Naughton gets a run at it. Who knows ? Who'd want to be an AFL coach ?

[jeemak]

A really really really good looking poster on this forum said a while ago he wouldn't be surprised if Bont we t looking for a coa$tal life$tyle and honestly who could blame him?

I'd blame the **** out of him and hate his guts for it. He's as much accountable for where we are as anyone else and if he flew the coop without fixing things he'd go on the list (not that being on my list would worry him too much with his second, and possibly third house and all).

Bont - I miss piss easy goals that mean we don't compete, so I'm leaving........won't sit well and nor should it.

When Bont kicks it purely, the margin for error with his technique is tiny. He goes off the outside of the boot with his left swinging across his body. When it works it looks great and would no doubt feel amazing for him. It's also more effective on longer kicks because the ball has time in the air to swing. But, it's low percentage and he can fix it if he really wants to, but I get the feeling the few he does flush rev him up so much he doesn't think he needs to change, and thus, we end up with bullshit sprays left more often than is acceptable.

[jeemak]

1. 3rd 1/4 goalkicking 2-7 to 3-3 and coach Spangher's forward system is kick it long to a pack of 10 and hope for the best.
2. Lobb, Harmes, Khamis and Gallagher do not deserve frequent flyer points - non-contributors and nothing positive.
3. Bont looked injured to me but one mistake and the guy is crucified by fickle so called supporters.

Not intentionally going into bat for Spangher here, but if we kick a few of the goals we all agree we should have in the third does that not make his forward system at least competitive?

I still have a really big feeling of apprehension towards blaming coaching staff for poor forward system under pressure. A great example of things going pear shaped was our last forty minutes (as I remember it, granted) of the 2009 preliminary final, where everyone lost their minds and decided bombing the ball to contests was the way to break the game open. At no stage for that team was our identity bombing the footy, but the pressure made us do it.

This current team doesn't have the poise or class to consume the pressure, keep cool heads and lower eyes. Not sure how something everything the team, the coaches and we as supporters see as being problematic is the way we want it to pan out through planning.

[AshMac]

Not intentionally going into bat for Spangher here, but if we kick a few of the goals we all agree we should have in the third does that not make his forward system at least competitive?

I still have a really big feeling of apprehension towards blaming coaching staff for poor forward system under pressure. A great example of things going pear shaped was our last forty minutes (as I remember it, granted) of the 2009 preliminary final, where everyone lost their minds and decided bombing the ball to contests was the way to break the game open. At no stage for that team was our identity bombing the footy, but the pressure made us do it.

This current team doesn't have the poise or class to consume the pressure, keep cool heads and lower eyes. Not sure how something everything the team, the coaches and we as supporters see as being problematic is the way we want it to pan out through planning.

I don?t think we specifically lack poise - I think it?s the direction they?re given. Our forward plan is to get the ball deep and mark or flood the contest with numbers.

Unfortunately it?s the same plan every top 8 team has figured out and counterpunch against and it never works if we?re not playing bottom 4 teams