We never played to conditions all night. Slippery ground and slippery ball against a team that were always going to outrun us, yet we seemed to be surprised when we got tackled immediately on taking possession, or slid on our arses when we were trying to stop them getting free of the contest.
A lack of switch options killed us all night, and if there was one we were so slow to take it (assuming we saw it), and the ball was delivered so slowly, the entire point of the switch was worthless because Freo could just one of their spare blokes behind the ball jog to position ready to make a play as needed.
The only thing we got 'right' structurally was the centre clearance work, but I couldn't help but laugh as the commentators lauded us for playing '1v1 there like Hawthorn did', when that's how we've played all year.
Simpson, Yarran, Cripps and Everitt are all playing injured.Henderson is seeing the game so well but running to the contest so early, he might as well be lighting a flare and hoisting a neon sign before marking a spot on his back. Walters officially let the cat out of the bag tonight by using him as a step ladder twice; he signals our play to the opposition when we use him forward, and he gives aerially challenged blokes a chance when played in defence. Must have a team high number of kicks smothered as well.
Walsh was used poorly when he was brought on; should have given him a big tick for his fitness and played him from minute one, but when you pick that many talls you're forced to use a small as the sub and he was bottom of the pile. Speaking of talls, the whole reason we've been fading so badly is because we are consistently one tall too many, last week we were two talls too many and we shed one so hopefully the message is sinking in.
Play White or play Fields but stop playing both. Freo's forward personnel vaguely matched up with our defenders in terms of height but they were beaten in terms of foot speed. Imagine if we'd played Dick on Mayne; there's 2, maybe 3 goals off the board.
Another wonderful thing we could have done is not run into each other traffic constantly, which was partly down to the lack of talk (see: Everitt getting clipped by Bell in the 4th) and partly the number of blokes who stop running and ball watch the 1v1 ground ball as if they're hoping for a ball up, only to leave us with no option to pass because they're blocking the view of the guy who wins the ball while standing within touching distance of the bloke tackling him: if they get the handball, they're under pressure immediately. They should be directing them where to send the ball, then either breaking away to receive or putting in a shepherd.
Even Buckley, who normally has laser focus to the point of reacting too quickly to snatch at the football, cost us a couple of times by switching off in defence and then in attack, each time while he was closing an opponent.
I get Barker's working with a few simpleton coaches, simpleton players and a deflated football club, but the fundamentals were poor all night beyond work rate and there was plenty that could have been done in training and even on game day to correct for it.
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