What is Going On At Fremantle?
A New Season and the same old same old over at Fremantle. During the pre season of every AFL Football Season since their inception just about, the Fremantle Dockers are talked up as being finals contenders, premiership hopefuls etc etc. But come the start of the season proper reality sets in and they under achieve.
This season is no different. The Dockers sunk to a new level on the weekend, being beaten by a Matthew Richardson inspired Richmond Football Club who are by no means in great touch. To make things worse it was at the Subiaco Oval. After 4 rounds of AFL Football the Dockers sit at 1 win and 3 losses. If they do not get their act together then are in real danger of ending the season at the bottom end of the ladder. Mark Harvey will be tearing shreads of the Dockers players this week, this was a comment he made after the game.
“It was non-competitive, and our members and supporters have every right to be disappointed with it. This club has got to learn to string winning games together,”
I was looking over the Dockers stats after 4 Rounds and they have 2 players that are getting 20 possessions or more and one of those is first year player Rhyse Palmer, 2 PLAYERS! The Demons have 5 for gods sake. I know stats are not everything in football but they do give a fairly accurate indication of what is going on. The Dockers are ranked 5th for the average number of hit outs in the competition. And also 1st for the least amount of opponent hit outs per game.
Those 2 stats alone show that the Dockers are smashing opposition sides in the Ruck, and so they should, but cannot get their hands on the footy after that. They will always struggle to wins games this year if they can’t start winning the midfield battles. Matthew Pavlich just can’t play in the midfield, forward and back all at the same time, at some stage their needs to be some support from other players like Mundy, Johnson, Headland, Dodd, Carr, Crowley and the list goes on and on.
There will be no respite for the Dockers this week when they will have to travel to AAMI Stadium to tackle the Adelaide Crows who will be desperate to bounce back from a defeat at the hands of the Hawks.
What are your thoughts on the Fremantle Dockers so far this year and where do you see the improvement coming from?
Its called culture!!
The story of Connely being told that as long as they b eat the Eagles, they can loose every other game is true.
The ‘experts’ continually put them up in the top eight and you know what? I think they actually listen to them instead of looking hard at the club.
I am thinking Harvey was a bad move as coach, he had time to be infected with the bad culture, they need someone to turn the club upside down. Playing players like Johnson and Bradely (both rejects of a bottom 8 side last year) is a VERY poor move.
I’m an Eagles fan, but even I get sick of commentators going off at Fremantle for not meeting the “experts” expectations. Why aren’t they going off at the “experts” or the bookies?
Its like Melbourne, Richmond and Carlton are allowed to be sh1te, and when they win a match the media are delighted! But when the Eagles or the Dockers lose a few, they just get their noses rubbed in it for under-achieving. The Dockers are an old team, the Eagles are a young team. The latter failed to make the finals last year, the former failed to win a finals match last year and have lost their two best players. Why have the expectation that 2008 is therefore somehow expected to be great years for either side? Take some reality pills please.