Game Day Round 1 2025 Fremantle ⚓️ v Geelong 🐈

[bigfoopy]

38 degrees in Geelong on Saturday with a 1:20 start should make things very interesting. Hopefully plays into our hand with the boys going through a very hot pre season

 

[fleur]

I dunno it really messed up the lions start to the year last season...

I think there’s a bit of a difference between a club being under fire and a club whose players were caught out mad rooting/cavorting with strippers and their lady friends finding out about it because one of them let the cat out of the bag

 

[MadMundy]

How so?

Team coming off a prelim and missed the Grand Final by 10 points, against a team that missed finals, missing their best ruckman, most damaging midfielder and potentially Bolton.

We're a chance, but "we should be beating them" is definitely not true.

It's an upset if we win.

True enough, I'm just riding the pre-season cope, I know I'll likely get brought back down to reality soon enough, no big deal.

 

[FreoRicci]

Have always said best ability is availability.

If Banfield is in, it means he’s fit and healthy.

Surely Sturt plays now?

 

[FreoRicci]

If a play gets two touches a game and kicks two goals they actually don’t deserve a spot in the team. He literally offers nothing else and if his radar is off then we get a beautiful 0.2 as his whole contribution to the game.

Get stuffed.

Switkowski kicked 12 goals. 12. All season. Playing 20 games. That’s absolutely laughable. And he still gets picked. The club has made him a role that’s somehow irreplaceable

I’d take Sturt’s 2 possessions with 2 goals over Switkowski little ‘pressure’ acts that somehow warrants him a selection playing ‘half forward’

 

[s_wd6]

Get stuffed.

Switkowski kicked 12 goals. 12. All season. Playing 20 games. That’s absolutely laughable. And he still gets picked. The club has made him a role that’s somehow irreplaceable

I’d take Sturt’s 2 possessions with 2 goals over Switkowski little ‘pressure’ acts that somehow warrants him a selection playing ‘half forward’

I think you’re just about the only person who thinks Sturt offers more than Switta

 

[FreoRicci]

Dudley is not playing this season. If he does that means the team is in trouble. He’s miles from AFL level

 

[FreoGirl]

Get stuffed.

Switkowski kicked 12 goals. 12. All season. Playing 20 games. That’s absolutely laughable. And he still gets picked. The club has made him a role that’s somehow irreplaceable

I’d take Sturt’s 2 possessions with 2 goals over Switkowski little ‘pressure’ acts that somehow warrants him a selection playing ‘half forward’

it's Switta's toughness and efforts he contributes around the ground that make him an important player

 

[Spirit Level]

If a play gets two touches a game and kicks two goals they actually don’t deserve a spot in the team. He literally offers nothing else and if his radar is off then we get a beautiful 0.2 as his whole contribution to the game.

You clearly haven't sat at the ground and watched the fwd line function ahead of the play when he is in it.

Leading patterns, creating space, bringing other forwards into the game as well as kicking goals at stupid accuracy.

We've been crying for natural forwards for years and we finally have a few and some people want to leave one of them at Peel? Mind boggling.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Get stuffed.

Switkowski kicked 12 goals. 12. All season. Playing 20 games. That’s absolutely laughable. And he still gets picked. The club has made him a role that’s somehow irreplaceable

I’d take Sturt’s 2 possessions with 2 goals over Switkowski little ‘pressure’ acts that somehow warrants him a selection playing ‘half forward’

I think that's a bizarre take. Forward half pressure is incredibly important and Switta is the only one does it at an acceptable level on our list.

 

[Joao]

If you could combine Sturt and Switta into one player, that'd be great.

 

[The Lobbster]

Sturt was at least close to the starting team at the start of the season (he started in the IAS game). However by the time of the Melbourne game he’d fallen out of favour (unless there was some mystery injury no one knows about).

The reason why he’s out is anyone’s guess. He didn’t perform well in the IAS game nor the intraclub after it. Either we have selection integrity with form or we don’t.

 

[heavho]

Looks like it’s still a possibility he plays

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Dudley is not playing this season. If he does that means the team is in trouble. He’s miles from AFL level

This one I agree on. People should watch the intra-club and watch him attempt to tackle. Strange when put your opinion on Dudley vs your opinion on Sturt to be honest or is it purely fitness based?

 

[BREATHLESS_987]

I think the last page or so is putting a pretty good case forward for going all in on Kozzi

 

[mattis117]

I think the last page or so is putting a pretty good case forward for going all in on Kozzi

The last few days a pretty nuts tbh. Everyone has a case of cabin fever, otherwise known as long preseasonitis.

Some bizarre stuff being said now. We need a few games to reset the narratives.

 

[freo84]

View attachment 2246027
Looks like it’s still a possibility he plays

 

[Stevooo3940]

GWS went into the weekend without Hogan, Stringer and Green and lost their number 1 ruck in the first 5 mins. We will go in with a much better side than we ran out with in round 22 last year and the cats are going in with 2 or 3 missing from that game. I'm quietly confident and if they haven't blown us out in the first half, I think training in the Perth summer will see us run right over the top of them.

 

[dropbear101]

geelong cheating the salary cap during their premiership contention era makes a lot of sense tbh.

wondered how they fit everything in for such a long period of time.

 

[GingerDocker]

geelong cheating the salary cap during their premiership contention era makes a lot of sense tbh.

wondered how they fit everything in for such a long period of time.

I'd like to hear what the high priest of righteousness, Gerard Whateley, has to say about it.

 

[Minz]

Gee the reporting on smith this year has been great.

Earlier in the preseason he was training “like a man possessed”

Now he’s “jumping out of his skin”

That is unfortunate; one does need skin to play effectively.

On another note, when I logged on on desktop, your avatar looked like a premiership cup, searching for its home. <sigh>

 

[CapitalA]

I think there’s a bit of a difference between a club being under fire and a club whose players were caught out mad rooting/cavorting with strippers and their lady friends finding out about it because one of them let the cat out of the bag

How so?

 

[Minz]

This one I agree on. People should watch the intra-club and watch him attempt to tackle. Strange when put your opinion on Dudley vs your opinion on Sturt to be honest or is it purely fitness based?

It's weird; tackling's heaps easier when you're shorter than the person you're tackling.

The big deficit in Aussie Rules players' tackling is footwork IMO; with the right footwork you don't need to chuck a despairing arm out, and you can use your shoulder rather than your arm, which both a) is more likely to actually stick and b) reduces your risk of shoulder injuries. I played Aussie Rules and then rugby; learned a lot about tackling approach in rugby because I'm tiny and had to do it the right way or couldn't do it at all. It's a different game and a different skill, but the footwork translates very nicely. Smashing people is double fun when you're small

 

[freodog]

They should switch the game times. WB v NM play the early game under the roof in the aircon of Marvel & Geelong v Freo play the late game.

They should but they won't

 

[ignoramus]

You can look the stats up yourself, I posted them here somewhere in some other discussion. I think it tells you there is more to it than stats. It also tells you how terrible everyone other than Switta is at defending. Probably explains us being the 3rd worst forward half defense in the league last year as well.

One of the few things I felt could be taken from the preseason Melbourne game was the massive increase in F50 pressure. A big chunk of that was Sonny, though...