On a beautiful day for Footy, Freo made the trek down to Geelong to take on the Cats, who were walloped in the humidity by Gold Coast last week.
Freo jumped out of the gates to take a five-goal lead into quarter time. With ball in hand, they had runners and options aplenty, keeping the ball moving at every opportunity and making Geelong look slow and disorganized. After a Chris Scott bake at quarter time (much of which appeared to be aimed at Nathan Buckley, bizarrely) the Cats woke from their slumber via three goals from the ever-energetic Shaun Mannagh. But Freo were not laying down just yet and managed to level up the term and take a four-goal lead into halftime.
You can never write off this Geelong team, particularly at home, and particularly when they played the week before and Freo didn’t (more on this later).
With genuine match winners and a wealth of experience in their team, Geelong began to slowly claw their way back in the second half. I wondered to myself at halftime if Freo could keep up the manic ball movement and overlap run they had shown in the first half. I wondered this even more at three quarter time, and at this point a Geelong win felt almost inevitable.
Love them or hate them, they just bloody do it this Geelong team! Every season they’re too old, or they don’t have a decent number one ruck, or they have Ollie Henry in their team – but every season they prove the doubters wrong (despite Ollie Henry) to inevitably make finals, and in games like today they show there is almost no lead big enough early in a game.
And so it proved, Geelong came away the victors. I don’t think Freo should be too disappointed by this loss, they started well but unfortunately couldn’t maintain the early frenetic pace and perhaps ran out of legs towards the end. Geelong helped ensure they ran out of legs with a game of keepings off in between their three last-quarter goals. Freo will not be the only team to travel to the Cattery and leave without points this season, but they showed enough to prove they should be competing at the pointy end of the season.
Before the game started I sat down and wrote some things that I expected to see throughout the game, so let’s get stuck into my “(not so) Great Expectations” from this one.
A host of late changes
Okay well both teams made me look foolish here – straight out of the gate I was behind the ball, Geelong love a late change and had players under injury clouds coming into the game. Freo likewise had a couple of players that were perhaps not fully match fit. Alas both teams went in as named.
And if not, one or two players to not make it through the game
Just incase there were no late changes, I thought I’d better cover myself here!
I honestly thought that if all of Dangerfield, Young and Darcy took the field, that one of them would not make it through the game. Young was eased into the game playing mostly deep forward with some midfield stints, and the match fitness should be important.
Darcy was used sparingly to ease him through the game, and I’ll touch him on a bit more further down.
Danger played about 50% of the game and had a couple of moments, but ultimately was a passenger in this one – imagine coming from 5 goals down at quarter time to win with your Captain playing 55% of game time! Scary thought.
Geelong to win, but by nowhere near the margin of last year
Two minutes before the first “throw up” (calling it a throw up makes me want to throw up in my own mouth) I changed my tip three times. I flip flopped more than two left thongs! I had Geelong, then I changed to Freo, then back to Geelong.
There were two reasons I went with Geelong here, one was simply that they were at home. Geelong are the only Victorian team with an actual home ground advantage, and they know how to play GMHBA stadium and it’s weird dimensions.
In the first quarter Freo put this notion to shame. They played the corridor of the thin ground, and took the game on with dare and overlap and they made Geelong look like the team that hadn’t already played a game this season – and this brings me to my next point.
I fully believe that teams who play in the silly Opening round, start with an advantage in Round One against teams that haven’t played yet, and I think this game proved it (yet again). Freo getting that early jump was unusual statistically, but there was always a concern that Geelong would run out the game better given the extra preparation/match fitness they got from their Opening Round hitout. Yet another reason that the AFL should do away with this silly concept!
Freo were brilliant in the first quarter, good in the second quarter, and they fell away from there. How much of that was down to Geelong getting better, and how much of that was down to lack of match fitness as it was their first game of the season is up for debate. But it just always felt like a game where Geelong were going to run over the top of Freo in the last quarter.
Freo to win the ruck battle
This may seem as obvious as saying Nick Watson is short, but I was genuinely intrigued with all the possible matchups. I don’t know what to make of Sean Darcy, can he still play in these current rules? He had moments in the last quarter where he stood tall as the game slowed down (the big men don’t get smaller), but when the heat was on and the ball was moving fast, Freo were a worse team with Darcy on the ground. Sure he won hit outs, but they weren’t exactly down the throat of his midfielders. He offered little in terms of follow up, and when he did get involved in possession chains he seemed to just kind of get in the way.
Thank goodness Freo had Luke Jackson! An absolute monster game whether he was in the ruck or playing the old ruck/rover role. He was immense in the first quarter, not only with his hit outs but his follow up work and his willingness to run and get involved in Freo’s frenetic start. He faded late, but that was to be expected given the mountain of work he put into the first half. He finished the game with 22 hitouts (same as Darcy) but it was his other work that shone – 8 clearances, 8 tackles, and 13 contested possessions amongst his 27 total possessions. Sure he’ll come up against better opposition, but here is where I was intrigued pre-match, and where I feel Geelong could have got a leg up.
Geelong went in with a first gamer as their ruckman in Mitch Edwards and don’t get me wrong, he did okay. His first contest in the middle resulted in a holding the ball free kick (that Bailey Smith took off him – classic Bailey!) and immediately showed his willingness to get involved at ground level, but he was always going to be outclassed throughout the day against the tag team of Jackson and Darcy.
If I were Chris Scott, I would have rotated in the ruck contests a lot more. If Darcy is in there, let Edwards leap over him. If Jackson is in there, put Blicavs in there who is more likely to be able to go with him at the ground level contest. When there were ruck contests in the forward line let Neale take them, likewise De Koning in the back half. Wear down Jackson in this way, knowing that Darcy is likely to play little game time (if he made it through).
Ultimately it didn’t matter and Jackson’s monster game was not enough to get Freo over the line, but I was a bit disappointed that Chris Scott did not look for more creative ways to nullify arguably Freo’s best player.
Murphy Reid to be unable to back up his exploits from this game last year
Look it was always going to be tough to match his exploits from a year ago, but truth be told I was a little disappointed with Reid today. He wasn’t really involved in the early Freo onslaught, and perhaps it was just inaccurate kicking that kept him from a big game (4 goals reads better than 1.3), but he has been pumped up a lot across this pre-season and I wanted to see a bit more from him.
He is certainly young and will only get better, and perhaps I am being too harsh on a bloke in only his 25th game. Or perhaps a certain Mongrel colleague has talked him up so much that my expectations are simply too high now!
Nathan O’Driscoll to kick a goal
And what a goal it was! In the first quarter, O’Driscoll came off his man to spoil De Koning after a lazy Geelong kick across their back half and played the one/two before miskicking a snap for a goal that miraculously went through.
I like O’Driscoll as a player, but he needs more moments like this to stay in this Freo line up. I also notice him more after a mate pointed out it reminds him of Red Dead Redemption – “Goddam O’Driscoll”.
Serong to be tagged by Mullin
This didn’t happen and I’m surprised. Serong kick started Freo early with a goal and a goal assist as part of his first 3 touches, while Mullin was languishing on the bench.
I think I saw Mullin spend some time on him in the second quarter but it was far from a hard tag. While Serong went on to have a typical Serong game – 30 touches (13 contested) and eight clearances, my question is more about Mullin.
No disrespect intended but what does Mullin offer to this Geelong team if he is not playing a tagging role?
At halftime I had Mullin listed as one of the passengers for Geelong (along with a few others) and I’d be hard pressed to say he played a big part in their comeback.
Jye Amiss to be bad
Where is this guy at?
Look, Treacy faded out of this game, and Voss was certainly involved in the last quarter albeit a little negatively with some silly moments – but when the Dockers were flying, these two were important.
Treacy in full flight reminds me a bit of “big bad bustling Barry” (without the left hook), and both him and Voss almost crave the physical side of the game. Early in this one Treacy was doing the body work early before hitting the ball at full flight at it’s highest point. He looked unstoppable – too strong, too aggressive.
Voss is perhaps not as good at timing his jump, but you will definitely get a contest out of any ball you kick to him, and he fill follow up at ground level as evidenced by his six tackles.
Amiss offers none of this, to be blunt at times he looks like he doesn’t give a shit. He had two moments in this – one where he actually attacked the ball in flight with veracity and although he did not mark it, it did lead to a Freo goal, and then a tackle on Guthrie in the last quarter that arguably should have been a free kick for holding the ball.
The difference between these three in the Freo forward line is so stark it almost feels like Voss and Treacy’s Mums got together and asked them to take their wimpy friend for a kick!
What I didn’t expect:
Shannon Neale to kick five goals and take ten marks. Looked an absolute monster in the Geelong forward line today. You already had to worry about Cameron and Danger when you play Geelong, scary proposition if Neale starts doing this regularly!
The work of Isiah Dudley was very very good today. In only his second season he kicked 3.2 and more often than not found himself in the exact right spot a crumbing forward should be. His four tackles also showed he was willing to do the hard stuff, and it bodes well that he is playing like this in only his 17th game.
I certainly didn’t expect to see Chris Scott spraying Nathan Buckley at quarter time – how good is that relationship going do you reckon?
And just as an aside, is Brad Close cooked? At times he looked scared to actually take possession today. Another really quiet game from a bloke who loves it at GMHBA stadium.
So in the end a professional (and potentially slightly more match fit) Geelong overcame the early scare from a frenetic Freo. Geelong fans should be happy with the way their team fought back, while I reckon Freo fans can also hold their heads high – they were far from disgraced here and on this evidence look poised to impact at the business end of the season.
