A Preseason Preview 2006- Part 7 of 16 - Fremantle | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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A Preseason Preview 2006- Part 7 of 16 - Fremantle

Dyer'ere

Pardon, but your tie is not symmetrical.
Sep 21, 2004
20,276
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Fremantle is a favourite of mine. I've been bagging them for years. Dud club, run by duds and represented on the park by fat, useless lepers.

The crazy thing is that I don't hate all their players individually. They have some reasonable talent. But they are way too similar across the ground.

They have problems everywhere. In balance. It's a very odd situation. Most of their players would get games at other clubs but as a unit they look like *smile* warmed up.

Let's look at the list-

FREMANTLE
Peter Bell
Heath Black
Andrew Browne
Adam Campbell
Josh Carr
Matthew Carr
Troy Cook
Benet Copping
Ryan Crowley
Steven Dodd
Marcus Drum
Ryley Dunn
Jeff Farmer
Daniel Gilmore
Antoni Grover
Robert Haddrill
Daniel Haines
Paul Hasleby
Roger Hayden
Des Headland
Garrick Ibbotson
Michael Johnson
Justin Longmuir
Shaun McManus (vet)
Luke McPharlin
Paul Medhurst
David Mundy
Ryan Murphy
Shane Parker (vet)
Matthew Pavlich
Brett Peake
Graham Polak
Aaron Sandilands
Byron Schammer
Jarrad Schofield
Scott Thornton
James Walker
Robert Warnock
Michael Warren
Luke Webster

Rookies
Paul Duffield
Jack Juniper
Joe Krieger
Toby Stribling


Most, if not all of the list, comprises pansies. Contact avoiders.

Let's start with the spine.

Shane Parker, as I've said before, can play. He plays tight and can give you some run. But he struggels against genuine key forwards. He's their #1 defender. If they had their list right he is a very fine #3 back. But then they'd need to find two better and that ain't happening.

Robert Haddrill can play. He's short and he missed 2005 through injury but he's their modern day Anthony Jones. He can play hard and tight. That's one to play inside Parker.

So who plays CHB? Polak? Archie Bunker could not have made the answer sound funnier- Polak? A skinny defensive type with a nasty habit of panicking under pressure and a worse one of getting flogged by big guys.

Heres' the problem. Tha back three is the least of their problems. The front three comprises ad-hoc's and ersatz's- at best. Freo has no key forwards. You can quote all the numbers you want to prove that Pavlich (the Pav or "Big Meringue") is a key forward. Spent more time scratching his arse on a wing than Tarrant or kicked more goals in dead rubbers than [insert name of despised forward]. I don't care. He's a flanker in good company. Probably best suited to a slow inside midfield role. But hey, we've got plenty of them at Freo! And the Big Meringue is needed elsewhere. He kicked 26 goals in the first 13 rounds. And 40 in the next nine. Went nuts. Matchup issues IMO.

Pavlich can't jump (but he's improving). He's like Ben Holland, only shorter. In the midfield he's a better player than he's shown. But he has two gears. Mild endeavour and full on. Have you watched him closely?

He's their best player but he ain't a KPP IMO. I think he's eminently talented but he does not fit with the rest of the team. So where should he play?

Let's look at the Premiership lock-ins for Freo.

FB- Vacancy, R.Haddrill, S.Parker
HB- D.Headland, Vacancy, Vacancy
C- M.Carr, J.Carr, B.Schammer
HF- M.Pavlich, Vacancy, Vacancy
FF- P.Medhurst, Vacancy, J.Farmer
R- Vacancy, Vacancy, P.Bell
Int: J. Longmuir, H.Black, J.Schofield, Vacancy

This team lacks glamour and speed.

I don't usually cover the omissions from my Premiership sides but Freo is so full of Premiership players who don't fit, I have to make an exception. Paul Hasleby is just terribly average. And slow/fat. He lacks Ball Winning Ability when it really matters. He can't do it when pitted aginst a calss mid and there is nowhere to hide him. A dream matchup for Paul Broderick... or Wayne Campbell. ;)

Graeme Polak is a leper. Mc Pharlin is a 24yo dud. We dn't have to guess what he might be when he matures. He matured some time ago and doesn't do enough. A timid leper.

Medhurst is a bludger. But he can play. He's got away with years of bludging because of the fat pay packets of his compadres. Can he fire if the rubbish gets cleaned out? Dunno.

Farmer has never worked so hard. He pelted through 2005 and was one of the few Freo players who seemed to want to win.

This is a potential Premiership side but you gottsta trade. I have three players that have to go- P.Haselby, J.Longmuir, L.McPharlin.

This should yield enough currency over the next three years to buy some choices. Of course it's a lot les than we should have got two to thre years ago.

Who is to blame? Cameron Schwab and... Connolly. Worse than Neesham. An imbecile and a leper. What a combo. Better than their footy team. :hihi


BTW, Luke Perry is gainfully employed in a role on the TV show OZ. He's 40 something yo. By comparison, James Walker is 27yo, wasting everyone's time. Would not be on any other list. A quick dud. One of them is a has-been, the other a never-was.
 
Ersatz?

Ersatz?

This is the first time I have seen this word used since I put it in my HSC English essay in 1976 to impress the examiner.

I'm impressed, Big Jack. If only the real Dyer Ere had lived long enough to try to pronounce it.
 
Dyer'ere said:
Fremantle is a favourite of mine. I've been bagging them for years. Dud club, run by duds and represented on the park by fat, useless lepers.

amen brother :angel:
 
Fremantle over the last couple of years are gaining a reputation as the new Richmond - perennial underachievers. Even though Pavlich did make CHF his home in 2005, the team itself didn't manage any improvement on its performaces from the previous year. Only one change to the coaching staff, Commolly, Broadbridge, O'Donnell & Malaxos are still there. The only change was Chris Waterman out, Mark Harvey in.
FREMANTLE
Shane Parker (vet) 190 92 33 vet
Jarrad Schofield 178 80 31
Shaun McManus (vet) 180 81 30 vet
Peter Bell 174 84 30
Troy Cook 178 82 29
Jeff Farmer 174 78 29
James Walker 180 80 27
Heath Black 177 80 27
Antoni Grover 188 91 26
Josh Carr 178 81 26
Justin Longmuir 198 97 25
Matthew Carr 190 88 25
Robert Haddrill 188 94 25
Des Headland 187 87 25
Daniel Haines 182 83 25
Paul Hasleby 182 86 25
Roger Hayden 181 76 25
Michael Warren 194 92 24
Luke McPharlin 193 88 24
Matthew Pavlich 192 100 24
Luke Webster 186 92 24
Paul Medhurst 178 81 24
Aaron Sandilands 211 117 23
Scott Thornton 192 84 23
Steven Dodd 190 80 23
Daniel Gilmore 188 84 23
Brett Peake 184 80 23
Graham Polak 193 85 22
Ryan Crowley 189 91 22
Andrew Browne 176 79 22
Michael Johnson 195 90 21
Adam Campbell 192 81 21
Ryan Murphy 192 86 21
Paul Duffield 187 80 21 Rookies
Byron Schammer 175 75 21
David Mundy 189 82 20
Ryley Dunn 184 85 20
Robert Warnock 205 80 19 new
Benet Copping 193 78 19
Jack Juniper 191 79 19 Rookies
Marcus Drum 190 80 19 new
Joe Krieger 190 79 19 Rookies
Toby Stribling 178 76 19 Rookies
Garrick Ibbotson 187 78 18 new


Freo has the regular 44 man list, including 2 vets, 3 newies and 4 rookies.
Honestly, I can't fault this list either by distribution of ages or height. It has a good blend of experience & youth, as well as a good blending of talls, mediums & smalls.

Now let's see how their list breaks up into a spread.
Twilight = 28+yo
Prime = 25-27yo
Development = 22-24yo
Junior = 18-21yo

<180 Small Runners
Twilight: Schofield 31, Bell 30, Cook 29, Farmer 29
Prime: Black 27, J.Carr 26
Development: Medhurst 24, Browne 22
Junior: Schammer 21, Stribling 19

180-184 Smaller Mediums
Twilight: McManus 30
Prime: Walker 27, Haines 25, Hasleby 25, Hayden 25
Development: Peake 23
Junior: Dunn 20

185-189 Taller Mediums
Twilight: 0
Prime: Grover 26, Haddrill 25, Headland 25
Development: Webster 24, Gilmore 23, Crowley 22
Junior: Duffield 21, Mundy 20, Ibbotson 18

190-194 Mobile Key Position
Twilight: S.Parker 33
Prime: M.Carr 25
Development: Warren 24, McPharlin 24, Pavlich 24, Thornton 23, Dodd 23, Polak 22
Junior: Campbell 21, Murphy 21, Copping 19, Juniper 19, Drum 19, Krieger 19

195-199 Key Position/ Ruck
Twilight: 0
Prime: Longmuir 25
Development: 0
Junior: Johnson 21

200+ Ruck
Twilight: 0
Prime: 0
Development: Sandilands 23
Junior: Warnock 19

Gee, the spread looks good too. Maybe the smaller runners that they depend upon are aging, and they look a bit thin and inexperienced in the really talls department, but they should be performing better with a list like that.

Their coverage of positions is as follows:
B: McManus 30 Haddrill 25 Parker 33
Black 27 Polak 22 Longmuir 25
Browne 22 Copping 19 Drum 19


HB: Gilmore 23 M.Carr 25 Mundy 20
Crowley 22 Thornton 23 Hayden 25
Grover 26 Johnson 21 Ibbotson 18

C: Walker 27 Hasleby 25 Webster 24
Haines 25 Peake 23 Duffield 21
Dodd 23                              Juniper 19
Krieger 19

HF: Headland 25 Pavlich 24 Cook 29
Dunn 20 Campbell 21 Crowley 22


F: Murphy 21 McPharlin 24 Farmer 29
Warren 24                     Medhurst 24

R: Sandilands 23 J.Carr 26 Bell 30
Warnock 19 Schofield 31 Schammer 21
                                    Stribling 19

If I had to be critical of them, the Dockers probably should be recruiting some more junior key forwards rather than just general kpps.
But I really can't criticize the list, it does look good. So why don't the Dockers do better? Maybe it's the water.
The problems would have to be cultural, as each player examined individually looks the goods.
Going out on a limb here, this side reminds me of Westcoast when Malthouse took over in about 1990. Get the right coach, with the right support, and this team will explode. So I'm going for them making the finals this year, and at best could challenge for a top 4 spot.
The right type of culture and this team will be very good over the next few years, and remember, now that Sydney have got their premiership, the next team on the AFL agenda will be Freo. Maybe not this year, but you can see it coming.
 
Fremantle is an interesting team in they all look the same and play the same.
Pavlich needs to stay more as a key CHF or closer to goal for Fremantle to advance, expect Luke McPharlin to play more up forward than back, if he does not play there perhaps Graham Polak. Other tall options are Justin Longmuir changing ruck, Ryan Crowley and Ryan Murphy are young key forwards who may be used. Medhurst and Farmer are goalkicking options but are not key forwards.
The key midfielders are strong in and under players but are one paced and 1D, Josh Carr, Haselby, Bell and Cook. Des Headland is a class player and uses the ball well but has not played a decent game since he moved to Fremantle. Expect more run in the midfield from Peake, Schammer and Dunn.

The backline also lacks height and will need either McPharlin or Polak to support Parker and an injury free year from Haddrill. Thornton is honest but not KPP.
Mundy looks like a player in the backline (bit similar to McPhee when he started) and Matthew Carr is another good running player but Black, Grover and Walker are serviceable at best.

Are capable of making the eight with 11 home games but lack the polish to advance very high and rely a lot on Pavlich and need some three tier youngsters to come through.

Players to watch
David Mundy may play on ball this year was 3rd or 4th in Risng Star votes
Brett Peake has polish and run may find time on HFF
Robert Haddrill needs to play a full season to help Freo as it allows McPharlin up fwd.

Now or Never
Des Headland if not thgis year when, patience may run out
Graham Polak as above, may be shifted off while worth something
Shanun McManus ageing player, dockers can do better
 
Half Way Mark

Did anybody see what Mark Coughlan did to Paul Haselby? It was ugly. I mentioned OZ in the eralier post. Think OZ. Ugly.

Hasleby is a poor man's Sam Mitchell- on 450k pa. Yeah.

This team is history. Like the black plague. Old school like a disease but new age- Useless, Fat, Terrified.

Have you seen Polak this year? :rofl

McPharlin? I know he's injured but he looks every inch a Fremantle player but less useful.

Or even funnier, Pavlich? A mythbuster waiting to happen.

Poor old Parker seems past it (33yo) and Haddrill can't get on the park.

Bell. What ever happened to Bell? Is he too smart to play football? He plays football so badly, he must be a genius. Maybe he's too important these days.

Nice work, Cameron Schwab.
 
i just thought i'd mention that i finally tipped Fremantle away from home for the first time ever

and i'm still VERY IFFY about doing this

i bet the blues will pump them

although the blues have hardly impressed thus far in 2006.

don't let me down Freo, ya plebs.