First Qualifying Final: Fremantle v Sydney

[aardvark]

Beaten by injuries and the wind. Liked Towers and Jones. I even thought McVeigh captained well for a change.

[CureTheSane]

McVeigh PLAYED well for a change.
I know he has been held up in regard in match reviews a bit lately, but I haven't been seeing it.
His errors were far less today...

[DamY]

Agree that Towers made a contribution today ... best game he has played for us ... but still don't see him as a regular first grader ... faded to more like his regular self as the game progressed apart from that snap goal in Q3 ... if only a few others had their snapping boots on ... at the end of the day their 2 small forwards won the game with 3 goals each ... Kieran and Parker would surely have snagged a couple and won the game for us. A loss that will be remembered more than most.

Mate
Even in his "average" quarters, he was way ahead quite a few other boys (Lloyd, BJ, Gaz, Jetta, McGlynn, even Cunningham). So I have to disagree. I would have put him at least in our top 25%, only his goalkicking let him down from being in our top 5

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Smith plays - we win, simple as that. Incredibly gutsy effort, incredibly proud of the guys, so close to the big upset.

Towers for the first time actually looked AFL standard, and in a high pressure final too. There is hope he can become best 22.

Shaw and Goodes, like the Geelong retirees, still got the goods!

Think we are likely to go out in straight sets given the mounting injury toll and gruelling encounter plus the travel, but there is hope. Think Rose needs to come in for Reid, the guy has GOAL sense!

i don't think the travel will harm the boys, they're used to traveling and normally play well in WA. I think the encounter will be the bigger factor of the two, but also we have a good record at home (I'm unaware of our "semi-finals" record)

[Scottee]

Can't agree with the criticism of Lloyd (20 possessions) and Cunningham (18). The real worry was the almost automatic turnovers by McGlynn and Rohan mostly unsighted. There is a serious issue here. Otherwise , apart from the fact that the boys couldn't kick a goal to save themselves, we won the game hands down.

Clearly the home ground advantage with the wind factor was huge. But it was a gutsy effort all up and next week we hopefully will have 22 contributors and smash the Tiggers or the Shinkickers.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Zac Jones should have been in the 21 players rather then Sub

Rohan is hobbling at best

Heeney played busted and unbelievable to stay out there

Towers is growing right now as a player that looks like an AFL player .......(except for his kick at goals)

Goodes was up and about and continues to amaze at his age...........he is still a force

[Hotpotato]

It's amazing how terrible kicking for goal afflicts the whole team for the entire game . You'd think someone would get it right , even with the gusty conditions .
If it was frustrating for us to watch on the couch , it must have driven the coaches and the players balmy .
All that manic effort for the lowest score of the six teams so far .
What poetry in motion to watch Eddie Betts (albeit in perfect conditions) drill the ball over the umps hat like a missile .
I reckon that kid Rose can do it, if Rohan wasn't right he might have nailed a few.

[barry]

I thought jetta was very good.
Mcglynn was useless and makes me wonder if maybe his AFL carear is near is end.

If we play WC in perth and goodes is booed. He and the swans should walk off the ground. Force the AFL to pick a side regarding what to do with this match: back the racist and have sydney forfeit. Or back goodes and replay the match at a neutral venue or empty stadium like they do in soccer sometimes. This would be a greater victory for the swans than any premiership.

[dejavoodoo44]

I thought jetta was very good.
Mcglynn was useless and makes me wonder if maybe his AFL carear is near is end.

If we play WC in perth and goodes is booed. He and the swans should walk off the ground. Force the AFL to pick a side regarding what to do with this match: back the racist and have sydney forfeit. Or back goodes and replay the match at a neutral venue or empty stadium like they do in soccer sometimes. This would be a greater victory for the swans than any premiership.

I quite like that idea, Barry. Would throw a huge cat among the pigeons, but it would ensure that we live in interesting times.

[Dosser]

All this talk of our outs is justified, but i hate to say it but Hawthorn had a similar year last year with injuries and just kept on winning. It makes me realise that our replacement players are not at the same standard as the Hawks. Maybe it is VFL vs NEAFL but Melbourne teams seem to have that advantage over us when bringing in replacements.

[liz]

If we play WC in perth and goodes is booed. He and the swans should walk off the ground. Force the AFL to pick a side regarding what to do with this match: back the racist and have sydney forfeit. Or back goodes and replay the match at a neutral venue or empty stadium like they do in soccer sometimes. This would be a greater victory for the swans than any premiership.

And for Goodes? It could be his last ever game. Do you think he'd want it to finish like that?

He seems to be coping well with where the situation has reached, certainly judging by the footy he played yesterday. Most of the footy world has thrown itself behind him and shown its support. That there are still a handful in society who clearly have no idea how to behave in public (or simply don't care that everyone else thinks they are dickheads) is sad but not completely unexpected. It is apparent that it was a relatively small minority of people misbehaving yesterday. We will get there one day, and Goodes' role will be one of the reasons why.

[Bexl]

If we play WC in perth and goodes is booed. He and the swans should walk off the ground. Force the AFL to pick a side regarding what to do with this match: back the racist and have sydney forfeit. Or back goodes and replay the match at a neutral venue or empty stadium like they do in soccer sometimes. This would be a greater victory for the swans than any premiership.

Sorry Barry but I disagree with you. The people that will stop already have and the others you can't convince, I believe that the w c crowds ARE the worst in the AFL but it would cause those people booing more pain if we get to go there and win that game. I know that's how I feel after a finals loss.

[YvonneH]

And for Goodes? It could be his last ever game. Do you think he'd want it to finish like that?

why.

Saw Adam shaking hands with a lot of the Freo players. Maybe a sign that this is indeed his last year or were they showing their support for him regarding the boing?

[ernie koala]

My apologies to Towers.

I didn't give him a chance of playing a meaningful final...But he did, all be it with poor goal kicking. Let's hope he can back it up next week, and kick straight.

No Smith and poor goal kicking cost us the match.

Freo were poor in the second half, and looked to be choking big time. If Heeney's shot had gone through, they may well of frozen. They won't win the flag playing like that.

No meaningful contribution from McGlynn, Rohan, B Jack... But given our injury list, they'll probably all get a chance to redeem themselves next week.

Jones should be in the 21, with one of the above mentioned under achievers to be sub.

Wonder if Bird is any kind of chance next week?

[Hotpotato]

Yep, exactly . Win the game . Booing dead in the water.
Goodsey understands the huge amount of support .
If we end up back there, West Coast bogans will out boo Freo bogans .

[dejavoodoo44]

"When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did?in his sleep... Not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car."

I just noticed that, EK: made me laugh.