I have no idea why you will be there this Sunday either. The next Freo game is on the 18th!

When the talk turns to potential, it revolves around perceptions that are held regarding value, basically... fair call? Someone holds the view that a team containing certain players 'should' perform at a certain level, because 'x' number of 'y' value players should add up to the sum of 2 and 2, right?

C'mon, you know I'm making as much sense as, say, Robert Walls... and he's a Respectedfootballcommentator. You hear that opinion often enough, you figure it's fact.

The trouble with this sharing of popular perceptions is that it ignores vital aspects of human nature... like most activities involving sharing. That's my bitter experience, anyway.

Where potential theory breaks down is in looking at the sum of the whole and whether that is greater or less than the sum of the parts. In other words, do players as good as Pav, Bell, Hase f'rinstance, actually play well TOGETHER?

I reckon you never really hear that question asked because most meatheads asking questions are too daunted by a question that requires some real smarts. We've been crap on and off for so long it's fostered some destructive behaviour patterns within the playing group. Someone with a greater understanding of the sum of parts thingo than I have should be able to sort it out... you know, say over a week off, maybe?

I have no idea why you will be there this Sunday...
No-one else will be ......It's a bye!

The Eagles greatest effort is their ability to lower expectations. A comeback against Carlton at Subi Oval earned them praise. Carlton were rubbish. Fremantle played almost the same game against Melbourne as they had against Geelong. Expectations were higher because Geelong were rated and Melbourne weren't.

The problem in both games was the same yet one is seen as a great effort and the other a great triumph. Work out how to stop the run ons and you may just work out how to win every week.

The good is very good. Build on it.

Thanks for the support re the bye this week. Talk about kicking a man when he's down.

$10 Pav does his grig'n knee this Saturday in the Victorian orgy of self indulgence state of origin match just to top off a great opening to the 2008 season for Freo!

I don't believe the WC have any ability to lower expectations.

They get it gifted from a compliant (or sponsored) media who cut them all the slack they need because they're got a couple of flags and have been on the winners list more often than not the last decade.

The same opposites are the reason Freo doesn't, and expectations are based on continued potential, as in Guy's post.

What hurts almost as much as that loss is the smugness emanating from every expertcommentator who's years of inane drivel and often agenda-driven put-downs get justified by displays like that.

Couldn't agree more Drubbing.

Let me pose a question: would you rather support Fremantle (years of inconsistency, a bit of promise and no premierships) or a team like our cross town rivals (royal commissions, tainted premierships, ex players highly publicised drug and alcohol problems, dodgy tattoos, chardonnay, your captain qutting (keep in mind our captain stayed loyal), high profile crime connections and hoards of media zombies falling over themselves to drool on you?)

I know which team I would choose.

I know Freo lived up to their Dockers Shockers reputation. I was mad and I wanted to lay the blame. But after a painful 24 hours I am sick of hearing the negative on the TV, 6peeearrr and the world-class quality Western Australian newspapers which may as well be printed in blue and yellow! So, as a loyal Freo fan from years back, I am going to try and nut out the positives to make everyone feel a teeny weeny bit better.

-Pavlich. That man redefined the term 'loyalty'. Remember he signed a 3 year contract.
-Our young players. According to some unidentifiable commentator, Palmer is going to be one of the premier midfielders of the comp.
-It is only round 7.
-There is a bye this weekend.
-Harvey's hard-headedness.
-Who remembers the first half of 06? And then, who remembers the second half of 06?
-Where did Geelong finish the year before their premiership last year?
-The Weagles are lower than us on the ladder. :)
-Bell moving to Perth.
-Black, Headland, JCarr, MCarr and eventually Hase once he returns finding fitness and form.
-MJ, Mundy, Peake, Thornton and Murphy fine tuning their games to live up to their promise.
-Grover and Hayden coming back to complete our defensive line.
-Perhaps we can think of this stage in the season as "character building". Sometimes you have to be at the very bottom before you can find the strength to get to the top.

Although our boys need a swift kick up the purple anchor, I think what they need more is some self belief and confidence. Ya never know what might happen.

I think they've got the self belief and confidence, that showed in the Geelong game and the 1st half of the Melbourne game (it's not as if the players came out after half time with the attitude "we don't think we're good enough to win this game"). There's something else, something that denies us the killer instinct, something that makes it impossible for us to bury second rate teams like true champions do. I hesitate to say this (because shane doesn't believe in airy fairy things), but our players lack the mental edge that keeps pushing champions to keep the pressure on no matter how far in front we have got. More often than not if we get a long way in front we take the foot off the accelerator and look to coast to an easy victory, this is when momentum turns and we are then too tired or unwilling to put in the hard yards and shift the momentum. Perhaps as shane will tell you it's not a mental thing, well if it's not then surely it must be a fitness thing and if it is a fitness thing then we know where to look.

There is, I'm coming to believe, a curse on Fremantle Oval and the club facilities on its southern end. A sickly purple aura that saps resolve, erodes desire and abrades skill.

In the evening you can almost see it coalesce from the humid seaside air, its tendrils caress our players as they train, then the mist settles in and does its ghastly work. What sort of phenomenon is this: supernatural, meteorological, spritual? No one knows.

There is only one way to escape the curse of the Purple Dew...we must immeditiately relocate the club to Moss Street.

Moss Street.

Holy man on a crutch...that puts us very close to Woewodin...Urgghhh