We all know things can change in an instant, but I’m feeling optimistic about Freo’s prospects this season. We’ve got great talent across every line, a young core entering their prime, a forward line that on paper has heaps of goals in it, and a fixture that includes an extra home game and a Gather Round game against last-year’s wooden spooners. We’ve also got a head coach with four seasons under his belt, who should also be hitting his straps as a coach.
There’s plenty of variables - injuries, the occasional crucial umpiring howler, an uneven fixture – but I feel like so much is in Freo’s hands this season.
Other than those things above, I reckon much of the season comes down to a few things:
Our Approach: I feel like the last couple of years too often we played not to lose, like we carried the weight of every potential loss as a death-knell for the season. We’ve got one of the best lists, so over 23 games we should win more than we lose. I feel like for the last few years we’ve lost 50% of the games when we’re holding a small lead in the last quarter. If we’re up by 2 goals with 10 minutes to play, we should aim to win by 4 goals (and keep the slowdown stuff for the last 2 minutes).
Darcy’s knee/ankle/head/etc.: We smashed teams in the clearances last year, and that’s in big part because of Darcy, even though he wasn’t at his best. More than that, the drop off between him and Jackson/Reidy in the ruck is so pronounced, that I think our team is much worse when he doesn’t play (there’s no Johnno playing underneath Sandi). Even an 80% fit Darcy for most of the season helps us enormously.
Forward Line Chemistry: Treacy, Amiss, Jackson, Bolton. Whoa boy is there some firepower. Add the right mix of complimentary players like Switta, Freddy, O’Meara, Reid, Sturt, Banfield (and hopefully Walters is a starring cameo here and there) and that’s an elite forward line. Chemistry might even be overstating what we need. We need to get it in quick to these guys, and I reckon they are all smart and talented enough to know how to get on the end of a kick. The chemistry bit will actually be the boring logistics of organising them on the field so they aren’t all in the exact same spot all the time. Coaching aside, I think the players are smart enough to work that out.
I’m excited.
