Based on Freo/opponent averages, we were 17th for contested possessions, 16th for overall disposals, 16th for inside 50s and 12th for tackles. In short, we were soft in the middle, and we didn’t get nearly enough of the ball on the outside. The only place we almost broke even was clearances (our opponents won more, but only by 0.3 clearances a game). I reckon if you’ve got Sandi, Fyfe and Neale at stoppages you’d probably think we were an even chance to win those.
You can blame our lack of forwards or coaching for a lot of things, but those midfield stats are woeful. Our team actually outperformed what our midfield produced, and given our forward line was pretty inefficient, I can only conclude our defence did a very good job of holding things together.
To suggest that losing our best ball-winner and his most likely replacement isn’t cause for concern seems misguided, and I don’t think we can rely on Sandi controlling the ruck contests next season. Our defence seems solid, and our forward line – once it comes together – might be able to paper over some cracks, but you can’t expect to make the finals when your key midfield indicators are in the bottom 3 of the league.
I hope that the natural improvement in Cerra and Brayshaw, the inclusion of Conca and even a couple of likely VFL mature bodies might offset some of the loss of Neale. But we didn’t just need to offset Neale's output, we needed to jump up about 10 ladder rungs in midfield output. That’s a daunting task that needed a lot to go right. This isn’t a very good start.
