My
favourite sports writer has an occasional column where he presents ‘10 things he likes and doesn’t like’. I thought in the absence of pub reviews, I’d shamelessly rip off that bit for Freo games this season (tweaked to be eleven things, in honour of my favourite Freo player Dale Kickett).
i. I liked the pre-game steak sandwich at the Grosvenor Hotel. If anything, it had too much steak, which isn’t a complaint you’d hear very often.
ii. I liked Hodor’s fightback after being soundly beaten in the first quarter by Goldstein. At some stage we were losing the stoppage clearances 9-1, but Darcy and Fyfe really fought hard from that point on.
iii. I didn’t like the way Cunnington roughed up some of our guys, but I do admire his hardness at the ball. He didn’t have many helpers yesterday, but he’s as hard as they come. I wonder if growing up on or around a dairy farm had anything to do with that?
iv. I liked seeing CamMac play his best game in purple. I think everyone is pulling for him, and most on here can see his value as a ‘miscellaneous forward’. Even if you just looked at his goals, they were a mix of marking in the 50, roving and getting on the end of a few handballs from midfield. That’s exactly how he should be playing. Great stuff.
v. I didn’t like the absence of chips in the Skyview Bar. Dead set, what sort of bar at the footy doesn’t have chips?
vi. I liked our ball movement yesterday. Last season we saw glimpses of that run and gun style from the backline, but it got gummed up entering the 50. B Hill is so important as a link man for us (we really missed him last year), and it looked to me like we had a few more numbers running forward, and were able to kick it long when needed.
vii. I didn’t like seeing Ballas struggle yesterday. He’s been such an admirable servant, and Lyon likes to give those guys every chance, but his pace has dropped off significantly and I think he’ll struggle to get back into the team if he has any sort of layoff with his hammy.
viii. I liked that we didn’t take the foot off the pedal yesterday. In our (very few) contending years we often dropped down a gear once the win was in the bag, but the players clearly enjoyed running up the score yesterday.
ix. I liked Bailey Scott’s first game for North. Hopefully Freo has a bright future for father/mother/sons/daughters coming up.
x. I didn’t like Brayshaw’s goal kicking. Hopefully it’s an aberration, but he doesn’t look confident with his set shots. He either needs time to work on that, or Lyon needs to play him exclusively as a midfielder.
xi. I really liked footy being back. I’m not convinced about the later start Sunday, but how good is going to the beach in the morning, then heading to the footy?
