I reckon if you look back over the years at teams that have been down for a while then climbed the ladder a fair way in one year, you'd find that the year before was the one where they cut out most of the big defeats, even if they didn't win that many \more games. Brisbane this year come to mind as one, but I'm pretty certain there are others. On that basis, I reckon Freo have improved this year compared to last. Whether it is part of a longer trend, or is enough to 'save' the coach (assuming we want that, which is clearly a view not held by many) remains to be seen.
