Agree 100% with everything you said, except for the lack of roman numerals.

at an average of more than 30 touches and a couple of goals per game for his whole afl career surely Barlow will crack a Brownlow at some stage?

I'm not sure which brother you're referring to 4501? I think Simon would have been way too old for Freo and Matthew was never eligible for Fremantle in the first place.

Barlowe's Brownlow.... sounds perfect.

Whatever has gone on over the summer, Freo have found their footy mojo.
Successive matches where we have kept oppositions goalless in the last quarter. This is, frankly, unheard of. What the hell is going on?

In the early rounds teams get all manner of hype heaped upon them. Look at Essendon, "pushed the Cats, must be a good team". And Collingwood looked distinctly ordinary against Melbourne, having knocked off the Dogs previously. Suddenly, Collingwood is back to being that team isn't quite the business. THis morning Essendon are having the cr*p bagged out them in the Age. (Woeful, slow, lacking adventure, dysfunctional...and that's just in one sentence.)

Adelaide appears to be one of those teams burdened with hope, or hype. Look how they folded at home against Sydney. The Essendon match was always potentially winnable for us. Indeed we thumped them at Subi late last year. And over here we have been thereabouts. And given how West Coast are already tanking, expect The Worst to go big with the Dockers. They need to sell newspapers and writing about the failures of Woosher and co. for 22 weeks won't do it.

Hopefully, the Dockers are losing the brittleness that has been our calling card for a decade. Ballantyne is a wonderful addition, absolutely no reverse gear. It was great to see Mundy show his class, stroll down the outer wing and slot one on the end of five bounces. Sandiland's marks in the final quarter put a smile on my face. The new guys, Morabito, Hill, SCOS and Barlow have the right stuff.

Of course the Cats will be a real test this week and the extra day's break and home ground won't hurt us. I think it was that one point loss against the Cats (Pavlich hitting the post) that launched a long downward spiral for the Dockers. Remember those last quarter fade-outs? Season 2008 really stunk and last year was spent steadying the ship. Maybe we are getting ready to sail.

Passion sums it up perfectly.There seems to be a desperation around the packs and an intensity in the tackling that we havent had consistently before.Stephen Hill must have permanently put that Hill/Rich thing to bed yesterday.That line breaking running coupled with that awesome left foot is dynamite.Plus we've finally got some very smart footballers with composure,ie MB,Ballas and Silvagni who have that Hase footy nous.Bring on Geelong,I think they are gonna get a very rude shock...

mikeydread i pretty well agree with what you are saying,but!it was not pav's fault we lost to geelong.he hit the post and there was still around six minutes to go,and we all know that is a long time in a game.
we lost 17seconds at the end as the ball was in our forward pocket ,time keepers you coulsd also say cost us the game?
but a fantastic start to the year,lets hope we can maintain it over the whole season
well done for the whole team and all the coaches too.

I 100% agree with you. Barlow has DOMINATED!!!

Look - it is not often that I agree with the commentators, in fact this may be one of the first times, but someone said during the game that Freo have recruited a bunch of smart footballers and I cannot agree more.

I love watching the no nonsense approach of Broughton, Barlow, Silvagni and Mayne. They may not be the flashiest guys going around but they just know how to play. Broughton in particular is just a no nonsense defender that can shut out his man and make a huge impact the other way. Mayne excluded from the above, all of those guys got passed up by every other footy club and have just slotted in perfect.

Couple this with the poise and left boot of Hill, Ballas antics, the already there skills of Sandi, Pav and the forgotten man Hase and I am a happy supporter.

My view is that we have one player at Freo who is not getting much of a mention after these first two fighting wins.

Paul Duffield has been very , very good for us.

Watch the replay folks and take note of his poise and composure. The nudge out aside, he was his usual dependable self in the last qtr's of both games.

Duffield is now running through lines and delivering lace out passes..... ie; the great pass to Pav that totally sealed the game.

...not blaming Pav at all, just using that moment as a shorthand.