Heard a good caller on radio re: Freo v Rich.
Fremantle had a lot of things fall there way, whilst sounds like excuses, when added together gives a good indication of the result.
- Richmond weren't at their best
- Fremantle were at their best
- Wet conditions aided Fremantles game plan of maul shutdown football, where it hindered Richmonds free flowing precise counter style.
- Losing Foley lost an important contested ball winner, Richmond weren't able to replace him with poor squad depth. Same as Jake King, losing forward line pressure and goal kicking.
- Sandilands going down was a blessing in disguise, making Fremantle smaller across the ground perfect for wet conditions. This also made Fremantle a little bit unpredictable. It also gave Jonathan Griffen a chance at being number 1 ruckman given that Clarke was also out. Griffen gave 100% and beat ex team mate Maric, whom he would know a bit about.
- Riewoldts injury made Jack less dominant.
- First half free kick count was 17-7 in Freo's favour
- Freo were kicking some freakish goals. 1 from a blind snap from the boundary, another a checkside from Fre ruckman Griffen which slithered through. Pavlich also had his kicking boots on which happens 1 in every 4 years.
So when you add all of that together, as much as they are excuses, the majority of those things are out of control of our control. The main one obviously is that we weren't at our best but the rest are all factors of "thats football".
So I don't think there is anything to look back on and go ge it's panic stations.