The Fremantle Dockers has underachieved ever since they came into the AFL in 1995. And this year the Dockers have gone from bad to unbelievably worse.
To recruit players like Johnson and Farmer is a bad decision. Johnson and Farmer are really nowhere near the players they were 5 years ago.
The Dockers rely too much on Matthew Pavilich to kick the majority of their goals for them. Excuse me, but where are the rest of the Dockers’ goalkickers?
What happened against Geelong at Skilled Stadium was nothing short of disgraceful. The Dockers knew they couldn’t beat the Cats, so they tried to niggle and rough the Cats out of the game. In short, it didn’t work.
I’m still wondering why Mark Harvey was chosen as coach of the Dockers. Why didn’t they go for a WA guy, such as Steve Malaxos, Stan Magro, John Todd or Ron Alexander?
It’s time for Freo to bite the bullet, and start again. There must be a new-look Freo side, with young talent the best that WA has to offer (unless West Coast or Melbourne picks up these players), no ‘has-been’ players to recruit, and the Dockers must get rid of Mark Harvey, and pick a coach from WA who has experience in AFL coaching.
Otherwise, the Dockers will continue to be the laughing stock of not just AFL, but Australian sport in general.
Rich_daddy
Roar Guru
Definetly Fremantle have underperformed, but it is perhaps a little unfair to single them out. Richmond since winning the flag in 1980 has done very little, a couple of premliminary final appearances come to mind in 1995 and 2001 and in both cases they were smashed. The Bulldogs and St Kilda have only 1 premiership each in their entire history and Melbourne has gone nearly 50 years without a premiership. The Draft system as it stands prevents 1 team dominating year in year out but it does not guarantee sucess for wooden spooners (Carlton and Richmond though they are improving, still have a fair to go). Fremantle have made some shocking trade decisions in the past that were perhaps unforseebale at the time (such as trading their superdraft pick for Trent Croad in 2001 and Tarrant for Medhurst in 2007) which also haven't helped. Also I think coaches get criticised too often for a team's poor performance. He isn't out there not chasing hard enough or not being fierce enough at the footy. The coach may have an excelllent game plan but if he doesn't have the players to execute it, then ultimately he and the team will fail.
matta
Guest
yep.. you know a team is in trouble when their best back, forward and midfield player is one person (Pavilich)