AFL great Kevin Sheedy reckons Fremantle have won football’s equivalent of the lotto due to their friendly draw, but Dockers coach Ross Lyon says those claims are garbage.
Fremantle boosted their chances of a top-two finish with a club record 113-point thumping of Sheedy’s GWS at Patersons Stadium on Sunday.
The 24.13 (157) to 6.8 (44) win lifted Fremantle to within 6.2 per cent of third-placed Sydney, and they are just half a win adrift of second-placed Geelong.
Fremantle take on Melbourne (MCG), Port Adelaide (home) and St Kilda (ES) in a dream run to the finals.
Of the opponents Fremantle were drawn to play twice this year, only Richmond currently sit in the top-eight.
The other teams they were drawn to play twice – West Coast, Adelaide, St Kilda and Melbourne – are either near the bottom of the table, or highly unlikely to play finals.
Sheedy said the Dockers should thank their lucky stars for such a soft draw.
“It’s not their fault, but they have probably got the best draw of all time this year,” Sheedy said.
“They have won TattsLotto.
“They haven’t played the top-four more than once.
“That’s going to make people more confident in how they play, because it gives you more practice time and game time to get their style of play together.”
Lyon was quick to hit back at Sheedy’s claims, pointing to the fact that West Coast were considered a flag fancy this year, while Adelaide came within a kick of reaching the 2012 grand final after finishing the season in second spot.
“Commentary on draws is really interesting, because like most analysts or flippant opposition coaches, it runs as deep as about the last two weeks,” Lyon said.
“I’m happy to listen when people do a real detailed analysis of the draw.
“The flippancies – they’re just red herrings thrown out.
“It’s all garbage to be honest.”
Fremantle booted the opening seven goals of the match against GWS, but saw their margin whittled down to 17 points on the back of a Jeremy Cameron-inspired second-quarter fightback.
However, the Giants’ resistance was short lived, with Fremantle booting 16 goals to one in the second half to secure their biggest ever win, eclipsing the 112-point winning margin over Collingwood in 2005.
“I think we were playing a pretty desperate side. Fremantle are playing like junk yard dogs – pretty hungry,” Sheedy said.
“And I suppose they would be, because they haven’t had a lot of success over their life.”
Lyon conceded it wasn’t ideal playing struggling teams in the run to the finals.
But he said his team would have no problems in getting themselves battle-hardened ahead of the finals.
Cameron’s four-goal haul lifted him to within two goals of West Coast’s Josh Kennedy in the race for the Coleman medal.
Fremantle lost Stephen Hill to a tight hamstring before the match, but Lyon said the star midfielder should be fit to take on Melbourne next week, along with Garrick Ibbotson (Achilles tendon).
Dockersfan
Guest
Like Lyon wisely said, the draw is as relevant as the last 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago sitting 2nd who would've thought Essendon would get pumped by West Coast at home? Or 2 weeks ago who would've thought Collingwood would pump Essendon and Sydney? Too much is made of ladder position in a competition that changes so frequently. Each team matches up differently to each team and every team experiences form slumps etc. Sheedy just trying to make the papers, which he sort of did, but not really.
Floyd Calhoun
Guest
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the draw, since the teams no longer play each other twice anymore, was based on a spread of matches covering a few seasons. Hence, some seasons turn out to be kindly, and others, cruel, depending of course, on how some teams rise or fall during the same year. Has anyone got a better plan for this?
Johnny Howard
Guest
Its not a list of the hardest teams to beat, its a list of the teams with the toughest draws...
Australian Rules
Guest
Yes Adelaide's fixture was easier last year, but there's little doubt Freo have had a favourable fixture this year...as have Richmond.
Steve J
Roar Guru
Sheeds comment was on the entire seasons draw. He clarified it a little with another comment about playing a harder game in the next few weeks, but that's a bit of a side swipe at Port who will be busting a gut to make the 8 in two weeks time. This is the first time in the season Freo play GWS. Not Freo's fault that they didn't get a gimme away game against GWS earlier in the year. Would sooner have had Freo play GWS at Blacktown and the Hawks at Subi. But instead Freo got the Hawks in Tassie and GWS at home.
Steve J
Roar Guru
Sheeds comment about the draw was wrong as shown in that analysis above and the fact that they have traveled to Tassie to play the Hawks and to Kardinia to play the Cats. A soft draw is what Adelaide had last year in playing GWS, Gold Coast and Port twice each. Freo have yet to be hosted by GWS, which is one of the softest away games you can get in the AFL. Meanwhile West Coast, Essendon, the Doggies and Melbourne have had that as an away game each year so far. Sheeds was asked whether Freo were a team ripe to win a premiership or whether they copped GWS at the end of a long season. His response was to point to the draw being kind rather than comment on whether his team should be matching it with Freo better than they did or to comment on whether he thinks Freo are a premiership contender. So he decides to deflect the question with a backhanded complement that doesn't stack up when you look at the facts. Sounds like bs to me. The rest of the post match interview was actually quite good, why the media insists on publishing this type of rubbish from Sheeds is beyond me.
Franko
Guest
I guess that argument could be used if Ross Lyon came out and said "We would have had a more competitive match if we played a WAFL side” or “GWS are the worst team we’ve played in a long long time” or how about “We might have an internal trial tomorrow because this was not really a game” etc etc What would be the big deal if Ross Lyon had said that?
josh
Roar Rookie
Is he? Or is saying the Dockers have a pretty run home before the finals? Which on paper they do. So what's the big deal?
Stavros
Guest
I wouldn't take Sheeds comments to heart as he is always in a stirring mood. I don't think he is trying to deflect attention from the Giants effort as all good judges (not Steve J and Lroy) recognise that he is just about coaching an U21 team.
James of Fremantle
Guest
Sheedy has not been relevant for about a decade now. Apart from his nonsensical ramblings which some sycophantic footy writers enjoy from time to time and his rant is always accompanied by a " Oh, Sheeds is at it again" because they do not know what he is on about. Should have been put out to pasture a few years back. His comments came after he was given a warm round of applause by the Fremantle crowd too.
Steve J
Roar Guru
He's not - Sheeds is Lyon's basically saying what everyone knows - Sheeds is commenting on the Dockers draw in order to deflect from his failures at GWS.
Jacksoon
Guest
Why in the hell are north melbourne (who finished 8th last season) the hardest team to beat? And that does not reflect the current ladder nor forms of teams in any way. The only top 8 team currently theyve played twice is richmond
Lroy
Guest
+1 Luv ya works Kevvy.. keep it going son.. by the end of today no one will be talking about how pathetic GWS are but how the AFL are tryng to gift the Fockers a premiership... ;-)
Franko
Guest
2 of the sides they were drawn to play twice (West Coast and Adelaide) were expected to be top 8, if not top 4 by a lot of people at the start of the year, it is hardly Freo's fault they fell over. The other week he had a mild pop at Collingwood, this week a barb at Freo, maybe Sheedy should focus on his own side. I presume this is part of stunt to make the public gloss over their 113 point drubbing? How sad for the old man to go out this way.
josh
Roar Rookie
So Freo have a good draw to finish the season? Why is Lyon complaining?
Steve J
Roar Guru
This was the ranking done by the Champion Data at the start of the season - from toughest to easiest 1 North Melbourne (1036) 2 Hawthorn (1028) 3 Collingwood (1004) 5 West Coast (988) 6 Geelong (982) 7 Sydney (976) 8 Fremantle (970) 9 Carlton (968) 10 Essendon (966) = 11 Port Adelaide (962) = 11 Richmond (962) = 11 St Kilda (962) 14 GWS (942) 15 Adelaide (938) 16 Brisbane Lions (916) 17 Gold Coast (914) 18 (Melbourne) So once again Sheedy is talking out of his backside. Only Norths, Hawks and Pies have had tougher draws by significant degrees (Freo is in the same range as Sydney, Cats and West Coast. Plus Freo had two of the longest road trips to face the two best teams in Hawthorn at York Park and Geelong at Kardinia. Sheeds - going out the way he came in - talking bull