Winning not the priority for Dockers

Spot on with Fyfe Balt, they've just pulled him for the rest of the season. Given he wasn't back till probably about round 20 it's not exactly a big loss anyway.

It's funny how you very selectively refer to fringe players who are in and out of the team - every team has them - as the "bulk of the team". They are not. And there are plenty of players coming through - Alex Pearce, Weller, Hughes, Tucker, Blakeley, Langdon, Grey, Yarran certainly, Apeness and Balic hopefully. And last time I looked players like Fyfe (remember him?), Bennell, Neale, Walters and Hill are young too. Taberner is not hopeless either. It takes a while for talls to find their feet - plenty of examples out there, Drew Petrie is just one of them. Taberner has improved markedly this year, particularly his contested marking. The "reality" is that Freo has given, and is giving, much more time to youngsters than Hawthorn and on a par with Sydney. Of all the time put into youngsters by Hawthorn the great proportion of it has gone into Brad Hill (who is really not that good). Sorry, you don't know what you are talking about.

They have nothing coming through the ranks. Pav, Johnson gone at seasons end. Sandi, Dawson. 1 year at best - a year where they won't play finals. The bulk of the team - Mzungu, Debeor, Sutcliffe, Sheridan, Suban, Pearce - all very average, WAFL standard players at best. Tabener - the great white hope is utterly useless. This team is full of list cloggers. Whilst Ross has finally given game time to some young players this year, the reality is its no more than Hawthorn, Sydney and other teams who are regenerating. These other teams younger talent looks significantly better. It should also be noted that game time given 1,2,3 years ago is started to pay dividends. It also should be noted there is absolutely no KPP's coming through besides Alex Pearce. This team is shot for 5+ years.

Henry and Harry, you must be reading newspapers or watching TV footy shows. The Freo players aren't "mentally shot". They are all young. The older ones are just injured.

Freo players are mentally shot, Lyon has sucked them of their strength.

This team is an absolute joke. Won't make it out of the bottom 4 for 5 odd years. Look at the saints now post 2011 to now then to realise this Freo list is significantly worse. There isn't a list in the AFL that is currently in a worse state than the dockers. Entire rebuild needed.

I suspect you don't know what "trolling" is. Never mind, Dean. Don't be too confident. Hawks went down to GWS by 75 points. Freo by 18 points. On the losing side of the ledger, 18 is better. But, yeah...Freo has played all the top sides. The trampoline is about to deliver a triple somersault...with pike.

Why do you troll your own team? You expect Fremantle to lose between 2 and 4 games for the rest of the season? Bold or Delusional, Considering the loss that is highly likely this weekend?

By tanking do you mean playing De Boer, Mzungu, Clancee in the magoos and giving games to Weller, Blakely, Hughes, Sheridan .... I think this season is done for the Dockers and the best that can be gained is 15 games + into the kids

If he's mates with Tom, maybe he'll be happy at the Doggies! He can board at Tom's mansion.

I don't think he is tanking but I think he is experimenting. Case in point: in the Adelaide game, he played Mundy and Weller off half back. That worked really well, forcing Adelaide to man up Mundy because he was cutting off every forward thrust. Next week - against GWS - he brings in 2 extra defenders, Mundy back to the middle and Weller forward. Didn't work very well at all. Defence was destroyed at stoppages. Now, partly that change was made because GWS midfield is a much greater threat (so Mundy was needed there) but Ross made a telling point in his press conference that he's filed the Mundy/Weller experiment away. So, I think he's using this period where his best players are out to work through the list and decide who will be there at the end of the year and what are the best positions for the remainder. I reckon you'll see the team ramp up again once Sandi, Jonno, Bennell, Yarran and Apeness are available in a few weeks and players will not be thrown around as much. They will start winning games.

I agree partly with you Penster. However, Freo undeniably fell into a hole about round 11 of last year. While there would have been no sense in playing the kids en masse, problems with the "role" players and back 6 were pretty apparent - a Weller here or a Blakeley there could have helped. He also started the year with the same role players even though they had nothing more to give. Still, I think the "Ross Lyon does not play the kids" line of thinking is overdone. Statistics show he has played them a lot more than say Clarkson over the last few years. The problem is that he has been reluctant to give them a bunch of consecutive games so they were never settled - Taberner is a case in point. He's looking a lot more confident now and beginning to crash packs and kick clutch goals.

he would not go into the Pre Season Draft as he would be Delisted so would go to them as a Delisted Player costing them nothing

I'd argue he should be doing it every year, I'd say the same about every single coach in the game though. Can't keep running out the same 22-25 players every year, have to give kids a chance (after they've earned it), have to expose them to games here and there.

I don't agree that Lyons should have got more game time into the kids last year, Freo were in a premiership window, playing kids would have hampered that potential. He threw everything at a shot for the cup, including playing the best player in the comp with a broken leg. There's a price to pay for the success of being up the top. Hawks are showing signs of a slide for the same reasons (ageing stars, injuries, kids with hardly any game time). Freo's been unlucky with injuries and is also paying the price 5 years hence for list management circa 2010/11 that you mentioned further up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there should be a draft for off field talent (coaches, list managers, senior administrators) because that's where the success starts and ends. I wouldn't get picked in a tipping draft - I predicted a 2016 West Australian derby grand final with Port not far off and Collingwood as the great improvers.

Except that Don didn't quite say that. He (wait, that's me) said that Premierships are over rated for true fans. It is not the be all and end all for us. Ross is running a totally different conversation. Thanks for caring about my opinion so much.

Sandi just signed on again. Mundy signed for 3 years last year. Barlow is still young. Anon, the strangest thing about your comment is that the future is in other hands. Have a look at the list. There are more names than your cliche list.

Can you give me a "V" for Vendetta anon?

Lyon's not tanking. He was talking being in premiership contention before the season began. Lyon had a full strength team minus Sandilands in round 1 against the Bulldogs and was uncompetitive. It was 43-2 by quarter time. Lyon had a full strength team at Subiaco against Gold Coast in round 2 and found themselves down 5 goals by half time. Lyon up until this year had never evolved the 2005 game plan he learned from Paul Roos. 2016 was his first attempt at modernising his game plan and it has been a complete disaster with his team going 0-7 after being minor premiers last year. After losing to Gold Coast, Lyon was still pretty cocky saying "he had been in bigger holes than this before". Even after losing to the Bulldogs in round 1 Lyon thought it was just a matter of poor preparation for the match saying "I take responsibility. It must've been something in our preparation that allowed us to present with that mindset and an inability to work." Ross Lyon seemed to think round 1 was merely a blip, just a bad day out. After round 2 he was still pretty cocky having total faith his system worked and that he would overcome this 0-2 start. The attitude was almost "how dare you question me". There was never any mention about not caring about the result until this weekend when he lost to GWS and went 0-7. When you've played 3 home games and lost to Gold Coast, Carlton and GWS after finishing on top of the ladder last year and you've got to play your daddy (Hawthorn) next week, there's not much you can say other than pretending the result no longer matters.

Bit harsh, the kid misses home, it is understandable.