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Winning can sometimes paper over cracks in sport – sometimes it takes a loss to expose serious problems for what they are.
Fremantle’s stirring turnaround from 23 points down midway through the third quarter against Gold Coast could easily become one of them. After weeks of media discontent with their game plan, the usual talking heads will likely give the Dockers some respite, content with their rapid ball movement in the final term that tore apart the flagging Suns and confident it will spark their season to life.
You can probably tell by the headline I’m not in that camp. This was a win every bit as concerning for Freo as the three losses in four games that preceded it – and it some ways, even more so. This is far from the defensive beast that suffocated all and sundry en route to the semi-finals last year, the team good judges had down as a top four contender heading into the season.
To begin with, it’s important to note the venue. Norwood Oval, according to Dr Google, measures 165×110 metres: narrower than the famously stick-thin GMHBA Stadium, and the slightest ground in the SANFL.
It’s a ground that, on paper, seems perfectly suited for the Dockers of 2022 (remember when they stormed the Cattery last year?). It’s easier to set up a defensive press, which they excelled at last year; that should be perfect news for intercept kings Brennan Cox, Luke Ryan and even the out of form Hayden Young.
Nothing could have been further from the truth: from the opening bounce, it became clear the Dockers were in trouble. Just like North Melbourne in Round 2, the Suns, an objectively inferior outfit, had a plan to take down the Freo wall.
The Roos did it with patience, comfortably chipping the ball around until options presented themselves – the Suns backed their pace and explosiveness from stoppages to take a ram to the fortress.
Involved in just about everything was Jack Lukosius, for whom it took Freo two and a half quarters to have even the remotest answer for. The Dockers love to sit deep in defensive 50 – to my eye, they’re deeper than they were even last year – and stop goals leaking through out the back, relying on their midfield to clog up the dangerous space 40-60 metres out from goal.
Lukosius owned that space in the first half, and the Suns knew it. He’d lead up to the ball-carrier, his Freo opponent, often Jordan Clark, would sag off and retreat deeper, and Lukosius would invariably retrieve. And with the Suns quicker and sharper than their Freo counterparts in midfield, that meant options aplenty for him to find with his lethal right boot.
The Dockers’ forward set-up couldn’t have been more different: the Suns set up very aggressively from half-back, with Sam Collins regularly on an island as the deepest defender, leaving pockets into which Michael Walters or Lachie Schultz, comfortably Freo’s most dangerous forwards, could ply their trade. But they were few and far between early on, with the Suns dominating the territory battle – and allowed them, Darcy Macpherson in particular, to neutralise the Dockers’ clearance advantage (they led centre clearances 10-5 at half time, yet trailed 20-26 in the inside 50 count).
Macpherson was a fascinating watch, with his offensive intent just as clear as it was a fortnight ago when he shut down Tyson Stengle. Rarely have I seen a small defender so content with allowing his opponent to get goal side: he reads the ball well in the air, backs his pace to feed back when required, and trusts his midfield to put on enough pressure that his direct opponent, Walters, would seldom be found one out.
Their battle more or less followed the match: Macpherson had five intercept possessions by quarter time, and finished with 11 for the match (five of them marks)… yet Walters, with four goals, had enough opportunities to keep the Dockers in the hunt.
The Suns aren’t typically a high-marking team, while Freo are: yet by quarter time, the count was 36-16 in the Suns’ favour, with Lukosius owning six of them, plus a goal.
Say what you will about Gold Coast – and I’ll say plenty later on – but they’re playing a very Collingwood-esque style of rapid ball movement with an emphasis on kicking. 63 of the Suns’ 88 first-quarter disposals were kicks, and 114 of their 147 at half time.
200 fewer marks than the Magpies after four rounds shows you they’re far from as polished as the Pies, but it does allow for territory dominance when they are on top, and put defences under the pump.
Faced with such aggression, a far cry from their usual fare last year of long, hopeful balls in from players unable to find a target to hit amidst a sea of purple, the Dockers couldn’t cope.
So far this year, barring an onslaught from Adelaide last week, Freo’s defence has been the least of their worries: their stodgy ball movement and lacklustre forward line have dominated the headlines. But it’s their backs which became Justin Longmuir’s biggest headache at Norwood as the Suns broke clear.
Last season, Freo conceded, on average, 9.45 marks per game inside 50 – only Melbourne fared better. Up until Round 4, it was a similar story, rising to 9.5 only by giving up 12 to a Crows outfit that almost doubled that in their win over Carlton.
By half time, the Suns had 11 marks inside 50. For a side built on defence, that’s alarming.
Second-gamer Bailey Humphrey was outmarking Ryan and Cox both; David Swallow was popping up everywhere; Mabior Chol and Ben King were constant menaces.
Only inaccuracy, and the Dockers’ comparative straight-shooting, kept the margin to 23 at half time.
But 16 first-half shots at goal, from 26 inside 50s, is another un-Freo-like stat sheet. In 2022, they conceded a mark from an inside-50 entry, on average, every 2.88 times. That had already plummeted to 2.45 in the first four rounds; at half time in Norwood, it was 1.63. Even the worst team in the game, Hawthorn, have that number above 2.
That should be a terrifying number for Longmuir: last year, the most they conceded in a whole match was 14. His defence just don’t get disemboweled like that, especially not by a team as thoroughly ordinary as the Suns have proved thus far in 2023. Especially not on the narrowest ground in the country.
The Suns had cottoned on to Fremantle’s desire for ball control, and reacted with a heavy press. The Dockers racked up some monstrous mark tallies last season and to start this one as they chipped the ball around their defensive half, waiting for options to open up. The Suns denied them that at every turn.
By the half, Freo had mustered just 31 marks, despite having six extra disposals. 67 was their lowest figure last year: hell, they played the Suns on a quagmire in 2022 and still managed 70 in a heavy defeat.
Starved of the chance to give their best ball users uncontested ball, the Dockers panicked. By quarter time, they’d already had 18 turnovers, with that figure swelling well into the 30s by the half. It only added to the disarray the Freo defence found themselves in.
Making matters worse was Longmuir’s decision to move Cox, his best defender, to Lukosius. It backfired: not only did Lukosius remain far too quick for Cox on the lead, he successfully drew the Freo tall out of defensive 50, taking him out of the picture as an intercepting threat.
Caleb Serong of the Dockers. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
At one point, Cox gave his entire midfield the mother of all bakes as an unpressured pass found Lukosius 60 out, who wheeled and executed a pinpoint pass to David Swallow, running back towards goal.
Teams aren’t playing the Dockers like they did last year: the game is changing around them, and they’re fast being left behind. The ball has never moved faster, and as a result, cracks are showing in what was last season’s most commanding defensive unit.
Luke Ryan has been excellent, but Cox seems short of a gallop, Alex Pearce is often getting exposed on fast breaks and caught flat-footed, and much as his perseverance to get another chance at an AFL career is commendable, Corey Wagner’s ball use in defensive 50 is nightmare fuel. They’re missing Blake Acres’ tireless running to create outlet options when exiting the backline to no end, as well.
In the end, the Dockers had two things to thank for their turnaround: Sean Darcy strapping the midfield to his back and refusing to be beaten, and the Suns totally running out of gas. Freo finished with 16 inside 50s to 10 in the final term, won the clearances 9-7 (and 24-16 after half time), and exposed Gold Coast with some long-awaited rapid ball movement.
That they dominated the stoppages all evening, scoring 14 times from that source, could mostly be put to Darcy’s comprehensive manhandling of the woefully outclassed Ned Moyle.
Had he been up against Jarrod Witts, things would surely have been different; but nine clearances, 48 hitouts and some telling marks in the last term made him, along with Caleb Serong, one of the outstanding players on the ground. Two of the three goals the Dockers scored in the last quarter from boundary throw-ins could be directly attributed to him.
Down back, Cox finally got Lukosius in one-on-ones rather than trailing him, with the Suns’ on-ballers unable to break clear of congestion as successfully as they could early and raining down the high, wayward balls Brennan Cox feasts on. The Suns also retreated into their shells, stacking numbers behind the ball and allowing Freo to gain territory with their usual precise kicks: after 47 marks to three-quarter time, the Dockers mustered 30 in the last.
That finish might be enough to spare the Dockers another week of intense scrutiny, and should, at the very least, give them another sign that speeding up their play and driving the ball long and deep to the likes of Jy Amiss and the vastly improved Luke Jackson, with Walters and Lachie Schultz nipping at their heels, is the way to go.
But unless they find a way to adjust their backline to 2023 footy, then it’s hard to see Freo mustering much this season. They’re not a side that can give up 25 shots at goal a game and expect to come away with four points.
At 2-3, the Dockers still have time to turn things around. Does Longmuir have the plan – and maybe more importantly, the gumption – to make the radical changes required?
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