Fremantle again, and hitting 45s

Last week, former Gold Coast and Carlton ruckman Daniel Gorringe gave us the latest morsels of life under his last coach, “Rocket” Rodney Eade.

There were the usual #bants we’ve come to expect from retired footballers hoping to be handed a microphone — I copped a spray, had some beers, did some other blokey things. It was all very interesting.

One comment in particular rustled my jimmies, though.

“Just kick long, don’t hit 45s.”

That is, a kick on a 45 degree angle.

Now, the Suns under Eade were not particularly representative of modern footy, but this sentiment prevails across the league.

Coaches generally prefer their players not use the ball by foot in the corridor; poor execution gives the opposition room to score easily on the turnover.

Luke Beveridge does not subscribe. His Bulldogs ripped Fremantle apart on Sunday because they were encouraged and willing to go through the middle.

The possession style Beveridge has implemented over the season has met with some criticism from fans, as turnovers in the defensive half of midfield have seen an often cobbled-together back six concede heavily.

I don’t think it was difficult to understand where he intended to go with it. For all the dominance in the contest, the Dogs’ movement hasn’t been generating quality opportunities in front of goal for a long time.

It has been compounded by youth in key positions. An opposition with a healthy array of talls could pick the Dogs off down the line, and create scoring opportunities from repeat forward 50 stoppages as the pups tired; the possession game is still subject to this, but gives them fewer opportunities.

On Sunday, the directive to split the air and win the ground game, spot up targets in the corridor by foot and give the ball carrier outlets bore fruit like we haven’t seen before with this team; the Bulldogs’ dominance materialised in the form of 33 scoring shots.

“Sometimes you can over-handball and sometimes your decision making — putting yourself back into traffic, which we did a few times — may be off, but most of the things we did in using each other in transition, creating opportunities out of turnovers… it was close to what you’d be after,” the coach told journalists.

The willingness to hit diagonal passes through the centre of the ground and the standard to which the players executed on Sunday forced Lyon to respect their movement, stretching his defense out and allowing the Dogs to cut in and out of the corridor.

With Sean Darcy, Rory Lobb and Aaron Sandilands all travelling, my guess is the Fremantle coach hoped they could win at the source, chain it forward through Ed Langdon and Bradley Hill and capitalise on some mismatches, but they were just denied the oxygen.

Complementing the Dogs’ considered ball movement was a complete mauling in the contest. From memory (because as far as I’m aware I can’t access this stat), the ground ball differential was +30 at half time.

You know what that means? It’s Marcus Bontempelli stat line time! In the first quarter alone he had 10 possessions (five of which were contested), three marks, three clearances, three entries, two tackles, a goal and 202 metres gained.

He spearheaded the Dogs’ dominance on the ground throughout the only phase in the game in which Fremantle regularly scored. His fingerprints were all over the team’s use of the corridor, leading to clean, high percentage shots as well as stoppage scoring opportunities. He’s the best player in the league.

He also nailed a late set shot, and you could see how much it meant to him.

Jack Macrae followed up his worst game in red, white and blue with his best. He held onto the ball and released teammates, made direct, diagonal passes rather than loopy lateral kicks, and he was often the player with the sense to drop wide into space when Fremantle tried to fill the corridor.

His own stat line was obscene. 38 disposals (18 of which were contested), 19 kicks, an equal game high 13 score involvements, eight clearances, seven marks and 442 metres gained. He’s the fulcrum of the Dogs’ spread from the contest, so it was nice for him that he could have a prettier, more visible impact this time.

If I were assigning any, Aaron Naughton would round out my votes after the planet destroyers. He played a little bit higher, unlocking lots of forward play leading up and marking in contests, and making thoughtful decisions with ball in hand. He seems to have lost some confidence in his set shot, but 13 score involvements speaks to his impact.

First Bailey backed up his career game, crumbing two goals and slotting another two set shots after marking on the lead. The knock on him as a forward was always that he struggled to stay involved, but he appears to have a few more tricks up his sleeve now. He’s a real point of difference in this forward line, so here’s hoping it continues.

Just a couple of quick shouts to New Bailey and Rhylee West, who each had important games. The son of Scott used the ball neatly on both sides (how about the roar for his left foot snap!!), and it was nice to have a proper pest in the forward line. He stays.

I’m sad for Moz. He’s gentle and selfless, the best defender in the history of this club, and forever entwined with its greatest moment. If this is it, I’m glad he got to hear how much he means to the fans one last time.

But we are talking about Dale Morris, so there is a slim chance this won’t be it.

Brisbane at the Gabba are next, which may be the most difficult fixture in the game at the moment.

The Lions have good players everywhere, and both their running power and capacity to stretch the ground on offence make them very hard to contain when they win it at the source.

I’ll leave it up to Bevo to devise a plan to get defenders up the ground to help out around the ball without allowing Brisbane to get over the top and score.

Sunday afternoon was a really fun time at the footy. I hope we can feel like that a couple more times before this season is out.

See you around.