ALTHOUGH his side went down to finals contender Fremantle by 61 points at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night, coach Mark Neeld says the margin would’ve been worse had the game been played at the start of the season.
Reflecting on his team’s final match of the season, Neeld said there were “little bits” of positives to take from the game, although he acknowledged that there was plenty of hard work to undertake in the off-season recruiting period and pre-season.
And he may have been pointing to his team’s previous Patersons Stadium clash in round two this year, when the West Coast Eagles smashed Melbourne by 108 points - the red and blue’s worst loss in 2012.
“The start of the game, Fremantle certainly came out breathing fire - so to speak,” Neeld said in his post-match media conference.
“In the first half of the year that would’ve been a lot more than a 60-point defeat. We had some young kids who could hang in there, which I think is really important.
“It gives us the opportunity to go into summer just reinforcing some of the points that are really important for us.”
Neeld said Fremantle’s relentless pressure and ability to restrict his team’s scoring was telling.
“We got five goals in nearly 100 minutes of footy. That’s fairly hard to play against - no question,” he said.
“They were able to shut our ball movement down. Their ability to go to from offence to defence and vice-versa quickly was first class.
“So that again gives us something over our pre-season to work on.”
Neeld said praised Fremantle, adding that it was a worthy and genuine finals contender. The Dockers will play Geelong in the second elimination final at the MCG next Saturday night.
“Freo are a good side who deserve to play finals,” Neeld said.
“They’ve got strong, disciplined, team oriented players and it’ll be a good game next week [against Geelong].”
Asked how far Fremantle could progress this year, Neeld said all teams would back themselves in September.
“All teams will say the same thing - if they can get the game on their terms and the way that they play … but everyone will be saying that,” he said.
“We’re a team that’s very much in the development phase, but that gives us a lot to work on … [Fremantle] showed how hard and how often you have to work to succeed at League footy.
“It would’ve been good for some of our young players to see that.”
Reflecting on his team’s final match of the season, Neeld said there were “little bits” of positives to take from the game, although he acknowledged that there was plenty of hard work to undertake in the off-season recruiting period and pre-season.
And he may have been pointing to his team’s previous Patersons Stadium clash in round two this year, when the West Coast Eagles smashed Melbourne by 108 points - the red and blue’s worst loss in 2012.
“The start of the game, Fremantle certainly came out breathing fire - so to speak,” Neeld said in his post-match media conference.
“In the first half of the year that would’ve been a lot more than a 60-point defeat. We had some young kids who could hang in there, which I think is really important.
“It gives us the opportunity to go into summer just reinforcing some of the points that are really important for us.”
Neeld said Fremantle’s relentless pressure and ability to restrict his team’s scoring was telling.
“We got five goals in nearly 100 minutes of footy. That’s fairly hard to play against - no question,” he said.
“They were able to shut our ball movement down. Their ability to go to from offence to defence and vice-versa quickly was first class.
“So that again gives us something over our pre-season to work on.”
Neeld said praised Fremantle, adding that it was a worthy and genuine finals contender. The Dockers will play Geelong in the second elimination final at the MCG next Saturday night.
“Freo are a good side who deserve to play finals,” Neeld said.
“They’ve got strong, disciplined, team oriented players and it’ll be a good game next week [against Geelong].”
Asked how far Fremantle could progress this year, Neeld said all teams would back themselves in September.
“All teams will say the same thing - if they can get the game on their terms and the way that they play … but everyone will be saying that,” he said.
“We’re a team that’s very much in the development phase, but that gives us a lot to work on … [Fremantle] showed how hard and how often you have to work to succeed at League footy.
“It would’ve been good for some of our young players to see that.”
