For a moment there, us twisted, rusted-on supporters thought we may have lost our identity. But we weren’t letting Hawthorn take that away from us! Let’s just say deliberately doing things the difficult way is character-building. Time to Restump Podcast our gut-wrenching game against the hard-nosed Hawks. Sadly, we know all too well that a sense of inevitability is difficult to misplace. Thursday night, we added another stat to our 30-year history of failures when it matters most. That one is tough to reconcile. Getting beaten was definitely a possibility, but no one saw us performing like that. We folded like the deckchairs we sat in on the interchange sidelines at Marvel Stadium against the Blues two weeks back! The thought we’d be outworked, outmuscled and, most of all, out-pressured in that manner and to that extent, never entered the equation. We were overconfident we wouldn’t be overawed or overwhelmed, and overlooking that possibility maybe was, in itself, part of the problem. We’re not physically or mentally battle-hardened. We don’t have the deep finals experience to deal with that type of finals onslaught and, albeit somewhat justifiably, we got carried away with the home-and-away season. Unfortunately, we just failed to distinguish between it and September. While it’s no excuse for the way we were brushed aside and pressured out of the game, our old mate Lloyd Meek has played more finals than 20 of the 23 players we rolled out Thursday night. Let that sink into the noggin! The ruckman who, understandably, couldn’t get a look in at Freo, goes to another team, fights his way into the position of first ruck, puts away more finals than his former teammates and adds another one to his tally against them. One of those football stories, and we actually couldn’t be happier for him. The reality is we’ve had quite the fortuitous season. We’ve met teams at the right times; we’ve had an absurd injury list, or rather a lack of one, and we’ve faced almost zero adversity. You still have to rack up the wins, and we were impressive doing so, but there were numerous games where we just got over the line thanks to 10 to 15 minutes of burst footy. That isn’t necessarily reliable or replicable in finals football. A lack of obstacles and misfortune isn’t our fault, and it can be a big tick for process, planning and application. But did we overlook that lack of hardship we faced this year? Was it problematic in our preparation for September? Hats off to the Hawks. They were ferocious and relentless, and they thoroughly deserved the win. But the disappointing aspect for us was that we couldn’t work our way back into it at any stage. That has been our signature this year, but, again, finals is a different bag. However, being the best side all year means we earned our finals position and double chance. We were hoping not to need it but, it’s safe to say, it’s better to have and not need than need and not have. So, don’t ‘Weekend at Bernies’ us just yet! We now face the Morris Finance, Cotton On Cats, the family of farm owners, the secret-signature securers, this coming week, in a do-or-die ding-dong on the home deck. It’s time to make the inevitable avoidable! The canvas is where comebacks begin! Get out your Chumbawambas and start Tubthumping, because we get knocked down, but we get up again. However, before then, if you need answers and some trauma-ridding closure to move on from last night, you’re amongst like-minded folk. It’s the Freo Festivus, the airing of grievances. We can’t carry complicated cognitive cargo into the Cats’ clash! Let’s cleanse the conscience and create a clean-slate state. So, pull up a pew and partake in passing around the purple prattle pole on the pod. Send us Fan Mail Support the show
