The Captain deserves his own personal choir to continually sing his praises. Time to Restump Podcast Freo’s incredibly dominant performance against the Crows.    

Sure, it wasn’t exactly a game for the ages and it wouldn’t be one for the promotional video. But amongst the often fumbling, double grabbing and wayward kicking exhibition, there were fleeting passages of pure art. 

There is a feverish defence first approach we’re rolling out and it is paying lucrative dividends. It has us ranked 1st in defence in the league as we’re letting just 60 points on average kicked against us. 

Alex Pearce made Taylor Walker feel his age, dictating the terms down back with and without the ball. Luke Ryan had, at the risk of sounding flippant, another Luke Ryan day and Jordan Clark is continuing his high-end form. Brandon Walker had a couple of hurts put on him and a poke in the eye and Joshy Draper is getting a boat load of confidence each week.

Hayden Young put in a monster, having his career best game and with Caleb Serong being well held early on, it couldn’t have come at a better time. 

Have we finally found our winger? If you’d watched Jeremy Sharp at the Gold Coast in 2021 and 2022 it probably isn’t too surprising to see what he’s doing here. But a wingman performing the role and getting back to help the defenders… that’s money right there.

Josh Treacy deserves a special mention. He’s being asked to do a power of work, up forward, in the ruck and around the ground and he has responded to the challenge. 

Up forward Matty Taberner is close to kicking a handful, Freddy and Switta are applying pressure, Bailey Banfield is earning his keep while Jye Amiss had a rare day where the radar was off.

However, Sonny Walters at 33 years old wound the clock back and had a monumental impact on the game with his selfless team first manner. His uncharacteristic wayward kicking saw him with 2 goals 4, no doubt something that would have kept him awake Friday night. 

3 and zip to start the year puts us well and truly on track and placing our 2024 destiny in our own hands. Have we been seriously tested yet though? If only so we remain grounded in reality, we can point out that Brisbane has some issues, North are North and the Crows aren’t exactly travelling. You can only beat who you’re playing though and we’ve done that so far. However, you get the feeling our true test comes this week when we meet the Blue Cerras. 

We’re open to ideas on how the Mi Casa Property Boutique Metres Gained competition could work so by all means join the think tank and send us your thoughts.

Finally, Jojo tells us he’s turned the corner and back on top of things so we should see some fluency and continuity at The Restump from here on in. However, he has some work to do to win the trust back!

I’ve banged on too long here so, if your grass has grown, your sock draw is tidy and your painted walls have dried…. by all means throw away an hour on our purple gibberish. 

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