Post match: Pies lose thriller. All comments please.

[Johnno75]

I am prepared to cut the boys a bit of slack regarding the OOF. Subiaco is much narrower than the MCG so some of the boys may have been caught out by that. We will have deeper flanks to kick to on Friday night.

[What'sinaname]

While no one is complaining about our effort last night let's remember we aren't Melbourne.

We should have won that game.

Bucks knew it was one that got away and you only had to see his presser and terse response to the opening question how much it was hurting him even though he would have been proud of the performance.

Bucks isn't interested in honourable losses.

Bucks is such a miserable sad sa ck. Am sick of his continual under appreciation of the club.

[Gerry Cooper]

I was relatively happy with that performance though a few critical errors perhaps swung it Freo's way.

I found it interesting that while we significantly disrupted Freo's game plan they also did the same to us leading to the around the boundary game and the tough in close contest we saw a lot of last night.

White's miss was disappointing, if only he had taken more time over the kick. I also wasn't particularly impressed with Seedsman's effort either. He kicked a nice goal then didn't seem to handle the pressure that well after that. In his defence perhaps being a sub and coming on to that level of pressure is hard.

All in all it was a good performance against a team that is one of the yardsticks of this season. If we bring that level of intensity without some of the critical errors we will beat some of the higher performing teams we have to play in the upcoming rounds.

[pietillidie]

Sounds like it was a good game. When you see so many new names amongst the bests, you know you're building, while being able to keep it tight in the West shows you've got a unit playing disciplined footy.

Smells like progress to me, regardless of the loss.

[AN_Inkling]

A tough loss. We used the ball as well as I've seen in a long time for the first half. Unfortunately we did not score as much as we should have in that period. Freo got nothing going all game, almost all of their goals came from scrappy, broken plays, we outplayed them pretty much the entire night.

As always though, Freo constricted us further and further as the game went on. We were being smashed in the clearances so were not getting any quick ball forward, that meant numbers back and an almost impossible task to hit targets and our scoring completely dried up.

A very creditable performance, but we were the better team and should have won this one. Tired late and couldn't quite get it done.

[Mr flagpastie]

Did their best but our skills at times were not up the standard required for that short passing game we play. This year is up for grabs: why can't we win it? That game was lost by us, rather than won by them. I was very encouraged by Witts's game; guy's got the heart of a true Magpie!

[MightyMagpie]

Just re-watched the game (without the emotion of watching live).

A few things I picked up:

1. Lots of tackles, but generally poor tackle execution - tackles didn't stick and failed to pin one or both arms on most occasions. Varcoe bumps instead of tackling.

2. Pendles (unusual for him) very frustrated at several umpiring decisions.

3. Without checking DE stats, Taylor Adams seems to have improved his kicking efficiency from last year. He is clearly focussed on it when he kicks.

4. Langdon looks a bit tired to me.

5. Class finishing of Hill and Walters really hurt, especially in red time.

[daicos35]

It was a great effort to watch for west aussie 'Pie fans. We are going to get better and better. The most pleasing aspect of the game for an extremely occasional poster like me was my two daughters have grown up following mum's Freo, but couldn't help barracking loudly for Collingwood for the entire game. I LOVED that.

I signed them both up as CFC members immediately after, haha.