Adversity can be like a parabola. A little bit of it works against you, but at a certain threshold a lot of adversity works in your favour. Classic backs to the wall underdog stuff. I reckon this week we're at the level of adversity where it works in our favour. Carlisle, Ryder, Long and Battle - ei...

The difference is we don't have any media pressure on our side. If it's a star player, or a big club, the media puts pressure on the MRO/tribunal to change their opinion We, 'lowly St.Kilda' and 'thug' Ben Long, have no one putting pressure from within the media, showing the inconsistencies and maki...

It's time to accept Billings is not a star, won't ever be a star. He's a good role player, generally finds enough of the ball and generally uses it just fine. This is not a knock. He plays his role in the team and is a starting 18 player. He holds his position within the team structure as a wingman ...

The panic of some about this decision really reminds me of the decision to sign Paddy Ryder, which turned out to be a bloody excellent decision. I'd encourage everyone who is up in arms to just take a breath...the rubber doesn't hit the road on this decision for several months. Despite his weaknesse...

Battle forward threw them off imo he gives us another dimension up there Agree with this. Forward line looked really good with Battle, Membrey, King, Marshall, Lonie, Butler. I'm a fan of Battle big time. Which gets me thinking about which players do we have which are built to play finals? From las...

Let's assess the game in the context of a final. Not up to finals standard: - the opposition: they played slow, dumb, allowed us to set-up our defence and generally looked disinterested. Thought they were better than that. - Dean Kent: as far as I saw, everything he did was not up to scratch. He wen...

In general, some excellent ways to miss the 8 include dropping big quarter time and half time leads to bottom 6 teams, dropping 8 point games to other teams on the fringe of the 8, dropping 8 point games against top 4 teams, losing all the close games you've played through poor execution, and droppi...

Papley's a twerp who plays for himself. Would much rather not.

The other option is to get Ben Long into the action more. He gets lost and I don't think he's found the balance yet like Clark, Paton & Coffield between defending and attacking. I'm all for Ben Long on half back - he has the same explosive potential we see in Gresham - but I think he might benef...

Unfortunately, the only reason we are any better than 2019 is personnel improvement, as well as we are better structured around stoppages. We still, just as bad as last year, are horrible with - moving ball from a kick in - defending kick ins - moving ball from defence when not on a turnover - movin...

Out: long bombs into the forward line In: forwards who are on the move and mids/wingers prepared to lower their eyes. Composure is critical. We've had no issue getting the ball inside 50 this year. But if we continue our current trend, McGovern and Barrass will feast and we will get smacked I agree...

Our half back line is the best thing about the side. All of Paton, Clark, Coffield, Long are much better playing there than Billings. Maybe it's just time to accept Billings is not a star, won't ever be a star. He's a good role player, generally finds enough of the ball and generally uses it just fi...

Shades of 2017, 18 and 19. I thought we’d left the bomb behind but last night showed our lack of creativity. What’s that saying....”those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” We’re a young team and hopefully we will learn this time around. Go Saints! Lets hope we have learned....

We're playing like a crap team again.

In fact, it's been about 4 games or so since we played half decent. Somehow the old bomb it long, easy to defend saints are back and instead of playing like a 3-6 on the ladder team, we're basically a 9-12.

Blind man can see it

Gawn tends to park himself in front of the deep forwards, and many sides who tend to bomb the ball forward(Saints especially), just put it in Gawn's hands- he will drop in front of King and nullify him. We need have the eyes down coming forward and keep the ball low- probably a cool night up there,...

Unfortunately, all season we've played the premiership quarter like a wooden spoon team. I wonder what goes on at half time? Why is there no spark? We start well... Essendon were far worse than I was expecting. Good to see the first half of the game controlled by Marshall, Battle, & Coffield. Th...

Goal of the year.

Probably couldn't name 5 goals better in the last 5 years

I always thought he was an excellent two-way runner - meaning he chased, harassed and disrupted the opposition. I haven't been paying much attention to him this season...he is the sort of player appreciated best live, not on tv. Having said that you can of course see his contested work on tv. 1 on 1...

Bytel has the potential to be for us what Sam Mitchell was for the hawks and Simon Black for the lions. (These two are, to me, as good midfielders as the modern era has produced...I'm not saying he will be as good as those two legends, but similar in function) His ability to open the game up with ha...

The question for me: was it a case of too many games in too short a period of time with lots of travel and all the associated adversity understandably fatiguing the players, or was it a case of the old downhill skiing saints who, once a game gets to a 5 goal margin, all too often let it get to 10? I...

Well done the last 4 weeks, Saints. Gotten into a solid position to contend for finals. But to keep things in perspective, the way we played against GC wouldn't have beaten a good team. Lost clearance and contested ball, so a team with skill on the spread could have cut us up. Also, got a little sed...

It's terrible. But the suggestion to have a free kick whenever the ball goes out would be awful. Contests are the heart of our game. Truly the differentiating point of our sport compared to soccer, basketball, even rugby - the stoppage contest. So much of the craft and skill would be lost if this a...

It's terrible. But the suggestion to have a free kick whenever the ball goes out would be awful. Contests are the heart of our game. Truly the differentiating point of our sport compared to soccer, basketball, even rugby - the stoppage contest. So much of the craft and skill would be lost if this as...

That was the same as every other Swans v Saints game for the last 10 years The better team starts well and opens up a lead. The inferior team battles back, puts up a fight for a quarter but doesn't convert. The better team blows them away with easy goals in the last quarter winning by more than 50 p...

Gutsiest effort in a very long time. After crumppling like a house of cards against Freo, we've really bounced back. Considering the opposition, the venue, the crowd, the travel, the turnaround, the fact that they threw everything at us and had us on the ropes for large parts of the game, the pressu...