meher baba wrote:Gee the whinging and wailing on SS after a loss is difficult to take.
We have a great midfield - one of the best in the comp, even without Armo - and it was reasonably dominant yesterday.
Our forward line has sucked for most of the season so far: we don't convert anywhere near enough of our gettable chances inside 50. If we'd done more of that yesterday, the game would have remained close until well into the last quarter and who knows.
We were absolutely woeful at bringing the ball out of defence yesterday. The absence of Webster and Newnes was critical here, along with Weller having an off game/being injured, McKenzie making a lot of mistakes, Joey having a terrible game, and Roberton being heavily targeted and having what I thought was one of his worst games in quite a
while. And, of course, the Swans doing a superb job at outplaying us at our own game of closing off all the avenues out of our defensive 50.
We can fix the defence - eg, in the short-term, by bringing back Savage - which means that the forward line remains our major problem. Unfortunately, Riewoldt is still easily our most damaging forward. I think McCartin can improve and should be left in the team for now. I also agree that Bruce should come back. Maybe Membrey is the logical out for now.
Anyway, I'm not as pessimistic as the rest of you. I think that we can still be a top 4 side this season, or certainly in 2018, if we can fix the forward line, and not experience too many more injuries (two players going down in the first quarter - albeit that Weller later came back at half-strength - was pretty harsh).
A few things struck me again yesterday.
1. The right recipe for the midfield is to have all of Steven, Ross, Steele, Stevens, Newnes and Dunstan (or Armo, if fit) powering through the middle. For so much of the Thomas-Lyon era, and also quite often under Richo, we haven't had enough grunt in the engine room for my liking.
2. How do we fix the forward line? For next week, I'd suggest swapping Membrey for Bruce. Perhaps Riewoldt could then play further forward, and Bruce could play a bit more in the half-forward region. I'd also try sending Acres forward for more of the game: he's tall, reasonably strong and capable of taking contested marks. And he has shown that he can kick straight under pressure.
3. The disappointing performance of McKenzie yesterday demonstrated the potential downside of the "play the youngsters, put some games into them!" approach that seems to be favoured by the majority of St Kilda fans who post on line. The fact is that inexperienced players can often collapse under pressure. With hindsight, we can see that Savage would have been a much better option. However, if Newnes isn't fit for the Dogs, it might be worth playing both Savage and McKenzie, rather than go for yet another less-experienced player in Rice.
Anyway, it's certainly not the end of the world. We could quite easily bounce back against the Dogs. The Swans might have started the season badly due to some injuries, but last season they looked far and away the best team in the comp, and it's easy to forget that their GF loss was a pretty major upset. I reckon that, the way they played yesterday - and have taken a few more of their chances - the Swans would have beaten any of the clubs above us on the table ATM. It's a funny old comp this year: I reckon that the Tigers and the Eagles are not going to be serious contenders by season end, and I'm not too sure about the Cats or the Crows either. But I fancy we'll see the Swans, Dogs and most likely the Giants firing on all four cylinders in the finals. Port and Freo seem to be dark horses as well.
I agree that our fwd line has been poor for most of the year. I also agree that our midfield LATELY has been very good. Wilst I think we got beat in the midfield on Saturday, I thought our mids tried hard and were competitive. I reckon Hanneberry, Kennedy and Lloyd were probably the best 3 players on the ground. Yes we have grunt in the midfield, but we don't have great spread. Ross is getting better at that part of his game and I thought he was our best player on Saturday. Jack Steven provides it in spades, but apart from that we don't have much at all. Dunstan is a plodder for mine, Steele is an inside beast so hard gut running is not his go but he's effective in other ways. Whilst Billings played a good game he spends a lot of time up fwd. We need Gresham to do more when he's around the packs. Quite often what he does do is very good, but we need him to do more. Our delivery into the fwd line isn't great either - that's on the mids. We have rectified the problem of getting the ball, now we need to master the equally as important part of delivering the ball.
The backline have been great all year. In the end they were overwhelmed on Saturday. I like the combination of Carlisle and Brown who are both doing their jobs and doing it well. Buddy got off the leash late, but the game was over by then and as I said, the backline was overwhelmed. I disagree with bringing Savage back in. Surely he's had enough chances over the years. I see it as a step back. He's capable of playing good footy, but he simply can't sustain it. He ALWAYS ends up disappointing. Yes he's a beautiful long kick but his decision making under real pressure is questionable and I don't believe he'll ever take us where we want to go. We've found a player in Webster and that took several years to develop. I'm happy for the club to persevere with Dmac for at least another week despite his poor game on Saturday. Young blokes need to find the tempo and get a bit of confidence.
On Membery, NO WAY would I drop him. He's the only key fwd with a tank that doesn't look like he's running on one leg (Roo) Yes he floats in and out of the game but for pressure and making contests he's integral I believe. Funny thing is I didn't rate him a couple of years ago when he first arrived, but now I see his value. As for Paddy, words can't describe my disappointment with him. I genuinely believe he can't make it, simply because he's not fit enough. He was an absolute liability on Saturday. And this after 3-4 good games in the reserves. Unless they bring in the line across the ground and make a rule that 1/2 doz players from each team must remain behind that line, then I can't see how he can make it. I pray that I'm wrong (and I'm not a religious person) as I couldn't stand thinking that we wasted a #1 draft pick. Having said that I still believe that he HAS to remain this week and possibly again after the bye. He needs to be given every opportunity to prove himself as we simply can't keep playing with the kids confidence. At the end of the year a call may need to be made while he still has currency though.
