Positives

[Saint wagga]

4 premiership points.
No major injury concerns.
Parker was exciting.
Good to see plenty of variety on ball at various stages.
Thought Joyce and battle got better as the game went on.
Bruce back.
Some indigenous flair in Parker and Long - I think as a team and a brand, we need points of difference and this could be one!
Enough signs from our middle tier that we can build on today’s win.

There was lots of frustrations and negatives too but there were good passages of play and good individual performances, enough to at least stay optimistic until our formline is tested over 1-2 months

[shrodes]

Thanks for putting some positives up. Sadly it won't be long til the Sad Patrol rock up.

For me, 4 POINTS! Not much else matters!
We only had 4 wins last year so I'm just rapt to get one on the board, and early.

Well done to all our young players who played today.

[saynta]

A win is a win and the guys got to sing the song.

[twirlyhair]

Yes, a much better style of play with s very short and inexperienced backline. Seemingly much better coached than the debacle of last year.

[The_Dud]

Parker looked good. Love his enthusiasm, he’ll learn to make better decisions as he gets more experience.

Our goal kicking was better than 50% for the third week in a row!

[DJ Higgins]

very few negative comments today, we got the points.
Parker was good especially considering 2 years ago he was playing b grade in WA, wait until next year when he has 20 games under the belt
Kent slotted nicely into the team. Didn't get a lot of the ball but when he did it counted
Bruce and Skunk played the best they have played in a long long time
The back line was ok considering their experience
Long is very aggressive and can hit the scoreboard. I like it.

Only real negative poitns from today are
the ruck still need work
and what was with the odd pa chants after certain players scored

[bigcarl]

Only real negative poitns from today are
the ruck still need work

Did Pierce do enough to keep Marshall out, do you think. Or alternatively do we find room for both?

[kosifantutti]

Four points and percentage ahead of 3 of last year’s Prelim Finals.

We’re playing the bottom team next week.

[Saint wagga]

Only real negative poitns from today are
the ruck still need work

Did Pierce do enough to keep Marshall out, do you think. Or alternatively do we find room for both?

I think we really have to persevere with Pierce and get afl games into him, baring injury or a horrible turn in form, he deserves the full season, I mean geez Longer was afforded so much time and showed so little! and I think having Marshall in the side will benefit Pierces game

[DJ Higgins]

Only real negative poitns from today are
the ruck still need work

Did Pierce do enough to keep Marshall out, do you think. Or alternatively do we find room for both?

Tricky question. Very few will watch today and think Pierce was good, hell most wouldn't say he was ok. He average in teh ruck and not noticeable around the ground. First game back so I dont like dropping guys after one bad game but he wasn't good. Marshall could play as well but I don't know how he went at Sandy. it could be out of the fire into the frying pan by replacing Pierce with Marshall but Marshall has shown more

[howlinwolf]

The thread titles says "Positives" so here goes.
Quite a few imo.

Callum Wilkie's debut was sensational. We have a real find here. I loved the "never say die" attitude he has. Great spoiling work and excellent contested marking.
Darragh Joyce was excellent. Love his run and commitment to the contest. Will be a long term defender for us.
We played without Carlisle and Roberton and Paddy. We were disjointed in the forward line and compromised down back for height. To come away with a win, albeit a slim one, was a good result.
Bruce was back to his old self. We really needed him today.
Jack Steven back from a tough time and played well yet again.
Steele is a warrior.
If we could add Clark,Marshall,Acres and eventually Coffield and Carlisle I see us as a reasonable package.

[howlinwolf]

Oh and off course Matthew Parker ! What a debut. Love his elusiveness and commitment to the contest.

[vacuous space]

Plenty of positives.

We won the clearances despite them having the dominant ruck. Ran a lot more people through the middle, ending up with 13 players with at least one clearance and 12 players with a centre clearance. Often times, last yea, we would run 4-6 guys through the centre. The change to this year meant that we had a much more even contribution across the ground. I would like to highlight Jack Steven, who had 16 contested possessions and ten clearances on return. That's pretty impressive considering his leadup to the game.

I thought our decisions with the ball were a lot better, even if the execution let us down a bit. We didn't play on into trouble as much and didn't just bomb it into the talls. Pressure was good and Ballard looked completely mismatched up on Parker. I'm a big fan of the small forward line. Young will get a shot if he keeps kicking goals, but it won't be next week.

Backline held up reasonably well, considering. I thought Battle looked at home there. Joyce struggled a bit with Wright, but was otherwise good. Wilkie looked very composed for a first gamer. I didn't notice a lot of mistakes from him. McKenzie didn't show any real signs of having missed the JLT.

Personally, I think the scoreline flattered them. I thought we were clearly the better team and would have been unlucky to lose. Looking forward to seeing if we can back it up next week.

[saynta]

Newnes
Billings
Bruce and Long back and playing good football
Jack Steven ditto
Wilkie and
Parker.

[howlinwolf]

Totally agree VS.
Pierce was beaten pretty well yet we did better in the clearances.
I reckon Joyce did as good a job as possible on 2MP considering the height difference.
DMac justified his selection.
The scoreline did flatter them. They got to gimme goals from ridiculous frees.
They got the better end of the umpiring, I have no doubt.

[bigcarl]

Watching the replay I think Joyce looks a player. Could develop into a really skilful defender. Parker looks a real live wire

[skeptic]

Only real negative poitns from today are
the ruck still need work

Did Pierce do enough to keep Marshall out, do you think. Or alternatively do we find room for both?

Tricky question. Very few will watch today and think Pierce was good, hell most wouldn't say he was ok. He average in teh ruck and not noticeable around the ground. First game back so I dont like dropping guys after one bad game but he wasn't good. Marshall could play as well but I don't know how he went at Sandy. it could be out of the fire into the frying pan by replacing Pierce with Marshall but Marshall has shown more

IMO the answer is we simply can’t keep going into games with only one ruck. Need Marshall in as one of the supports to Pierce or Longer

[tony74]

Kicking for goal.

[saynta]

Kicking for goal.

Yep.

[Cairnsman]

Kicking for goal.

I chuckled when Josh ran into an open goal for a gimme and just gently guided it along the ground.

[saintbrat]

More kudos for the Saints

[IluvHarvey]

Jack Newnes had 5 tackles today!

[Kilda]

Saintbrat, thanks for sharing that story that comes with a silver lining.

[Crossy66]

Reckon we had 6 listed players missing from our best 22 and still banked a win.
We had an average 15 mins in the first that cost 3 goals plus 2 or 3 umpiring decisions or poor discipline acts that cost another 3 rest of the time i thought we controlled the game. Thats not to say we are going to need to be a lot better to beat the better sides.

[Devilhead]

We won even though we got smashed in the free kick count

We kept the Suns to less than 20 shots on goal