After Rnd 7: Where we are at - My thoughts

[saintsRrising]

Well where we are at present is a lot better than I thought where we would be pre-season, and moreso after considering our quite horrific injury run.

We have discovered some real players for our future. Ironically it may well be that same injury run that has allowed us to find some keepers.

Marshall: We have our first genuine No 1 ruckman since Gardiner. Marshall has hardly played in this role in his VFL games with us , let alone his even few AFL games as an AFL ruck. So he is only going to grow and grow in this role. The way he was not at all intimated by Mummy was a very good sign.

If Longer and Pierce had both started the year fully fit Marshall would probably still be playing as a key forward with Sandy rather than No 1 ruck with the Saints.

Wilkie: Wow. This guy is just pure silk. Reads the play beautifully, athletic, good intercept mark and is a good user of the ball and reasonably quick and he has football smarts.

Parker: Just oozes excitement and talent. He is still very raw and is leaning how to play, but boy oh boy does he have the tools; pace, leap, vigour & aggression, kicking skills, tackling

Other players have improved this year, but others like Gresh have gone backwards. Gresh has all the skill but too often tries to be the incredible and you saw this with him against GWS. He should reflect on Banger who realised that his long kicks were poor and so concentrated instead on being deadly with his 30 m kicks to players in good positions. Gresh too often wants to be the hero, rather than just playing good and effective football.

Lonie was one to have really stepped up his game this year and losing him to injury has been a real loss.

Billings had started the season with 5 very good games. The last 2 not so much. The problem in part is when the opposition knows that they only have one or two players to worry about that they can concentrate on limiting their impact.

GAMEPLAN

Our new structures and gameplan was giving us an advantage, and it is still allowing us to play better BUT the Crows picked it apart and GWS showed too that opposition coaches now our countering it. So our gameplan edge has vanished.

With that vanishing it has also caused our poor ball use skills to be exposed again. The roost is back in town.


OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM

For several years now as many have know and understood our biggest problem is that we have a lack of genuine elite mids in the engine room. This remains so, and with the loss of Steven it is actually worse. Plus Armo is gone as an AFL level player.

Billings has been playing some elite games, but not as a pure mid. He plays more wing and across and hb and while damaging players in these positions are needed you cannot be a good team without elite and damaging mids.

So we have a support cast of mids. Individually any of them are worthy of being part of our midfield rotations, but none of them are guns. None of them can hit up team-mates and especially our forwards.

There are many that are unhappy with say Bruce or Membrey, but these too have it very hard with mainly long bombs directed their way. They deserve to at least have the ball kicked so that they have the advantage, but way, way too often the ball is just kicked in their general direction.

In my opinion the biggest problem with our forward line is our entries and the inability of our non-forwards to deliver the ball to the advantage of our forwards.

Marshall I believe will be a weapon in our midfield from 2020 as he grows as our No 1 ruck. But we are not going to be a Top 4 Team without some true class in our midfield. A better midfield will make all of our team better, and in particular our forward line.

Hannas: Geeze I hope so, but I would not want to bet my house on it.

Bytel: There is going to be enormous hope placed on this young mans shoulders.

Clark: Some good signs, but nothing yet to shout out that he will be a gun rather than yet another support cast member

Coffield: Taken as a bottom ager and so the jury is still out. We can only hope that he is a slow burn like Goddard was.

Steele: Possibly, but at present he seems more destined to be a very good mid rather than an elite mid.

OUR OTHER POSITIONS

Overall I think we have built quite a reasonable support cast of players around the ground. Ironically one can reflect and say that our bottom end depth is even better than what it was when we were last playing finals.

But our top end is enormously thin. We lack players who can turn games. Players like a Lenny who could do it through sheer will power. {layers who use the ball well.

At present we are mainly acquiring more depth players like Kent. Individually they may be ok, but we are just shuffling our fringe rather than improving our top end.

King: Is going to have huge pressure when he does play. But his edge his height and marking at full stretch. When he starts he will be skinny and will lack power. He will only be able to leverage that with good ball delivery, and as team we are not currently going to deliver that. Instead he will come in and have poor delivery and will have hardened en to lay body contact on him. Think of Kosi who was quite a good key forward when the ball was delivered well to him, but who was poor at body contact and so when the ball was not delivered well he was easily removed from the contest.


ALL IN ALL

I see some promising signs, but the main problem is that we lack elite talent, and in particular we lack it most in our midfield.

King or Rozee. Geeze I hope we made the right call.

[Scollop]

We love the big blokes like King.

Went for McEvoy instead of a mid

Went for Paddy instead of a mid

We've got a bloke who could possibly be our David Mundy type mid but he's wasted and played out of position

Very good post btw and I agree with most of it, but I'd like to see Longer and Marshall together and I'd even play Marshall in the centre every know and then, even when Longer is rucking. Let's manage him throughout the long seasons ahead and get him to focus on what he's really good at which is clearances, contested ball, contested marking and the occasional sausage roll

[saintsRrising]

Personally I would prefer it if we chased the best smalls, and in particular true mids, first and worried about the talls last.

There is a long list of talls that we have churned through, some of which have done better elsewhere than with us.

Not that you should not recruit any, but our emphasis on them has been too high.

[Saintmatt]

Well where we are at present is a lot better than I thought where we would be pre-season, and moreso after considering our quite horrific injury run.

We have discovered some real players for our future. Ironically it may well be that same injury run that has allowed us to find some keepers.

Marshall: We have our first genuine No 1 ruckman since Gardiner. Marshall has hardly played in this role in his VFL games with us , let alone his even few AFL games as an AFL ruck. So he is only going to grow and grow in this role. The way he was not at all intimated by Mummy was a very good sign.

If Longer and Pierce had both started the year fully fit Marshall would probably still be playing as a key forward with Sandy rather than No 1 ruck with the Saints.

Wilkie: Wow. This guy is just pure silk. Reads the play beautifully, athletic, good intercept mark and is a good user of the ball and reasonably quick and he has football smarts.

Parker: Just oozes excitement and talent. He is still very raw and is leaning how to play, but boy oh boy does he have the tools; pace, leap, vigour & aggression, kicking skills, tackling

Other players have improved this year, but others like Gresh have gone backwards. Gresh has all the skill but too often tries to be the incredible and you saw this with him against GWS. He should reflect on Banger who realised that his long kicks were poor and so concentrated instead on being deadly with his 30 m kicks to players in good positions. Gresh too often wants to be the hero, rather than just playing good and effective football.

Lonie was one to have really stepped up his game this year and losing him to injury has been a real loss.

Billings had started the season with 5 very good games. The last 2 not so much. The problem in part is when the opposition knows that they only have one or two players to worry about that they can concentrate on limiting their impact.

GAMEPLAN

Our new structures and gameplan was giving us an advantage, and it is still allowing us to play better BUT the Crows picked it apart and GWS showed too that opposition coaches now our countering it. So our gameplan edge has vanished.

With that vanishing it has also caused our poor ball use skills to be exposed again. The roost is back in town.


OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM

For several years now as many have know and understood our biggest problem is that we have a lack of genuine elite mids in the engine room. This remains so, and with the loss of Steven it is actually worse. Plus Armo is gone as an AFL level player.

Billings has been playing some elite games, but not as a pure mid. He plays more wing and across and hb and while damaging players in these positions are needed you cannot be a good team without elite and damaging mids.

So we have a support cast of mids. Individually any of them are worthy of being part of our midfield rotations, but none of them are guns. None of them can hit up team-mates and especially our forwards.

There are many that are unhappy with say Bruce or Membrey, but these too have it very hard with mainly long bombs directed their way. They deserve to at least have the ball kicked so that they have the advantage, but way, way too often the ball is just kicked in their general direction.

In my opinion the biggest problem with our forward line is our entries and the inability of our non-forwards to deliver the ball to the advantage of our forwards.

Marshall I believe will be a weapon in our midfield from 2020 as he grows as our No 1 ruck. But we are not going to be a Top 4 Team without some true class in our midfield. A better midfield will make all of our team better, and in particular our forward line.

Hannas: Geeze I hope so, but I would not want to bet my house on it.

Bytel: There is going to be enormous hope placed on this young mans shoulders.

Clark: Some good signs, but nothing yet to shout out that he will be a gun rather than yet another support cast member

Coffield: Taken as a bottom ager and so the jury is still out. We can only hope that he is a slow burn like Goddard was.

Steele: Possibly, but at present he seems more destined to be a very good mid rather than an elite mid.

OUR OTHER POSITIONS

Overall I think we have built quite a reasonable support cast of players around the ground. Ironically one can reflect and say that our bottom end depth is even better than what it was when we were last playing finals.

But our top end is enormously thin. We lack players who can turn games. Players like a Lenny who could do it through sheer will power. {layers who use the ball well.

At present we are mainly acquiring more depth players like Kent. Individually they may be ok, but we are just shuffling our fringe rather than improving our top end.

King: Is going to have huge pressure when he does play. But his edge his height and marking at full stretch. When he starts he will be skinny and will lack power. He will only be able to leverage that with good ball delivery, and as team we are not currently going to deliver that. Instead he will come in and have poor delivery and will have hardened en to lay body contact on him. Think of Kosi who was quite a good key forward when the ball was delivered well to him, but who was poor at body contact and so when the ball was not delivered well he was easily removed from the contest.


ALL IN ALL

I see some promising signs, but the main problem is that we lack elite talent, and in particular we lack it most in our midfield.

King or Rozee. Geeze I hope we made the right call.

Post of the year.

Correctly identifies our mids’ horrendous last kick (aka floating, long-bomb) into F50 as the main issue we have. We get it enough ... it’s just what we do with it when it’s in our hands. I’d hate to play as a forward in front of Ross and Gresham ... they both have VAFA level long-kicking skills. If both of them learnt the Harvey 20 meter dink kick ... we’d be in business.

[thejiggingsaint]

Well where we are at present is a lot better than I thought where we would be pre-season, and moreso after considering our quite horrific injury run.

We have discovered some real players for our future. Ironically it may well be that same injury run that has allowed us to find some keepers.

Marshall: We have our first genuine No 1 ruckman since Gardiner. Marshall has hardly played in this role in his VFL games with us , let alone his even few AFL games as an AFL ruck. So he is only going to grow and grow in this role. The way he was not at all intimated by Mummy was a very good sign.

If Longer and Pierce had both started the year fully fit Marshall would probably still be playing as a key forward with Sandy rather than No 1 ruck with the Saints.

Wilkie: Wow. This guy is just pure silk. Reads the play beautifully, athletic, good intercept mark and is a good user of the ball and reasonably quick and he has football smarts.

Parker: Just oozes excitement and talent. He is still very raw and is leaning how to play, but boy oh boy does he have the tools; pace, leap, vigour & aggression, kicking skills, tackling

Other players have improved this year, but others like Gresh have gone backwards. Gresh has all the skill but too often tries to be the incredible and you saw this with him against GWS. He should reflect on Banger who realised that his long kicks were poor and so concentrated instead on being deadly with his 30 m kicks to players in good positions. Gresh too often wants to be the hero, rather than just playing good and effective football.

Lonie was one to have really stepped up his game this year and losing him to injury has been a real loss.

Billings had started the season with 5 very good games. The last 2 not so much. The problem in part is when the opposition knows that they only have one or two players to worry about that they can concentrate on limiting their impact.

GAMEPLAN

Our new structures and gameplan was giving us an advantage, and it is still allowing us to play better BUT the Crows picked it apart and GWS showed too that opposition coaches now our countering it. So our gameplan edge has vanished.

With that vanishing it has also caused our poor ball use skills to be exposed again. The roost is back in town.


OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM

For several years now as many have know and understood our biggest problem is that we have a lack of genuine elite mids in the engine room. This remains so, and with the loss of Steven it is actually worse. Plus Armo is gone as an AFL level player.

Billings has been playing some elite games, but not as a pure mid. He plays more wing and across and hb and while damaging players in these positions are needed you cannot be a good team without elite and damaging mids.

So we have a support cast of mids. Individually any of them are worthy of being part of our midfield rotations, but none of them are guns. None of them can hit up team-mates and especially our forwards.

There are many that are unhappy with say Bruce or Membrey, but these too have it very hard with mainly long bombs directed their way. They deserve to at least have the ball kicked so that they have the advantage, but way, way too often the ball is just kicked in their general direction.

In my opinion the biggest problem with our forward line is our entries and the inability of our non-forwards to deliver the ball to the advantage of our forwards.

Marshall I believe will be a weapon in our midfield from 2020 as he grows as our No 1 ruck. But we are not going to be a Top 4 Team without some true class in our midfield. A better midfield will make all of our team better, and in particular our forward line.

Hannas: Geeze I hope so, but I would not want to bet my house on it.

Bytel: There is going to be enormous hope placed on this young mans shoulders.

Clark: Some good signs, but nothing yet to shout out that he will be a gun rather than yet another support cast member

Coffield: Taken as a bottom ager and so the jury is still out. We can only hope that he is a slow burn like Goddard was.

Steele: Possibly, but at present he seems more destined to be a very good mid rather than an elite mid.

OUR OTHER POSITIONS

Overall I think we have built quite a reasonable support cast of players around the ground. Ironically one can reflect and say that our bottom end depth is even better than what it was when we were last playing finals.

But our top end is enormously thin. We lack players who can turn games. Players like a Lenny who could do it through sheer will power. {layers who use the ball well.

At present we are mainly acquiring more depth players like Kent. Individually they may be ok, but we are just shuffling our fringe rather than improving our top end.

King: Is going to have huge pressure when he does play. But his edge his height and marking at full stretch. When he starts he will be skinny and will lack power. He will only be able to leverage that with good ball delivery, and as team we are not currently going to deliver that. Instead he will come in and have poor delivery and will have hardened en to lay body contact on him. Think of Kosi who was quite a good key forward when the ball was delivered well to him, but who was poor at body contact and so when the ball was not delivered well he was easily removed from the contest.


ALL IN ALL

I see some promising signs, but the main problem is that we lack elite talent, and in particular we lack it most in our midfield.

King or Rozee. Geeze I hope we made the right call.

Post of the year.

Correctly identifies our mids’ horrendous last kick (aka floating, long-bomb) into F50 as the main issue we have. We get it enough ... it’s just what we do with it when it’s in our hands. I’d hate to play as a forward in front of Ross and Gresham ... they both have VAFA level long-kicking skills. If both of them learnt the Harvey 20 meter dink kick ... we’d be in business.

Agree 100% Lots of promise so far this season. Lots of pain still to endure, but I believe we are on our way!

[barneyboyz]

Well where we are at present is a lot better than I thought where we would be pre-season, and moreso after considering our quite horrific injury run.

We have discovered some real players for our future. Ironically it may well be that same injury run that has allowed us to find some keepers.

Marshall: We have our first genuine No 1 ruckman since Gardiner. Marshall has hardly played in this role in his VFL games with us , let alone his even few AFL games as an AFL ruck. So he is only going to grow and grow in this role. The way he was not at all intimated by Mummy was a very good sign.

If Longer and Pierce had both started the year fully fit Marshall would probably still be playing as a key forward with Sandy rather than No 1 ruck with the Saints.

Wilkie: Wow. This guy is just pure silk. Reads the play beautifully, athletic, good intercept mark and is a good user of the ball and reasonably quick and he has football smarts.

Parker: Just oozes excitement and talent. He is still very raw and is leaning how to play, but boy oh boy does he have the tools; pace, leap, vigour & aggression, kicking skills, tackling

Other players have improved this year, but others like Gresh have gone backwards. Gresh has all the skill but too often tries to be the incredible and you saw this with him against GWS. He should reflect on Banger who realised that his long kicks were poor and so concentrated instead on being deadly with his 30 m kicks to players in good positions. Gresh too often wants to be the hero, rather than just playing good and effective football.

Lonie was one to have really stepped up his game this year and losing him to injury has been a real loss.

Billings had started the season with 5 very good games. The last 2 not so much. The problem in part is when the opposition knows that they only have one or two players to worry about that they can concentrate on limiting their impact.

GAMEPLAN

Our new structures and gameplan was giving us an advantage, and it is still allowing us to play better BUT the Crows picked it apart and GWS showed too that opposition coaches now our countering it. So our gameplan edge has vanished.

With that vanishing it has also caused our poor ball use skills to be exposed again. The roost is back in town.


OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM

For several years now as many have know and understood our biggest problem is that we have a lack of genuine elite mids in the engine room. This remains so, and with the loss of Steven it is actually worse. Plus Armo is gone as an AFL level player.

Billings has been playing some elite games, but not as a pure mid. He plays more wing and across and hb and while damaging players in these positions are needed you cannot be a good team without elite and damaging mids.

So we have a support cast of mids. Individually any of them are worthy of being part of our midfield rotations, but none of them are guns. None of them can hit up team-mates and especially our forwards.

There are many that are unhappy with say Bruce or Membrey, but these too have it very hard with mainly long bombs directed their way. They deserve to at least have the ball kicked so that they have the advantage, but way, way too often the ball is just kicked in their general direction.

In my opinion the biggest problem with our forward line is our entries and the inability of our non-forwards to deliver the ball to the advantage of our forwards.

Marshall I believe will be a weapon in our midfield from 2020 as he grows as our No 1 ruck. But we are not going to be a Top 4 Team without some true class in our midfield. A better midfield will make all of our team better, and in particular our forward line.

Hannas: Geeze I hope so, but I would not want to bet my house on it.

Bytel: There is going to be enormous hope placed on this young mans shoulders.

Clark: Some good signs, but nothing yet to shout out that he will be a gun rather than yet another support cast member

Coffield: Taken as a bottom ager and so the jury is still out. We can only hope that he is a slow burn like Goddard was.

Steele: Possibly, but at present he seems more destined to be a very good mid rather than an elite mid.

OUR OTHER POSITIONS

Overall I think we have built quite a reasonable support cast of players around the ground. Ironically one can reflect and say that our bottom end depth is even better than what it was when we were last playing finals.

But our top end is enormously thin. We lack players who can turn games. Players like a Lenny who could do it through sheer will power. {layers who use the ball well.

At present we are mainly acquiring more depth players like Kent. Individually they may be ok, but we are just shuffling our fringe rather than improving our top end.

King: Is going to have huge pressure when he does play. But his edge his height and marking at full stretch. When he starts he will be skinny and will lack power. He will only be able to leverage that with good ball delivery, and as team we are not currently going to deliver that. Instead he will come in and have poor delivery and will have hardened en to lay body contact on him. Think of Kosi who was quite a good key forward when the ball was delivered well to him, but who was poor at body contact and so when the ball was not delivered well he was easily removed from the contest.


ALL IN ALL

I see some promising signs, but the main problem is that we lack elite talent, and in particular we lack it most in our midfield.

King or Rozee. Geeze I hope we made the right call.

Post of the year.

Correctly identifies our mids’ horrendous last kick (aka floating, long-bomb) into F50 as the main issue we have. We get it enough ... it’s just what we do with it when it’s in our hands. I’d hate to play as a forward in front of Ross and Gresham ... they both have VAFA level long-kicking skills. If both of them learnt the Harvey 20 meter dink kick ... we’d be in business.

N Hind, although not racking up huge numbers in his pre-season games, was very quick and lowered his eyes delivering the ball. Must now come in for mine

[Premium89]

Yep - that last kick into the forward 50 was where we got found out on sat for sure.
If we’d known in January how we’d go with injuries, we’d have been a million to one to be placed at 4 and 3.
For what it’s worth (possibly not a lot!), heard David King chatting with Whateley on SEN this morning and he was full of praise for us against GWS. Said we played “terrific” footy in parts, especially to claw our way back into contention in Q3.
Not sure I would have agreed with him at the end of Q1!

[saynta]

Some very good posts in this thread.

[portosaint]

Yep - that last kick into the forward 50 was where we got found out on sat for sure.
If we’d known in January how we’d go with injuries, we’d have been a million to one to be placed at 4 and 3.
For what it’s worth (possibly not a lot!), heard David King chatting with Whateley on SEN this morning and he was full of praise for us against GWS. Said we played “terrific” footy in parts, especially to claw our way back into contention in Q3.
Not sure I would have agreed with him at the end of Q1!

The fact we were within 2 goals had Parker not hit the post in the 3rd speaks volumes. GWS were on and had not yet put the cue in the rack.

Apart from all the obvious (frustrating) deficiencies, there are some really good signs IMO. As much as it pains me to say it, I kind of agree with David King.

[Zed]

There are lots of positives to take out from this year - all captured nicely in the OP.

I still think we need an extra tall in the forward line. Bruce is our only tall, and whilst an honest toiler, is not a quality KPF. Membrey plays tall but should be the 3rd tall

Similarly Battle is a good 3rd defender , and we are really missing that KPD like Carlisle.

And our mids cant win a centre clearance and turn the ball over far too often

[Linton Lodger]

It was fascinating listening to the Footy World giving Richmond a pass for the flogging they received at the hands of an inferior opponent to ours.

Who did they have out? Rance, Riewoldt & Cotchin. Big outs! Roughly equivalent to our Carlisle, Roberton & Steven. I know they had a few others out, as we did: Geary, Lonie, McCartin, Hannebery, Brown (albeit mysteriously) and Webster had a broken hand from the 1st qtr and now we've lost him. With the exception of Hannebery (who we have yet to see) and McCartin, the rest are key players. Although McCartin would be very handy.

Yet people want to blame the Coach, after refusing to give him any credit when we were 4 - 1 and at least had Geary, Lonie and Webster.

None of those players are back anytime soon, so the next 7 or 8 weeks are going to be really tough. The Coaches have a fair challenge (and it would be a challenge for Clarkson) coming. All we can expect is that our team busts a gut and hope we can scrounge 2 or 3 wins before we hopefully get some of those players back, rather than some swooping like vultures.

[samoht]

It was fascinating listening to the Footy World giving Richmond a pass for the flogging they received at the hands of an inferior opponent to ours.

Who did they have out? Rance, Riewoldt & Cotchin. Big outs! Roughly equivalent to our Carlisle, Roberton & Steven. I know they had a few others out, as we did: Geary, Lonie, McCartin, Hannebery, Brown (albeit mysteriously) and Webster had a broken hand from the 1st qtr and now we've lost him. With the exception of Hannebery (who we have yet to see) and McCartin, the rest are key players. Although McCartin would be very handy.

Yet people want to blame the Coach, after refusing to give him any credit when we were 4 - 1 and at least had Geary, Lonie and Webster.

None of those players are back anytime soon, so the next 7 or 8 weeks are going to be really tough. The Coaches have a fair challenge (and it would be a challenge for Clarkson) coming. All we can expect is that our team busts a gut and hope we can scrounge 2 or 3 wins before we hopefully get some of those players back, rather than some swooping like vultures.

Exactly. How are Clarko's Hawks going with a couple of injuries?
We've been decimated by injuries again this year.
And unlike most other teams, we can't afford any (injuries) - given we had the 17th ranked midfield (and that's before Steven became indisposed).
We are outperforming if anything ... at the start of the year, we would have expected to be 4-3 only if everything was going right for us!
Bruce is even carrying an injury (and I'm sure Long is not 100%) - we are not having much luck.
Now with Webster, Lonie and Geary ... it's just going from worse to worst.
We don't need to be rubbing salt into our own wounds on top of this.

[saynta]

Long hurt his shoulder against the crow lice. Don't know if it is ok or not.

[King12]

Long hurt his shoulder against the crow lice. Don't know if it is ok or not.

Looks to be struggling with it.

[Toy Saint]

If Bruce & Long are injured they should not play. Period.

A healthy Dunstan or Hind has to be a better bet than an injured Long? Actually they may even be better than a healthy Long.

And a fit Longer or fit Brown makes a lot more sense than an injured Bruce.

And if our coach thinks otherwise, he must accept the consequences.

[thejiggingsaint]

"Where are we at after round 7?" Well, (based upon pre-season predictions from wiser heads than mine ) doing alright, I'd say. On results alone we are ahead of where we were last season...with a bigger injury list in 2019. Does this mean I "accept mediocrity" or am "wearing rose-coloured specs"?? With respect and humility, I would say "no". I am being absolutely realistic, and see many positives this season. Am I entirely satisfied? absolutely NOT! There are heaps of areas where we need to improve, however, part of the process of building a winning culture is developing a strong spirit of self-belief and a refusal to accept that we are beaten until it's absolutely over. I realise others won't see it my way, I respect that opinion, but so far in 2019 I see clear signs of a change of attitude on the part of the coaches and players.

[Legendary]

We were still in the game against GWS midway through the 3rd quarter despite fielding the least experienced team in the competition this round (by quite a long way). Not unhappy with that as a sign of where we're at.

[Cairnsman]

The signs are good. As long as the side that plays each week plays to the current mantra of never giving up and running games out becuse of the belief in fitness levels then these are the things that can be controlled no matter which 22 run out.

They've got everyone believing now that the list and club is on the right path. Gotta hold em now.

CARN THE SAINTERS!!!!!!

[spert]

Good post. A couple of things.. I think Gresham is a show pony who is wasting his talent..still living off his goal against Geelong a few years back- just needs to get involved and really own the contest. Ross might as well learn to handball 40 metres rather than try and kick higher than longer and give forwards no chance. Bruce needs to stop hanging around, and get more involved physically as a key forward and win more contests. Long and Clark need to build their tanks at Sandy. Lonie was much more important than we thought...plays like a leader.

Other than that, there's still hope

[Saintmatt]

Yep - that last kick into the forward 50 was where we got found out on sat for sure.
If we’d known in January how we’d go with injuries, we’d have been a million to one to be placed at 4 and 3.
For what it’s worth (possibly not a lot!), heard David King chatting with Whateley on SEN this morning and he was full of praise for us against GWS. Said we played “terrific” footy in parts, especially to claw our way back into contention in Q3.
Not sure I would have agreed with him at the end of Q1!

That kind of was the point of it. He was fairy scathing (quite rightly) at 1/4 time and then - in unusual D King fashion re: St K - was rightly praiseworthy at 3/4 time. Had M Parker slotted his relatively easy set shot - I felt we'd then run amok. Momentum was all ours. As it was GWS went coast to coast and the ultimate 11pt play resulted.

All of our issues stem from our wingers and mids preferring all 1970's 'long bomb to snake Baker' style F50 entried instead of circa late 1980's / 1990's Robert Harvey / Nathan Burke 20m dink kicks to a Lockett / Heatley.

It's a relatively simple fix as King said ("just a few simple changes throughout the week"). My only fear is that as soon as there's the slightest scerrick of presssure - Ross, Gresham and Newnes just resort to bombing it in high to out numbered forwards instead of lowering their eyes.