PSA

[nostalgicsaint]

Saints are top of the ladder.

Calm down.

[IluvHarvey]

For me - todays game showed me we are finals bound. Wasn’t convinced before today.

[Otiman]

Didn't get smashed. Gameplan held up. WIll be better with the Captain, FF, and CHF back in the side.

[remboy]

Prior to today people were saying we hadn’t played anyone. Well we played someone today and got within a kick while missing Steel, Membrey and King (plus a few others that would probably be in our best side).
We can only get better from here. Bring on the rest of the season.

[B.M]

It’s r5

[tony74]

Ross and the crew will learn more about the team from that game than the previous 4. It’s all about the future. We have to be realistic

[Killa]

You learn from your losses

And today was a loss

To quote RTB, in this competition you are going to lose l matches

And I would add that you need to bounce back if you are a serious contender

The lesson will be the bounce back

Hence the pressure is on everyone at the Club

My assessment is that our defence is standing up better than I would have thought and better than I would have thought because of the performances of Battle

We can add Coffield, a 191 cm defender with class

Our midfield, much maligned by many as lacking class, has added Byrnes, a youngster who is coming of age

And whilst I lamented the loss of Acres, Wood is superior because of his overhead skills

Our rucks are down to Marshall whilst we await Heath as support

And in attack we have 2 potential exceptional midfield operators in Owens and Phillipou having some fun whilst preparing for what lies ahead for them

Whilst we await King and Membrey

From a supporters perspective a loss generates a pile on

From a Club perspective you learn and put those lessons in place for the next game, a winning game

It is losing successive matches which is damaging

It will be interesting to decipher the lessons delivered by the Coaching staff - including by selection changes then structural changes

[skeptic]

Geeeeez it’s a big game next week now

[SaintPav]

2 consecutive losses wouldn’t be good.

We also play Port at Marvel 5 days later on a Friday night. Another huge game but they’re all huge.

[axcellence]

Some in the match thread were potting Gresham. It was a tough game. Pendles got run down a few times. Gresham, De Goey are X factor players. They are more impact focus rather than accumulators. Probably Gresham is not in the same echelon as De Goey. However, he’s what the current team has. Had De Goey played, he would have attracted attention, freeing up others.

It was a good game. I think Ross learned a little by opening up things in the last quarter.

[meher baba]

I have only just had a chance to watch the replay. Sure, we made plenty of mistakes. But I still think it was a massive, big-hearted performance against the clear premiership favourites.

Assuming that we haven't suffered any injuries to key players, we'd surely have to be favourites to beat the Blues next Sunday.

[Otiman]

Some in the match thread were potting Gresham. It was a tough game. Pendles got run down a few times. Gresham, De Goey are X factor players. They are more impact focus rather than accumulators. Probably Gresham is not in the same echelon as De Goey. However, he’s what the current team has. Had De Goey played, he would have attracted attention, freeing up others.

It was a good game. I think Ross learned a little by opening up things in the last quarter.

He's an impact player who had no impact. That's fair in the context of one game, but not 5 games into a season.

[skeptic]

I think it’s more the context of the performance.

We accept players get beaten… especially the small forwards.
Gresh was completely shut out.

That’s the type of game where like Essendon… perhaps if he capped off an ugly game with a match winning goal or 10min of decent footy that turned it around, we’d all look the other way but he didn’t.

I rate him quite highly and am far from putting a line through him… but he was really poor on the day and deserves a bit scrutiny.

[CQ SAINT]

I think it’s more the context of the performance.

We accept players get beaten… especially the small forwards.
Gresh was completely shut out.

That’s the type of game where like Essendon… perhaps if he capped off an ugly game with a match winning goal or 10min of decent footy that turned it around, we’d all look the other way but he didn’t.

I rate him quite highly and am far from putting a line through him… but he was really poor on the day and deserves a bit scrutiny.

I rate his 10 mins of dynamic impact. I just wish he could use the ball better.