Ross Lyon, FAIR DINKUM, what are you thinking?

[barks4eva]

Birss and Blake in our midfield for much of the third term and yes you guessed it, we got pansted


Fair Dinkum, I'd rather have thrown Gehrig in there


Seriously I would have put Gram in there before these guys

We lack pace through the middle so what do you do and what have you been doing all year? > Blake, Birss, L.Fisher etc...etc...

excuse me JASON GRAM, I mean FAIR DINKUM, why not?

X.Clarke can provide run off half back and yes he was injured AGAIN, but we are desperate from some run in the middle

when we are down to only a few guys capable of playing midfield the moment for this move arrived and you delivered Birss and Blake for the all important third quarter

Wake up, wasted the whole year persisting with liabilities in Birss and Blake, who quite frankly are just GOP's for Casey at best


and PLEASE play Ferguson up forward instead of Voss and I do mean FAIR DINKUM

at least you gave Ferguson a game even if it did take 20 games to do so

and M. Clarke that's really looking towards the future isn't it, at least Rix would not have allowed the ball to come back into play from the goal line which M.Clarke is making a habit of doing, which got the West Coast going in the third term on the scoreboard

The midfield matchups ensured that they would gain the ascendancy

Blake and Birss are both liabilities, seriously what were you thinking?

Neither should play another game, they are a waste of time and space and we will never win a premiership persisting with this nonsense

ok, over to all the defenders of Jason Blake and lovers of mediocrity to jump in

pfft...............................

[Solar]

yeah totally agree, why would you continue with blake when he had blanketed cousins for the first half.

Who would you have put on him?

[battye]

Cousins and Blake was a bad matchup. Blake is more suited to players like Goodes, who he can tag with a similar running speed.

Cousins was going to outrun him all day long.

[plugger66]

Birss and Blake in our midfield for much of the third term and yes you guessed it, we got pansted


Fair Dinkum, I'd rather have thrown Gehrig in there


Seriously I would have put Gram in there before these guys

We lack pace through the middle so what do you do and what have you been doing all year? > Blake, Birss, L.Fisher etc...etc...

excuse me JASON GRAM, I mean FAIR DINKUM, why not?

X.Clarke can provide run off half back and yes he was injured AGAIN, but we are desperate from some run in the middle

when we are down to only a few guys capable of playing midfield the moment for this move arrived and you delivered Birss and Blake for the all important third quarter

Wake up, wasted the whole year persisting with liabilities in Birss and Blake, who quite frankly are just GOP's for Casey at best


and PLEASE play Ferguson up forward instead of Voss and I do mean FAIR DINKUM

at least you gave Ferguson a game even if it did take 20 games to do so

and M. Clarke that's really looking towards the future isn't it, at least Rix would not have allowed the ball to come back into play from the goal line which M.Clarke is making a habit of doing, which got the West Coast going in the third term on the scoreboard

The midfield matchups ensured that they would gain the ascendancy

Blake and Birss are both liabilities, seriously what were you thinking?

Neither should play another game, they are a waste of time and space and we will never win a premiership persisting with this nonsense

ok, over to all the defenders of Jason Blake and lovers of mediocrity to jump in

pfft...............................

So it isnt just GT you dont rate it is any Saints coach. Maybe it is just the players are not good enough.

[Solar]

how was the ruck stats barks, couldn't be bothered checking them and you seem to be up with everything

[Dan Warna]

read loris's comments in the now locked thread.

interesting analysis on the tactical nous of the pharmacist worsfold.

[barks4eva]

Cousins and Blake was a bad matchup. Blake is more suited to players like Goodes, who he can tag with a similar running speed.

.

and just quietly Goodes was nearly BOG against us which went a long way towards winning the game for them

outside of the umpires, Goodes was perhaps the most influential contributer for sydney on the night

Blake on Goodes perleeeeeeze MYTH BUSTED

[Teflon]

Sorry Barks - midfield match ups in the 3rd didnt cost us the game - players who by foot could not hit the side of a barn ALL over the ground cost us.

We had plenty of chances going fwd in the 3rd and stuffed it with pathetic skill errors and dumb decision making.

I agree I wouldve moved (with hindsight) Blake off Cousins...I may have also tried X in the middle (been saying this for a while) but he wad doing very well upforward early for us so its a bit rob Peter to pay Paul...

Also these so called duds were doing ok for us in the first half when we smashed Eagles..........cant agree that it was "match ups" that lost us this one...

[barks4eva]

[So it isnt just GT you dont rate it is any Saints coach. Maybe it is just the players are not good enough.

I believe that Lyon will be a verygood and hopefully great coach for us


BUT atm

some of the team selection and persistence with duds has got me perplexed

Blake and Birss in our midfield is just stupidity

[plugger66]

[So it isnt just GT you dont rate it is any Saints coach. Maybe it is just the players are not good enough.

I believe that Lyon will be a verygood and hopefully great coach for us


BUT atm

some of the team selection and persistence with duds has got me perplexed

Blake and Birss in our midfield is just stupidity

B4E I finally agree on Birss. His kicking is poor and very slow. Not so sure on Blake because at half time he had done a great job. Just played on a star. Not much we could do about that. Didnt have alot of options.

[skeptic]

Barks, agree with you on most things except I don't rate Rix any higher than Doc.

Why do think Jason Blake continually gets games?

[Oh When the Saints]

Blake on Cousins worked until half-time.

It was actually a big win for us at that stage.


As I said in the other thread, when Blake tired ... there was NO-ONE at St Kilda who could keep up with Cousins.


Not 1 player in our team was fit enough to run with him ... Blake is our fittest and he was stuffed.


Birss .... 19 disposals, 7 marks, 3 errors, 6 tackles, 3 clearances, 1 score assist from around 80% gametime.

That's a solid effort IMO.

[plugger66]

Blake on Cousins worked until half-time.

It was actually a big win for us at that stage.


As I said in the other thread, when Blake tired ... there was NO-ONE at St Kilda who could keep up with Cousins.


Not 1 player in our team was fit enough to run with him ... Blake is our fittest and he was stuffed.


Birss .... 19 disposals, 7 marks, 3 errors, 6 tackles, 3 clearances, 1 score assist from around 80% gametime.

That's a solid effort IMO.

Hate stats. Birss kicking is poor IMO. Was not the worst but being at the ground you realise how poor some of his skills are.

[Oh When the Saints]

Birss' kicking efficiency was good.

It is a myth that he has poor skills.


Certainly his skills are better than Ball's at the moment ... and better than CJ who is next in line.

[bigcarl]

i reckon we should try gilbert in the midfield and gram and eventually raphael.

gilbert is deceptively quick and strong enough to play in and under. also a great tackle. didn't judd go down like a sack of spuds. very good player, gilbert.

gram has quick hands and is a top kick.

raph could be anything with some more experience and confidence.

what have we go to lose by putting these blokes where the action is.

[plugger66]

Birss' kicking efficiency was good.

It is a myth that he has poor skills.


Certainly his skills are better than Ball's at the moment ... and better than CJ who is next in line.

Not a myth from what I saw. That proves our depth is poor.

[Animal Enclosure]

My plan for this week-

Show Jason Gram highlights of Nathan Foley's year, chuck Grammy in the guts & tell him to go for his life.

Bring Harvs back, give Armo a go & tell him to watch the work ethic & determination of the man, tell him he can have the #35 in 12 months time if he works his arse off.

[firthy]

tool4eva you wanka you are an ego pusher who doesn't actually give a rats a**e about our beloved team it's all about stoking your ego please go away and attempt to destroy some other club

[Solar]

My plan for this week-

Show Jason Gram highlights of Nathan Foley's year, chuck Grammy in the guts & tell him to go for his life.

Bring Harvs back, give Armo a go & tell him to watch the work ethic & determination of the man, tell him he can have the #35 in 12 months time if he works his arse off.

thats the best thing I have read all year

[mad saint guy]

Blake should not have been left on Cousins, and certainly not in the middle. BUT, look at our options to tag Cousins
1 - Baker (suspended)
2 - Attard (injured)
3 - Ball (heavily restricted)
4 - Blake (been good recently as a tagger)

Blake was killed by a far better player in the second half. IMO we should have tried playing Joey on him.

Birss is a solid backup midfielder. He probably spent a bit too much time in the middle, but at least he was willing to put his body on the line and give 100% in contested situations..unlike some other highly skilled player who I will not name and is called Nick Dal Santo.

And Birss is a very good kick. Is in our top few players for hitting a leading forward on the chest. Generally makes good decisions, too.

[saintsRrising]

Now lets see....

Cox on fire palming beautifully....

Cousins well warmed up and comfortable that his hammy's are fine...and famous for his late finishes....

.....with ball delivery like that even Bakes would have struggled.



On the game in general.....if we had had slightly better footskills overall we would have hada big show of winning.....and in particular most likely we should have had 8 goals.


Coaching was not why we lost...coaching is why the result was so close.

[Carl Mynott]

Birss made too many basic skill errors,at times he was the weak link in the chain.He may end being an ok player but at the moment he's a GOP trying to keep his spot....

The bottom line is we can keep playing everyone's favourite GOP's and keep missing out or we can eventually weed them out and get better quality players,the type of player that can be relied upon on the last day in September.

[hotdish]

Couldn't be bothered reading your post Barks, but are you ever happy?

Seriously, they got rid of GT, they recruited two new ruckman (Clarke and Gardiner)

You will never stop bitching about something.

give Lyon 2 years before you judge him FFS

[St Fidelius]

Birss and Blake in our midfield for much of the third
The midfield matchups ensured that they would gain the ascendancy

Blake and Birss are both liabilities, seriously what were you thinking?

Neither should play another game, they are a waste of time and space and we will never win a premiership persisting with this nonsense

ok, over to all the defenders of Jason Blake and lovers of mediocrity to jump in

pfft...............................

You failed to respond to my post after the Freo match, and any wonder...

That week I suggested if your "Man" will ever establish a stat that would equal Blake in that match....

15 disposals and 15 hitouts...

You did fail to respond, and you only seem to respond when we lose...

Gee that is really pathetic...

You seem to keep quiet and just respond when we lose a match... You must have been hanging out to stick another knife in the back of Blake???


It is just amusing how quiet you are when Blake has a good game and you have to lay low for a couple of weeks before you raise it again...

You are so repetitious and boring and is it any wonder posters have dropped off this site???

Weren't you the one that suggested that Rix is the answer last year??

[battye]

i reckon we should try gilbert in the midfield and gram and eventually raphael.

gilbert is deceptively quick and strong enough to play in and under. also a great tackle. didn't judd go down like a sack of spuds. very good player, gilbert.

gram has quick hands and is a top kick.

raph could be anything with some more experience and confidence.

what have we go to lose by putting these blokes where the action is.

From Gilbert's tackling and running it is just so obvious he has a rugby background. It's fantastic, when he lays a tackle, boy do they stick.

Also evades tackles very well too. Genuine superstar in the making.

Not a bad kick on goal either!

Was he a draft pick or a rookie?