Are we one of the slowest teams in the comp?

[MilneyLoves2Snap]

Most non-saints supporters think that we are slow as hell.. But are we really? montagna,gram,rooey (for a big man), jonesy armitage etc all have a bit of speed about them- Essendon are meant to be one of the quickest and did not look it against us at all.

[Kildonan]

All clubs jumped on the speed bandwagon (including us), they all had to or they would be left behind. Port and Essendon in particular invested heavily in speed demon stocks. But trends in footy evolve, often incorporating the prior changes but stepping beyond the old trend into a new direction. We have a few speedies in our squad who probably would not have been selected had there not been a trend towards the slightly built athlete who can turn on instant speed (think Eljay Connors, Brad Howard, Clinton Jones). How many of these players that find themselves playing in the same team as each other is debatable - they may find themselves fighting for the same spot (who knows?). A player like Schneider is doubly valuable as he holds two aces up his sleeve - he is quick AND he can kick. These are rare entities.

True footballers have all the skills - they can handpass and hit their man on the chest 9 times out of every 10, they can kick 50 m and hit a target, they can take a grab and maybe dish it off to the specialist sprinters who run and generally spray the ball in the right direction.

Against Essendon, one of the teams that has invested heavily in speed demons, we saw how easily a match can turn, but we also saw that we didn't need to match them for pace in order to beat them.

An interesting match up was Lenny Hayes against Alwyn Davey. Lenny has not been accused of being a speed demon, but he shut Davey down and smashed Essendon in the midfield. A best on ground performance in any other match was just another great contribution in the Saints machine in this one.

Speed is great, but is it greatest ?

[Rough_Edges]

We aren't that slow.

We are usually fairly good at closing teams down....

[MilneyLoves2Snap]

All clubs jumped on the speed bandwagon (including us), they all had to or they would be left behind. Port and Essendon in particular invested heavily in speed demon stocks. But trends in footy evolve, often incorporating the prior changes but stepping beyond the old trend into a new direction. We have a few speedies in our squad who probably would not have been selected had there not been a trend towards the slightly built athlete who can turn on instant speed (think Eljay Connors, Brad Howard, Clinton Jones). How many of these players that find themselves playing in the same team as each other is debatable - they may find themselves fighting for the same spot (who knows?). A player like Schneider is doubly valuable as he holds two aces up his sleeve - he is quick AND he can kick. These are rare entities.

True footballers have all the skills - they can handpass and hit their man on the chest 9 times out of every 10, they can kick 50 m and hit a target, they can take a grab and maybe dish it off to the specialist sprinters who run and generally spray the ball in the right direction.

Against Essendon, one of the teams that has invested heavily in speed demons, we saw how easily a match can turn, but we also saw that we didn't need to match them for pace in order to beat them.

An interesting match up was Lenny Hayes against Alwyn Davey. Lenny has not been accused of being a speed demon, but he shut Davey down and smashed Essendon in the midfield. A best on ground performance in any other match was just another great contribution in the Saints machine in this one.

Speed is great, but is it greatest ?

Very true kildonan, a player with footy smarts is worth twice as much as a player with just roar pace. I think Johnny Beveridge has really worked on finding natural footballers rather than just 'speed demons'.

[Squizzy1970]

The game has been going down the legspeed route for 2 years, and the Saints have been slow to get their heads around this. Essendon are on the right track, but you need to back the legspeed up with decision making. They stuffed around with the ball at half back for much of the night rather than taking the game on ịẹ did not stick to the plan.

I think the third quarter showed that the Saints can be exposed, and we saw Monty getting burned off by Wojinski and Lovett in consecutive games.

The Saints have to ensure that we continue to recruit speed and skill to complement the smarts of the Hayes, Harveys, Balls etc.

[SaintsSeptember]

I think Robert Harvey is a good example of timing above speed. He is not the fastest (anymore) but when he intercepts the ball from the opposition he LOOKS fast.