Round 6 v Hawthorn @ MCG (Our home game)

[Superduperouzel]

I agree - and let's be fair, Franklin is a freak and virtually impossible to fully shut down.

Gilbert on the other hand was molested by Rioli.

 

[vicco]

I agree - and let's be fair, Franklin is a freak and virtually impossible to fully shut down.

Thats it. Dempster couldnt have done too much more. An open forward line getting the best forward in the comp 1 on 1 with good delivery, theres only so much you can expect. Fisher getting injured was a huge blow for a back line.

 

[jwikked]

I didn't read the topic, but I agree with Holden, although Milera played well. Kosi was fantastic... I hope he keeps this up for the rest of the year. It's Kos playing to his strengths.
Riewoldt was fairly good, 2 of his 3 goals off the left foot.

Jack Stevens had a few errors, but he played well. I'm a big fan of the way he plays.
Stanley is coming alone alright, he really should have been getting more games over the past few years but that's history now.
Gilbert showed some good signs, and Dal Santo was essentially shut down.

I believe Hawthorn is a top 4 side, I think we played well against them, despite the final score. We've got plenty of room to improve, but I wouldn't write the season off after this loss.

Buddy can't be contained by a single person (usually.) He got some sitters tonight but what can you do?

 

[Macgruber]

well, the main reasons for this loss (in no particular order):

- poor skills / far too many turnovers, especially in the first half

- too many passengers (Siposs, Armitage, Milne, Stanley, Milera)

- terrible performance by the umpires, clearly affecting the game (and maybe the final result)

- Hawks playing well, accurate and patient kicking, hardly any turnovers

- Fisher's injury

battle hard but ultimately stuff up any chance of winning thru our own
mistakes . Week in week out.

 

[Axcellence]

What the hell are you on about?
Watters has brought a completely new game style, a better selection process and the player group are much happier

WILKES says no on the selection process.

The new game style has meant that saints are same or worse than last year. This year the players dont spread that well to cut the easy rebounds out or the easy opposition inside 50s.

 

[HoldenMCaulfield]

Gilbert on the other hand was molested by Rioli.

I think Geary was on him first - but to be fair, Rioli, while also a freak and great to watch, gets a free and 50 if someone farts within a meter of him.

 

[saintsrfreak]

WILKES says no on the selection process.

The new game style has meant that saints are same or worse than last year. This year the players dont spread that well to cut the easy rebounds out or the easy opposition inside 50s.

Yeah you're right, Wilkes should have played and not Kosi, who cares about Kosi's 5 goals?
And of course it takes time to adapt to a new game plan

 

[Sunshine Saint]

Positives
Simpkin - great judgement & played well until the end
Kosi - Tonight he stepped up & showed great skill & determination for all four quarters
Blake - did a very good job in the ruck
Riewoldt - excellent game but kicking is still inconsistent
Jack Stephen - good game Never stopped
Rioli - what a great player

Negatives
Sippos - like a deer in the headlights He didn't go hard enough & was far far too often a spectator Needs to go back to Sandy next week
Polo - very poor decision making, & has not the ability to think & move the ball quickly Needs to go back to Sandy
Milne - possibly needs to rotate through centre for a spell to try & find form
Complaining - Yes umpires make mistakes Go to every clubs forum, each believes they are out to get their club Accept they make mistakes & move on
Dempster - shocking match up Ok Franklin was too good & you showed support for Dempster but he should have been shifted Simpkin should have been tried, no luck, then Gilbert
Del Santo - You will get hard tags each week as do Judd, Ablett etc Work out how to work out of this
Fisher injury - tough with injury to fisher that is vital to back line as 3rd player up & his excellent distribution

 

[Defacto]

the players aside. the coaching wasnt the greatest. did we even think of a plan b to cyril prior to game day. if we did, how did it take 5 goals to activate that plan b.

 

[StFly]

WTF are you on. We are 3-3 with a soft draw. It's the same mistakes from the same players over and over again.

Based on the precious "ladder position" which states "when one finishes in the lower half of the ladder one must be playing hopscotch instead of football." When the stark reality is that games ebb and flow and all it takes is a drop off in rather minimal instances for results to change and the spectacles to become the complete opposite.

We are 3-3 having played sides with equal or far more established coaches, gameplans, personnel & desire to win. We are currently not in a timeframe where we can show anyone the door without paying out contracts, legal proceedings, or completely ballsed up list management, and no, we can't simply piss people off for rookies as "stupidity" or any other claim you'd like to make is not a viable cause to put anyone on LTI.

So either be constructive or kindly jump in front of that bus so the rest of us don't have to read your s**t.

Anyway, yeah Geary was on Rioli to start, believe Polo spent some time on him in the midfield too before Geary was rotated off for Gilbert and lined up on whoever was their wingman / HFF on the left side.

For mine, it's not about us being unable to spread to cover the rebound, we just lack the pace/"pace" to do it effectively against similar or greater teams, as we will either be run off (pace) or they will simply use the space far smarter ("pace") to make it look easier than it was. Effectively it boils down to 2 types of players, the first being those who make the contest, those who physically can make it, exert the effort to do so and follow up accordingly, and the second being those who "see" the contest, those who position themselves so they do not have to put in the same effort to reach the contest, an eg would be Fisher as the latter, in that he reads the play and the trend of the attack so he positions himself where it is likely to end up at his juncture, as opposed to say a Jones who will run to get there, run to impact it, run to follow up and expend all that effort.

You saw this several times with the Hawks on offense as well, on the right HBF you'd see a hawks player drift towards boundary side for the "dinky pass", this is a "dumb" spacing used smartly since it then creates a further gap within the zone as you then need to cover wider areas, so the ball then goes inboard (unless overlap occurs) and suddenly you have more space as the entire ground opens up as soon as that comes off. We're still stuck with going down the line slowly which usually ends with the contest being killed or it opening up around true CHF (2 kicks out from goal).

I can see what Watters is trying to do as "Plan A" re movement, we just don't have the speed (runners from behind surging forward to create imbalance) or the skills atm to pull it off under sustained pressure. This is why someone like Sippa will be persisted with this year, because he has the "skills" to pull it off, he just needs to find a work ethic.

 

[Superduperouzel]

Our backs are well and truely against the wall with the losses of McEvoy and probalby Fisher over the next weeks. I am very concerned about our lack of rucks for the Carlton, WCE game, poor Rhys
Lose 2 more of these hard games v Blues , Eagles and Swans and it´s just about goodnight for finals. Adelaide winning tonight has all but given them a top 8 finish given their soft draw so this has done us no favours.
Positives tonight
Riewoldt & Kosi - They are not past it. Don´t care what anyone says.
Simpkin - Player of the future. Bump on Buddy was bone jarring.
Stanley tried hard. Would have liked to see him drop back more often like Big Ben does but he needs to learn the craft. I think he will do well for the experience and could form a really good ruck duo with the Big boy in time.
Steven & Lenny - Solid games.

Not so good
Siposs & Saad - Very little impact. Can´t criticize Saad too much in his first game.
Aaron needs to attack the ball harder. Some efforts were a bit soft for AFL level in a pretty physical match.
Gilbert , Geary & Montagna - Don´t know how long Gilbert played on Rioli but he was really average. Geary played his worse game this year. Joey is not finding the ball enough and I believe could be trade bait if his season continues at this rate.
Pretty gutted about the result given we were right in this match at 3qtr time even with the terrible treatment we recieved from those blokes pretending to be professional sports umpires. We also made some really bad mistakes so that cost goals either way.
Not giving up hope on the sainters yet and I am certainly not bagging Watters out. He´s doing ok.

 

[Paul Kersey]

I liked Simpkin. Went hard a couple of times. Thought you had a bad run with the umpires, some of the decisions were terrible.

 

[Defacto]

I liked Simpkin. Went hard a couple of times. Thought you had a bad run with the umpires, some of the decisions were terrible.

cheers mate. i agree the umpires were terrible. but i dont think they affected the outcome. you were head and shoulders above us. top 8 side against a side sliding to the bottom.

 

[Plugger35]

Same old story, our inability to hit targets and take our opportunities along with atrocious one sided umpiring cost us.

I think we got our defensive match ups wrong too, Simpkin should have played on Buddy and Dempster on Rioli. They both did too much damage but then again they were helped by the umpires gifting them soft free kicks and Fisher going off injured at half time who plays the third man up role so well.

Hopefully Gwilt is right to come in next week for Fisher who might miss 2 or 3 weeks.

Losing McEvoy hurt as well, Stanley and Kosi tried hard in the ruck but they are better forwards than ruckmen.

Milney had another poor game and apart from one goal Saad didn't do much either. We badly miss Schneider.

Need to make some changes for next week. Ledger, Wilkes, Gwilt should come in and Schneider if he is fit.

 

[HoldenMCaulfield]

Not enough appreciation for Jason Blake:

- 18 hitouts
- 11 contested possessions
- 93% disposal efficiency (amazing considering above)
- 7 one-percenters

Possibly BOG for St Kilda.

 

[hayes]

Montagna would be pretty close to going to Sandy. I've barely noticed him at all this year and with Ledger playing well its just about time to make the change.

Dempster on Franklin was never going to work, couldn't understand that matchup. Buddy could've kicked ten tonight and IMO it was an awful coaching decision. What made it worse was nobody going over to help him third man up.

If we're going to go with Blake in the ruck for the next three games we are in big trouble. Nic Nat, Cox, Kreuzer, Warnock, Mumford. They're some of the names we're going to be up against. I'm fearing the worst.

On the positive I thought most of our players were good for three quarters but Polo just looks out of his depth whenever he gets the ball, just can't understand why he continues to get a game over players like Cripps and Ledger. The potential upside of those two is so much greater than anything Polo is going to give us it frustrates me. He looks exactly like what a delisted Richmond player should look like. Can't stand when coaches play favourites and I'm just hoping Polo doesn't become that player.

Like I said in that ridiculous thread give this team a bit of time to gel and I think we'll be fine. I thought our speed looked really good. The play where Steven and Milera were running along the wing, Milera kicking it to Saad who gave it off to Stanley running a hundred miles an hour then kicking the goal was an absolute joy to watch. Was nice to see Stanley also have the confidence to break a tackle and use his speed then have a bounce in the second quarter. Just wait til he has the confidence to do it every week. Going to be exciting.

 

[Defacto]

Not enough appreciation for Jason Blake:

- 18 hitouts
- 11 contested possessions
- 93% disposal efficiency (amazing considering above)
- 7 one-percenters

Possibly BOG for St Kilda.

spot on. couldnt fault his performance tonight.

 

[Studbuddy]

Loved Simpkin's attack tonight. Shame Fisher is injured, gonna need Gwilt back soon.

 

[saber_32au]

Negatives
Sippos - like a deer in the headlights He didn't go hard enough & was far far too often a spectator Needs to go back to Sandy next week
Polo - very poor decision making, & has not the ability to think & move the ball quickly Needs to go back to Sandy
Milne - possibly needs to rotate through centre for a spell to try & find form

Agree with all of the above.

Dempster - shocking match up Ok Franklin was too good & you showed support for Dempster but he should have been shifted Simpkin should have been tried, no luck, then Gilbert

Yeah Dempster got flogged against buddy. I can't understand why they didn't throw Simpkin on buddy....

Del Santo - You will get hard tags each week as do Judd, Ablett etc Work out how to work out of this
Fisher injury - tough with injury to fisher that is vital to back line as 3rd player up & his excellent distribution[/QUOTE]

Looks like Gwilt will be rushed into the team next week to cover for Fisher absence...lets hope he gets through tomorrows match unscathed.

I'd also like to add Geary to the list. Unfortunately Cryil was on fire tonight, and took Geary apart. Hopefully he'll learn from this experience and bounce back next week.

 

[goodie23]

Someone hand me a large print copy of the rules to beat the umpires with, with the 50 metre penalty rules in bold. Seemed to be a completely different set for Rioli (he was good, but half his goals were handed to him).

Hawks were better, their kicking and grit kept us in it. Really thought we were going to get blown away in the 3rd, but we kept fighting which was promising.

Positives were mainly young players. I thought Milera played well, Young Steven is our next A class mid, Saad briefly provided spark and Simpkin was great. Of the older players Kosi and Blake were the stars, good performance by Riewoldt which would've been better if he wasn't so constantly manhandled.

Milne was flat, he's lost a yard or two of pace but still plays like he's got it. Lenny uncharacteristically fumbled and chose some poor options tonight. Geary was never going to be quick enough to go with protected species Rioli and Dempster wasn't going to be strong enough to deal with Franklin's supply. On the whole we looked tired and slow, especially at the end, Hawthorn spread much better and we made far too many silly mistakes.

And the ugly is losing Fisher and Big Ben at the same time. Might have to rush Gwilt back to cover the former, the latter is almost a killer blow considering our draw while he's out. Carlton, West Coast and Sydney in the next three weeks, going to be a hell of a struggle for Blake, Kosi and Stanley.

By the way AFL, you want to promote umpiring, send out quality umpires, even if only for that game. Was undecided as to whether tonight was a display of incompetence, stupidity or outright corruption. Boggles the mind that a display like that still manages an even free kick count, it's almost as if the umpires were timing Hawthorn's frees for crucial moments in the game (complete with 50 metre penalties).

 

[mysainters]

Both defences effectively got destroyed in most of the key one-on-ones.

They just had a bit more class with the ball, I watch in frustration as our guys run and contest, and they just kick from stand still the most accurate passes.

Cyril was always going to have that game, you could tell the way the Hawks got around him that it was significant.

Ben is a big loss, but I feel we missed Fisher desperately in the last?

Just shows I don't notice him enough when he is there, sorry Fish.

 

[Strahany]

Can all the Koschitzke bashers lay off for at least one goddamn week now?

The only people actively supporting him were myself and SainterK, and he's proven a lot of people wrong tonight. But people have short memories, and we'll soon see calls for him to be dropped after two solid, but not spectacular games.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Milney says no injury to Wilkes or Cripps, its just to do with weather

What weather? We'd only had light drizzle earlier in the day and there was no forecast of rain during the night, from what I'd heard.

With a couple of hours left before the game I would have said there was almost zero chance of it being a wet weather game, especially as the 'G drains exceptionally well. Where did the club get their weather forecast from, Thursday's newspaper?

Really pissed off that Wilkes didn't keep his spot and that we didn't try Roo loose in defence. Highly doubt Rioli and Franklin would have kicked 11 between them if Roo had been down there helping out in the backline and I reckon Wilkes would have been a very good bet to have kicked the equivalent of the 3 goals Nick kicked up forward.

If we think we're going to contend for a premiership without trying something out of the ordinary (like Roo to the backline and Wilkes in to the forward line) then I reckon we're kidding ourselves. We just have far too many weaknesses at the moment to think we're going to be any chance going with the "same old same old" sort of approach.

 

[Mat Mann]

was at the game tonite and I thought Kosi was awesome

We got smashed by a never-been ruckman in Hale
thought Dal Santo and Joey were very poor, Sipposs was off the pace all nite, did some good things but seemed to lack intensity at the ball.

And well done to Dempster thought he gave it all against a bigger taller and possibly faster opponent
Also thought Milera did pretty well, covered a ton of ground

Oh... the umps made a few mistakes but didn't actually cost us the game

 

[Spanish Sahara]

How ****ing good is Tommy Simpkin

Really impressed by him tonight and in the other Saints games I have seen