Training Pre Season

[austinnn]

It's mad, I thought he was still a player until he joined us, then I found out he'd retired after a reasonably short career years ago! Made me realise how old I am and how lucky we were that players like Roo and Joey played with us for so many years. (By time he was drafted Roo and Joey had been saints for 3 and 2 years respectively!)

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Not sure what else Webster has to do tbh. Before he broke his hand he was our best player along with Seb and Robbo

I love the fact that he doesn't blindly bomb the footy to a 50/50 but goes for the impossible kick at times

Sure it doesn't come off but when it does we invariably score. Webster's a fantastic counterpart to the more conservative Robbo.

Newnes I genuinely don't rate and I think Savage is best 22 till Coffield/Dmac/etc go past him

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-10-03/season-review-jimmy-webster

St Kilda defender Jimmy Webster thrived this winter amid a new-look back six, producing the best season of his five-year career at Linen House Centre.

The Tasmanian played 18 games – the most in one season of his career – and only missed games through a hand injury and suspension.

Just like fellow backman Dylan Roberton, Webster started the season strongly, weaving together a career-best patch between Round 4 and 7 where he averaged 25 disposals and collected a personal best haul of 29 disposals against Greater Western Sydney.

After a strong first half of 2017, an undisciplined clash with Fremantle midfielder Nick Suban in Round 15 sidelined him for a couple of weeks, bringing his strong campaign to a halt.

But in a sign of things to come, Webster helped fill the void left behind by Leigh Montagna late in the season after the dual All-Australian strained his hamstring.

After gradually building his game in the last couple of years, Webster has laid the foundations to elevate his football to the next level in 2018.

Performance of the year:

Round 7 v Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium: 29 disposals, eight contested possessions, six marks, five rebound 50s and four spoils.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

And Newnes

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-09-29/season-review-jack-newnes
Alan Richardson's views:

“We mark Jack pretty hard because of the high expectations we have for a player of his ability,” Richardson said.

“We thought Jack had a solid year despite those lofty expectations.

“His leadership certainly took a step forward, particularly off field with his ability to challenge and influence others in team meetings.

“We believe Jack has the potential to be one of the better wingman in the game.

“This season, his influence on games wasn’t where he and the club would like it to be, but it wasn’t through a lack of commitment to his footy.

“No one trains harder than Jack – it was just one of those years that I think will sting him into greater performances next year.”

The numbers:

22 games
23.0 disposals
431.7 metres gained
3.4 inside 50s
3.4 rebound 50s

 

[CaptainRisky]

Has anyone seen much of Logan at training , is he in the main group ?

 

[CALL ME SNAKE]

Has anyone seen much of Logan at training , is he in the main group ?

Might've been doing laps

 

[gringo2011]

The wings sure are going to be interesting next year and beyond.

We tried something very different in the last 3 weeks of the season with Stuv spending basically a whole game there in R22, and Seb spending a heap of time there in those last 3 games, and then there's Newnes and Sincs who played there the most this year, then you'd hope that Acres would be absolutely smashing down the door to get more of a go there, and fingers crossed Freeman becomes a strong option there, and then it's pretty clear that Clark is going to start on the outside, until he's stronger, and Coffield probably will too. Then you've got Billings and Gresh who can easily have spells there and others like Webster, Robbo and Savage!

So there could conceivably be as many as 13 in the 22 who could rotate through the wing, and that's before we even get to the likes of Armo, Dunstan, Koby and Steele who occasionally line up there, when the centre square is occupied by others.

And we think we have a lot of options for the HBF's! The wings could be a seriously revolving door.

These days the wings almost include the flanks though so they can spread around and rotate. Seb is an outside mid these days so his role is to run into space while the roving players win it in tight. Steven has pretty much been the main man in tight for a few years there, with guys like Dustan/ Steele building up to it. Koby is meant to be inside outside but plays similar to Seb.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Not sure what else Webster has to do tbh. Before he broke his hand he was our best player along with Seb and Robbo

I love the fact that he doesn't blindly bomb the footy to a 50/50 but goes for the impossible kick at times

Sure it doesn't come off but when it does we invariably score. Webster's a fantastic counterpart to the more conservative Robbo.

Newnes I genuinely don't rate and I think Savage is best 22 till Coffield/Dmac/etc go past him

If Webster is still starting 22 at the end of the year because he has improved his consistency - that's good but if he's still there based on last years outputs that will mean none of our plethora of HBF's has come on - and that's terrible.

Same situation applies for a number of other players (Acres, Savage, Brown and Newnes). I would love them to be in the side at the end of the year - but only because they have improved - not because the back up players aren't good enough.

Websters games following his injury (solid but not great)

12 Adel Showed some grit and was prepared to get in the face of the Crows forwards all game. 6
13 NM Okay at half back with some efforts, but not a big night. 4
14 GCS Not a big day and his normally reliable kicking was astray like most around him. 4
15 Frem Had some key moments where he stood up. Did a good job. 7
16 Suspended.
17 Suspended.
18 Syd Solid game without taking control at half back. 4
19 Port Served the Saints well across halfback and won a lot of the ball. 6
20 WCE Had a lot of the ball at half back but was often caught on his wrong foot which reduced his effectiveness. 6
21 Melb Allowed Dees half forwards too much room early, then gave Hannan space in first term at key times. 4
22 NM Quieter game than usual at half back and didn’t have usual impact with kicking . 4
23 Rich Running defender struggled despite stats sheet suggesting 18 possessions. No impact on flow of game. 4

 

[bennymc7]

I feel their numbers are extremely arbitrary.

But look at the games he did poorly on, we were bloody shocking against Syd x2, Adelaide and Melbourne.

The only one that has me surprised is the GC game which he was admittedly poor.

If you also read the comments they have comemnts like didn't have usual impact with kicking. He's probably our most creative player and he consistently goes for attacking kicks.

He would be in the first 10 names I pick for our team

Maintain before he broke his hand he was top 5 players for us imv... phenomenal start

 

[Lightsxo]

Maintain before he broke his hand he was top 5 players for us imv... phenomenal start

Was top 3 in our team until round 10ish and then he dropped away with eye gouging and the entire team playing shit.

Only players I would comfortably pick ahead of him in the side are Carlisle, Robbo, Billings, Membrey, Ross, Stuv, Steele and Sinclair

Easily is top 10 in our team

 

[karaoke]

FWIW-

11/22 gives a 50% record for those who played 22 games in 2017 (Billings, Gresham, Ross, Roberton etc.)

For those who played between 6-21 games for 2017, their winning % were;

Gilbert - 56% (18 games)
Webster - 56% (18)
Bruce* - 55% (20)
Membrey* - 55% (20)
Longer - 53% (17)
Sinclair - 53% (17)
Stevens - 53% (17)
Acres - 50% (18)
Dunstan - 50% (16)
Lonie - 50% (12)
Weller - 50% (18)
Steele - 45% (20)
Steven - 45% (20)
Savage - 33% (12)

* Only 2 players to play in all 11 wins, but not play all 22 games.

 

[Hayes4PM]

I expect Blacres to be demolishing teams next year after a few preseasons now. He can shrub blokes off and be agile or just steam through. He’s going to be a champ.

 

[aussierulesrules]

J-Webb needs to cut out those just-throw-it-on-the-boot-to-anywhere-without-looking panic kicks from deep in defence that crept into his game this year and started to become pretty much a weekly occurrence.

Was no.1 in the comp for D-50 turnovers, which is not a stat you want to be leading, as so often it will cost you goals.

That was his big weakness this year, like Newnes not spotting open targets inside 50 right in front and instead kicking it long to the pocket.

 

[TheJackal]

I expect Blacres to be demolishing teams next year after a few preseasons now. He can shrub blokes off and be agile or just steam through. He’s going to be a champ.

To be fair he has always been a beast in that way, it's his strength and he is showing signs that he has taken it to yet another level. The thing that is holding Blake back from become a champ is his kicking still. If he can get not only penetration with his kicking but smarter with it then he will be close to top 5 in the B&F. By smarter I mean kicking it to the advantage of his teammates, weighting it creating play, not floating it onto the head of his teammate.

Think JB, mix actually JBs kicking with Blake's other attributes and you'd have a Brownie medallist next year.

 

[Diehard Saint]

To be fair he has always been a beast in that way, it's his strength and he is showing signs that he has taken it to yet another level. The thing that is holding Blake back from become a champ is his kicking still. If he can get not only penetration with his kicking but smarter with it then he will be close to top 5 in the B&F. By smarter I mean kicking it to the advantage of his teammates, weighting it creating play, not floating it onto the head of his teammate.

Think JB, mix actually JBs kicking with Blake's other attributes and you'd have a Brownie medallist next year.

Along with Membrey, he's one of our most accurate goal kickers, so hopefully he can produce that on the run as well.

 

[aussierulesrules]

The difficult thing with trying to get the best out of Blake is probably working out where the hell to play him.

He's played some good footy in the middle- including that 15 possie quarter there v North late in the year, and those games late in 2016 when he got a lot of B&F votes- but what probably holds us back from playing him there more is the fact he wins so few clearances when played there.

Even in that game v North where he had 15 possies for the quarter playing inside he had 0 clearances for the game. They just don't seem to come naturally to him at all and he also doesn't win a heap of CP's, especially for someone of his size.

Then if you don't play him inside because others have a stronger inside game, he's not necessarily ideal on the outside, either, because his kicking is IMO average at best.

But he has such a knack of finding the pill and can break the lines and take the game on better than most, so we really are likely to need to find a spot for him somewhere in the midfield area soon, as I reckon it's only a matter of time before he's racking up big numbers and we're going to need to take advantage of that.

Will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

 

[Ads734]

Dissa

The difficult thing with trying to get the best out of Blake is probably working out where the hell to play him.

He's played some good footy in the middle- including that 15 possie quarter there v North late in the year, and those games late in 2016 when he got a lot of B&F votes- but what probably holds us back from playing him there more is the fact he wins so few clearances when played there.

Even in that game v North where he had 15 possies for the quarter playing inside he had 0 clearances for the game. They just don't seem to come naturally to him at all and he also doesn't win a heap of CP's, especially for someone of his size.

Then if you don't play him inside because others have a stronger inside game, he's not necessarily ideal on the outside, either, because his kicking is IMO average at best.

But he has such a knack of finding the pill and can break the lines and take the game on better than most, so we really are likely to need to find a spot for him somewhere in the midfield area soon, as I reckon it's only a matter of time before he's racking up big numbers and we're going to need to take advantage of that.

Will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

gree. The art of clearance work is not quantity but quality. That’s what Acres has in regards to clearances. Yes whilst he had a lot of the ball he did not have a lot of clearances but against the swans he had 6 iirc. I seriously think that if he was given a 5 week block playing 60 % as an inside mid we would see his stoppage work shine through

 

[Ads734]

The difficult thing with trying to get the best out of Blake is probably working out where the hell to play him.

He's played some good footy in the middle- including that 15 possie quarter there v North late in the year, and those games late in 2016 when he got a lot of B&F votes- but what probably holds us back from playing him there more is the fact he wins so few clearances when played there.

Even in that game v North where he had 15 possies for the quarter playing inside he had 0 clearances for the game. They just don't seem to come naturally to him at all and he also doesn't win a heap of CP's, especially for someone of his size.

Then if you don't play him inside because others have a stronger inside game, he's not necessarily ideal on the outside, either, because his kicking is IMO average at best.

But he has such a knack of finding the pill and can break the lines and take the game on better than most, so we really are likely to need to find a spot for him somewhere in the midfield area soon, as I reckon it's only a matter of time before he's racking up big numbers and we're going to need to take advantage of that.

Will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

I think the reason richo likes him on the wing is because of his running ability. Put it to u like this l. You couldn’t play Steele, or dunstan on the wing but they can play as inside kids. Conversely acres can play both but the wing is such a difficult spot to fill he gets put there because he is a better fit then others

 

[StCicatriz]

The difficult thing with trying to get the best out of Blake is probably working out where the hell to play him.

He's played some good footy in the middle- including that 15 possie quarter there v North late in the year, and those games late in 2016 when he got a lot of B&F votes- but what probably holds us back from playing him there more is the fact he wins so few clearances when played there.

Even in that game v North where he had 15 possies for the quarter playing inside he had 0 clearances for the game. They just don't seem to come naturally to him at all and he also doesn't win a heap of CP's, especially for someone of his size.

Then if you don't play him inside because others have a stronger inside game, he's not necessarily ideal on the outside, either, because his kicking is IMO average at best.

But he has such a knack of finding the pill and can break the lines and take the game on better than most, so we really are likely to need to find a spot for him somewhere in the midfield area soon, as I reckon it's only a matter of time before he's racking up big numbers and we're going to need to take advantage of that.

Will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

was he the one talking to the new defencive line coach in that video that went up the other day, which implies he's working with the defenders?

 

[aussierulesrules]

Disagree. The art of clearance work is not quantity but quality. That’s what Acres has in regards to clearances. Yes whilst he had a lot of the ball he did not have a lot of clearances but against the swans he had 6 iirc. I seriously think that if he was given a 5 week block playing 60 % as an inside mid we would see his stoppage work shine through

Sure quality is great, but if you're only getting a small number of clearances, then they'd need to be exceptional for your clearance work to even be a par overall, and from what I've observed, I'm not blown away enough with the quality of his clearances, to make up for the low number.

He's played 44 games now and the most he's had in a game is 4, and even in that stretch of 5 games at the end of 2016 (when he got the 2nd-most B&F votes and spent plenty of time on the ball) the most he got in any of those games was 3, and he only had 13 in total for the 5 games.

This year he had just 27 from his 18 games. Even Sincs had 39 from his 17, including a 6, and 5 twice, despite never lining up in the middle once, that I remember.

Before he'd even turned 20yo Bont for instance had had a 10, a 9, an 8 and two 7's. Clayton Oliver had an 8 and four 7's inside his first 13 games, in his first season.

Patty Cripps at just 20 yo and inside his first 22 games had had a 13, an 11, three 9's, three 8's and three 7's! Guys like this just seem to have a much more natural knack of it than Blake.

I just don't see clearance-winning as a strength of his, certainly at this stage at least. If it was, I fully expect we would have seen him get much more of a look-in on the inside this year.

 

[aussierulesrules]

was he the one talking to the new defencive line coach in that video that went up the other day, which implies he's working with the defenders?

Yeah I noticed that as well, was interesting. Seemed to be lining up forward and in the midfield group on Friday tho.

 

[StCicatriz]

Yeah I noticed that as well, was interesting. Seemed to be lining up forward and in the midfield group on Friday tho.

he seemed pretty vocal as well, big turn around from when he first came to the club and was very shy

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

he seemed pretty vocal as well, big turn around from when he first came to the club and was very shy

last year shadowing Rooey did wonders for him would not surprise me if we see him move into the leadership group in the next few years... from what i hear he has been wrking hard on his running the inside stuff .. i reckon he wants to be playing in the middle but at this stage he will play where ever Richo tells him to

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

Was top 3 in our team until round 10ish and then he dropped away with eye gouging and the entire team playing shit.

Only players I would comfortably pick ahead of him in the side are Carlisle, Robbo, Billings, Membrey, Ross, Stuv, Steele and Sinclair

Easily is top 10 in our team

And it was reflected in the B&F voting - he was top 3 after the first 7 rounds or so from memory

 

[cooperrules]

J-Webb needs to cut out those just-throw-it-on-the-boot-to-anywhere-without-looking panic kicks from deep in defence that crept into his game this year and started to become pretty much a weekly occurrence.
Spot on yet another player with no football brain or

Was no.1 in the comp for D-50 turnovers, which is not a stat you want to be leading, as so often it will cost you goals.

That was his big weakness this year, like Newnes not spotting open targets inside 50 right in front and instead kicking it long to the pocket.

Our list is littered with no compusure,vision and football smarts. I believe the club has realised this and will be looking to the next few drafts to fix this issue. How we could draft so many headless chooks is astonishing. Spent too much time on character and not enough on actual football ability. This year it was a focus based on who we selected. Some may still i.prove but guys like gilbert newnes acres and webster will always undo there good work with basic football errors. Even savage just bombs it at time to no one. The list goes on.

 

[Grav]

I may live in the past when every team had an enforcer or two, who stood up to opposition players, who just literally took no shit from them. The rest of the team stood tall with those type on the team and IMO this what Jack Newnes also brings to the team, a tough no nonsense type who takes no shit from opposition players. May not be a superstar but is one tough hombre & just the sort of player we need in going forward.