Preview Round 11, 2022: St.Kilda v North Melbourne - Marvel Stadium, Sunday 29th May, 1:10PM AEST

[Saintbloke]

A bit worried about the lack of four quarter efforts and slow starts- we handed PA the game in one quarter, almost gave the game to Adelaide and it took us most of the game to get to the point of winning. Something Ratts needs to sort out.

 

[gringo2011]

And that's why I am even more confused as to why we haven't brought in another small forwards alongside him given our issues last week.

I guess we are backing Long to play a better game and perhaps have more of Gresham in there?

 

[gringo2011]

Good on him, but it took him 3 years to get going at Freo after we let him go.

We would have lost patience with him in that time.

Probably. I think the first year is always hard to adjust to, last year he was good enough to hold a spot but copped it for them playing poorly. He certainly wasn't any worse than Hill's adjustment period.

 

[BrutThough]

I guess we are backing Long to play a better game and perhaps have more of Gresham in there?

Seems likely. Long seems to have 9 lives at the moment.

Would rather Gresh stays in the middle - with Steele out he is probably our best clearance player. His worst game for the year was when he spent increased time forward, though that was against Melbourne when most of the side struggled.

 

[gringo2011]

Seems likely. Long seems to have 9 lives at the moment.

Would rather Gresh stays in the middle - with Steele out he is probably your best clearance player. His worst game fo the year was when he spent increased time forward, though that was against Melbourne when most of the side struggled.

I think he's played some good games this year. He isn't a stats sheet hero, he gets s**t done that isn't always seen. I think you'll find that people gave him votes in a few games that his numbers weren't high in. I think we are trying to develop a bit of a brotherhood environment to bring in some of our young indigenous kids too. I reckon Long is the kind of uncle you'd want looking out for you. He's an absolute warrior and if anyone touched one of his boys you wouldn't want to be the one dishing it out. Paddy is the kind of kindly uncle, Long the one that goes down to the school and puts the bully out of business.

 

[Joffaboy]

No-one liked Seb Ross or DMac and they turned opinions around by playing good footy. Perhaps it's not his draft position but his output?

This exactly. Nobody likes Kent and has nothing to do with his draft selection.

Billings isn't in best 22 at the moment. He is good enough to be in our 22.

Is it injuries? Does he need some match fitness? Give him some games at Sandy, let him get confidence and fitness and come back after the bye.

I really want him in the team because him at his best makes the team better.

At the moment it is the coaches judgement he is not at his best.

 

[BrutThough]

I think he's played some good games this year. He isn't a stats sheet hero, he gets s**t done that isn't always seen. I think you'll find that people gave him votes in a few games that his numbers weren't high in. I think we are trying to develop a bit of a brotherhood environment to bring in some of our young indigenous kids too. I reckon Long is the kind of uncle you'd want looking out for you. He's an absolute warrior and if anyone touched one of his boys you wouldn't want to be the one dishing it out. Paddy is the kind of kindly uncle, Long the one that goes down to the school and puts the bully out of business.

He needs to start getting some consistency in his performance and play 2 good games in a row. Right now it seems to be one week good, one week unsighted.

 

[bird_man]

He needs to start getting some consistency in his performance and play 2 good games in a row. Right now it seems to be one week good, one week unsighted.

I reckon he's been consistently solid all year up until last week to be honest.

 

[AirWinmar]

He needs to start getting some consistency in his performance and play 2 good games in a row. Right now it seems to be one week good, one week unsighted.

I think that's exagerrating it a bit. I reckon he's been OK or good every game against the Crows. In saying that, that was like a few bad games rolled into 1

 

[AirWinmar]

Billings is a good player. Wasn't the worst last week to the eye, but was probably as simple as his fitness not being up to scratch after being injured for months, which is fair enough. Going by the tracker against the Crows we ran 9ks less and also had 17 less sprints so we will want to fix that up

 

[Circus]

A few posters on here saying that this is an unbalanced squad or the weakest team we have selected this year. I don't agree. It looks that we have selected the most in-form players regardless of size, shape, age or experience. There are always a couple of players that maybe "lucky" to be picked, or "unlucky" to be left out. (Not being able to watch live I can only seen what the screen shows, so I can't see what Wood does, for instance, to keep his spot in the team. I presume it is what is asked of him).

We have to find a better mid-field balance to cover for Steele's absence while we play a series of vital games. That means we must experiment during that period. We have to make adjustments to find the combo that can consistently win the midfield contested ball. Ditto for the forward lines with Higgins, and Butler to a lesser extent until he regains his form.

It doesn't matter to me at all if our forward line looks too tall. If they are in-form and take marks we don't need our smalls to kick a high percentage of our goals. If the talls can't mark, or our delivery is poor, or both, then we make more adjustments.

It is exciting to see our youngest players in the same team together. I expect us to win tomorrow. Our young blokes may not carry the team to a win, it doesn't matter as long as they make good contributions to a win. In 3 or 4 week's time, we might need them, (or some of them) playing better than they do tomorrow in order to win big important games. That won't happen without exposure. I thoroughly approve of our selections for this week and it will be very interesting to see what their starting roles are and whether those roles are changed during the game. What I want most though is a fast, confident first half with lots of Saints goals!!

 

[prophetic1]

Billings isn't the difference why we win/lose this game. Let's face facts, last week we played with a few players down and he was one of them.

He needs to start hurting teams rather than taking the safe option as many people have mentioned.

Anyways good luck to Owens and I hope he cracks in and tears it up.

This needs to be a 10 goal win. Weather the storm for the first quarter if they have any backbone after being smashed from pillar to post.

Melbourne only defeated one team in the home and away season of 2021 by 60 pts plus once in Round 20 against the SUNS..... their other results were not that massive,.... excellent yes!...The key is they came on at the right part of the season having plus 60 point wins in the prelim and Grand,
Not that I wouldn't mind a boost for sure.

The DEES winning margins....Rd 1..22 points and so on........ 18, 34, 25, 50, 34, 30, 9, 26, 1,(LOSS), 28, 22, 17,(LOSS), 11, 9, 31, 0, 20(LOSS), 98(SUNS) 8, 41, 4

Love to see it but not sure how much it means...

Maybe winning well without further injuries to the squad quite imperative.

 

[RBW_007]

That's a good point, especially if you look at just tackles in general. I think someone said we gave away 17 free kicks for too high. That would take our overall tackles up to 56, which is around average. I'd think it would be a fair anomaly to win a game of footy and only have 39 tackles. Those are like 1980's numbers

Tackles only count if they cause a stoppage or a turnover. You could lay a really good tackle, but if the ball spills to the opposition it wont count.

 

[Yawkey way]

I guess we are backing Long to play a better game and perhaps have more of Gresham in there?

He looked like he was finally going to repay the faith and had a good run of games, let’s hope he finds that form tomorrow.

 

[Simon Templar]

They're all danger games.. I don't care how we win as long as we keep winning. North are a better team than their results would indicate. It would be nice to get our percentage up a bit though.

 

[Ads734]

I honestly can't remember anyone even really taking much notice of Sincs. He was more a fringe player without a definite spot. I remember early he was a handy small forward, moved to a wing and got called elite early which was amusing as most of us thought he was just going. To me he was a bit meh more than terrible and I can't remember anyone even really taking a huge amount of interest in him. He seemed to cost nothing and had low expectations of growth.

Billings has a casual demeanour, he never seems to play with a lot of urgency and playing standing off the contest for the receive often gets guys bagged. Most fans don't understand that you can't have 18 guys all contesting the ball.

I hope Billings can turn it around but to protect my sanity I've started to come to terms with him possibly just being a fringe player. If guys like him are your fringe players your list build is going really nicely.

A couple of things. This myth that Billings won’t get the hard ball or waits outside packs is false. He is not soft. Jacks biggest problem is his lack of a first step/agility get out of traffic. His endeavour is there as is his eillingensss to pit his head over the ball.

 

[gringo2011]

A couple of things. This myth that Billings won’t get the hard ball or waits outside packs is false. He is not soft. Jacks biggest problem is his lack of a first step/agility get out of traffic. His endeavour is there as is his eillingensss to pit his head over the ball.

He's not soft but he's generally not there to win hard ball, he's more sitting outside for the receive. That's not a criticism, that's his role. I agree that his pace and agility don't help.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

More pages of Billings and Long

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

My preference is to play the kids and win by 100.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

My preference is to play the kids and win by 100.

Then win the flag

Not too much to ask for is it.

 

[Ads734]

Regardless of anything nice to see all of NAS Windy and Mitch playing together.

 

[sruss]

Hey Sainters. Anyone happen to know if there will be GA seats available on L1? Bringing my grandpa with me tomorrow but he can’t walk up the ramp anymore and gets dizzy sitting up high.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Then win the flag

Not too much to ask for is it.

We’ll be the first team to win the flag with a team of new draftees and back up players.

Windy Norm Smith, Heath sole ruckman, Owens kicks the winning goal from a holding the ball in the goal square and Sharman has a bag of 8. Shame Steele, Billings, Ryder and Marshall will find it too hard to regain their positions in the side for the grand final

 

[gringo2011]

Hey Sainters. Anyone happen to know if there will be GA seats available on L1? Bringing my grandpa with me tomorrow but he can’t walk up the ramp anymore and gets dizzy sitting up high.

You'll have to jump on Ticketmaster and check but you'd think so. If you can't get any I'll give you my seated L1s if you get a couple of L3 GAs to swap with me.

 

[sruss]

You'll have to jump on Ticketmaster and check but you'd think so. If you can't get any I'll give you my seated L1s if you get a couple of L3 GAs to swap with me.

I think I’ve sorted it out, but thanks mate, appreciate it!