Preview 2025 AFL Season - Round 7: St Kilda v Brisbane (Saturday April 26, 1.20pm - Marvel Stadium)

[Sol Goodman]

No Box is really disappointing after that performance. Keeler over Heath, no Hastie. It all smells a bit vanilla.
Good to see Doug's back.

Keep a close eye on Steely, Ro and Jones to see if they're fit and holding their tackles cause they weren't last week.

 

[SainterinSydney]

We have a 100% win record with Keeler

 

[Premium]

Its almost as if the coaching panel that has watched both lads train and play every week for the last 2.5 years haven’t based their selection off of one random game, and are perhaps basing selection off a body of work that nobody on here would have any clue about, and who they believe to be more capable to fill the role that they are looking for.

Cut the kid some slack, 20 year old key forward, with 2 mediocre games and 1 poor game. Obviously the coaches see something there. So many supporters have written him off and are calling him “putrid” on some platforms based off 3 games of footy. I don’t know too many 20 year old kids playing as the number 1 tallest forward with a bunch of medium forwards.

The guy is 21 , nearly 2m tall and has great ball skills - fully expect him to become a very good player once he develops

They were saying the same last year about Collard , for sure Keeler has not set the world on fire but if he gets his confidence up who knows what he can do.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Its almost as if the coaching panel that has watched both lads train and play every week for the last 2.5 years haven’t based their selection off of one random game, and are perhaps basing selection off a body of work that nobody on here would have any clue about, and who they believe to be more capable to fill the role that they are looking for.

Cut the kid some slack, 20 year old key forward, with 2 mediocre games and 1 poor game. Obviously the coaches see something there. So many supporters have written him off and are calling him “putrid” on some platforms based off 3 games of footy. I don’t know too many 20 year old kids playing as the number 1 tallest forward with a bunch of medium forwards.

My beef is with the selection panel - not Keeler. They have a "structural concept" in mind and the structure appears to more important to them than the actual outputs it delivers.

They played Boyd and an underdone Marshall - and on the strength of that have decided they can't play two "rucks" in the same team.

Its called confirmation bias.

 

[DarkSaint]

Was a mistake not playing Keeler last 2 weeks after winning 3 in a row with that structure. Blind Freddy could see just how short we were up forward and then you take out Owen to ruck and it's Sharman all lone with Wood pinch hitting.

Keeler wasn't doing much, but was at least keeping the No.1 defender away from Sharman/Owens/Wood. The games he played his opponent wasn't BOG even though Keeler didn't set the world on fire.

This is them realising the mistake when it comes to selection/structure 2 weeks 2 late.

 

[bergholt]

I feel like Keeler comes in mainly to allow Wood to play wing because that will help our transition - easier get out kicks etc. We look a lot better when he plays up field that inside 50.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

I feel like Keeler comes in mainly to allow Wood to play wing because that will help our transition - easier get out kicks etc. We look a lot better when he plays up field that inside 50.

He needs to purely be a decoy or leading target. If we bomb it to him against a Brisbane defender he'll be brushed aside and we give them the ball every time. I wonder if his primary role is to keep Andrews away from the ball.

 

[SaintlyHymns]

Keeler on Andrews. He either wins or he learns.
Andrews cuts us up every time he plays us.

 

[bergholt]

He needs to purely be a decoy or leading target. If we bomb it to him against a Brisbane defender he'll be brushed aside and we give them the ball every time. I wonder if his primary role is to keep Andrews away from the ball.

Don’t think the decoy thing ever really works.

Presumably they give him strong and clear instructions around competing. Learn from Mitch - just get to the contest and get your arms up with strength and give it the best possible chance of stopping anyone from marking it.

 

[gringo2011]

No Box is really disappointing after that performance. Keeler over Heath, no Hastie. It all smells a bit vanilla.
Good to see Doug's back.

Keep a close eye on Steely, Ro and Jones to see if they're fit and holding their tackles cause they weren't last week.

Geelong and Sydney both hold players back in the VFL until they are ready to hit the AFL running. There are multiple ways to develop kids. We are going to have to start doing more of it as we have the bulk of our list under 23 at some point. Pretty confident that Boxshall has enough to make it so far.

 

[gringo2011]

Don’t think the decoy thing ever really works.

Presumably they give him strong and clear instructions around competing. Learn from Mitch - just get to the contest and get your arms up with strength and give it the best possible chance of stopping anyone from marking it.

His instruction might just be to block the Brisbane defenders running into one of the other forwards space or draw a man out wide. Decoy forwards still have a place. If he leads hard out to a pocket they expose themselves. If he runs straight at the ball it leaves the pockets open for someone else or creates space behind him.

 

[BrutThough]

Did the full pre season - played the first game then missed two through injury and followed up with 25 possessions, 9 marks, 7 clearances and a goal.

But yeah not match fit and jeez that Keeler "looks" a player - so lets select him despite the fact he struggles to get a possession in the AFL and did very little last week in the VFL to warrant a recall.

Being VFL fit after 3 weeks off and being ready to play at AFL level at the first time are two different things.

 

[Desperate saint]

Arie the scapegoat again. I'd like to see him given a decent block of games, he was far from our worst last week.

He's managed to be dropped 4 times in just 7 games. The third time he's been brought in for one game and dropped again.

I understand he's got plenty of work to do, but our midfield had their pants absolutely pulled down on the weekend. It can't have been easy for anyone in the back half.

Agree Shoey far from our worst-just stuffing him around atm

 

[Desperate saint]

Jones over box and Keeler over heath are hard to understand for me this week . One seems to be looking towards the future and the other seems to be looking to the past .

I also dont understand it -mids had their pants pulled down properly last week-young mid had a huge game in the VFL-you would think it 101 to bring him up also agree with Heath-Brisbane will be far to physical for Keeler

 

[Browny2Carlisle]

Geelong and Sydney both hold players back in the VFL until they are ready to hit the AFL running. There are multiple ways to develop kids. We are going to have to start doing more of it as we have the bulk of our list under 23 at some point. Pretty confident that Boxshall has enough to make it so far.

But it is important to note that Geelong and Sydney vfl are very different to Sandringham

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Don’t think the decoy thing ever really works.

Presumably they give him strong and clear instructions around competing. Learn from Mitch - just get to the contest and get your arms up with strength and give it the best possible chance of stopping anyone from marking it.

You can't give Keeler instructions to change his physical composition. Mitchito is freakishly strong, while Keeler has the core strength of wet cardboard.

On one hand I'm glad that the team selection finally acknowledged that we've been far too small for weeks but I think it's a cop-out to drop Arie, leave the midfield group unscathed and select Keeler over Heath or Boyd.

For the record, I like Keeler and still think that he could be a good player in the future but it's blatantly obvious that he's not physically ready to play the role that is being asked of him. I've never seen an AFL player beaten in the contest so easily, so consistently. Maybe if he was playing as the third tall forward, on the third best defender he would go okay. And he is fairly handy at center bounce hitouts when he can use his leap, but around the ground he concedes first possession to the opposition ruck almost every time. It's like an under 14s kid in the under 18s.

Against Brisbane I think his best use is probably dragging Andrews away from our actual forward targets Sharman, Owens and Wood. Maybe Hammer ends up forward again but I think we should be letting him settle in defence.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Unless Keeler has some special shaman powers that suddenly switch on the other 17 players on the ground into SUPER POWER BOOST MODE there is zero correlation between winning or losing and the selection of Keeler.

They made a mistake not playing another tall fwd because that not only reduced our contest capacity forward it also reduced the capacity for contested marking on the wings/hb because Wood or Sharman had to play as a deep fwd.

The issue with selecting Keeler is that he was bog ordinary in his three AFL games (1,3 and 1 possession in the first half's of those three games) and then rightfully was dropped but was reinstated on the back of a less than stellar performance in the 2's.

They could have tried Boyd or Heath but they seem to have a mindset that only fwd/rucks can be selected in the fwd half and ruck/fwds are only ever allowed to be selected as ruckmen.

With Howard back, if they wanted a more experienced tall fwd option they could have shifted Caminiti to FF and played any of O'Connell, Hastie even Barratt or Tauru as the 3rd defender.

Maybe thats the plan - Caminiti fwd - Keeler 3rd tall defender.

But no they have rewarded a poor performance in the VFL because they need to justify their preferred "structure" (ie tall fwds can only be tall fwds not tall ruckmen) and we don't have any other tall fwds to select so Keeler it is.

 

[akaifu]

Unless Keeler has some special shaman powers that suddenly switch on the other 17 players on the ground into SUPER POWER BOOST MODE there is zero correlation between winning or losing and the selection of Keeler.

They made a mistake not playing another tall fwd because that not only reduced our contest capacity forward it also reduced the capacity for contested marking on the wings/hb because Wood or Sharman had to play as a deep fwd.

The issue with selecting Keeler is that he was bog ordinary in his three AFL games (1,3 and 1 possession in the first half's of those three games) and then rightfully was dropped but was reinstated on the back of a less than stellar performance in the 2's.

They could have tried Boyd or Heath but they seem to have a mindset that only fwd/rucks can be selected in the fwd half and ruck/fwds are only ever allowed to be selected as ruckmen.

With Howard back, if they wanted a more experienced tall fwd option they could have shifted Caminiti to FF and played any of O'Connell, Hastie even Barratt or Tauru as the 3rd defender.

Maybe thats the plan - Caminiti fwd - Keeler 3rd tall defender.

But no they have rewarded a poor performance in the VFL because they need to justify their preferred "structure" (ie tall fwds can only be tall fwds not tall ruckmen) and we don't have any other tall fwds to select so Keeler it is.

Ross Lyon said in his presser that Keeler was one of the best VFL performers at the weekend

So no, its not rewarding poor performance - us fans don't have access to GPS numbers and most don't even watch the VFL games so they wouldn't know about all the contests Keeler gets to and how often he brings the ball to ground

Clearly the coaches liked how Keeler responded to being dropped so he's back in the team

Let's back the kid and the selection panel in and hope he can play his role in beating the Premiers

 

[SaintWrld]

Looking at brisbanes structure I’m going to predict that Caminiti and Keeler both play forward, Hammer takes Harris Andrews

31

Harris Andrews

Age

28

Ht

200cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.6

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

151.7

2star

D

17.0

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

4star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.0

3star

D

9.8

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

MG

94.0

2star

and is the “spiller” and Keeler looks a lot better not having to be the number 1 guy down the line and can play his more natural game.
Howard takes Hipwood, Wilkie takes Sam Day

14

Sam Day

Age

33

Ht

196cm

Wt

106kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

4.6

3star

M

3.5

4star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.7

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

3.6

1star

HB

4.4

3star

M

1.9

2star

T

1.5

2star

G

0.9

4star

D

8.6

3star

K

3.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

0.8

3star

G

0.2

3star

and Webster takes Logan Morris who is only 191cm.

 

[akaifu]

Boxshall doesn't suit our structure enough over a Jones, a Byrnes or any of our fringe players - was always unlikely to play this weekend unless he debuted as sub

Jones can play wing if we want to change our midfield setup mid-game (run Nas/Sinc/Owens through the middle)
Byrnes can play defence if we want to play Nas/Sinc higher up the ground

Boxshall does not enable that elasticity. Coaches won't change their structure purely to fit a debutant in

Playing VFL probably doesn't stunt his development anyway so happy to just let him put together a block of really high-quality performances before he gets his chance

 

[beside the seaside]

The issue isn't the talls, it's the midfielders. They need basically a completely different performance this week or we will get destroyed again. Starting with pressure.

 

[akaifu]

The issue isn't the talls, it's the midfielders. They need basically a completely different performance this week or we will get destroyed again. Starting with pressure.

Ross claims that Steele is fully fit - we need him to play like it

 

[Mangus]

We are obviously too short particularly when we go long down the line and try to defend rather than the play on at all costs offence that works well when we are on top and momentum is with us. Against Brisbane momentum is going to be with them for significant portions of the game and I suspect Ross wants some structure to play a more defensive game when needed.

Keeler is a forward who can ruck he fits the game plan better than Heath who is a ruck and a slow one at that. Keeler is there to play a role occupy a tall defender and give Marshall a chop out and allow him to go forward if needed ever since he was drafted he was the one I thought could make a huge impact to how we played just because of how it would let Marshall play. The coaches clearly have the same idea and are prepared to invest games he probably hasn’t earned to see if we can fast track his development. I am ok with that and Marshall will need a chop out Big Mac dominated in the same game last year.

I think Boxhall was really stiff to miss out but maybe there will be a late change

 

[g_TRAIN]

We are obviously too short particularly when we go long down the line and try to defend rather than the play on at all costs offence that works well when we are on top and momentum is with us. Against Brisbane momentum is going to be with them for significant portions of the game and I suspect Ross wants some structure to play a more defensive game when needed.

Keeler is a forward who can ruck he fits the game plan better than Heath who is a ruck and a slow one at that. Keeler is there to play a role occupy a tall defender and give Marshall a chop out and allow him to go forward if needed ever since he was drafted he was the one I thought could make a huge impact to how we played just because of how it would let Marshall play. The coaches clearly have the same idea and are prepared to invest games he probably hasn’t earned to see if we can fast track his development. I am ok with that and Marshall will need a chop out Big Mac dominated in the same game last year.

I think Boxhall was really stiff to miss out but maybe there will be a late change

Not sure I totally agree. Based on VFL performances over their career, Heath has been a better forward.

He has bags of 5 and 3 goals on multiple occasions, he's not at all a bad forward.

He's kicked multiple goals in 8 matches vs Keeler 5.

This isn't to say I'm disappointed in Keeler's selection but Moose can play that role if needed. He's not a pure ruck.

 

[AirWinmar]

Ross Lyon said in his presser that Keeler was one of the best VFL performers at the weekend

So no, its not rewarding poor performance - us fans don't have access to GPS numbers and most don't even watch the VFL games so they wouldn't know about all the contests Keeler gets to and how often he brings the ball to ground

Clearly the coaches liked how Keeler responded to being dropped so he's back in the team

Let's back the kid and the selection panel in and hope he can play his role in beating the Premiers

Keeler was quite good last week in the vfl. Some good marks, a goal, great smother in the 1st quarter. He wasn't as good as Heath or Boxhall or Hastie, but not nearly as bad as some are making out. I would play Heath, but imo Keeler played a decent game v Footscray