Autopsy Round 11 - St Kilda v Gold Coast

[projectv]

Well that's bottom 4 stitched up. Our next 8 games are wild, we probably won't get another win until round 20.

 

[jwikked]

Well that's bottom 4 stitched up. Our next 8 games are wild, we probably won't get another win until round 20.

There will be plenty of happy people on here, then.

 

[botts]

Lyon post-match, R11: 'We used our numbers, moved the ball pretty well and created opportunities'

Watch Euro-Yroke’s press conference after round 11’s match against Gold Coast

www.afl.com.au

Cowards didn’t even ask Ross about the nepo baby’s remark

 

[Grav]

Like everyone am disappointed & was probably reaching for the stars this season, but one player (Macrae) does not make a winning midfield, then we have ONE lock down defender (Howard) injured for most of this season & with our million dollar forward (King) also missing.

Every year we/I find excuses to believe it will all turn around, but what I am seeing so far this season, I honestly believe we are only a few players away from contention.

Keep on believing, we are/can’t be that far away, my prediction 2027

 

[Saints TV]

 

[Big 0]

Owens is a genuine freak. Love watching him play, get the feeling he’s gonna be one of our all timers

 

[aussierulesrules]

Was concerned that Steele might have permanent injuries that would mean he’d never get back to his best, but that was his best game in a long time and promising that he might not be cooked.

33 disposals
12 contested
84% DE, just 1 turnover
5 clearances
5 tackles
28 pressure acts
1 goal
126 fantasy points

Was also an interesting comment by Ross pre-game, suggesting that he’s obviously been carrying something and short of full fitness, but is getting back to full fitness now.

With him and Pou on the improve and Macrae due back in a few weeks our midfield could be vastly better in the run home.

 

[botts]

Saw good signs from Trav, keeler and caminiti down back today. Finals are off the table now so I hope we keep persisting with the kids

 

[jwikked]

Like everyone am disappointed & was probably reaching for the stars this season, but one player (Macrae) does not make a winning midfield, then we have ONE lock down defender (Howard) injured for most of this season & with our million dollar forward (King) also missing.

Every year we/I find excuses to believe it will all turn around, but what I am seeing so far this season, I honestly believe we are only a few players away from contention.

Keep on believing, we are/can’t be that far away, my prediction 2027

Get 50 games into Travaglia, Garcia, Tauru, give Wilson another year, Philipou a year or two and I think we'll see that we've actually got some real talent into the club for a change.

Still need to bring more in, I've said it before, but I don't see Caminiti as being the answer, hope I'm wrong with him.

Get Mitchito a goal kicking coach. The way he drops the ball is such an easy thing to fix.

 

[Premium]

Like everyone am disappointed & was probably reaching for the stars this season, but one player (Macrae) does not make a winning midfield, then we have ONE lock down defender (Howard) injured for most of this season & with our million dollar forward (King) also missing.

Every year we/I find excuses to believe it will all turn around, but what I am seeing so far this season, I honestly believe we are only a few players away from contention.

Keep on believing, we are/can’t be that far away, my prediction 2027

You are correct - not having a true contested marking goal scoring forward , missing that tall lockdown defender and not having a couple good midfielders has totally derailed the season.

One good thing to get out of the game Steele found form and when Macrae comes back hopefully they can gel a get us to win a few games.

No matter what people say about Howard and King - we need them fit and playing.

Anyway having Pou getting midfield time will on serve us better in the future.

Things are not as bad as they look and I feel it will only get better from here.

 

[The Jack]

We’ll win plenty of games in the run home, because we aren’t that bad. Won’t help our cause, but it’ll keep the culture disciples happy.

We will continue to be stuck in no mans land.

 

[Diehard Saint]

We are all seeing the build. We are seeing the moments and quarters.

I ****ing hate that I’ll get invested in these kids heavily when all I should be getting pumped about is the next saints game.

But our best and worst has an Everest shaped gap between it. We aren’t ready unless we are fully fit and on it - which probably only gets us into finals anyway.

Need to keep building. Need to evaluate some of the senior blokes and go from there.

Jeez a fully fit full forward and full back would be handy.
why can’t we have nice things?

 

[Verdun66]

I don’t get to many games these days so it’s a different experience without the closer focus, the replays, the stats, looking at BF Gameday. And of course the commentary.

So sitting high up in L3 I could look about and see things for myself. Interestingly, what I said to my son leaving and what most sensible supporters are saying in here were pretty similar. And then I listened to Ross’s press conference. Am in agreement.

They are a more talented and experienced team than us. Just the tale of the tape with their multitude of draft picks would suggest they would win easily. And a couple of times I thought….here we go. They looked ominous. But we kept at it and reeled them in.

But for a few absolute howlers, some terrible set shots, and 3 (or was it 4) posters we were right with them. And I know I have rose colored glasses when it comes to the Saints, but we got some terrible bounces that eluded our guys and landed right in the lap of a Suns player.

Every dump kick we seemed to have to do landed badly for us. Theirs fell into space or were run onto by Ben Long

22

Ben Long

Age

28

Ht

186cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.9

3star

K

6.2

2star

HB

4.7

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.7

4star

G

0.7

4star

D

12.8

3star

K

6.7

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.3

3star

G

0.0

1star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

3.2

5star

G

0.6

3star

. Very little the defenders could do about that.

They nailed their shots, we didn’t. Poor old Hunter Clark

11

Hunter Clark

Age

26

Ht

186cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.5

4star

K

9.5

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.3

3star

D

16.0

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.9

4star

D

13.2

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.0

1star

had a decent game, but he can’t kick over a jam tin. Owens had some rolled gold opportunities, but sadly didn’t convert.

Higgins had a quiet day, but I swear he wasn’t right. I was looking at him behind play and he was quite proppy. He didn’t have the speed and energy he brought to the Freo game that I went to. He’s crook or got some injury. Not the same guy.

Was pretty pleased with our young guys. I wanted to see that, and got it. Some mistakes for sure. Boxshall impressed when he came on.

Marshall got monstered in the ruck and their midfield got ascendancy. But somehow we negated the multitude of opportunities all that brought. Hill had a couple of really bad patches and that was disappointing. Wilson way out of touch. Hall couldn’t get near it. Byrnes was ok. Got put in some difficult spots. His own doing and some others fault.

But overall I think we’re going ok. Disappointing, but you can see some good things.

And what did that peanut Josh Jenkins

11

Josh Jenkins

Age

36

Ht

200cm

Wt

108kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.9

3star

K

9.1

4star

HB

3.8

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.1

5star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

7.6

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

1.2

3star

G

1.6

5star

say? Thick as a brick that bloke.

 

[Jade Buddha]

It was an interesting watch despite our lack of talent, according to the commentary, we took the play completely away from them in the 3rd. There was plenty to like about our game today. 1.6 on goal however will always kill you.
I’m sure all our mids are instructed to just focus on stopping your opponent. We seem to just always be chasing players rather than making the play. We’re reactive not proactive.
Keep playing Keels and Hammer back, a big takeaway from today.
Mitch just isn’t a forward. His key strength is his one on one competitiveness. Just don’t understand the insistence on playing him as a marking target. Will give them one thing / I thought he was better against Witts than Marshall.
Ro is having a very average season. I know there has been talk about the injuries but then don’t play him. Get him physically right.
I’m not as confident as most on Hugo. He’s too light weight atm. I’d be putting time into Pou and Mitch in the middle. We need muscle and extraction capabilities and they both provide that.

 

[Hayes4PM]

If we cost ourselves another top end pick for “culture building” wins. I’ll vomit.

I don't think you need to worry about us nabbing too many wins.

 

[Teflon]

With respect. In the games he’s played for us. He’s made two bad kicks. Imo he got in two minds with both. Regardless. NAS made as many skill errors if not more. My point is people have the preconceived idea that he can’t kick. It’s just not true. It’s nowhere as bad some people make out. So yes it’s important to look at him with some perspective. Does he need to improve it sure.

No worries
I don’t care about the stats - at the game live when we were coming in a few big moments he snuffed it. He did in VFL week before as well. His kicking isn’t his strong it’s ok as a club to not put players on unrealistic pedestals from time to time. He has work to do on his kicking if he wants to be an elite top 10 draft pick. I don’t think that’s controversial that’s just where he is at IMO.

 

[Teflon]

He cannot ruck against anyone larger than him unfortunately.

Yes that’s true
I thought he was largely ineffective today and monstered a bit sadly..

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Yes that’s true
I thought he was largely ineffective today and monstered a bit sadly..

I maintain that he is not a ruckman, he is an oversized mid really. Has zero ruck craft, simply runs at the oppo and either 1. Gives a free kick, 2. Snags it out of the contest and dump kicks it on to the oppo hbf’s tit.

 

[jumperfan]

One thing I wish we'd work on is crumbing. If we're going to do the dump kick to an undersized forward line we just have to have guys there to snag the ball when the tall halves the contest yet we almost never did today. It's been like this for years too.

 

[jh38]

I maintain that he is not a ruckman, he is an oversized mid really. Has zero ruck craft, simply runs at the oppo and either 1. Gives a free kick, 2. Snags it out of the contest and dump kicks it on to the oppo hbf’s tit.

I'd love to see him get a good run in the forwardline. I haven't seen much of Heath or Dodson so I wouldn't know if they're AFL ready, but it would be nice to see Ro share the load and play 70-80% forward for a game or 2.

 

[jwikked]

One thing I wish we'd work on is crumbing. If we're going to do the dump kick to an undersized forward line we just have to have guys there to snag the ball when the tall halves the contest yet we almost never did today. It's been like this for years too.

Ideally we'd have Higgins doing just that, but the forward line is so bare he's forced to try and mark it all himself

 

[SG34]

Owens had a monster of a game. When he’s not in his head kicking for goal he’s fine. When are we going to let him play mid.
POU getting back to his best. When are we going to let him play mid .
Nas is a freak. Pay the man.
Keeler looked much better playing in a Nas type role.
Steele was good again.
Caminiti is much better in defence.
Sharman gets better and better.
Box shouldn’t be sub. Get him in.

Agree 100%

Plus add this:

Trav is good. You could see it. (Sure, an atrocious error, but he was hurting, he'll be right)
Caminiti's best game for the club so far.
Michito has the jitters kicking for goal, but his lovely pass to Steele just shows how much class he's got.

..and
This looked liked the Escort Cup (Or Army Reserve Cup) at the Lake Oval.

 

[jumperfan]

Ideally we'd have Higgins doing just that, but the forward line is so bare he's forced to try and mark it all himself

It should be the whole team though. Gold Coast had 2-3 guys around every contest waiting for the spill and it worked very well. Doesn't happen around the ground for us either.

 

[DougalHoward]

Could have played at Moorabbin

We'd be better off playing interstate teams there

 

[TheJackal]

bUT cUltChA

It's funny, ongoing and absolutely relevant. Nothing wrong with being a little bit strategic in this 'equalised' competition that we play in.

We winge or shake our heads at the inequality of the competition and we are in the worst position. No man's land with 13000 people turning up to a home game. Pinning our hopes of flankers to become mids or average footballers like Byrnes to suddenly grow into a graders.

Many supporters happy to be losers and sook about how unfair everything is, I'm microwaving my membership this, I'm emailing the club that. But then they are happy to call others losers for wanting to strategically get a leg up for the future.

Even tonight we are saying we are cooked, let's play the kids and get a top 4 pick but its funny to make fun of people who actually want this club to be relevant. Being strategic is all we can hope for when we are mid table and not getting free hits left right and centre.

Man, we are so irrelevant we brag about wins that mean nothing, we talk about the glory days of 09/10, when we nearly won.

North's culture building win when they missed Harley Reid resulted in a 3 win season the following year.

I'm sick of getting little wins against 'big clubs' who used to hurt our feelings when we were crap in the 80s when we were all kids.

The same old bullies will laugh at this post, but we are in a horrible position. We need some hope, 2025 is done, last year we were 8 and 3 after 11 rounds. We won a bunch and flattered ourselves.

Time to go into our 3rd "year of exploration" and tank the crap out of the rest of the year.

Was it Ricky Bobby who said if you ain't first you're last?

Look at NBA teams, they trade away their best players mid season to ensure a lower finish and draft for their futures. If and when they make finals are do people talk about the loser club choices from years earlier?

Whatever it takes, besides peptides, to win a flag. Ok, I'm done, rant over. We're miles off it.