Autopsy Saints forget how to kick a ball and lose to Hawthorn.

[Heavensent]

Happy to call time on Butts. Has set standards for pressure in the forward line but is way off those standards this year.

A bit harsh I feel. Had a significant injury first half of the year and no pre season. Would do well coming off a full summer campaign

 

[Yawkey way]

Except if all we do is lose on our run home against fellow bottom 6 teams, we are no longer a young team showing promise to rise soon and become a team worse then everyone else around us.

What makes you think we’ll loose, anyway picking you’re very best 22 no matter what when the seasons over just smacks of desperation imo.

Surely Heath and Boxshall deserve a run this week, how’s that weaken us ?. It’s pretty simple would you rather do that or bring in Boyd and jones because that’s what playing your best 22 every week looks like, maybe drop Hastie and bring back Byrnes.

Playing kids you want to look at in the afl whose form has been good over guys who we’ve seen more than enough off to know what we have is just smart management imo.

Anyway it’s just my opinion we’ll see what the club intends to do soon enough.

 

[Yawkey way]

If that is our kids level, we may as well delist them all.

Stacked hawthorn team and a undermanned sandy. There were quaite a few guys there who would be playing at st Kilda and will play afl for hawthorn in the coming weeks.

 

[aussierulesrules]

So Sydney lose Papley and Amarty for their game against us next week, while a whopping 9.6 of their 14.10 against Port came from stoppage, so that augurs well for us, as they’re likely to find it a lot harder to score from stoppage against us, given how we’re flooding the stoppages with numbers and huge pressure at the moment, and have been doing well at centre clearances.

Looks a winnable game IF we bring the effort we’ve brought the last 3 weeks.

 

[sauce_head]

I missed most of the match due to my daughter having a birthday party. Worth watching? I have seen the Tauru highlight, so there is that!

 

[Teflon]

Keeler looks good when on the move. We need to be more mobile and cut at different angles and then have our mids streaming in. That's when we look good and unpredictable, but we rarely do it.
I was yelling at the television during the game wondering why Keeler wasn't using his leap. There were several one in one's where he stayed on the ground seemingly to prevent Barrass himself jumping. To me it was like Lyon had our taller forwards doing a tagging role on their defenders.
It was a weird set up.

Yep I agree don’t get this and it must be coaching
When we played Cats we worked the ball around the 50 , different angles and forwards leading everywhere we looked dangerous…
Bombing to top square when we have no key talls is dumb
Even when King does play ….I don’t want us to revert to that bomb it in style

 

[aussierulesrules]

I missed most of the match due to my daughter having a birthday party. Worth watching? I have seen the Tauru highlight, so there is that!

I was there last night and watched it today and have no regrets. Tauru, Nas, Hastie had a couple of great highlights, some excellent work in close from Garcia, and of course Hall.

 

[Ads734]

Quality of clearance is our issue. We're missing that burst forward half mid who can accelerate from stoppage, or that big body who can draw two and release the runners.

All things considered the mids have been great, though. And Garcia has been magnificent since coming back in. Blown away by his decision making in tight. Great to see that growth.

I agree completely , I’m just saying I don’t think losing to gain extra picks is the way. Look at Joel Freija, Zak Butters etc etc. even Sincs and max hall.

With good recruiters you can find those players.

Garcia’s quality has improved out of sight. Boxhall is a quality player. I still believe in Trav as a mid.

Pou showed even in his limited games this year that his decision making , especially going inside 50 is above average.

 

[Bill Crouse]

I missed most of the match due to my daughter having a birthday party. Worth watching? I have seen the Tauru highlight, so there is that!

It isn't a great watch. Maybe just watch the highlights or the mini match. That gives you the important parts without having to watch us kick it straight to Hawthorn on repeat for 2 hours.

 

[littlecreatures]

Agree 100%. Seeing him live (especially from level 3, where we were last night) you can really see his speed, and how well he covers the ground, and the way he floated over that pack to take that grab (which was pretty much level with us) was so Riewoldt-like it wasn’t funny.

His upside is outrageous. Speed, huge leap, big tank, height, versatility, aggression, good hands, good skills, and as I said in the game day thread last night, he does so many smart little things and reads the play so well that just let you know that he has a high footy IQ as well.

Could play anywhere and be anything.

So true. Seeing Tauru live against Freo, his closing speed is seriously elite. There was the spoil on Amiss by the wing where he had no right to contest it then manages to spoil it clear.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

So true. Seeing Tauru live against Freo, his closing speed is seriously elite. There was the spoil on Amiss by the wing where he had no right to contest it then manages to spoil it clear.

 

[Speck]

Does Hall go into the midfield? I'm seeing no reason why he couldn't. Clean, quick and a good decision maker. He's benefited from our shift to put more numbers around the contest. His goals from nowhere were incredible. Where did he play at Box Hill?

Paired with Garcia we might start to have some actual mids on our hands (plus Pou who hasn't got going this year).

 

[littlecreatures]

Does Hall go into the midfield? I'm seeing no reason why he couldn't. Clean, quick and a good decision maker. He's benefited from our shift to put more numbers around the contest. His goals from nowhere were incredible. Where did he play at Box Hill?

Paired with Garcia we might start to have some actual mids on our hands (plus Pou who hasn't got going this year).

Here’s hoping that this midfield is better than the Alan “maybe I’ve fallen in love with my inside mids too early” Richardson era

 

[Teflon]

Does Hall go into the midfield? I'm seeing no reason why he couldn't. Clean, quick and a good decision maker. He's benefited from our shift to put more numbers around the contest. His goals from nowhere were incredible. Where did he play at Box Hill?

Paired with Garcia we might start to have some actual mids on our hands (plus Pou who hasn't got going this year).

Was just thinking same thing …gee him and NAS with Pou rolling through there along with Garcia and possible Box who I rate …it’s got a nice balance of inside/outside and elite ball use about it ….

 

[aussierulesrules]

Not sure why you’d want to necessarily move Hall into the midfield when he’s having a ball essentially running around on his own in there for much of the game at the moment. It’s working a treat as it is.

 

[Teflon]

Not sure why you’d want to necessarily move Hall into the midfield when he’s having a ball essentially running around on his own in there for much of the game at the moment. It’s working a treat as it is.

I think he’s doing well at HF but the game is often won/lost in centre
If he can get around the contest and be - with NAS - one our mids streaming from centre to deliver into forward 50 why wouldn’t you want that ?
He could also be handy defensively as a mid and through the corridor on transition with his smarts/footskills

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

Didn't get to watch the game, moving house.
Looked through the stats.
We had the top 5 in Afl fantasy.
Noticed that Hastie & Windhager got plenty of the pill,
but also noticed that their DE% was poor.
Hastie- 42% & Windy 48%, might as well not kick it?
Nas at 67% too, not great.
 Heath had another good game in the two's,
deserves his debut next week.
Add Boxshall & Dow also.
Maybe Carroll, but he went at 50% DE also, so dont need another poor kicker.
Outs. Henry, Keeler & Webster.

 

[Saints4ever]

Didn't get to watch the game, moving house.
Looked through the stats.
We had the top 5 in Afl fantasy.
Noticed that Hastie & Windhager got plenty of the pill,
but also noticed that their DE% was poor.
Hastie- 42% & Windy 48%, might as well not kick it?
Nas at 67% too, not great.
 Heath had another good game in the two's,
deserves his debut next week.
Add Boxshall & Dow also.
Maybe Carroll, but he went at 50% DE also, so dont need another poor kicker.
Outs. Henry, Keeler & Webster.

Poor Hastie had a real stinker in the first half.

His first 3 kicks he turned over in the middle under minimal pressure he was having an absolute mare.

He did improve in the 2nd half though and took a good hanger and then linked up in some nice play pin pointing passes.

He definitely had a 1st qtr to forget.

 

[ThomasR]

Was just thinking same thing …gee him and NAS with Pou rolling through there along with Garcia and possible Box who I rate …it’s got a nice balance of inside/outside and elite ball use about it ….

absolutely. i'd throw windy in that mix as well, has shown he can lock down the best of them when required.

all this kerfuffle about wanting a top 5 pick to draft a mid when it's potentially our best line in a few years. who knows if owens/travaglia/wilson etc end up rolling through there too. night and day compared to the state of our forward line

we should be all over dovaston in the upcoming draft imo. outside sharp/greeves, who will be gone by our pick, i am yet to see any mids that project better than the current crop. on the other hand i am losing faith in our small pressure forwards by the day

 

[g_TRAIN]

Hall might be able to move into the midfield but he is potentially more valuable as a half forward.

Not many half forwards can win that much footy and use it well and not many mids can play half forward.

Would be tempted to leave him there as we may not find another like him easily.

 

[Saintbloke]

Maybe play Clark as a forward, as he clearly hasn't got the tank as a mid for four quarters- seems to go ok for a quarter and a half then drops off.

 

[pebblesofsand]

We have been though this to death. We didn't have a list spot available at the time.

Flabbergast all you want.

Given our shortage of talls, our ladder position and our injuries at the time, I'm flabbergasted we didn't use the rules and make a spot available.

 

[The Punter]

We forgot how to kick? That implies we knew once.

Disappointing to lose our third game this year like that. Too many down this week too unlike the previous week.

 

[CaptainRisky]

Maybe play Clark as a forward, as he clearly hasn't got the tank as a mid for four quarters- seems to go ok for a quarter and a half then drops off.

How about lets just not play him , I'm over hearing he just needs to get a run at it or a full pre season

 

[The Punter]

How about lets just not play him , I'm over hearing he just needs to get a run at it or a full pre season

The part of the second quarter where Clark was not in the midfield rotation was the part where Hawthorn walked out a bunch of centre clearances and kicked three goals which was essentially the margin in the game.

If you like footy the way it used to be played (so far as "win the tough ball" and "kick to a forward leading at you" is concerned), you should like Hunter Clark. Midfield wasn't the problem on Saturday night, except when he was playing somewhere else.