Preview Round 2 - GWS v St Kilda [Saturday 21 March 2026 • 4:15 PM (AEDT) • Engie Stadium]

[Now is the time]

3rd goal. We have a spare defender fat side in no man’s land. We have a loose Melbourne forward near the 50.

Jsos is following a man to the goal square, Wilkie decides to go back to his man instead of standing the leading lane.

Multiple poor handovers and lack of gut running to plug the space.
View attachment 2556417
5th goal.

Wilkie has him on the hand over and is nowhere near him. Boxshall doesn’t go hard enough to compete.
View attachment 2556419


Neither in the cold light of day look like Hammer is at fault.

And note that at BOTH of those moments we were in the lead - and looking for the next goal to deflate them.

 

[Mowman]

And given those available but not selected are Collard (Emergency) Travaglia, Keeler, Howard (Emergency), Hastie (emergency) Barratt, Dodson, Said, Bancroft, Fincher and Armstrong, who would you include in the 23 who is not already named?

Simply, we are missing too many first-choice selections being King, Howard, Clark and Henry, plus Byrnes, both on the equation of structure and depth.

And Macrae who I would not have in a "best 23"

Noting who is in the side, as I have highlighted elsewhere in terms of games played, so 14 players with less than 100 games of AFL experience and still developing.

Our List dictates that our best 23 play - otherwise we struggle with depth and structure.

Given all except Howard of those listed above are juniors in development phase with nil or minimal AFL exposure we are threadbare.

And we are fielding a VFL side!!

We trust there is rapid development across our juniors who are named for tomorrow which will confirm that as a team we will improve, and rapidly. And those not named.

Adding De Koning, Silvagni, Flanders and Ryan improved our side no doubt, so adding 4 to our first choice 23 which was needed.

So instead of putting that our first 19 will make us competitive, now our first 23 will make us competitive.

Spot the difference?

Howard played 3 games last year and 15 year before
His body is done

 

[Ads734]

Surprised to see anyone blaming our back six for our start this year.

67% of the scoring that has come against us is coming from turnovers. We're also second worst in the comp for handball metres differential.

The last fortnight has seen our i50 defence come under heat from teams moving rapidly after corralling us and forcing turnovers and it leaves them flatfooted and out of position. Most of our defensive weakness comes from that issue - if our mids can clean up their ball use and not get stuck in no-mans-land after turning it over near half-forward we will concede a hell of a lot less i50s and scores and we can get a better idea of how the talls are actually holding up. Until that happens our backs are going to be left looking pretty amateur, but it's hard to point the finger at them.

Yep pretty much this. It was infuriating watching the replay. We burnt so many opportunities going inside 50 missing goals etc. worse though were the turnovers and watching the poor defenders have no chance on the rebound.

No care with the kicking and worse and the missed handballs of fumbles.

 

[ERMAHGERD]

Wouldn't mind a win here. Mainly to get most of my friends and family off my back. The amount of shit I've been copping has aligned with what the club has copped. I might have to go into hiding if we lose.

 

[SainterinSydney]

Wouldn't mind a win here. Mainly to get most of my friends and family off my back. The amount of shit I've been copping has aligned with what the club has copped. I might have to go into hiding if we lose.

My boss came back from Melb today and said lots of Sainters on the plane. Hoping we get a good turn out tomorrow!

 

[SaintersFan]

When I met Hogan at the Saints v GWS AFLW game last year, I told him to go easy on us this year. So don't worry--I got us covered

Oh No! You didn't, did you? He'll kick 10 now for sure

 

[schmuttt]

Sorry to intrude, think you guys get up this week. Still expect you to be top 10, with so many new faces it isn't surprising they need time to gel.

Surprised to read the Caminiti criticism, there wasn't much pressure on the ball coming in and for the 6th goal not sure which saints player it was didn't work hard enough to cover the space in front.

 

[pebblesofsand]

We should be expecting a lot more out of the Marshall/TDK pairing than we got in the first game.

Possessions and either goals or strongc9ntests deep ineide 50.

 

[sauce_head]

Wilkie will play. Bit of flu / virus lag still in the team but otherwise okay.

 

[jwikked]

Wilkie will play. Bit of flu / virus lag still in the team but otherwise okay.

Honestly hoping we spread the virus into Sydney. That city is smug enough, it would be nice for an illness to rip through there again.

 

[littlecreatures]

ill start by saying that I thought Caminiti was crap. But so was everyone else in our back 6. If your midfield cannot and will not clamp down on the opposition transition and your forwards will not lock the ball in. It doesn't matter if we had prime Maxxy and Fisher playing key back.

THe opposition forwards will get clean looks and straight line lanes to the ball coming in and kick bags anyway.

happy for someone to point me to what exactly Hammer did that was so disgustingly crap, outside of the fact that average Melbourne forward kicked 6

To be fair Stav, this is what you were told throughout last season when you told everyone on rinse and repeat we just had a height and intercepting issue missing Dougald Howard and Max King

 

[jwikked]

One thing completely underrated with Cooper Sharman is his commitment to the Robert Harvey haircut. I've been rocking that for over 30 years, so it's nice to see it finally coming back into fashion.

 

[SainterinSydney]

Honestly hoping we spread the virus into Sydney. That city is smug enough, it would be nice for an illness to rip through there again.

Hey, hey, we aren't all bad up here

 

[jwikked]

Hey, hey, we aren't all bad up here

I'm a New South Welshman myself, I just have a bee in my bonnet with that city lol

 

[AirWinmar]

Howard played 3 games last year and 15 year before
His body is done

I reckon we brought him back to early tho last year and he re-injured himself

 

[sauce_head]

Honestly hoping we spread the virus into Sydney. That city is smug enough, it would be nice for an illness to rip through there again.

Ah it’s not that bad but understand the sentiment! Will be at the game tomorrow flying the flag! Along with SainterinSydney i presume!

 

[Skins_24]

Going to the game tomorrow and wanna know where the saints crew will be. Just getting GA but west or east? Probably doesn’t matter at the showground for livestock but good to know where the fans are.

 

[JG22]

Going to the game tomorrow and wanna know where the saints crew will be. Just getting GA but west or east? Probably doesn’t matter at the showground for livestock but good to know where the fans are.

The Giants website has their cheer squad at the southern (western) end, so we’ll be on the northern (eastern) end.

 

[Skins_24]

The Giants website has their cheer squad at the southern (western) end, so we’ll be on the northern (eastern) end.

Legend cheers

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

One thing completely underrated with Cooper Sharman is his commitment to the Robert Harvey haircut. I've been rocking that for over 30 years, so it's nice to see it finally coming back into fashion.

one swallow does not make a summer

 

[MUFKilda]

one swallow does not make a summer

There's a joke in there, but I'm too much of a gentleman to say it.

Right, first win of the year incoming. Saints by a cleat fifteen points. I see us dominating the contest and kicking like champions. Feeling good about it.

 

[MUFKilda]

The Giants website has their cheer squad at the southern (western) end, so we’ll be on the northern (eastern) end.

What percentage of the crowd would normally be Saints fans in an away game like this?

 

[stavro#4]

To be fair Stav, this is what you were told throughout last season when you told everyone on rinse and repeat we just had a height and intercepting issue missing Dougald Howard and Max King

To be fair little creatures. What do you think Wilkie is supposed to be doing when he should be guarding the space JVR is leading into?

Intercepting.

And that height issue. Believe Ross addressed that directly as an issue he wanted fixed and we did

 

[JG22]

What percentage of the crowd would normally be Saints fans in an away game like this?

Maybe 15-20 I’m guessing

In finals they seem to be outnumbered

 

[pebblesofsand]

Been watching a few games to start of the season and now I have serious doubts we will win much more than 6 to 8 games this season.

Game style has moved on and unfortunately we will be stuck with a style and a type of player that is no longer relevant.

Rebound of the back half has its place but its got to be matched with an array of players who can run fast, can kick and can handball.

If you don't have that then your entries inside 50 are like ours - ordinary.

So NAS/Sinclair have to spend most of their time in the back half.