Preview Round 2, 2019: Essendon v St.Kilda - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 30th March, 4:35PM AEDT

[plugger66]

I don;t know how to tag you so I just quoted your last post. But the question is, if you were coach, does Clark play this weekend?

Hope so but don’t think so.

 

[VDS66]

Just watching the highlights.

Does anyone know if Luke's shoulder is sore? He may not be available.

 

[Yawkey way]

Clark looks like your typical inside-outside mid to me. Similar to Pendlebury & Bont. Good hands, evasive & highly skilled.

Let’s be honest he’s impressive at times but tends to go missing and fade out of games.

That’s to be expected at his age and in a side that struggled to win games, I hope he improves enough to cement his spot by the end of the year. St Kilda simply can’t afford to gift players games while we waste another season or two as Carlton have done. The noise around the club for various reasons including richo’s fate make that impossible at least until we’re well out of contention for finals.

I was very pleased we picked up bytel and going forward there is no reason barring injury why both he and Clark won’t be fixtures in the middle for us.

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

Let’s be honest he’s impressive at times but tends to go missing and fade out of games.

That’s to be expected at his age and in a side that struggled to win games, I hope he improves enough to cement his spot by the end of the year. St Kilda simply can’t afford to gift players games while we waste another season or two as Carlton have done. The noise around the club for various reasons including richo’s fate make that impossible at least until we’re well out of contention for finals.

I was very pleased we picked up bytel and going forward there is no reason barring injury why both he and Clark won’t be fixtures in the middle for us.

I feel like a lot of his fade outs are because he gets benched.. or moved to the forward pocket. Often Im like, where is clark? right, he's on the bench.

But I mean he's probably gassed so makes sense. But when he's in the middle he has a pretty good disposals to TOG ratio

 

[Max the great]

Is it time to bring him in and rotate Stuv, Clark and Steele?

Was time last week

 

[Max the great]

Clark looks like your typical inside-outside mid to me. Similar to Pendlebury & Bont. Good hands, evasive & highly skilled.

Yep. And we leave him out rd1. Clever

 

[gringo2011]

Yes that TOG was a bit odd for him. Maybe we just had too many small forwards?

If I were to drop a small forward, I'd be bringing in Clark or Acres, not Young.

Dragged for kicking it out of bounds on the full twice?

 

[Impatient Saint]

Yep. And we leave him out rd1. Clever

I believe in horses for courses perhaps he didnt match up well against the Suns. With all the talk this week of midfield does anyone think Steele should go back to tagging the main opposition mid? To me he seemed to have a much greater impact when tagging last year.

I understand Richo concentrating on contested possessions and tackling, but we also had more clangers than any other team for the week. I hope at some stage we can find a balance between the two and not have to work so hard to continually win the ball back.

We won the clearances/stoppages etc against the Suns, but it would be interesting to see how many resulted in scores? To me it seemed apart from Ross hitting Bruce from the centre I thought the Suns clearances were more dangerous. Stats only tell part of a story - its like contested marking stats which dont include a player making a good lead and taking a mark out in front of his opponent or an intercept mark when there is no contact.

 

[Munga]

View attachment 642894

I wish I could ride JWeb to work everyday... dodge and weave through peak hour traffic at 34km/h. I reckon my average speed to work atm is under 20km/h ffs

 

[Big 0]

I think what's often forgotten when talking about Longer is that he makes makes our midfield better. He, himself, may not be able to do anything but win a hitout but our midfield performs better when he is in the side. And a stronger overall midfield is going to get us further than adding 10 possession to the ruckman.

I agree. Always thought that his competitiveness in the ruck and the physical protection/influence he asserts in the stoppage made up for his around the ground stuff because it allows, just as you say, our midfielders to perform better

 

[VDS66]

I believe in horses for courses perhaps he didnt match up well against the Suns. With all the talk this week of midfield does anyone think Steele should go back to tagging the main opposition mid? To me he seemed to have a much greater impact when tagging last year.

I understand Richo concentrating on contested possessions and tackling, but we also had more clangers than any other team for the week. I hope at some stage we can find a balance between the two and not have to work so hard to continually win the ball back.

We won the clearances/stoppages etc against the Suns, but it would be interesting to see how many resulted in scores? To me it seemed apart from Ross hitting Bruce from the centre I thought the Suns clearances were more dangerous. Stats only tell part of a story - its like contested marking stats which dont include a player making a good lead and taking a mark out in front of his opponent or an intercept mark when there is no contact.

I think Hunter might be in that twilight zone of endurance. Not enough to give him 80% time on ground, but he cant rest forward. Which means maybe 60% TOG.

 

[VDS66]

I agree. Always thought that his competitiveness in the ruck and the physical protection/influence he asserts in the stoppage made up for his around the ground stuff because it allows, just as you say, our midfielders to perform better

I agree. His body work is very good.

 

[Big 0]

My big issue with Kent , wasn't so much his lack lustre game, but the fact he only played half of it.
Well 63%.

Steele played 91% TOG.
Billings 90.5%
Ross 88.5 %
Lonie 81.2%
Gresham 72.9%
Dunstan 71.8%
Steven 70.9%

I'd rather take outside time off Ross and give him some bursts thought the middle. Give Gresh more of a rest so he can have more impact when he comes back on, even Dunstan may benefit.
Clark was getting 70-80% TOG by the end of last season.

91% TOG is crazy high for a midfielder. Cripps and Macrae types are 80-85ers

 

[Premium]

I think Hunter might be in that twilight zone of endurance. Not enough to give him 80% time on ground, but he cant rest forward. Which means maybe 60% TOG.

It's great having a strong list now, it's just difficult to pick the team.
However I feel they will only make at the most 3 changes to the team- Brown , Acres , Marshall.
Hunter , Coffield , Paton , Phillips , Young , Hind , Austin , White will get there chance during the year.

 

[Sir Skid]

Inside, and a very good one.

Has an incredible gate in his stride does Clarke.

Can't wait to see what Dr Spaceman does with that one.....

 

[Premium]

Where do you think he's best utilised?

In clearances or on the outside?

I see the problem that we lack a clearance player.

Until we address this and allow Stuv to run free, we will tread water.

Whatever it takes to win the midfield contest , would not surprise me Marshall play's this week and Acres , this should strength our midfield.

 

[DarkSaint]

The bombers will be breathing fire after being torched in the media. They will try and intimidate us from the first bounce. We need to put a few players on their arses so they go back into their shells.

 

[tomjoad]

This will be a hard game. I think if we play like we did in the JLT we are a good chance though. Agree with Dark Saint, the dopers will be out for a fight, which is why I doubt Dunstan will be dropped, he'll crack in...and keep his opponent honest, but we'll just have to make sure someone with better skills is shadowing him so that he doesn't have to kick or handball any distance. I really can't see changes happening. Would love Marshall, Clark & Acres, but just can't see it. I'm hoping to f*ck that the bulk of the players nerves have settled after GC...my mind keeps flashing to the Roos last year. If we can beat these bastards and plonk Shiel on his arse, we may just start rising from the ashes of the last year and a bit. One way or the other it should at least be better viewing than round one.

Go Saints.

 

[tomjoad]

Have Gresh follow Dunstan around, Dunstan flicks to Gresh, Gresh stabs a pass to a running Kent or Parker, who then boots a 60m goal, or bullets a pass to Bruce or Membrey. Good thing with that is that Dunstan goes to the bench, Gresh rests forward...Kent goes into the middle for a spell, round and round we go...get minutes into these guys legs, by round 10 we've got a team of multitasking goal kickers.

 

[bird_man]

Just watching the highlights.

Does anyone know if Luke's shoulder is sore? He may not be available.

He hasn't been mentioned in the injury list

 

[triggering bro]

Let’s be honest he’s impressive at times but tends to go missing and fade out of games.

That’s to be expected at his age and in a side that struggled to win games, I hope he improves enough to cement his spot by the end of the year. St Kilda simply can’t afford to gift players games while we waste another season or two as Carlton have done. The noise around the club for various reasons including richo’s fate make that impossible at least until we’re well out of contention for finals.

I was very pleased we picked up bytel and going forward there is no reason barring injury why both he and Clark won’t be fixtures in the middle for us.

Now more than ever will the coach/selection committee be selecting a 22 they trust to execute their gameplan & put in 100% because of the amount of pressure on the head coach to get results. No time for exposing young players to senior footy or developing them with AFL standard players surrounding them.

You’re right, that time may come when we are out of finals contention. Alternatively, the coaching team might have lower expectations that they are striving for & will still select the most trustworthy 22 to get them over 8 wins. A watch this space!

 

[triggering bro]

Has an incredible gate in his stride does Clarke.

Can't wait to see what Dr Spaceman does with that one.....

He’s a smooth mover isn’t he. He takes long strides & seems to cover a lot more ground than it first appears.

 

[triggering bro]

Yep. And we leave him out rd1. Clever

It told us a lot about the mindset of the coach & selection committee.

Two pertinent points:
1. Clark is not considered best 25 (considering injury toll), which may be due to various reasons ie fitness, ability to execute gameplan, trust, etc.
2. Development of young players is not a priority &/or the philosophy of the footy club is there’s no requirement to develop them through the AFL & the VFL will suffice.

Two schools or thought regarding the second point. Geelong played a bunch of year 1/2 players & beat the grand finalists.

St Kilda played no year 1/2 players however picked two year 1 mature recruits from state footy & also won.

Also depends on the quality of players you have around them. Perhaps Scott trusts Selwood, Danger, Duncan, etc to protect their young players & Richo doesn’t feel the same about his senior players.

Meh, just play Clark ffs.

 

[St Muir]

He’s a smooth mover isn’t he. He takes long strides & seems to cover a lot more ground than it first appears.

Despite that damn gate getting in the way

 

[Quixote]

The bombers will be breathing fire after being torched in the media. They will try and intimidate us from the first bounce. We need to put a few players on their arses so they go back into their shells.

Will they though and if they do how long will they keep it up?

I'm hoping there's bigger issues with the injectors, the sort of issues that you don't see teams recover from until after mid-season, by which stage of course the year is shot (and we've safely bagged 4 points).