Preview Round 4, 2019: St.Kilda v Hawthorn - Marvel Stadium, Sunday 14th April, 3:20PM AEST *BLUE RIBBON CUP*

[Moral Decay]

We have O'Meara, who has poor DE and 2 second year kids as our starting mids. Howe if he is fit is a big body and a reliable tagger. Then bits and pieces. Wings have tended to set up behind the ball so soon form our 7 or 8 back line configuration.

You haven't watched our midfield have you?

 

[StCicatriz]

We have O'Meara, who has poor DE and 2 second year kids as our starting mids. Howe if he is fit is a big body and a reliable tagger. Then bits and pieces. Wings have tended to set up behind the ball so soon form our 7 or 8 back line configuration.

yeah but clarko

if shits into his own hands and turns it into an 10x AA midfielder

 

[pebblesofsand]

B Geary Brown Webster

HB Savage Battle Wilkie

C Acres Steele Billings

HFF Parker Bruce Membrey

F Lonie Marshall Gresh

Rucks Longer Ross Steven

Int Dunstan McKenzie Newnes Clark

 

[lewdogs]

Hawks have a lot of injuries to key players. Hopefully we can exploit that. This is winnable.

 

[Mattysaints]

It will be interesting to see how we address the Hawks two-prong ruck attack. Wouldn't surprise me if we bring in Longer.

Please no longer. It will be a good test for Marshall and a test of how he performs against two quality rucks.

I can’t bear to see a decent ruck contest followed by ABSOLUTELY nothing else. Pierce/longer both have unfortunately been unable to contribute around the ground, all the can do is ruck.

I am living in hope Marshall is the answer we have been waiting for!!

 

[Premium]

It will not happen this week or next , but I want Marsh given more time for Sandy and bring him into the team - by the sounds the guy is a very good player , could play him anywhere - mid , key back , key back - get him fit and play him.
I also want Coffield playing as a mid at Sandy - please get the kid playing as a onballer , to classy to be put as a half back.0

 

[Greg1853]

In Rod we trust!

Has Rocket Owen got out of the clink yet? He'd be pretty handy right about now!

He would be handy, but his good may be offset by the amount of 100m penalties he would give away

 

[Stewart66]

you forgot vardy too, so thats 4

and they rest Hickey forward , when Vardy rucks .


If Stkilda hack the ball quickly to half forward line , we will get killed by 10 goals.

Hawks zone off , the last time I looked they were No 1 taking Intercept marks ,they generate scores from
turnover.. Breust , Poppy , Wingard rely on the ball over the back run with speed into open goal.
They use Isaac Smith & Gunston as their connector...pretty much their most important players

Slow play they bomb to Mc Evoy & Ceglar.

For me Stkilda win only if we don’t give what Hawthorn want .

They won’t want for mine.

Battle / Membrey / Bruce as forward targets
Wilkie on Gunston
Webster on Breust
Geary on Isaac Smith
Hind on Poppy giving us run off half back.

Brown & Joyce as defenders on their talls.

 

[lewdogs]

and they rest Hickey forward , when Vardy rucks .


If Stkilda hack the ball quickly to half forward line , we will get killed by 10 goals.

Hawks zone off , the last time I looked they were No 1 taking Intercept marks ,they generate scores from
turnover.. Breust , Poppy , Wingard rely on the ball over the back run with speed into open goal.
They use Isaac Smith & Gunston as their connector...pretty much their most important players

Slow play they bomb to Mc Evoy & Ceglar.

For me Stkilda win only if we don’t give what Hawthorn want .

They won’t want for mine.

Battle / Membrey / Bruce as forward targets
Wilkie on Gunston
Webster on Breust
Geary on Isaac Smith
Hind on Poppy giving us run off half back.

Brown & Joyce as defenders on their talls.

All good to want Battle thrown forward but he is playing very well as a backman. Would be strange to throw him into a different position given how well he's playing. Might be that he's a better back than forward, a la Sicily.

 

[Max the great]

Steven long young in

Out dunstan sinclair one of parker kent or lonie all avg

This. Parker and Lonie have been good this year can't drop them. But Kent has been absolutely rubbish. So it's Kent.

Parker needs to play every week IMO. Has crazy x factor and potential and gives his all. The only way you drop him is if his effort disappears.

 

[Sainteric]

I’m sorry but stats don’t show that hit outs equate to clearance. We had more to advantage this week yet got beaten in clearances. If longer could tap it like Gawn I might agree but he more of a hitter than a pure tap ruck

I totally agree with that but the Freo ruck got it cleanly to his midfield at least 6 times, Marshall didn't once that I recall.

 

[plugger66]

I totally agree with that but the Freo ruck got it cleanly to his midfield at least 6 times, Marshall didn't once that I recall.

That could easily be a set up problem. Or as I keep saying we need hit outs to disadvantage. Unfortunately we have a very small midfield compared to freo. The hawks aren’t that big in the midfield and maybe we will have our best midfielder back.

 

[sammm]

It will be interesting to see how we address the Hawks two-prong ruck attack. Wouldn't surprise me if we bring in Longer.

why would you bring in longer after only 1 vfl game. i doubt that will happen

 

[sammm]

Ive read alot of posts on here and i think people are being a bit over the top . Yes we lost and didnt play that well , but we only lost by 5 points and won our previous two games . I dont see Richo making many changes , probably Stuv in for Clarke will probably be it . If it was me i would be playing Clarke as much as possible but i think the other players dont deserve to be dropped yet . Sinclair had a quiet game but as been good in the other two . The only player under threat in my opinion might be Kent but i think they will give him more time.
I would also be looking at playing both Marshall and Pierce given Hawks rucking challenge but im not sure who they would drop to make way for Pierce.

Why not young for Kent?

 

[The_Steadier]

Which tall forward comes in?

Marshall fwd, longer in.

6-6-6 baby

 

[The_Steadier]

Geary has to tag Issac Smith on the wing if we want to win this game. He was outstanding last year in that role and him getting concussed in the last quarter could have been the difference between winning and losing. I would like to see Hind come in to replace Geary in the backline.

I too like the idea of geary on the wing.

Not because he'd be a great wingman- but unlike every other option we have- he can win his own ball.

We're gonna win more games of football with 15 geary helicopter kicks going our way than we will from 5 sinclair/acres etc passes

 

[The_Steadier]

Won’t that be a good day.

No pressure kid... just replicate a once in a generation superstar from game 1 and we'll all like you

Reckon we should start asking him now about how he feels about captaincy.

Hope we have enough tape for those shoulders!

 

[CaptainRisky]

It will not happen this week or next , but I want Marsh given more time for Sandy and bring him into the team - by the sounds the guy is a very good player , could play him anywhere - mid , key back , key back - get him fit and play him.
I also want Coffield playing as a mid at Sandy - please get the kid playing as a onballer , to classy to be put as a half back.0

Sorry Premo i disagree with that statement , yes we drafted him hoping he is gong to be a mid , maybe he is best suited off the back flank , plenty of great players have played that role as its super important to have someone who can use the ball well rebounding aka JJ for the doggies at his best just to name one.
Coff is a classy player and maybe we just need to bite the bullet and put him on a back flank and let him learn the craft before trying him in the guts

 

[Yawkey way]

Steven is the one automatic inclusion if he’s available.

Billing’s, Sinclair, lonie and co have gone back when dropped and absolutely killed it 35-45 possession stuff on some occasions. Why would a guy who is full of promise but light on for actual production be an automatic in when he was bloody ordinary by most reports I’ve read at sandy.

Kent, Sinclair, Acres and any other wipping boy stay in imo until someone kicks the door down at sandy or their form is so bad they must be dropped. They might not have been great but nobody was terrible on Sunday so long, hind, young etc need to step up if they want in.

Hell you could change half the team every week if the criteria was they weren’t great and I want to see insert name play, doubt we’ll win too many with that selection policy.

 

[WhiskySaint]

I’ve been thinking pretty hard about our best 22 for our game style and have some to the below semi conclusions.

Backline wise, no way we make a change. We have had the 4 least scores against this year with a pretty poor midfield. Backline is doing very well.

Forward line could do with some tweaking though. I’m on the two marking target train given our game is based around repeat entries and pressure. However, Acres isn’t bring much pressure, but did give an important contest in the air at times. I think Parker needs to improve in this area. Parker is 190cm, with a good leap and could play a third tall role but also bring pressure at ground level.

We struggled with moving the ball on Sunday and I’d like to see more speed to break the lines and find the corridor more. Steven obviously needs to come in, but I also think we missed Longs leading up the ground. I’d combine that with Hinds ability to open up the ground.

All the above has missed the point to a degree though. Our midfield is performing poorly both offensively and defensively. Ross, Dunstan and Steele doesn’t work, they are too slow. None of them deserve to be dropped on last game, so not sure what to do.

I would ask Steele to play Dunstans role and ask Ross to play Steele’s. Ross used to be a good tagger, and I think if Steele wasn’t minding his man he could be at the bottom of the pack. We could then replace Dunstan with Steven/Gresh/Long/Parker who gives a bit more speed.

So depending if Parker can play the third tall role, and if Steele can play Dunstans role the changes I’d make are.

Kent for Long
Dunstan for Steven
Sinclair for Hind

Aces stays but spends more time up the ground on ball or on a wing.

 

[The_Steadier]

Acres for an inanimate carbon rod

You'd need to find a big bodied, nat fyfe clone carbon rod if you were to make it a like for like replacement.

 

[The_Steadier]

The Hawks have a glaring weekness in Connor Nash. How do we best exploit him?

We apply our patented 'zac dawson' defence and recruit him.

 

[Stewart66]

All good to want Battle thrown forward but he is playing very well as a backman. Would be strange to throw him into a different position given how well he's playing. Might be that he's a better back than forward, a la Sicily.

This. Parker and Lonie have been good this year can't drop them. But Kent has been absolutely rubbish. So it's Kent.

Parker needs to play every week IMO. Has crazy x factor and potential and gives his all. The only way you drop him is if his effort disappears.

Just my opinion

Battle was played back , because we had an excess number of forwards with McCartin in the team .

Think it’s fantastic education for him long term , but the whole purpose of the exercise is to win games.
we have a player in Joyce that has improved out of sight not playing , Battle was touted as swingman
to play forward or back whatever is greater need , until Max King starts playing the need is forward.

In the coming weeks we will have Marsh , Clavarino , King returning , haven’t included McCartin in the
conversation but he was 6 weeks ago their whole planning was about having 3 marking options forward.

By the way Sicily has played forward & back this year , they play him where the greatest need is too.

 

[Brains Trust66]

Why not young for Kent?

actually i would consider that myself but Richo hates making changes so the view i gave was what i think the Saints will do .
But i do think that Kent deserves at least another week but if he gets dropped i wont be too upset if Young is the one who comes in .

 

[Jade Buddha]

Acres was ordinary to say the least but I think you’ve got to give him a 2nd.
Not sure who goes out for Stuv. Sincs did himself no favour on the weekend