Autopsy 2019: It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

[bergholt]

Discuss.

 

[bergholt]

Here's our total score vs the teams in each ladder spot:

1st - Geelong: -27
2nd - Brisbane: -56 (two games)
3rd - Collingwood: -41
4th - West Coast: -18
5th - Richmond: -33
6th - GWS: -44
7th - Essendon: +11
8th - Western Bulldogs: +27
9th - Hawthorn: +5
10th - Adelaide: -51 (two games)
11th - Port Adelaide: -70
12th - North Melbourne: -39
13th - Fremantle: -2 (two games)
14th
15th - Sydney: -45
16th - Carlton: +3 (two games)
17th - Melbourne: +59 (two games)
18th - Gold Coast: +5 (two games)

We had a pretty easy draw, only catching one top 8 side twice. But the only team we were clearly better than head-to-head was Melbourne. We split the games with Carlton and beat Gold Coast twice by a total of 5 points - neither of those look convincing.


Our average winning margin was 13.7 points. Another way to look at the ladder is percentage:

Geelong 136%
Brisbane 121%
Collingwood 118%
GWS 114%
West Coast 114%
Richmond 113%
Hawthorn 108%
Western Bulldogs 106%
Adelaide 103%
Port Adelaide 103%
North Melbourne 100%
Sydney 98%
Essendon 95%
Fremantle 94%
Carlton 85%
St Kilda 84%
Melbourne 79%
Gold Coast 61%


Pretty clearly we were in the bottom few sides in the comp by all measures except maybe premiership points, pretty lucky (or unlucky) to finish above Sydney in the end. Their draw was a bit harder (Geelong twice, GWS twice, Essendon twice, Carlton twice, Melbourne twice).


Yes, we had injuries. But gee we'd have to see a lot of improvement next year to push for finals, let alone be better than that any time soon.

 

[Phoenix_9]

Positives, Marshall, top 5 ruckman, come from absolutely nowhere.
Hunter Clark arrived.
Billings had a good season on the wing.
Bruce and Membrey are good key forwards.
Battle had a break out season as KD and Wilkie has been a bloody good mature age pick up.
Hannebery shown a bit since being fit, will be even more damaging next year, I reckon they’ve sorted his body.
Steele’s a gun.
Dunstan actually a pretty strong finish to the year.
Stuv still has a killer mullet!

 

[wolfpup]

Excluding 2018 shambles, this year, like 2016 and 2017 we just were not up to it when we had big games that we had to win.

This year we started great, just lost to freo and then had a big game against adelaide and got smacked at marvel stadium. We had a mini slump and then got a win against gold coast with a big game against brisbane at home to revive our season and got smacked. Post richo, we get on a mini roll, have a huge game against Adelaide and got smacked.

I felt we have been in more games this year than usual (like leading against geelong and the pies late into the 3rd), but shanghai was a disaster game and the brisbane game was a shock as it felt that we were way of the pace.

We only beat 2 sides in the 8 and need to somehow find a way to beat the adelaide teams and west coast before we can get better.

Anyways, standouts were:

Marshall (amazing)
Battle (really impressive)
Wilkie (plays like a 200 gamer)
Hind (pace, my god do we need pace)
Parker was great earlier in the season
Hunter Clark, finally a 1st round pick that looks like a jet

9 wins for the season is about where we would have thought we would have finished up. We just lost to Freo over there and gave up a 4 goal lead to Carlton so we may have finished with 11 wins but a terribad percentage would not have made a difference in making finals (and we just beat gold coast twice).

Better year than 2018, there were a few weeks i was quite pumped as a saints supporter.

 

[kernelT]

Very disappointing finish to another disappointing year.

We looked worse overall when we had our closest 'best 22' all year.

I'm not against Hill or B King, but I think they are conflicting directions for the club… If we go the long path with another young KP player, then I think we stick to the draft rather than bring in Hill who will be past his best before we are challenging and the Kings are offering anything meaningful.

Sure things can turn quickly but we don't have A graders in the midfield that we can rely on, let alone 3 or 4 like the better sides do. Billings is going great, but he doesn't influence games from the centre square.

The Marshall rise was very fortunate, had that not occurred the year would be so much worse… dumb luck which I guess we were due.

We had a few good wins, but those numbers show that we haven't improved much from last year.

A lot of players should be on the table as our draft hand is shite and we're talking about trading out the few picks we have.

The next coach has a tough gig.

Watching a fellow middling club like Hawthorn looking a million bucks, beating the reigning premiers in Perth is a bitter pill to swallow. Plus they get a brownlow medalist back next year.

 

[bergholt]

Marshall obviously the standout shining light this year.

Battle, Clark, Wilkie all very positive, should be good AFL players but do need to keep improving.

Coffield, Paton, Hind, Parker all look like they might be players but have a long way to go and wouldn't have played so many games without our injuries.

Gresh will be better next year after a year in the midfield and with another preseason for his tank. Hanners will hopefully play a lot more next year. Jake could be handy with a full preseason. Gears and Jimmy should play more next year. Langlands didn't look completely out of place. We'll hopefully see Winx next year.

So I guess it's not all doom and gloom but I'd love to have a bit more to hope for.

 

[CaptainRisky]

Here's our total score vs the teams in each ladder spot:

1st - Geelong: -27
2nd - Brisbane: -56 (two games)
3rd - Collingwood: -41
4th - West Coast: -18
5th - Richmond: -33
6th - GWS: -44
7th - Essendon: +11
8th - Western Bulldogs: +27
9th - Hawthorn: +5
10th - Adelaide: -51 (two games)
11th - Port Adelaide: -70
12th - North Melbourne: -39
13th - Fremantle: -2 (two games)
14th
15th - Sydney: -45
16th - Carlton: +3 (two games)
17th - Melbourne: +59 (two games)
18th - Gold Coast: +5 (two games)

We had a pretty easy draw, only catching one top 8 side twice. But the only team we were clearly better than head-to-head was Melbourne. We split the games with Carlton and beat Gold Coast twice by a total of 5 points - neither of those look convincing.


Our average winning margin was 13.7 points. Another way to look at the ladder is percentage:

Geelong 136%
Brisbane 121%
Collingwood 118%
GWS 114%
West Coast 114%
Richmond 113%
Hawthorn 108%
Western Bulldogs 106%
Adelaide 103%
Port Adelaide 103%
North Melbourne 100%
Sydney 98%
Essendon 95%
Fremantle 94%
Carlton 85%
St Kilda 84%
Melbourne 79%
Gold Coast 61%


Pretty clearly we were in the bottom few sides in the comp by all measures except maybe premiership points, pretty lucky (or unlucky) to finish above Sydney in the end. Their draw was a bit harder (Geelong twice, GWS twice, Essendon twice, Carlton twice, Melbourne twice).


Yes, we had injuries. But gee we'd have to see a lot of improvement next year to push for finals, let alone be better than that any time soon.

Great write up mate , we had way too many on here thinking we were a finals team after round 4 and then again after we beat up on our Bunnies Melbourne , There is a power of work to be done on the ground and behind the scenes to get this list to a state that it looks like a finals list not a bottom 4 list.
I sure dont expect miracles but i will stick by the club and turn up each week even if it is only for the furphy's

 

[Mikka84]

I don’t know really..

If you look at the year as a whole it’s hard to argue anything but a fail and disappointment. If you look where we really are, last few years, we’re in a second rebuild. We don’t have the top 6 players to match any top 8 sides. If you say we’re 2 years into that rebuild, I think it’s ok. We’ve found some good young players. It’ll take another year or two ( I hope ) and the light should be shining.

But can’t hide from the fact that will be a decade without finals. Not good enough from any professional side.

 

[bennymc7]

A Grade Performers- Marshall, Billings...

Pleasant Surprises- Battle, Clark, Wilkie, Coffield, Gresh, Hind

Slightly Disappointed but persist- Long, Steele, Hannebery, Acres, Lonie post injury, Carlisle

Move off (2s or Trade)- Newnes, Sinclair, Savage, Dunstan

We need to transform our list pretty severely this off season, get rid of poorly skilled players to either Sandy or other clubs. Facelift required

 

[Keg on legs]

Twice as many wins as last year

Equally as deflating at the end

 

[George]

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

And that there sums up the issue. Too many non match winning scores

 

[lewdogs]

I think in a nutshell, we unearthed some very good players this year, and I think we are shaping up ok going forward. We seem to be attracting good players which is great. I think Hannebery will end up being a very good pick up.

Our main issue seems to be our forward line. Very few of our standout players in 2019 were forwards.

It looks like we nailed Coffield/Clark. Marshall is a jet. Gresh, Billings, very good.

The goalkicking issues just won't go away.

 

[bergholt]

I think Hannebery will end up being a very good pick up.

Based on hearing him speak since he’s been back out on the park, he’s surely captain next year. Vice at the very least.

 

[BrutThough]

Based on hearing him speak since he’s been back out on the park, he’s surely captain next year. Vice at the very least.

Hopefully we send a camera crew down to old mate purples house to capture his reaction when this happens. Will be hilarious.

 

[hayes]

Happy that we improved from last year and that we at least have something to work with going forward. Last year it looked like there was almost no hope.

Unfortunately 8-10 wins looks like the ceiling for this group and it won’t change until we fix the midfield.

Good:

- Marshall’s rise to a top ruckmen.

- Gresham’s improvement playing more midfield.

-Billings finding probably his best form. Should’ve been doing this three years ago but what can you do.

- Dunstan’s contested form.

- Mature aged guys but Wilkie in particular. All I need to say to summarise him is he should be playing for Hawthorn.

- Hunter Clark.

- Josh Battle.

- Bruce and Membrey solid as always.

Disappointing:

- Steele. Yay tackles....all his other stats went down. A tagger is nice but he was meant to be more than that. Even his tagging form wasn’t as good as last year.

- Sticking with a crap coach for far too long.

Plenty of positives but nobody will be shocked if I say we don’t have anywhere near enough for finals let alone a flag, which is extremely frustrating after rebuilding for so bloody long.

 

[Lenny2020]

Hopefully we send a camera crew down to old mate purples house to capture his reaction when this happens. Will be hilarious.

I can already see the Sliding Doors...

'IF the Hannebery deal was a success...THEN he would not have been made captain. A desperate move by a desperate club trying to cover up this colossal mistake of a trade.'

 

[karaoke]

Need to get smarter in front/forward of the ball to make it easier for those delivering/with the ball.

 

[Baldur]

A wasted year. Just treading water.

 

[Tony1971]

I was very impressed with young Lonie’s start to the year , it was a shame he got injured when he did , why wasnt it 50 ? , he did struggle when he came back but im sure his knee still wasnt 100% . Might be a big year for him next year hopefully .

Marshall was simply amazing , came out of nowhere , he was third inline to be ruckman over preseason but injuries to Pierce and Longer meant he was virtually thrown to the wolves as Saints had no other option . He finished the year as number 1 ruckman as well as one of the best young ruckmen in the league .

Very happy with continued improvement of Billings and Steele and Gresham .

Wilkie , Parker and Hind were all great pickups .

Paton and Clark and Coffield are going to be good , Clark might even be great .

Membrey and Bruce battled hard as usual , it was usually the delivery that made it hard for them .

I thought it was another good year for Ross .
Both Kent and Hanneberry showed they will be goodfor the team next year as both give us more options in midfield and forward .

We missed Geary , Carlisle , Lonie and Webster for long periods .

And major long term injuries for so many other players meant we could never play our best side at any stage .

We may lose a few through injury retirements for next year , perhaps Longer , McCartin , Pierce and Robbo must all be doubtful to play on .

Still looking forward to seeing how King and Bytel can play although i dont expect either to play too much next year as they are so young .

Well thats my first comment on here , hope it isnt too long .


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[George]

 

[MUFKilda]

The season started well and provided cause for optimism, but it then quickly reverted to type. Better than last year (though it would be impossible to be worse) I suppose nine wins is about right. As mentioned above, there were some bright spots, particularly big Marshall, but the squad needs a big improvement. Most of the defeats weren't catastrophic, we just didn't have enough quality when it mattered. Once again kicking accuracy wasn't good enough.

The big story, of course, was Richo's departure, which had to happen. We need the fresh start.

Overall another year of 'hard yakka' (when is it anything else? ) and big changes needed.

I can't wait for 2020!

 

[Mikka84]

Twice as many wins as last year

Equally as deflating at the end

Truth

 

[saintsrfreak]

lol, it did always feel like our inaccuracy was annoyingly compounded by the accuracy of whoever we were playing against this year. Pretty impressive by Dicko.

 

[Saintbloke]

Good intensity to hold the opposition and just get across the line for early wins, but my worry was that the forward line had no system and wasn't kicking reasonable scores, and that was a always going to catch us out.