5 things I learned from R21

[karmafree]

1. Ross Lyon is to sentimental.Fine to be loyal, but not when it costs you games.

2. The real tragedy is than Smith, Heyne, Lynch, Cahil, Johnson, Simpkin arn't in contention for games after being in the system long enough, and our recent talent are all injured. Thus lack of pressure being applied to current players getting a game.

3. Horses for courses , bullshit, where was Baker V Davis match up.

4. Kicking skill has cost us two grand finals. Whoever is in charge of kicking sack them now, don't wait. Anyone remember when Hudson straightened out Lowe?

5. Damning stats revealed at 1/2 time about goals kicked by Roo in second half of games, he has only kicked 5 second half goals for the season. Play him at CHF first half, then full forward for the second. BJ CHF for the second 1/2.

 

[SamFisher25]

1. i liked raph on brown
2. johnson v gilbert (johnson)
3. gardiner in the ruck ben goes forward with roo and kosi
4. we're competitive but need to improve
5. the blake to start against sydney

 

[Superduperouzel]

1. Yarran cannot run riot like Davis when we play the Blues
2. Need a few upsets starting with tigers v swans , bullies v bombers to help our cause
3. Sydney match is huge now even moreso if point 2 happens. Cannot afford to take Roos lightly . I would not care if we shut it down like last time we played them.
Blues match is gonna be a ripper as they are probably still in contention for top 4 and we will be hunting a home final.
4. McEvoy´s contested marking is outstanding. Around the ground work is terrific. Huge heart .Would be fantastic to have him clunk a few resting at FF.
5. Our backline is coping well without Gwilt but forward line structure is failing us at times. Need one of Gamble , Lynch , Walsh ,Johnson , Archer to play 3rd tall to help Roo out. Our disposal into F50 is terrible at times which doesnt help matters.

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

1. Our kicking skills are deplorable. Gilbert, Peake, Gram, Dempster just burn the balls at times, and despite having other qualities that are good. It just kills us.

5. Armitage far to often goes missing. 1 touch up until half time, no matter where you are playing, is just not good enough. Doesn't work hard enough going forward and that's been the query on him since draft day. And still is today. Jack Steven has gone WOOOSSHH straight past him. Also McEvoy is brilliant

These two are good points. Watch how many times Collingwood were able to move the ball from arc to arc without it hitting the ground. We continually miss targets under no pressure.

Armitage just can't find enough of the ball. There were plenty of stoppages in our forward 50 and I didn't see him "dominate". Yet, it'll be our fault if he leaves. Give me a spell. FWIW he won't be going anywhere.

1
4. We gave away 3 goals by playing back from frees from the half way line. You can't chip it around down back against the pies, their press is too quick and too tight. If you can't find a man up forward and don't want to bomb it on, then you're better off kicking to the forward pocket and then trying to keep the ball in the forward 50.

You can move it backwards against the Pies press. The key is to move it quickly. Once you mark the ball, move it. This failed to happen. I like the way we played the first 15 mins of the game. Very attacking. Then we went back into our shells and coughed up 3 goals. Disappointing.

 

[saber_32au]

1). Improve our kicking skills.

Really goes without saying. Too many turnovers, too many gifts to opposition players, we really need to work on this. Dal Santo, for all his possession last night, was only 33% or so efficient by foot. Not good enough for an elite player. This point applies to the whole team. We need to improve if we are going to be a threat come September.

2) Need another tall forward.

Gamble, who has been playing well (while he's been in) plays more of a lead up role with Roo. Unfortunately he isn't tall enough to attract a big defender. Hence, Roo/Kosi (who are the moment are our only tall forwards) a constantly double teamed. We need anther tall power forward to stretch the top oppositions defences, and make them more accountable. I can only really see Walsh and Johnson (depending on form) filling this role at the moment...

3) Goddard should play in defense/midfield.

This is a "Rob Peter to pay Paul" situation. While I don't doubt Goddard couldn't play well as a forward (if the forwards had decent delivery to them, see point 1), I feel his greatest influence is in defense/midfield. With the loss of Gwilt, we are down 1 attacking defender, and more importantly, an elite long kick. Opposition teams have learned from Chad Cornes how to negate Fisher influence. We need Goddard down back to sure up the defence, and provide an elite kick out from our defensive 50 to setup attacks going forward.

4) Drop a defender.

I felt for this match we were too defence heavy. Without Gamble, and the inclusion of Dawson, we were 1 forward down. Our avenues to goal dried up. We need to drop a defender, and bring in a big forward.

5) Blake is not the answer as a sub.

As much as I like Blake, he aint no sub. I thought Geary was doing a fine job as a sub for the past couple of weeks. I feel that the sub is a player needs to be quick, can break the lines, and deliver the ball long. Geary forfilled all those criteria. I do feel for the boy, and wish we could give him a full match, but at the moment, I don't see who should he replace in the current team.

 

[SA1NTER]

One from an oppostion supporter put Hayes and Gwilt back in trade for another key fwd to help Roo and you guys are contenders.

Agree with this.

 

[sauce_head]

I doubt Hayes has much value for his remaining two or so seasons, especially for a key forward. And i also doubt may other teams rate Gwilt.

 

[saintsrfreak]

I doubt Hayes has much value for his remaining two or so seasons, especially for a key forward. And i also doubt may other teams rate Gwilt.

I think he meant to put a comma in between "in" and "trade"

 

[Strahany]

I think he meant to put a comma in between "in" and "trade"

Good pick up

 

[sauce_head]

That would make more sense.

 

[TTTT]

1 lack a big game goalkicker
2 dont make the most of opportunities
3 leak to many easy goals
4 mcvoy will be a superstar
5 Need to win last 3 games to be any threat in finals

 

[Papa Juggs]

Our gameplan is very complex. It has to be to get anywhere near Collingwood or Geelong.

It's when our best players are matched up that our bottom 6 needs to use the ball well.

When they don't its often a goal against us before we can blink.

I don't care who you are if we're trusting you to move the ball you need to do the best job possible.

1. We need to stop dinky kicking. Needs to be low and hard and thumping your team mate in the chest.

2. Stop kicking absolutely everything inside forward 50m at the first oppotunity, that's where all the seagulls are, I know you need to play on fast and furious and take risks these days but you can't just give the footy away.

3. Our forward line sucks, Milne can't cope against Collingwood.

4. Gilbert is a gun, just needs to back himself to take more grabs. He's really fallen off the amount of marks he was getting and I'm not sure why.

5. We really miss Hayes getting clearances, running backwards because we can't win a ball out of the middle almost at all just kills us. "Jolly taps down to Swan/Ball" is all I was hearing from the bounces.

 

[Persevering Saint]

1. Gamble - or some other mid-tall forward - is utterly essential to our forward structure.

2. Determination, tackling, and guts will keep us in the game - but we need more to win it.

3. Misson needs to let our forwards practice their goal-kicking more - for all his fears about potential injury from such practice, plenty of other teams are obviously practicing their goal kicking more than we are, and not having injuries. It's killing us.

4. Dean Polo is actually going to be a fine player - down on Friday night for clearances (which is a bummer), but I loved him getting space in the forward line twice. Two goals would have sounded much better for him than 1.1.

5. Armo is quickly losing his "we should have played him all these years" brownie-points. He did bugger all, even when he WAS moved into the clearances. Steven, and even Polo have now surpassed him. Come next year with Cripps, Ledger etc coming through, and Lenny back, he is very close to a depth player.

 

[Cro19]

1 Dawson is clearly the best FB we have, anyone who says otherwise is delusional.

2. A Fit Clint Jones is actually a bloody good player.

3. Our defence can hold up against the best.

4. Obvious one, disposal quality was the difference. Our I50's for hte majority of the game were playing into the Pies hands. Davis n Johnson were just standing in the vicinity of Riewoldt waiting for the bomb.. Pies players then make sure the ball moves to the back of the pack into the hands of these guys and off they go.
Still trying to work out if Davis was manning any one or not? His agility to run out of defence wasn't even needed. It was actually embarassing to watch.

5. Blake as sub didn't work.
Also we've tried that forward line against Pies before and it didn't work, very confused why we tried it again using the same plan of bomb to Roo.

While the kicking to Riewoldt was pretty rubbish, on tv it looked like he gave up on a pass that didn't go exactly where he wanted it. Reid is very good, but sometimes it looked like Roo was that pissed off he just let himself be nudged out the way. Then turn and share his displeasure at the kick.