Autopsy AFL 2021 Round 5 - Saints v Tigers Thurs April 15th 7:20pm EST (Marvel) Tigercast Link in OP!

[Andyy]

Hang on. Bolton Lynch Balta Prestia Short Martin - wheres the old age? They are good to go for another 5 years.
Chol CRD. You have great system coaches and admin. they are the keys to clubs.
Passing on Luke Beveridge to coach was the saints biggest mistake in the last 10 years. with petracca and Bontempelli a close second.

Prestia won't last forever, he's struggling yearly with injuries.

But largely you are right. Blokes from last night who have 5+ years in them:
Baker (23)
Graham (23)
Nankervis (26)
Castagna (24)
Rioli (24)
Aarts (26)
Short (25)
KMac (just 27)
Mansell (20)

Maybe Aarts and Mansell won't last, but the rest are all established best 22 players most weeks.

Main problem is replacing the top tier talent - Cotchin, Martin, Riewoldt. And probably finding another KPD to hang out with Balta.

But realistically there's no reason to think that the cliff is coming due to age.

Additionally, Richmond currently holds these picks for the draft (prior to last night's win):
- Pick 9 (from Geelong)
- Pick 15
- Pick 26 (from Saints)
- Pick 33
- Pick 42 (from GCS)
- Pick 51

 

[Cotchins Hair Piece]

I don’t know what part of St Kildas team is the worst? Is it the midfield?

 

[freddy mercury]

St. Kilda this year has won just as many quarters in the season as North, and that includes last night's game when St. Kilda won the first quarter so they could still easily be behind by the end of this week.

But they have points

 

[Ron The Bear]

100% agree, but while we keep being defending premiers then those key older players have every right to stay on and keep pushing for one more.
I think whether we win the flag this year will have a big impact on how many of those players stay on.
I also don't see players like Dusty or Edwards slowing down too much any time soon, even if they are over 30

Absolutely. I'm not advocating pensioning anyone off purely because they're getting old. It'll happen when they can no longer get it done. Three losses in a row at +2.90, +0.96, +2.20 for a coach who was 72-16 with the older team, would've been a telltale sign IMO. Crisis averted.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

I don’t know what part of St Kildas team in the worst? Is it the midfield?

it is, midfield has been very very lazy and unskilled.

No defender is going to look good with 60 inside 50 entries and no forwards are going to look good with the shithouse entry (Although King tried his best to cover for the midfield)

 

[Plugger35]

You'd be happy to finish 2nd last with the oldest list in the competition?

Also good job if you destroy North... 3 clubs already beat you to it and we're 4 rounds in.

Saints bad is really bad and if they come across a flared up North like they did against Essendon or Richmond, I would think North would win.

The original post wasn't meant to highlight a positive for North rather a negative for St. Kilda.

The average age of our list is skewed by a handful of older guys like Ryder, Frawley, Geary, Hannebery and McKernan, none of whom played last night and won't be around much longer, the majority of our team is still quite young.

I also don't see us losing to North even if we play as badly as we did against Essendon or Richmond and with Marshall and Ryder returning to the team we won't play that badly again.

 

[Infamy]

The average age of our list is skewed by a handful of older guys like Ryder, Frawley, Geary, Hannebery and McKernan, none of whom played last night and won't be around much longer, the majority of our team is still quite young.

Actually it's the complete opposite, you have no more 30+ year olds than most lists. The reason that the entire list profile is the oldest is the lack of kids coming through from trading away so many picks for players in the last few years.

 

[SunshineBoy]

Hang on. Bolton Lynch Balta Prestia Short Martin - wheres the old age? They are good to go for another 5 years.
Chol CRD. You have great system coaches and admin. they are the keys to clubs.
Passing on Luke Beveridge to coach was the saints biggest mistake in the last 10 years. with petracca and Bontempelli a close second.

Add Jack Graham that is to that list, and Baker and the GOAT Castanga, we think they are old because they have three flags

 

[SunshineBoy]

The average age of our list is skewed by a handful of older guys like Ryder, Frawley, Geary, Hannebery and McKernan, none of whom played last night and won't be around much longer, the majority of our team is still quite young.

I also don't see us losing to North even if we play as badly as we did against Essendon or Richmond and with Marshall and Ryder returning to the team we won't play that badly again.

Ron The Bear can you give us a age profile for the Saints

 

[nr914064]

I don’t know what part of St Kildas team in the worst? Is it the midfield?

nope. we have good mids but 2/3 of them are a little young.
from next year dare I say crouch / steele / bytel / clark and ZJones without dunstan and ross. those two offer nothing going forward.

Our problem especially last night is the ruck and key defenders, and the fact King is young. Our hopeful CHB Clavarino hasnt come on. A bust. Jack Bell ahhh he looked awesome too but nope also a bust.

To fix StKilda
- Clean out one paced players
**Ross Dunstan

- Play Bytel / Clark / Coffield in Midfield
- Play Long / McKenzie on the wing they are NOT defenders but have pace and endurance.
Players are being played out of position.

- GET high draft RUCK
- Draft another big CHB
- Get Ben King and win flag 2024.

We have many talented youngsters. Just need the support of KPP and pre seasons. 2023 onwards we will be contending. Keep the faith saint fans.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

King and Brown were pretty savage last night in the post match about the Saints oh boy

 

[hutchy31]

I think the only one that has a plan than can beat the tigers is port.

They seem best suited to it, I’d agree.

West Coast on their day are scary, NicNat dominating and can take the game to the air while most teams don’t have good enough kicks and/or marking players throughout their side.

My hope is the dogs can at least live with the pressure and have a midfield that can get on top, but our key backs are worrying against Riewoldt and Lynch and our forward structure is a work in progress.

Melbourne may be decently matched if everyone’s fit, strong KPDs and a dominant ruck and in Petracca a game changer in the dusty mould.

Sydney showed everyone how to do it - quick ball movement and take on the risky kicks in the corridor and inside 50. Whether or not players can replicate that under finals pressure is another thing entirely.

Tigers are the standard, no doubt. Just need one or two contenders to stay healthy and take on a brave game plan at the pointy end of the season.

 

[Dazb86]

Would be hard for Saints fans. They were up and about early.

 

[telsor]

It’s about stopping it from descending into a quagmire they can’t get out of. People just posting the same foul abuse at the club, players, officials... it’s not good for their communities.

Open a convo with half a dozen like minded individuals and vent as much as you like. The boards have to maintain at least a bit of order or they won’t survive intact.

Richmond board ~10 years ago seemed to survive, and it was brutal.

Going by modern standards, most of the older posters would still be serving their suspensions.

 

[telsor]

Saints to Hobart
North to Darwin
Solves a lot of issues.
Both keep jumpers / name and history. Do it properly unlike south melb and fitzroy. They really stuffed that up.

Darwin Kangaroos
Hobart Saints

Get it done AFL. But do it properly.
North of melbourne has Carlton
South East of Melbourne has Hawthorn.

It makes sense to do this. It is harsh on North fans going to Darwin but its eirher that or do NBA and have conferences.

Signed up 2 days ago, 29 posts, 20 in this thread, many of them repeating this theme.

TROLL ALERT.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Ron The Bear can you give us a age profile for the Saints

Not sure what you mean exactly by age profile...

A decade ago I would've said

<23 - babies
23-24 - young
24-25 - developing
25-26 - "professional"
26-27 - veterans
>27 - ancient

The competition has aged considerably in the last decade (one full year per player since 2011). It can be summarised as "27 is the new 26". There are no teams under 23 or even 24 at the moment.

St.Kilda at around 25 in 2011 is the 11th-oldest team. A decade ago, a team of that age would be expected to make finals to avoid speculation about the coach, but now they're just one of the hopefuls. St.Kilda could field last night's 22/23 all year and miss the finals without repercussions IMO. But throw in Ryder (33), Geary (32), Hannebery (30), McKernan (30) - maybe even Frawley (32) - and they're back in the expected finalist bracket. I'm not sure those players are the difference between St.Kilda playing finals and not.

They have plenty of depth in the 25-27yo bracket which is healthy for an aspiring finalist and I think the finals push has to come from these, if they are to sustain last year's improvement.

Player	Age
Ross, Sebastian	27.94
Webster, Jimmy	27.80
Hill, Bradley	27.77
Wood, Mason	27.59
Crouch, Brad	27.25
Kent, Dean	27.14
Membrey, Tim	26.89
Dunstan, Luke	26.21
Sinclair, Jack	26.17
Jones, Zak	26.08
Billings, Jack	25.66
Marshall, Rowan	25.39
Steele, Jack	25.34
Wilkie, Callum	25.10
Howard, Dougal	25.06

 

[telsor]

The saints performance reminded me of the tiges performance same fixture 2017. Out paced and pressured, the system broke down, and eventually they lost all resistance. The diff is that 17 tiges were only a few months into their new system, the saints are over a year into theirs.

The saints can't be as bad as they played. I think Ratten will respond rationally and calmly to the minor crisis.

I think the difference is number of imports.

Richmond might have been new to the system but most of the players had been around for a while and were familiar with the coach (and vice versa). Only 3 'new' players from elsewhere had been added (Nankervis, Prestia & Caddy) 'recently', with most of the list drafted and developed within the club.

 

[Ron The Bear]

The saints performance reminded me of the tiges performance same fixture 2017. Out paced and pressured, the system broke down, and eventually they lost all resistance. The diff is that 17 tiges were only a few months into their new system, the saints are over a year into theirs.

A bizarre result, more or less shrugged off by Hardwick at the presser.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

I think the difference is number of imports.

Richmond might have been new to the system but most of the players had been around for a while and were familiar with the coach (and vice versa). Only 3 'new' players from elsewhere had been added (Nankervis, Prestia & Caddy) 'recently', with most of the list drafted and developed within the club.

+ Lynch

 

[Ron The Bear]

+ Lynch

He was talking about the changes in 2017.

Number of imports at each club:

17 Carlton, St.Kilda
16 Hawthorn
14 Essendon
13 Gold Coast
12 North Melbourne, West Coast
11 Brisbane, Geelong
10 Port Adelaide
9 Melbourne, Western Bulldogs
8 Adelaide, Collingwood, Greater Western Sydney, Sydney
7 Fremantle
5 Richmond

 

[telsor]

+ Lynch

Not for 2017, which was the year under discussion.
Lynch joined a successful team, so buying into the team plan would have been much easier.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Not for 2017, which was the year under discussion.
Lynch joined a successful team, so buying into the team plan would have been much easier.

Yep. Missed the 2017 point.

 

[This Is Anfield]

King and Brown were pretty savage last night in the post match about the Saints oh boy

Last week, after the comeback against the eagles, these nuffies would have had the Saints top four and a premiership fancy... memories of goldfish and no accountability.

 

[jc12]

Lol was actually a 100 point win as our players kicked half their score anyways

 

[THE_GUN]

You know what will happen. We will be playing for pride and end up winning.

I think your season will be finished and will be looking to play the kids

Think St Kilda's 2020 season was a good year but looking at the players that the saints have gotten from other clubs its either boom or bust type's
alot of cap space invested in players like Hill , Crouch,Hanners,Jones combined with the home grown