Autopsy AFL 2024 Round 1 - Cats v Saints Sat March 16th 7:30pm AEDT (GMHBA)

[MC Extra Dollop]

Thanks for taking the time to actual analyse the situation. Close should've been the front of his mind. His eyes should've been ready for any player open. Close was wide open.

You can deflect and talk about how he was BOG but it doesn't take away from that poor decision. Especially with his history of poor goal kicking.

why give saints 30s to score and potentially lose the game when you don't have to.

No. When he starts his approach, for that particular player, he's focused 100% on his target behind the goals. If he's darting around looking for options it greatly reduces his chances of actually kicking the goal. I think you're drastically underestimating the probability of Dangerfield turning into Steve Johnson and hitting Close under those circumstances. I actually don't think it's any more likely than him going back and kicking the goal from 55, that's his range.

Maybe a Saint player pops up just as he's committing to kick to Close, causing him to pause and play on to be called. Kicking to Close probably eats up five fewer seconds, if it comes unstuck, St Kilda has more time, closer to their goals, a one point deficit (rather than two) and Geelong with far less opportunity to be set than they would be in the standard positions from an opposition kick in.

I'd live with Dangerfield making the decision he did and missing the set shot. I'd back the team to get set-up, keep it in the clinches, rush a behind if they have to. But what if he chose the Close option and it slid off the side of his boot, or he gave it a little too much air and a Saint got a hand on it? Then the game's well and truly up for grabs, with the ball in dispute and about 40 seconds on the clock, Geelong scrambling to get into positions. No thanks. If he did what you're suggesting and stuffed it up, it'd be getting analysed and dissected until Thursday.

Beyond that I'm 100% positive that Dangerfield considered spotting up a teammate. He's not an idiot. That option just didn't present itself until far too late and he was committed to having the shot. If it were a player without such a strong boot on him (maybe someone like Tom Atkins) then it's more understandable for him to continue to keep his options open even through to his approach and maybe he spots Close. Dangerfield makes the distance on that shot in his sleep, there's no teammate options in 10m of space as he commences his approach, go back and try to put it through the two big ones.

TLDR: if you asked Dangerfield, he'd probably answer in two words "Yeah, nah."

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

No doubt the coaches will remind him on Monday morning.

It came up in Chris Scott's press conference and his response was essentially that it didn't look to him like there was anyone to kick to "They were pretty well set-up."

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

Haha

Danger with big match-sealing goal

I've come to expect he'll miss any set shot from 40m+

Shocked he actually managed to sneak it home from 50m

Weird, that's the only distance he can kick straight.

 

[NarklesHelmet]

Embarrassing

Gee, from a genuine no-lifer that spends his whole year on a footy forum talking anything but football (all done with the aid of a 14 year old boy’s sense of humour) that really stings .

 

[aussierulesrules]

Credit to the Cats for winning that, but if I was buying shares in one of those sides for 2024 it would be the Saints. Didn’t all click for them tonight and they found it hard to get their game going on the narrow ground but they’ll be better once they have some more room to move - especially on the fast deck at Marvel.

In contrast I can’t really see that strangling gameplan of Geelong working anywhere except at home. Time will tell though I guess.

Something else to take into account is who each team has to add in the coming weeks/months that will help them going forward.

Geelong were missing only Guthrie, Rohan and possibly Bowes, from their best 22/23, while St Kilda were missing 3 guys who were the equivalent to them at a bare minimum, in Sinclair, Butler (by far our best pressure forward, who came 2nd in the goalkicking last year, with 33) and Hunter Clark, but then were also missing:

-Howard: First choice full back
-Webster: Clear best lockdown small/medium defender, who would have played on Dempsey
-And their two explosive midfield options, in Jones and Dow

On top of the fact that 4 of their midfield options were missing altogether (Sinclair, Clark, Jones and Dow), Crouch had just 15 disposals, having gone into the game off no practice matches, while Windhager went in off just 15 minutes worth of one practice match. And Seb had an absolute ‘mare.

So the midfield in particular was decimated, Ross was clearly frustrated with how we played for chunks of the game, and it was at a ground where they probably have a 3 goal advantage, yet we lost by just 8 points.

 

[Shai]

Just watched the replay

Liked - Atkins, Cameron, Danger, Dempsey, Zach Guth, Holmes, Kolo, O'Connor, Stewart. Seeing and hearing Sel and Erin, Hawk interviewing Sel.

Concerning - Couple of key cogs in the midfield, tackling - vg, short passes/handballs - a pass, kicking - ordinary. Jack Henry

38

Jack Henry

Age

25

Ht

192cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

MG

142.6

2star

D

8.6

2star

K

6.7

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.1

3star

MG

142.6

3star

D

9.6

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

2.6

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

4star

still not playing well.

Learnt - The Saints fast end to end is going to test some teams this season and Sharman should stay fwd.

Hated - A few of the Saints players practicing the art of throwing the head back.