Autopsy Got away with a win!

[Baldur]

In the end a fugly win, but its good to win even if you are playing poorly for most of the game.

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

In for this week, Howard for Caminiti most likely

Fincher, Hastie or Trav could replace Pou or Ryan

Barrat, Butler, Keeler, Said all quiet in the twos

Dodson for Haphazard Marshall?

 

[hayes]

Just had to win that one. A poor last two minutes covered up what was actually a pretty decent win in the end.

Darcy Wilson saw Nas get 2 million and he’s decided he wants in on that action. He’s the type of athlete that you just can’t go with.

Garcia quietly having a nice start to the season. Only played 29 games, plenty as sub, he’s making up for a couple of guys who have been a bit disappointing to start the year.

Have to admit it was nice to have the game start and not be on the back foot with Marshall getting thrown around by Briggs all day. TDK has been very good.

Surprise surprise the backline looks more balanced without four talls. Wilkie and Silvagni are locks down there and it looks like we’re going with Caminiti for the taller types…..does that mean Tauru is a forward now? Could be a game changing defender IMO.

As I said before Flanders is a watch for me and the other one is Phillipou. I know he’s been injured the past couple of weeks but he hasn’t looked like it at all this year even including the practice games. We need him to become more than just a “get a handball out of congestion” type. Where’s his speed gone.

New rule for Higgins: if it’s not a snap just give it off, especially if you’ve a freakishly talented 2 million dollar guy running past you when you know a kick is beyond you.

How we won it didn’t matter, we just had to win it.

 

[Mavefromdelburn]

Flanders is a massive watch for me. Nothing comes from his disposals particularly his kicks.

You're so right mate! Had heaps of opportunity to really show his worth in a brand new system...

Deary f**k.

Reckon he had a cracking game yesterday for what it's worth.
Let him find his feet, he's doing it on the run 2 games in, and doing well imo. At his best he significantly improves us.

 

[Saints4ever]

Yeah I’m not worried about Flanders at all.

 

[EddieMurphy]

Considering he says every game is an audit, I very much doubt that.

He says that and we do the same things and lose on repeat. Hence the melts we see here.

 

[OxSaint]

Saw fish lips Lordo say on TV this morning that in his expert opinion Tauru is a backman.

And Llordo was a top goal kicker in his day so he should know.

He should know but then again he is Lloyrdo.

So stay forward young Viking fella

To me he is very much like Naughton. Good mark, drafted as a backman but lacked the polish to play defence at AFL level so went forward and made it his own.

Tuaru can play forward because he want to compete at every contest. If only Keeler could pick that trait up from him.

 

[Ads734]

To me he is very much like Naughton. Good mark, drafted as a backman but lacked the polish to play defence at AFL level so went forward and made it his own.

Tuaru can play forward because he want to compete at every contest. If only Keeler could pick that trait up from him.

I do think he’s actually a more natural footballer and athlete than Naughton. His timing is more graceful imo, like Cooper Sharman. He’s as courageous.

 

[stfan]

You have no idea how crook we’ve been. The whole place has been fumigated. Great effort

As in flu, covid or ?

 

[Sarcoidevo]

As in flu, covid or ?

Influenza M ... aka Man Flu

Lucky the players are still alive

 

[Diehard Saint]

He says that and we do the same things and lose on repeat. Hence the melts we see here.

So you saw no improvement from the first two games to this one?
At the end of the day, it’s up to the players to perform.

 

[stavro#4]

Could not sleep, so I gave it another watch.

Honestly, it might have been even more impressive the third time around. It was an awful day for footy, losing Hammer early did not help, and whatever was going on with Wilkie added to it. Still, the defensive structure stood up in a way we have been wanting to see for a couple of weeks now.

I still have concerns about transition defence, but after watching parts of every game this weekend, it looks like a league wide issue under the current rules. Once a mark is taken, it basically feels like 17 versus 18.

I really want to stick with Tauru forward. Having a genuine tall target made a big difference. Even yesterday, the Eagles ran with multiple talls. North have Larkey, Essendon have Caddy. Without Max, that lack of size up forward is a real weakness for us.

Stocker makes us so much better. Leaving him out for the Pies and Dees games looks like a massive miss in hindsight.

One more thing, I rated NWM’s game this weekend higher than his three goal game against the Dees. The balance of his role was just better. We were able to get him behind the ball at times and he gave us real drive from there. That is the blueprint now, stick with it and build on it.

 

[stavro#4]

Man I really rate what he does down back. Even when he gives a free kick away. He absolute makes them earn it.

He is a very good defender. How it took so long for the Blues to work that out is bewildering.

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[Klaatu]

In for this week, Howard for Caminiti most likely

Fincher, Hastie or Trav could replace Pou or Ryan

Barrat, Butler, Keeler, Said all quiet in the twos

Dodson for Haphazard Marshall?

 

[gringo2011]

I'm a bit torn with this coaching.
1. I can see rapid improvement in younger players even since last year. That has to be a tick for coaching. However.
2. Watching these games we haven't improved our game plan structure. It still looks disjointed and our midfield fwd connection just looks ordinary as it did 3 years ago. You can't win premierships on defence only. Our defence is pretty good I'll give them that but with the amount of good players we have now we should be better in moving the ball and for longer in games. I'll save judgement for after we play at Marvel.
3. Listening to Ross Lyon in the media is starting to make me wonder if he's still got it. Maybe he needs a break. He did not sound well in his presser.

Lyon has rebuilt to be fair. Something he'd never done to the point that he saw a return on. I know last year we were the 14th oldest list and on top of that only had 13 players who'd played over 100 games. 22 below 50. It took Brisbane 8 years to get to flag under Fagan and he'd taken over a semi built side.

It's still very rare for a side with bulk youth to win a flag and even famous examples often don't credit the fact that a bulk of the list had 100 games plus with a smattering of high end kids.

You see how guys like Owens, Windhager, Nas, Sharman are getting consistency of performance as they head towards 100 games. Phillipou, Wilson, Garcia, Carroll, Hall, Tauru, Boxshall haven't got to 50 games yet. Some have only just cracked double figures recently.

I remember someone suggesting that to be primed for a flag you want the bulk of the side at something like 150 games and 25 years old for your best 22. That's not us. We are a bit of a patch job with older and younger. We are going to have to be the baby Bombers, Hawks, Dogs. It's not going to be even or pretty most likely.

 

[gringo2011]

We win ugly, but we still win.
First half
GWS were deplorable from our frontal pressure by Saints ala RTB 2009.

Highlights from lowlights
Sharman dropped marks first half saved our arse last quarter. He will get better as he has shown he has the skill.

Boxshall don't be around him when he makes a mistake as he is going to hurt someone as compensation. Once again he will get better.

Camaniti, we looked better sadly when he was off the ground, better rebound. JSOS played his best game for us, he will get better as he works into how the hell we play.

Pou did some nice things and is a PoD in our midfield. He is clearly hampered by the corckie as was Flying Ryan's shoulder.

Rather have Marshall doing what he does and contest in fwd 50 than Keeler wafting around looking very stylish but never near the ball.

Remember GWS no Jelly Kelly Green Cadman Bedford and Taylor. They all play we lose. However You can only beat what's in front of you. But as with Pies and Dees results we will get better as the year goes on. Likely Win all 3 at back end of year.

BLions they too have starpower unavailable will be a true test on our home deck that really suits us.

Also Max King back training is a good thing, we need him later this year if we are to evolve from good hard working team winning ugly to contenders.

We are doing a lot right and still sme glaringly wrong bits, but we are a work in progress.

If we were virus effected then that explains shutting up shop, which was a bit perplexing when we did so early after icing the game.....thsts not how you win in 2026.

The Caminiti thing doesn't stack up. We have looked unbalanced with too many tall back for the last two weeks but after Hammer went off their tall forwards started getting looks. They seem to always have three KPF types on the field. Stringer, Hogan, Gruzewski etc. Probably the one side thee tall makes sense.

In that first half only Gothard looked dangerous. They others forwards were well held. They'd kicked 5 goals to 3/4 time and equalled it in the last quarter. Hogan and Stringer looked like they could get hold of the game and we looked ruffled with every entry.

 

[gringo2011]

Yeh can’t say I know a great deal about Barrat but it sounds like a good call.

Keeler really needs to show something soon, all the talent in the world but it’s not clicking and hell likely never get a better chance than right now.

100% Greene had a 5 minute period where he injected himself and they kicked 2/3 off his play, other than that he was very very well held.

He was off the ground in the third and fourth when we had zero rebound and were hanging on by the skin of our teeth.

You’ll see what you want to see sometimes.

Bloody hard to play as a KPF or small forward in an ordinary VFL side. I didn't watch this one but there is a lot of good forwards looked horrible playing in our reserve sides over the years. You can't get much of a formline on anything much.

 

[gringo2011]

Cant wait for him to get his confidence back in his marking and kicking. The rest of his game has gone up a level imo. If he was finishing his marks and kicks at goals the last few weeks he would have had some great games and we probably would be 3-0

He looks like it's so close to all clicking. You can almost feel him having a 5 or 6 goal game coming up and he'll be away.

 

[gringo2011]

Also took an absolutely worldy from Mase after a freak gather from Nas to keep the result.

We stopped from about 5 minutes into the third and barely held on when better teams would just control the tempo of the game (see the pies v us).

Take the dub and take being the better team but I’m not sure I see us being good for 26 minutes of that last quarter.

I'd say a few of their goals were absolute arse too. Long range low percentage ones and Oliver's absolute bullshit slung as he kicks that straightens him up.

 

[gringo2011]

I think we made a lot of execution errors in the second half and a lot were by blokes choosing really low iq plays.

Marshall’s decision making was horrific in the second half.

Sharman was dropping everything and then goes for that diabolical kick late.

1000% agreed that better sides control tempo. But I’d suggest this has something to do with it and it floored me when I saw it.

All 3 games. We have been younger and less experienced.

We are in that bottom quartile for season to date and we have played more games than nearly everyone.

View attachment 2558044

These averages don't mean much on their own. We don't look like a flag side on paper with a real uneven spread. The bulk of the list isn't over 100 games and 25yo. It's 50 plus games and 22 or 33 and 200 games with a small group in the middle who are a bunch of journeymen and GOPs mostly.

 

[stavro#4]

These averages don't mean much on their own. We don't look like a flag side on paper with a real uneven spread. The bulk of the list isn't over 100 games and 25yo. It's 50 plus games and 22 or 33 and 200 games with a small group in the middle who are a bunch of journeymen and GOPs mostly.

Not sure I follow your point here.

In any season, if you had a bottom quartile average age for your selected side you’d either be classed as rebuilding or getting ready to launch.

The core of our “tilt” and that includes TDK started the season sub 100 games to their names.

And the average age of our selected sides above, It’s surprising how young we are compared to other sides and average across the league

 

[Ricmel]

Stocker makes us so much better. Leaving him out for the Pies and Dees games looks like a massive miss in hindsight.

Totally agree. He is a goer and whilst he may not be the most skilled defender on the list I think his physicality makes the players around him stand a bit taller. Baffling to me how he did not play first 2 games.

 

[True Believer]

Man I really rate what he does down back. Even when he gives a free kick away. He absolute makes them earn it.

He is a very good defender. How it took so long for the Blues to work that out is bewildering.

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M. Voss

 

[gringo2011]

We'd love a dashing half back like Ash. Sincs is so clean but Ash really takes the game on. It's the one negative of moving Nas out of there.

I really wanted him in his draft year. We had pick 6 and he went at 4 and we then traded that pick 6 for 12 and 18 off GWS and blew those picks. Paid for Hanners, Jones and Hill. Gave up pick 6 then 12 and 18 and Bruce and Hickey for that haul.

A lot of talk that we were into Hayden Young in that draft if we'd kept 6. The first round of that draft was exceptional. Probably should have drafted. Ryan Byrnes and Hill all that is left from that very active off season.

 

[gringo2011]

Composure is still the area we need to improve.

In that 3rd quarter when they had entry after entry is was extremely frustrating.

Backs did a good job of holding up but we need cooler heads.

Right now, it's our achilles heel.

You get it by playing those games and smashing games into inexperienced kids.