Owned

[Kildonan]

Port has kept it's recent record intact against us

Nine losses in a row to them now

Pwned for sure.

(Haven't seen the match yet - so will make comments after I have seen it)

 

[Arsene Wenger]

yeh we truly do have your measure... is Thomas under pressure. I bloody reckon he should be ?

 

[spookism]

yeh we truly do have your measure... is Thomas under pressure. I bloody reckon he should be ?

Dal Santo is keeping him in job, kept them in the game today...

Bad Luck Sainters, great game though, one of the best all season!

 

[Kildonan]

yeh we truly do have your measure... is Thomas under pressure. I bloody reckon he should be ?

What a gracious winner !

We were terrible tonight. We were outplayed, outmarked, outeverythinged. We had patches where we clicked, but for the most part Port controlled the match. Thomas tried a few clever moves, some came off, but some of the matchups were ordinary.

We have formulated different strategies to beat the flood but they were put in place for a different forward structure. It is our weakness, the flood. We don't employ it in the same degree as Port. I thought that Port would be unable to maintain the flooding and pacey game, that their fitness would be tested (by the intensity of their game) but Port had enough in the tank to run out the match. The Saints had a few passengers, and this may have been the difference. The Saints outscored Port 10.5 to 7.3 in the second half.

An interesting thing, I believe, is we got that close, playing that badly.
We were missing Gehrig, his form has been ordinary lately, but he draws the best big defender, thus giving Riewoldt one less opponent to beat. It would have been nice if Koschitzke could have stayed on the park for the whole match.

The umpiring was bad, I believe it did favour the home team. But this is what you get when you go interstate. There would be no such thing as home ground advantage if it weren't that the crowd can influence umpiring decisions their way to some degree. I would be disapponted if my home ground crowds didn't have the same effect. It does get a little annoying though, in the close matches because you can't help thinking that maybe if they had paid that free or this tackle etc. then we would probably would have won.

 

[Malibu#27]

What a gracious winner !

We were terrible tonight. We were outplayed, outmarked, outeverythinged. We had patches where we clicked, but for the most part Port controlled the match. Thomas tried a few clever moves, some came off, but some of the matchups were ordinary.

We have formulated different strategies to beat the flood but they were put in place for a different forward structure. It is our weakness, the flood. We don't employ it in the same degree as Port. I thought that Port would be unable to maintain the flooding and pacey game, that their fitness would be tested (by the intensity of their game) but Port had enough in the tank to run out the match. The Saints had a few passengers, and this may have been the difference. The Saints outscored Port 10.5 to 7.3 in the second half.

An interesting thing, I believe, is we got that close, playing that badly.
We were missing Gehrig, his form has been ordinary lately, but he draws the best big defender, thus giving Riewoldt one less opponent to beat. It would have been nice if Koschitzke could have stayed on the park for the whole match.

The umpiring was bad, I believe it did favour the home team. But this is what you get when you go interstate. There would be no such thing as home ground advantage if it weren't that the crowd can influence umpiring decisions their way to some degree. I would be disapponted if my home ground crowds didn't have the same effect. It does get a little annoying though, in the close matches because you can't help thinking that maybe if they had paid that free or this tackle etc. then we would probably would have won.

Flooding .... nah last night had minimal flooding - about 7 minutes during the early parts of the third quarter... incedently when you kicked 4.

 

[panthers]

Flooding .... nah last night had minimal flooding - about 7 minutes during the early parts of the third quarter... incedently when you kicked 4.

Ports flooding had me looking for a boat.. They are a disgrace to football

 

[Tredders66]

Ports flooding had me looking for a boat.. They are a disgrace to football

It worked didn't it. You would think an AFL coach could do somthing about it but GT is a joke. 9 attemps at it now There was hardly any flooding anyway what are you talking about? It was a fast paced game and high scoring, probably one of the best games of the season to date and you are saying it was a disgrace.

 

[bluejay]

I just want to say it is the first game, after 14 consecutive official games, that we've allowed more than 100 points. This tells us our defense was as bad as many people rate it, but not as fine as they usually are. Let's hope it's just a Port-deviation, or a one-game fling. We can't allow to be owned this way, cause our great attack won't be able to cope with it round in, round out, just like yesterday.

 

[panthers]

It worked didn't it. You would think an AFL coach could do somthing about it but GT is a joke. 9 attemps at it now There was hardly any flooding anyway what are you talking about? It was a fast paced game and high scoring, probably one of the best games of the season to date and you are saying it was a disgrace.

treddingwater there was heaps of flooding by ur team..

 

[sainter]

yeh we truly do have your measure... is Thomas under pressure. I bloody reckon he should be ?

Why?

We've made the last two preliminary finals and he has managed to keep the squad together to have another tilt at the premiership this year.

Did you want Williams sacked early in 2004?

We've started the season slowly and was very poor last night but we still went within a kick of winning interstate and having a 3-1 record. Winning the first 10 matches was a brilliant start in 2004 but playing your best football in the first 10 rounds didn't win us a premiership. Neither did playing fantastic footy in the qualifying final and then having 6 of your best 22 missing from your preliminary final. Thommo and the entire club has learnt a lot over the last couple of years.

Our backline had a shocker. I don't think the likes of Voss and Maguire will play as bad as they did again. Even Baker and Sam Fisher made some mistakes. Hayes had his quietest game of the year, Ball and Kosi were returning from injury, Riewoldt sufferred from predictable long balls into our forward line, Milne was well held and we missed Gehrig.

So many things that could have gone wrong did go wrong last night. And we still only lost by 4 points. I was rapt with the composure shown by McQualter, X played a lot better in his second run for the season and Schwarze fully deserved to kick a few goals because he worked his backside off all night. It's nice to see a few of the lesser lights contribute. The coach will take some responsiblity for the loss but I can't see why he would be under any pressure.

 

[Arsene Wenger]

Why?

We've made the last two preliminary finals and he has managed to keep the squad together to have another tilt at the premiership this year.

Did you want Williams sacked early in 2004?

We've started the season slowly and was very poor last night but we still went within a kick of winning interstate and having a 3-1 record. Winning the first 10 matches was a brilliant start in 2004 but playing your best football in the first 10 rounds didn't win us a premiership. Neither did playing fantastic footy in the qualifying final and then having 6 of your best 22 missing from your preliminary final. Thommo and the entire club has learnt a lot over the last couple of years.

Our backline had a shocker. I don't think the likes of Voss and Maguire will play as bad as they did again. Even Baker and Sam Fisher made some mistakes. Hayes had his quietest game of the year, Ball and Kosi were returning from injury, Riewoldt sufferred from predictable long balls into our forward line, Milne was well held and we missed Gehrig.

So many things that could have gone wrong did go wrong last night. And we still only lost by 4 points. I was rapt with the composure shown by McQualter, X played a lot better in his second run for the season and Schwarze fully deserved to kick a few goals because he worked his backside off all night. It's nice to see a few of the lesser lights contribute. The coach will take some responsiblity for the loss but I can't see why he would be under any pressure.

I apologise if my comments were taken the wrong way. I genuinely enjoy the Saints and Im hoping they do really well this year. I think at full strength you would be very very tough to topple come seasons end. I did not for a minute intimate that Thomas should be sacked but just asking the question.

Get Gehrig back a fit Kosi (who should really ruck some more) get ball firing and ive got no doubt you will be there abouts.

 

[sainter]

I apologise if my comments were taken the wrong way. I genuinely enjoy the Saints and Im hoping they do really well this year. I think at full strength you would be very very tough to topple come seasons end. I did not for a minute intimate that Thomas should be sacked but just asking the question.

Get Gehrig back a fit Kosi (who should really ruck some more) get ball firing and ive got no doubt you will be there abouts.

No problem Arsene.

I just get a bit annoyed when people point the finger at Grant Thomas all the time. The last post wasn't specifically aimed towards you anyway. As far as I'm concerned he makes mistakes like all coaches do but whenever we lose a game he seems to be under more scrutiny than most.

Saints supporters know more than anyone where this club has been and therefore are well aware of the challenges Thommo faced when he took charge. The way he has gone about it, from clearing some of the best (but unreliable and uncommitted) characters, giving youngsters a chance and getting the best out of them and to winning the support and respect of the experienced players has been fantastic. I'm an unashamed fan and I wish he received more credit. At least the man himself doesn't care about that.

If you want to know whether Grant Thomas should be sacked or even if he's up to the job, you'll probably get a 95% positive response from opposition fans and 5% support from Saints supporters. I don't expect this will change your mind but from my perspective it's equally perplexing to see people not recognise the job he has done with our team so far.

Thanks for your opinion too. We were well below our best the other night but your team deservedly won the game. The free flowing Port Adelaide team was a far cry from the low scoring scrap that I had expected. As I said I thought our backline was terrible but to your credit you kept the forward line as open as possible and really exposed us. Good luck for the season.

 

[Arsene Wenger]

Cheers mate. I agree with you re Thomas - I just read and hear so often that he should be under the pump. I think he is slowly but surely turning your footy club around and success is the next step in that process.