Discussion Preliminary Final: St Kilda vs Western Bulldogs

[MacMum]

GO SAINTERS!!....You can and will do it!..My husband feels sick..Reckons he's not going to watch..yeah right!..as if!..

Harvs was right.....IT IS YOUR TIME...if the boys go out and play like they have all year, no probs at all..

Good luck to you Saints fans, this Lion will be cheering just as loudly along side her Saints hubby

 

[cracky]

We can do this!

Ever so quietly confident over here

 

[Plugger35]

See proof that i haven't looked at it. How nice am i?
You can do whatever you like with my number, just don't use it as the token prank number. That would be great.

Back onto the game. Pressure needs to be on from the get go. If the Dogs get out to a lead early, they're almost impossible to peg back. Once again will need to man up the loose man that will sit infront of Riewoldt and Kosi. Maxwell played it quite well early on 2 weeks ago. Keep Gilbee, Cooney and Aker on a tight leash. Their run is vital to the dogs run and carry.
And would help if Milne actually did something this week. He's done jackall the past 5/6 weeks.
Pumped and scared. A big ape will be on the back for the team that loses tonight... *plz don't be us ><*

Yep it's vitally important we start well, get a lead early and put scoreboard pressure on. Then we can build our infamous wall across half back and choke the life out of them. The only way the Dogs can win is to get off to a fast start and force us to play catch up.

Anyway this match is on a bloody 1 hour delay here in WA (have to keep the 6 o'clock news here at all costs ) so I will have to go into bunker mode shortly to avoid hearing any live scores before I watch the game. Hopefully when I emerge the mighty Saints will have marched into a GF.

 

[CHBench]

so benchy can show some Sunbury love for once in her life

What do you need jousting sticks for?
Tellem he's dreamin!


Okay now the shakes, shivers & nausea are well and truly in motion. Awesome, another 4hrs of this s**t.

Weird that our entire season is on the line here. We drop our guard and it's season over, just like that. That'll be enough of my pessimism.

 

[PHX]

Bah haha. After all the rumours who woulda thunk it . . . .

No change to either side!


Good luck Sainters, would be an injustice not to see the red, white and black (and the blue and white tomorrow night for that matter), not in the big one next Saturday.

 

[Pie eyed]

Good luck Saints.
Friday night games have set new standards this season so let's have another.

 

[Kildonan]

First Preliminary Final: ST KILDA v WESTERN BULLDOGS

St Kilda
-B: Jason Blake, Zac Dawson, Steven Baker
HB: Brendon Goddard, Sam Fisher, Sam Gilbert
-C: Farren Ray, Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo
HF: Andrew McQualter, Justin Koschitzke, Clint Jones
-F: Stephen Milne, Nick Riewoldt, Jason Gram
Foll: Michael Gardiner, Leigh Montagna, Adam Schneider
I/C: Steven King, Luke Ball, Raphael Clarke, Robert Eddy
Changes to the selected side: Nil

Western Bulldogs
B: Jarrod Harbrow, Brian Lake, Scott Welsh
HB: Ryan Hargrave, Dale Morris, Lindsay Gilbee
C: Liam Picken, Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross
HF: Brad Johnson, Mitch Hahn, Robert Murphy
F: Jason Akermanis, Will Minson, Shaun Higgins
Foll: Ben Hudson, Adam Cooney, Ryan Griffen
I/C: Nathan Eagleton, Daniel Giansiracusa, Callan Ward, Tim Callan
Changes to the selected side: Nil

 

[Cuz2Plugger]

What were you all worried about?

 

[From 45]

You Little Ripper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bout bloody time it went our way

Go Saninters!!!!!

 

[Budgie63]

What were you all worried about?

Worried about? I was almost sick!! You bloody bewdy we're in!

 

[StFly]

I've still got the shakes, that was.... my heart can't take much more of that close s**t.

Condolances to the Bulldog supporters, I would have prefered that the victory was sweeter without such contention to sully it.

 

[Tristagi]

well done guys, see you next week

 

[Hawkas]

Enjoy the week Sainters...Hope you get tickets for the GF..It is a horrible feeling waiting for the ballot results..

 

[MacMum]

Whoohoo!..Way to go Saints!!..One more game and that is it, all yours...EASY as that

 

[LordJimmy]

After tonights game, any arguement against Raphael Clarke is by default invalid.
Fantastic performance by the man.
Hayes BOG, incredible footballer now at the prime of his career. He was unbelievable. Riewoldt not far behind - he was amazing and another performance like that in a winning Grand Final will have him remembered alongside Carey, Hart and Baldock as a Captain Centre-Half-Forward who has dominated finals and lead his side to premierships. I got a bit carried away with his poor game against Essendon, but he's turned it on where it really matters and proved himself to me, who is commonly regarded as the most cynical of him there is. I can hardly see anyone rational or reasonable calling this man soft, weak or unable to play in finals ever again.
Dal Santo was great. Jones was unbelievable. Fisher, Gilbert and Dawson were all very good, even if Zachary had a shaky start.
The Dogs took it up to us big time. A win like this will only instill more belief into the players.

 

[Plugger35]

F*** what a game, still can't believe we're in a GF.

That had to be the most stressful 3 hours of my life but it was all worth it in the end. Thought we were in real trouble in that first half and then halfway through the last qtr but we just willed ourselves across the line.

So many heroes. Lenny, CJ, Dal in the middle. Fish, Zac, Blake, Gilbo, Raph in the backline and Roonaldo up forward. We did it the hard way but all that matters is that we were in front when the siren went.

Credit to the Dogs too, they fought us all the way, shame they had to be the loser. Will surely go down as one of the most epic finals of all time.

 

[Spook]

Well done Saints, I'll be cheering for your boys next week.

What happened to Eddy? Will Dempster come in for him?

 

[Hollow Knight]

Amazing win for the good guys.

Riewoldt is a freak, Hayes is an inspiration.

I'm on the bandwagon.

Best of luck to your boys next week, and even more luck to you guys in the shitfight for Grand Final tickets.

 

[SammyFish25]

We are in a GRANDFINAL!!!

Condolances to the Bulldogs, you played fantastic, but I believe your lack of tall forwards let you down.

Living on a high, theold man didnt see the last five minutes, was in tears from the 25min mark. Cant wait for Cats/Pies to smash each other stupid, and isnt it going to be a great week.

Maverick and Lenny are FREAKS! clearly both some form of 'super-humans'

GO SAINTS!

 

[tim_saints]

Go the ****ing saints!!!!!!!

 

[Riewoldting]

Soooo happy
Was going crazy at the game!!
I say it after every game he's played this year, but still, it's true: Nick Riewoldt is an absolute superstar!!

Special mentions to Hayes and Clarke who I thought performed brilliantly in the end!!

Come on Sainterrrs!

 

[siamang]

Can we please win round 25 now? Please.

 

[Tom12]

F*** what a game, still can't believe we're in a GF.

That had to be the most stressful 3 hours of my life but it was all worth it in the end. Thought we were in real trouble in that first half and then halfway through the last qtr but we just willed ourselves across the line.

So many heroes. Lenny, CJ, Dal in the middle. Fish, Zac, Blake, Gilbo, Raph in the backline and Roonaldo up forward. We did it the hard way but all that matters is that we were in front when the siren went.

Credit to the Dogs too, they fought us all the way, shame they had to be the loser. Will surely go down as one of the most epic finals of all time.

You said it mate, I'm stoked. Its so sureal. One game away. We can do this. Agree with everything you said.
Gee Roo is******* good. Hayes is a maniac of a player.
Playing Dawson was the right move.

 

[Kildonan]

Well done Saints, I'll be cheering for your boys next week.

What happened to Eddy? Will Dempster come in for him?

We had a few players who did not score highly on statistical ratings. I will look into it more fully when I have a lower blood alcohol. I do think we were carried across the line by our key players.

Lenny and Riewoldt were fantastic. They were the best two players on the ground.

Dal Santo, Clint Jones and Fisher were all very good

Goddard and Raph Clarke were good

Gardiner dominated the ruck and Zac Dawson did some nice things

Baker shut down Acker and he rounds off my top 10 St Kilda players

There were a number of players who played only a fair match and it is difficult at this time to assess how much was due to their opponent stopping them, if they had a task that wasn't obvious to me or how much was due to not being up to it. I list Blake, Ball, McQualter, Montagna, Gilbert, and Ray as all doing OK but all can do better.

Disappointing were: Gram, Kosi, Milne, King, Schneider and Eddy. If we are to drop a player, I would expect it to be from this group. These guys also represent our area of greatest improvement too - because all of them are going to have to lift and produce in order for us to win a Grand Final.

Kosi had Lake who was one of the best for the Dogs, Milne was tagged by Hargrave and had few opportunities, King made 5 tackles but looked very slow and could only manage 9 hit outs. Schneider was matched up with Harbrow who cut us to pieces early. Schneider could only manage 1 pt from 9 touches. Eddy was not up to it - he ran around a lot without actually laying his hands on the ball much (if at all) + 1 tackle. Gram had a role on Higgins - so he may have done his job, but his turnovers were very telling and he failed to provide the drive we needed out of defence.

 

[Rough_Edges]

****. So so tense. Calming down now but a headache to go along with the calming which i'm sure is a combination from the beers and the yelling.

Pretty much won the game against the run of play. We scored well (in comparsion to the dogs) when we had our short momentum bursts and the Dogs simply couldn't do it.

Still hasn't sunk in that we will be in the big dance this year, it's pretty cool.

We have a lot of up-side to our game going from tonights performance.

Volt, Lenny, Dal, Raph, Fish all had massive efforts.