Review Rd 10: Your saturday night shellacking vs the Saints and the legendary Bytel

Mar 15, 2012
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One thing I felt like Naughton lacked was the ability to stand and wrestle with a defender. We know how unstoppable he is when he can run and launch at the footy but it was nice to see him out-wrestling a good defender last night.
I don't rate Howard as a good defender. The guy is a flog and not fit to tie Alex Keath's bootlaces up. Keath, now there is a good defender.
 
Aug 1, 2008
15,149
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Western Bulldogs
Oh man I actually feel bad for the Saints fans. Some seriously upset people in their review thread.

Talks of relocating to another country so they can escape their emotional attachment to the club.

Gotta remember it's just a game.
They're suicidal on there. One poster was begging that no other supporters post anything in the most pathetic manner. They specifically don't even want any consolation posts. They are calling for mergers, relocations, shutting the door - it's an orgy of self flaggelation. I can remember dark moments here but nothing like what the saints are showing.

Hate to say it, but it does seem Ratten is entirely out of his depth. The list may not be great but the performances are so far below what the list is capable of that I can't remember another side that has consistently been this bad. Lets be honest, we probably expected to win this by 30-45 points at best and if we were really off they would maybe give us a fright. A 111 points - and it could have easily been 150 - was just ridiculous. The game was over 5 minutes into the second quarter. At no time after the first quarter were they competitive. Both North and the Suns showed some passion and cohesion - Saints were insipid. They actually looked afraid of us. I think every one of their scores last night came from our errors. Honestly, would our VFL side have fared any worse?
 
Mar 15, 2012
10,877
25,705
Melbourne
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Footscray, Melbourne City
Was Howard the guy that nobody had ever heard of but managed to occupy five slow days on trade radio?


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Not really a consumer of trade radio (5 days!) so can't answer that sorry.
He didn't really stamp himself at Port, showed some promise but hardly dominated or anything.
Changing clubs didn't make him more valuable in my books, but there are some media types who assume a player is worth whatever trade value they are exchanged at. Same syndrome as high draft picked players.
They should use their own eyes more.
 
Aug 1, 2008
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Their drafting strike rate has been truly horrendous. And to recruit all these free agents have sold the farm on a couple of drafts. Going to be a hard landing when they crash
Naughton and Bont were not on most clubs radar as high picks - there was a late rush for the Bont but Naughton received no attention and many here were questioning the picks wisdom. But Petracca over McCartin was always crazy given McCartin's body shape and known health issues. It was ridiculous taking him at as the number 1 pick.
 

Bulldogs Legend

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 18, 2015
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Reading the Saints board, I feel very sorry for them. They are really hurting, their list is in no mans land. They have topped up with recycled players too early. They needed another year or two of solid drafting first. There is a solid core young group coming thru but I can't see that they have sufficient top-end talent to seriously challenge. If absolutely everything clicks, they could conceivably sneak into a preliminary final next year but that would be their ceiling.

The other problem they have is that they have now delivered 3-4 of these piss weak efforts during the last 10 rounds. Tells me the players either aren't united or the coach is not up to it.
It’s funny that some supporters were actually trying to argue Ratten was a better coach than Bevo earlier this year
I know one thing is that you will never hear Bevo publicly criticise his players the way Ratten has on several occasions this year. The closest Bevo got was after last years final when the season was over.
I know it frustrates some fans as they want to hear public criticism but it’s no way to build a great team
 
I was struck by how flat St Kilda were. No-one fired up or showed leadership. I was sitting close to the boundary on level 1 and there was no anger or encouragement out there. Something’s gone badly wrong.
Someone on the St Kilda board ScragCity has noticed that Ratten is engaging in ‘emotional eating’ as the season progresses.
 

Bulldogs Legend

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 18, 2015
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Wonder if Bevo is starting his selection shenanigans early by saying Adz will miss several. Surely the player must have known the severity after the game when he was interviewed


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I’d expect they would need scans anyway to really know
 

Boristown

Premiership Player
May 24, 2015
4,100
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I was struck by how flat St Kilda were. No-one fired up or showed leadership. I was sitting close to the boundary on level 1 and there was no anger or encouragement out there. Something’s gone badly wrong.
Someone on the St Kilda board ScragCity has noticed that Ratten is engaging in ‘emotional eating’ as the season progresses.

A Saints fan also noted his dishevelled appearance and ruddy complexion may be a sign of functional alcoholism. Hope not!
 

Libba39

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 10, 2008
5,843
7,040
Murrumbeena
AFL Club
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Reading the Saints board, I feel very sorry for them. They are really hurting, their list is in no mans land. They have topped up with recycled players too early. They needed another year or two of solid drafting first. There is a solid core young group coming thru but I can't see that they have sufficient top-end talent to seriously challenge. If absolutely everything clicks, they could conceivably sneak into a preliminary final next year but that would be their ceiling.

The other problem they have is that they have now delivered 3-4 of these piss weak efforts during the last 10 rounds. Tells me the players either aren't united or the coach is not up to it.

They've had a lot go wrong this year.
Marshall, Jones and Hannebery not being able to get on the park and Gresham injured. Ryder going missing. Retirement of Dylan Roberton.
On top of that when they recruited Frawley out of retirement it was a real clutching at straws moment.
 
Last edited:
Oct 12, 2012
6,823
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But is the lid off?

Pretty sure it features in the UAP/UFO report due out of the US military next month.
...
Geez that was a fun night. Still buzzing. Brownlow votes will be hard to limit to 3 people.

This thread would be better with less saint kilda talk
 
Anyone know the average age of the sides last night or can work it out?
Someone posted that last night but here it is again anyway

1621734835030.png
 
They're suicidal on there. One poster was begging that no other supporters post anything in the most pathetic manner. They specifically don't even want any consolation posts. They are calling for mergers, relocations, shutting the door - it's an orgy of self flaggelation. I can remember dark moments here but nothing like what the saints are showing.

Hate to say it, but it does seem Ratten is entirely out of his depth. The list may not be great but the performances are so far below what the list is capable of that I can't remember another side that has consistently been this bad. Lets be honest, we probably expected to win this by 30-45 points at best and if we were really off they would maybe give us a fright. A 111 points - and it could have easily been 150 - was just ridiculous. The game was over 5 minutes into the second quarter. At no time after the first quarter were they competitive. Both North and the Suns showed some passion and cohesion - Saints were insipid. They actually looked afraid of us. I think every one of their scores last night came from our errors. Honestly, would our VFL side have fared any worse?
The fact they made the top 6 and won a final last year with more or less the same list, says to me it's not about coaching or playing ability but all to do with effort and what's going on in the heads of the players.
 
Sep 27, 2005
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Was Howard the guy that nobody had ever heard of but managed to occupy five slow days on trade radio?


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That’s the one. The usual Trade Radio schtick of ‘mediocre player has requested a trade to middle of the road club. THIS. IS. HUGE. Life will never be the same again.’
 

bobs head soup

Peanuts Peanuts
Sep 14, 2015
5,014
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AFL Club
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We are still quite inexperienced.
Reckon our spread is spot on now. Last year we had a few games with 0 players over 150 games, now we've got 5, and a further 5 in the 100-150 bracket. 10 of 22 is a lovely mix.

6 kids under 50 games with plenty of growth and 0 at 200+ getting near the end.

Beautiful.
 
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