Preview Round 1 v Port Adelaide @ AAMI Stadium

[stephen96]

This is complete bull crap!
How can the 2010 grand finalists end up losing to the team that came 2nd last in 2011! This doesn't make sense! Those umpires need to get some eye surgery to make sure they can see properly! They should disgraced! The boys weren't much better, how do they expect to still be able to keep brendan goddard with that performance!

Absolutely d-i-s-g-r-a-c-e-f-u-l- and embarrassing!

 

[Squizz]

Didn't Jason Blake kick across the ground vs Geelong that resulted in their winning goal at the death in Rnd 1 last year? Amirite?

Kicked into the forward line for a turnover (and Geelong goal) when he could have gone back and milked the clock for a win (about 45 secs remaining). No so much an across goal thing.

 

[Kildonan]

I wonder how the AFL will argue against the logical assertion that this was an engineered result.

The statistics will show 32 free kicks against St Kilda and 5 x 50 metre penalties but any rational review of those free kicks will show that there are serious problems with what was paid, let alone the numerous examples of what free kicks were not paid to St Kilda for very similar incidents.

 

[sainter]

Didn't Jason Blake kick across the ground vs Geelong that resulted in their winning goal at the death in Rnd 1 last year? Amirite?

Last year he centered it and they took it down the other end to score. Very similar story though.

I'm as angry as the rest of you about the umpiring, and it's had a big impact on the result, but surely we had to be better than that.

We've got the wind in the last quarter and we can barely get our hands on the ball for the first half of the last quarter. Not good enough.

 

[Sainters12]

Never want to see Gilbert, Blake or Polo wear a St.Kilda Guernsey ever again.

Gilbert: His disposal is absolutely disgraceful. He started the whole 'school girl scandal'. As soon as Gwilt is right to go, send Gilbert to the VFL and teach him to kick.

Blake: Terrible decision making and disposal. He got his 200 games, now piss him off and bring Simpkin in.

Polo: Why the f*** did we draft him? He adds nothing to the team.

Goddard is as good as gone next year and I'm glad. Hayes deserves better than the s*** he puts up with week in, week out.

 

[saber_32au]

Thankyou for your 200 games Jason Blake. You've been a great club man and have bled for the club. But that kick across ground was woeful. I am a fan of Blake, but surely Simpkin can do a better job and is 10 years younger.

Strong username to content ratio...

Look, while I hate to see some many 50m penalties against us, a couple were for some undisciplined acts...

Unfortunately our foot skills let us down again. Gilbert really needs the likes of Darren Jarman to take him under his wing and show the boy how to kick! You could throw a couple more players with Gilbert as well!

 

[Plugger35]

Seriously the club should lodge a complaint with the umpiring department, not that it will get us back the 4 points but we should at least let them know we aren't happy with it. It's unacceptable for a professional sport.

Gieschen will no doubt justify all their s**t calls with his usual technical bullshit though.

The commentators glossed over the s**t umpiring too, other than saying "that's a tough call" or "that's a big call" whenever another s**t decision went against us.

Terrible way to start the season, can only improve from here.

As for positives, Milera looked great and Cripps and Stanley showed enough to keep their spots. Would like to see Ledger next week fitness permitting, surely he offers us more than Polo or Ray and Simpkin needs to come in to play fullback.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Positives, great game by Jack Steven ( or Stevens if you are a fox commentator and arent sure who I'm on about ). Good game by Geary. Best game by Stanley. Good first game by Milera.

Negatives, Peake , Armitage, Cripps and Ray totally justified Polo's inclusion by being way less effective than Polo.

 

[LordJimmy]

Oh yes, calling him Stevens. That was infuriating.

 

[H2F]

Umpires are cheats.

I came on Bigfooty tonight to start a thread about this, but think I will vent in here so I don't get banned.

Anyone who says they don't cheat has their head up their arse. They are cheats and do it time and time again.

HOW CAN THEY UMPIRE GAMES LIKE THIS AND NOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY THE AFL?

 

[CrashTestDummy]

This is complete bull crap!
How can the 2010 grand finalists end up losing to the team that came 2nd last in 2011! This doesn't make sense! Those umpires need to get some eye surgery to make sure they can see properly! They should disgraced! The boys weren't much better, how do they expect to still be able to keep brendan goddard with that performance!

Absolutely d-i-s-g-r-a-c-e-f-u-l- and embarrassing!

Talk to Watters. Bloody idiot

 

[Cardio Carl]

Saints unfortunately will be on SLOW side this year going by tonights effort. Yes we have some speedy youngsters but they need game experience, the rest are becoming slow, predicable players virtually at their time in AFL.

Blake, Chips and Gilbert are just going through the motions

Going to be a long SLOW season - bring on the youth if we have any!

 

[CHBench]

^Tonight was a steep improvement on our preseason games imo, which says a bit

Ray wasn't the greatest sub. Smashed by Rodan in terms of effectiveness.
Imagine how good Jack Steven would be if he actually hit targets.
Milera was great, seemed every time he touched it something good generally happened.
Cripps tackling was good
Stanley still so clumsy, but he's improving with every game
Kosi has to be subbed out more often that not, does **** all for about 85% of the game. I'll admit he looks good when he's doing something, which is not very often.
Rodan turns it on against us again, great to see
Peake and Ray in trouble

 

[Hellgood]

Bad luck guys. I think we've improved a lot this year, so you weren't beaten by last years 16th team. We got lucky with a few umpiring calls, and quite a bit went our way today. I'd be very surprised if a team with the number of quality players you have plays like that every week.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Umpires are cheats.

I came on Bigfooty tonight to start a thread about this, but think I will vent in here so I don't get banned.

Anyone who says they don't cheat has their head up their arse. They are cheats and do it time and time again.

HOW CAN THEY UMPIRE GAMES LIKE THIS AND NOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY THE AFL?

Love the American Psycho Avatar Hodge2Franklin.

What about Watters not telling players to use the wind and sticking a big body in the square?

Watters = Small man syndrome

Moron

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Bad luck guys. I think we've improved a lot this year, so you weren't beaten by last years 16th team. We got lucky with a few umpiring calls, and quite a bit went our way today. I'd be very surprised if a team with the number of quality players you have plays like that every week.

You blokes played well and deserved to win. Subbing Roden for Redden was a masterstroke. Shame that our brains trust weren't tactically up to the challenge.

 

[Sainters12]

Bad luck guys. I think we've improved a lot this year, so you weren't beaten by last years 16th team. We got lucky with a few umpiring calls, and quite a bit went our way today. I'd be very surprised if a team with the number of quality players you have plays like that every week.

Under statement of the decade..

 

[StFly]

This is complete bull crap!
How can the 2010 grand finalists end up losing to the team that came 2nd last in 2011! This doesn't make sense! Those umpires need to get some eye surgery to make sure they can see properly! They should disgraced! The boys weren't much better, how do they expect to still be able to keep brendan goddard with that performance!

Absolutely d-i-s-g-r-a-c-e-f-u-l- and embarrassing!

Last years ladder positions are the arguments of an imbecile using infantile logic to try and prove a point. Teams refresh their lists, starting 22's get changed and tactics evolve over the course of a season to roll with punches for anything a year old be immediately outdated and irrelevant.

Our problem, was simple; we kept it the same.

Our goalkickers?
Our backmen?
Our release valves?

We had Stanley, Milera & Cripps as the "nontraditional" players despite an emphasis that we needed to be quicker, needed to be sharper, needed to be more skillful and we expect that it's not preidctable, it won't play the same and it will be all be alright because people are refreshed?

I'm sorry, just sorry. Guys like Gilbert needed to be dropped last year, it's far too late to drop him this year as it'll take too long for him to change his ways, as he's the release, he's the runner, and despite every shank, despite every turnover, despite every poor decision made he got applauded by the majority because tried whilst the minority knew he'd have to evolve and simply wasn't. This was similar to Gram in that he stagnated and had to evolve to a defensive shut down job, but like Gram with his wobbly punts, doing a single job is not going to be enough, you need to do more.

You sugar coat it and you buy into where we were as opposed to where we want to be, that effort, despite any words to the umpiring, was where we were last year, reliant on the same people, the same methods, the same avenues dressed up in different sections of the ground, when the unfortunate truth is that the Gilberts, Jones, Polo, Ray, Peake, Montagna, Koschitzke, Dempster, Armitage's, the "middle band" of player will always be reflective of where are as a club, and the sooner they are challenged, pushed and overthrown, the better we will be able to improve, evolve and compete.

That match, was not a reflection of earning spots, it was a reflection of players who should see the writing for their starting positions.

 

[saintsrfreak]

Shut up CrashTestDummy you bloody idiot. It was Watters' first AFL game as a senior coach.

 

[The Match]

Forget the umpiring for a minute.

We have too many players who turn over the footy due to poor foot skills.

Blake, Gilbert, Jones, Peake and Polo are not up to it.

If we keep playing hacks we will keep losing.

Simple

 

[samwise]

Adelaide ALWAYS has had the shittest umpiring said it for years so many joke games have happened there.
However that's what happens when you are always 2nd to the ball and are incredibly sloppy, lazy and lack confidence.
Seriously pathetic display of football from both sides that game.
We must have the worst skills of any side. Peake, Jones, Gilbert, Blake, Armitage, Ray, Polo are not up to par for the modern game. It doesn't matter what other things they can do, in the modern game you cannot carry all these people who cant kick. That's 1/3 of the team who, aren't just average kicks, but terrible kicks. Peake couldn't even bloody handball properly.
This is even more important when you are playing Kosi, Roo, Stanley and McEvoy. Don't know what you can change but they can't play together. The fact that Stanley was the best out of them says a lot. So clumsy.
Kosi was same old Kosi but then there's Riewoldt. Don't care what others might say but he is not an A grader anymore. The game has evolved past him. He was continually just outside of the contest and the other times was so easily beaten. He is as bad as Kosi at getting bumped out of the contest. Yes he is still a good player who can provide a contest but is pretty much just another Kosi as far as I'm concerned which is frustrating considering he was the best player in the comp a few years ago.
Can't take much out of this game looks like more frustrating times ahead seeing as we haven't recruited much youth and therefore will keep playing Peake, Polo, Jones etc. Will be a looong rebuild. Hopefully now Watters at least admits they are in rebuild mode

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Under statement of the decade..

What about Watters? Can't drop a tall forward and have everyone kick with the wind?

Instead we have Stanley and McEvoy in Ports 50 for a throw-in with their Ruck subbed

Dumb-dumb-dumb!

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Shut up CrashTestDummy you bloody idiot. It was Watters' first AFL game as a senior coach.

No you shutup. 2-3 goal breeze and play possession to the flanks and wings. In that kind of setting you tear the opponent a new one when down by 5 points at 3/4 time.

BY GOING UP THE GUTS. BOMBARDMENT STYLE!

St Kilda hasn't lacked good hands or crumbers for a decade.

Why were forced to play the flanks and wings? Because of Primus coaching?

No because of Watters coaching.

 

[hayes]

As bad as the umpiring was (and it was terrible) we got absolutely smashed around the ball. Port just looked like they wanted it more and credit to them. I'm extremely concerned about our ruckmen/clearances.

 

[Fehring]

With the exception of the second quarter our contested ball was disgraceful. They just wanted it more than us, and so many free kicks they got simply came about (justified or not) because they were first in. I shudder to think how much we would have lost by without McEvoy, who was clearly our best player. Please get that guy signed to a long-term deal.

The other bright spot was the debut of Milera. After a quiet first quarter he really came into the game. Looked comfortable at AFL level.