Preview Round 11, 2020: St.Kilda v Geelong - Gabba, Monday 10th August, 6:10PM AEST *BYTEL DEBUT*

[Premium]

I'm not sure how they calculate them. To me all defence is going to concede some goals. Coffield's given licence to take on the forwards and move the ball, he uses his kicking to get out of trouble more than handing off to guys in danger. He started the year like a deer in the headlights but at 18 games before this season it's probably to be expected. To me his precise disposal and fast thinking are real highlights since he's settled.

If you think in the past we had Brown (handball heavy due to poorish kicking), Geary who was terrible but became somewhat reliable by foot and hand, DMac who was a bit slow to get rid of the ball and inconsistent, Roberton who was clean skilled and Webster or Savage who were both hit and miss long rakers, you see how far we have come. Hunter, Wilkie, Coffield and Paton are all super reliable by hand and foot and are quick thinkers on their feet. Carlisle and Howard are quite good but have the odd clanger. Long tends not to kick much but rakes his handballs like kicks, neat when he does kick.

This is one thing that Ratten has done , he has backed in the kids and now they are getting confidence.
Just watching Coffield taking intercept marks and running off players and passing the ball with precision has been great to watch.
Just class.

 

[PostmanBish]

With Coff, I like that he doesnt drop his head after he makes a mistake. He keeps going for his marks and taking the game on.

I think that's the confidence you get when you know the coach has faith in you. In fact, I think that's the biggest difference with our team between this year and last. You could see, under Richo (who I don't want to vilify - he was not all bad) that the young players were so worried about making a mistake, that they would often worry themselves into a mistake, so they would almost always try to take a really "safe" option, which often wasn't. So often it was those quick turnovers across halfback which killed us last year - whereas this year we're often past the centre of the ground in a few kicks, or much more composed on our switch.

There's no doubt that Ratten is aiming to win now, but also working towards a decade of contending - and getting the 20-22 year olds through their growing pains is going to be a huge part of that.

 

[Xxxx66]

I think that's the confidence you get when you know the coach has faith in you. In fact, I think that's the biggest difference with our team between this year and last. You could see, under Richo (who I don't want to vilify - he was not all bad) that the young players were so worried about making a mistake, that they would often worry themselves into a mistake, so they would almost always try to take a really "safe" option, which often wasn't. So often it was those quick turnovers across halfback which killed us last year - whereas this year we're often past the centre of the ground in a few kicks, or much more composed on our switch.

There's no doubt that Ratten is aiming to win now, but also working towards a decade of contending - and getting the 20-22 year olds through their growing pains is going to be a huge part of that.

100%. Coffield and clark among others, have a licence to back their judgment, take the game on and make mistakes.
The pluses out way the minuses and eventually they'll make less blues. On the plus side, we get to see Clark weave through 3 players in a phone box.

 

[Crusty Undies]

If Ross is fit to come in I think he'll take Sinclair or Long's spot. That's really stiff on Sinclair but just shows the good form we're in.

I'd bank on Long's tbh. I reckon Sinclair has been doing exactly what the coaches have asked. He's been operating at a really higj efficiency and putting pn fantastic defensive pressure too. One of those players we should be happy gets 15 touches a week atm cos almost every one hits a target in the forward half.

 

[PostmanBish]

100%. Coffield and clark among others, have a licence to back their judgment, take the game on and make mistakes.
The pluses out way the minuses and eventually they'll make less blues. On the plus side, we get to see Clark weave through 3 players in a phone box.

Hunter Clark is really impressing me ... his ability to de-materialise on one side of a pack and rematerialise on the other side is absolutely other-worldly ... not even sure Rankine (with Bruce tugging on his every move) can outdo THAT sort of magic.

Stunning to think he's not even at 40 games ... has so much potential yet to tap - could be one of the great Saints if he has a decent run with injury through his career.

 

[Moral Decay]

IMO the problem we have in this game s the same problem we have in every game.

The Mid Field.

effectively we are two players short, one big inside mid and a skilled creative, nothing new here, we know it and our trade thread is all over it.

What we are doing to overcome it.
More speed and better kicking. We have traded in Jones, Hanners and Hill to provide and we are better for it.
Play 2 ruckmen. Ryder to give us first use and move the ball more to the outside. Marshall to ruck and be more of a midfielder to provide a big body.
Play 3 to 4 wingmen rotate them through the contested ball, last game we went with 4, Hill, Billings, Sinclair and Phillips. with Billings and Sinclair doing more of the grunt work.

Against Geelong we have a problem, Geelong's mids are simply bigger, better, stronger and more experienced than ours. We have seen the 2 rucks work really well against lighter weight though talented mid fields and or lighter weight less experience ruck men. Can we afford to lose the midfield contest in the same manner as we did against GCS, given how strong the Cats are all over the field? Probably not, if we lose the midfield contest we lose the game but what we do have going for us is that Geelong like GWS will play on talent, they'll back their players to simply be better than us.

So for this game only I would rest Ryder, omit Phillips and Long. Bring in Marsh, Gears and Bytel.

It would be easy to simply bring Ross and Gears back in and do a straight swap for Abbot and that is what I expect them to do.

I would want to do it differently, if we do the expected thing it doesn't really improve our chances of winning, I'd roll the dice.

Gears to the backline to replace Clark.
Bytel to debut and play as a mid.
Clark to play as a full time mid.
Bring Marsh back to play as the defensive forward with the license to play physically on Blicavs, Stewart and Taylor. Look to physically intimidate the Cats it's been a while since we have tested them like this. we have Battle, Marshall and Marsh who can be the difference in this type of game.
Play one ruck, Marshall only.

 

[Jade Buddha]

Personally I’d happily see Gears back in for this one. Think he’ll bring his usual hardness that WILL be needed.
I’d also give RAbbott a guernsey as well and let Paddy rest. He showed enough in the preseason and will relish the opportunity to make a point. Either way we are good here.
Phillips Ed was a positive against GC but think we’ll need his spot for Gears.
On Jones, he seems like a person that takes a great deal of pride in his performance and will not like the fact he had his colours lowered so unless he’s carrying an injury he stays.

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

I reckone we dust off a few fan favourites this week.

IN:
Bruce, Weller, Hickey, Longer, White, Walsh, Savage, Bytel, Byrnes

Out:
King, Gresham, Marshall, Ryder, Coffield, Membrey, Paton, Steele, Clark

I think I’m coming down with Chovid after reading that (although the Bytel-Byrnes Vaccine helps a little).


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[Tommy Wigs]

This is one thing that Ratten has done , he has backed in the kids and now they are getting confidence.
Just watching Coffield taking intercept marks and running off players and passing the ball with precision has been great to watch.
Just class.

Coff is one of the best stories of the year for mine - and there’s a few to choose from.
I was pretty doubtful last year. I couldn’t see it and was clinging to hope. He’s certainly turned me around. Loving his intercepts or little dance moves then a nice clean 40m drop punt to a teammate.

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

Funny you say that. Whilst the Suns were smashing us in clearances on thurs. I was thinking why not have Marshall set up as the blocking, bullocking mid, whilst paddy did the tap work. . He,s so damn versatile!

Roma is super agile & quick for a ruckman but not so much as a mid.


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[gringo2011]

Hunter Clark is really impressing me ... his ability to de-materialise on one side of a pack and rematerialise on the other side is absolutely other-worldly ... not even sure Rankine (with Bruce tugging on his every move) can outdo THAT sort of magic.

Stunning to think he's not even at 40 games ... has so much potential yet to tap - could be one of the great Saints if he has a decent run with injury through his career.

Hunter does his magic discretely, he's more like an efficient German piece of high tech machinery. Rankine is like a vintage Italian Sports car, he's arrives in a cloud of noise and smoke with the sub woofer shaking the ground, does enough to get everyone looking and then ends up stalling and back at the mechanics.

 

[triggering bro]

The three players I hope Ratts targets are Dangerfield, Miers & Stewart. Win those matchups & we going along way to winning.

Dangerfield has been playing a lot forward. Wilkie is a perfect matchup. When he goes into the middle Steele to do a job on him.

Paton the perfect matchup for Miers. Long backup. Leave Clark & Coffield as offensive backs.

Stewart is a tough matchup. Need to stop his intercept marking. Even know he’s a lot smaller I would be tempted to put Geary on him to put on some bodywork & keep him out of contests. I reckon Gears could do the job.

 

[sainterryan]

I don’t want to see any players rested unless they are clearly sore. I think we are a team winning on confidence at the moment,a bad loss to The Cats could really hurt that. We r not experienced enough and don’t have leadership to muck around with resting players in my opinion. Just keep trying to win. High chance if we make finals we will come up against the cats as well. Why give them a leg up now.

 

[kernelT]

I think I’m coming down with Chovid after reading that (although the Bytel-Byrnes Vaccine helps a little).

How did I forget my man the GOAT!?

 

[kernelT]

The three players I hope Ratts targets are Dangerfield, Miers & Stewart. Win those matchups & we going along way to winning.

Dangerfield has been playing a lot forward. Wilkie is a perfect matchup. When he goes into the middle Steele to do a job on him.

Paton the perfect matchup for Miers. Long backup. Leave Clark & Coffield as offensive backs.

Stewart is a tough matchup. Need to stop his intercept marking. Even know he’s a lot smaller I would be tempted to put Geary on him to put on some bodywork & keep him out of contests. I reckon Gears could do the job.

They bat pretty deep... Selwood, Hawkins, Taylor, Duncan, menegola, Jack, Thuoy all go alright at times too.

We need to play on our terms and control the middle.

 

[triggering bro]

They bat pretty deep... Selwood, Hawkins, Taylor, Duncan, menegola, Jack, Thuoy all go alright at times too.

We need to play on our terms and control the middle.

Ratts has targeted the opposition’s most influential players in previous games. Not saying Geelong don’t have other influential players, but we can’t put a hard tag on them all. As you say, play on our terms. Stewart is the one that really worries me. I’m still recovering from the game where we had no one forward except McCartin & Savage kept bombing it long to Stewart.

 

[Enclosed_Animal]

The three players I hope Ratts targets are Dangerfield, Miers & Stewart. Win those matchups & we going along way to winning.

Dangerfield has been playing a lot forward. Wilkie is a perfect matchup. When he goes into the middle Steele to do a job on him.

Paton the perfect matchup for Miers. Long backup. Leave Clark & Coffield as offensive backs.

Stewart is a tough matchup. Need to stop his intercept marking. Even know he’s a lot smaller I would be tempted to put Geary on him to put on some bodywork & keep him out of contests. I reckon Gears could do the job.

Great call on Stewart. Geelongs defensive setup has been too good for us for a long long time. Our years of long bombs down the line have been too easily picked off by Stewart / Taylor / Blicavs etc. Geelong are just too good of a defensive unit for us to simply sit the ball on Ming / Members / Roma's head all night. Have to be smarter with our entries. They are very very good in the air, so we have to find a way to exploit them with speed.

The other one I want to put time into is Duncan. While I don't rate him that highly as a player overall, he has a habit of torching us on the end of the work done by Selwood / Danger etc. Perhaps we could have Hill roll back as the defensive sweeper and track Duncan forward of centre? I just don't want Duncan being another version of Sidebottom, where we put too much time into the inside mids and he gets loose and hurts us on the spread.

As for changes, happy to back Ratts judgement again. Nailed 90+% of selections so far this year. Happy to keep the faith. However, I would like to see Byrnes get another shot sooner rather than later. At this stage I would much rather keep pumping games into our talented kids >>> recycling known quantity veterans.

 

[stfan]

Well if we break the ladder into Top 6, Middle 6 and Bottom 6 as per the current ladder:

Top 6 - Played 2, won 2 ! 3 games left
Middle 6 - Played 3 won 2 3 games left
Bottom 6 - Played 5 won 3 1 game left

So looks like Cats game should be a “shoo-in” as the lower the team band the worse our record, and in the top 6 we are 100% wins.

Though on a more serious note, our run home is in theory harder than what it has been to date despite the win/loss record illustrated above.

 

[Saint_Dos]

Will be interesting to see how we approach the short turn around.
Reckon we will rest a few of the older boys or those who have had recent injuries. Though it could hurt us resting these long term it might be better off.

OUT: Ryder, Hill, Jones (all managed)
IN: Marsh, Bytel, Savage

Geary was said to be sore so he can stay rested IMO.
Would not be against them going Abbott over Marsh but am guessing the defensive fwd role may be on the cards and not convinced that is Battle's go.
Not convinced Geelong is the team to rest Carlisle for so he might have to go again. Has moved pretty well this year anyway.

EDIT: just realised Ross was listed as 1-2 weeks with Calf. Savage can come in to enable Clark to spend more time in the middle

 

[stfan]

Not convinced Geelong is the team to rest Carlisle for so he might have to go again. Has moved pretty well this year anyway.

Against the Cats it is important to keep Hawkins quiet, plus I suspect that after being managed that Esava Ratugolea will be back in, with also Stanley pushing forward, and so we will want both Howard and Carlisle in if we can.

 

[Ducky Tie]

Neither of Carlisle or Howard are really suited particularly well to Hawkins so going to need some good team defence. Imagine Carlisle probably gets first crack at him.

 

[From 45]

Try swans game 11mins and 6 mins 1st quarter are a good example.

So you're referring to the miss handball and the one where he was in front of Blakey with Clark and Sav behind him and Carlisle and Doug were nowhere to be seen to spoil Blakey's mark?.

 

[gringo2011]

Great call on Stewart. Geelongs defensive setup has been too good for us for a long long time. Our years of long bombs down the line have been too easily picked off by Stewart / Taylor / Blicavs etc. Geelong are just too good of a defensive unit for us to simply sit the ball on Ming / Members / Roma's head all night. Have to be smarter with our entries. They are very very good in the air, so we have to find a way to exploit them with speed.

The other one I want to put time into is Duncan. While I don't rate him that highly as a player overall, he has a habit of torching us on the end of the work done by Selwood / Danger etc. Perhaps we could have Hill roll back as the defensive sweeper and track Duncan forward of centre? I just don't want Duncan being another version of Sidebottom, where we put too much time into the inside mids and he gets loose and hurts us on the spread.

As for changes, happy to back Ratts judgement again. Nailed 90+% of selections so far this year. Happy to keep the faith. However, I would like to see Byrnes get another shot sooner rather than later. At this stage I would much rather keep pumping games into our talented kids >>> recycling known quantity veterans.

That seems to have been Ratts best coaching this year, unravelling the opposition team's structure. He seems to do his research and works out their weaknesses.

 

[kernelT]

Neither of Carlisle or Howard are really suited particularly well to Hawkins so going to need some good team defence. Imagine Carlisle probably gets first crack at him.

I would have thought Howard is our best bet, Jake seems to thrive when he has the luxury to zone off a bit more and intercept.

 

[Ducky Tie]

I would have thought Howard is our best bet, Jake seems to thrive when he has the luxury to zone off a bit more and intercept.

Yeah Carlisle is ideally not on the main forward but he’s more suited to the physically strong power forwards than Howard. Carlisle took Lynch earlier in the year so they do it when required.