Preview Round 11, 2021: St.Kilda v North Melbourne - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 29th May, 4:35PM AEST *ROSS 150TH* *CLAVARINO DEBUT*

[Mowman]

All you seem to do is bag our people.

Dunstan gets picked off the best numbers in his career and you bag him.

The club hits bad form, Lethlean is deliberately cheating the club.

Very untrue write lots of positive stuff
Feel free and use the block function instead of sooking about what i write

 

[George]

Problem is last week we had Clav, Long, Connolly, Coff, Joyce, Highmore, Dunstan, Paul Hunter, Allison and Alabaskis in the 2s. 2 ruckman who are way off it. 1 mid. 1 forward utility who is struggling at vfl level. 6 Backmen of which Long and Coff both didn't really deserve to come back in.

Who else would you drop and who would come in for them? You could make a statement and drop Hill for Connoly at a stretch perhaps

Would be a great start

 

[plugger66]

Would be a great start

How has his form been in recent weeks?

 

[LiterallyNobody]

This place is going to the dogs.

 

[kernelT]

With everyone's desire to drop Butler, it seems to have flown under the radar that Lonie has only kicked a goal in 2/8 games he has played this year. And his last goal was in rd5.

So while Butler is out of form and not playing near his beat, he is still hitting the scoreboard and producing better pressure numbers.

Hitting the scoreboard is a stretch I reckon, would love to see his 10 goals for the year played back to back, half would be handballs over the top in the goal square, 3 came against an insipid Hawthorn and he's gone goal-less 4 times.

I feel for all these forwards at the moment, but Dan doesn't appear capable of working his way into games when it's not going our way… he's a slalom specialist, great at running ahead of the ball for a cheapie, nowhere to be seen when the heat is on against good sides, even when getting a run in the middle.

5 disposals and a late goal means go back to Sandy and learn how to find the ball, he's had at least 5 very average games out of 10 so far but appears to have a golden ticket. Meanwhile Lonie gets dropped for 13/15 disposal 3-4 tackle games.

 

[Veer Right]

Didn’t read the last part. Are you actually saying you are happy we are getting bagged? That’s how it reads to me. That’s bloody sad if that’s the case.

Playing group no. Coach, assistants, recruiters absolutely yes.

 

[pebblesofsand]

How about Hill & Butler do the same thing

Hill and Butler aren't inside mids. Who are the small forwards and wingers in the two's demanding a game?

It would be stupid to replace a small forward or an inside mid with a ruckman simply because the ruckman is the best performing player in the two's.

 

[stavro#4]

GT's dishing it out tonight...

Pot calling the kettle black here and Giving air time to the bloke who ruined

Luke Ball.
Constantly played injured players
Won **** all with the greatest list stkilda ever had.
Destroyed the salary cap
By the time he got sacked was under performing with his one and only game plan that had clubs zone off and double team the deep forward whilst they let Roo run up to the wings.

 

[plugger66]

Playing group no. Coach, assistants, recruiters absolutely yes.

Why though? Wouldn’t it be better if they are getting praised. I didn’t want ratts as coach but I want him to coach for many years. As for assistants well unlike you seem to know I have no idea how good or bad they are but I haven’t heard any of them mentioned in the media. It’s usually bagging mainly the players and they deserve it. I get zero joy of any bagging.

 

[George]

How has his form been in recent weeks?

Who's form?

 

[plugger66]

Who's form?

Hill.

 

[D2D3]

Have you seen hills form lately or it about just one game. Why would hill be even slightly considered to be dropped. Butler could have been but it would be for lonie. That’s like zig for zag. If you are old enough to remember them.

I do conceed Hill was playing well in the 3-4 weeks before last week. Hence why I threw Butler in as an option, but Hill is the type of player we expect to be performing every week so he is frustrating you have to admit. And neither Lonie nor Butler are performing so why do we have to keep one? Butler had 5 touches last week, and Billings has an almost idential pressure rating to Lonie this year. Higgins is also still there so I don't see what we would be loosing this week?

I obviously consider both Hill and Butler best 22 at their best but they aren't. Would be happy for them to come out, star and make me look even sillier

 

[George]

Hill.

Had 15 touches last week against the Dogs, 18 the week before against Geelong and 21 against the Suns before that. I would say pretty average.

 

[plugger66]

I do conceed Hill was playing well in the 3-4 weeks before last week. Hence why I threw Butler in as an option, but Hill is the type of player we expect to be performing every week so he is frustrating you have to admit. And neither Lonie nor Butler are performing so why do we have to keep one? Butler had 5 touches last week, and Billings has an almost idential pressure rating to Lonie this year. Higgins is also still there so I don't see what we would be loosing this week?

I obviously consider both Hill and Butler best 22 at their best but they aren't. Would be happy for them to come out, star and make me look even sillier

There are close to zero options in the seconds.

 

[kernelT]

I go for Geelong, but watch and just enjoy footy, I always think youth is better than bringing in too much experience, I was dead against us getting smith and Higgins.

You know instead of getting Crouch, Higgins, wood and McKernan and Frawley, you could have slotted Clark into the midfield, kept hind at half back, got more games into bytel, kept marsh, who looked better than wood, and had more of a draft hand, I reckon you would be in a far better place with your list, now it looks like you will need to have a mass dump at the end of the year, where the garbage about being primed to assault for the 2022 flag will be shown and there's the real possibility you will be bottom 4 next year.
Gone at the end of the year to retire could be
Frawley
Carlisle
McKernan
Hunter
Wood
Geary
Ryder?
Hanneberry?

Then will you delist
Lonie
Dunstan
Long
Kent
Webster?
McKenzie

That's a large chunk if 80% Of the above list go, how can you be building to 2022, does leathlan think we are stupid?

Complaining about Crouch is weird, our midfield depth was terrible… Higgins our leading goal scorer.

Frawley, Hunter, McKernan, Wood all pretty ordinary pickups but cost nothing, haven't taken games off promising youth and will be gone next year.

Marsh tried hard but was terrible. Kent is finishing a 3 year deal, McKenzie who has been okay as depth when playing this year, Webster excellent covering Paton, Long regressed, Dunstan has a PHD in butchery, Lonie is good, cheap small forward cover.

Bytel has played 9 games and clocked 20 disposals once.

Clark will be fine but isn't running two ways in the midfield yet.

Let us know which players we should have taken instead of those plonkers which would have also come for free? The issue is giving away too many picks for players like Hill, now there are not enough kids coming through as a result.

Injuries have crushed a side with poor depth, but we should have put Geelong to the sword two weeks ago missing a bunch of first choice players and losing Marshall and Crouch during the game… the core is fine, not sure whats wrong with their heads though.

 

[plugger66]

Had 15 touches last week against the Dogs, 18 the week before against Geelong and 21 against the Suns before that. I would say pretty average.

I think he got good praise on here for 3 of the last 4 games. His form is certainly good enough apart from last week. Can’t remember a post bagging him in those last 3 games before this week now suddenly a few reckon he is back to his bad form after one game. With Clark being injured I think hill chances of being dropped went from 5% to zero.

 

[ScrappyDo]

Seb's 150th and Clav's long awaited debut firmly guarantees we'll sh1t the bed tomorrow.

Ratts has obviously left Bytel and Hunts out of the side to spare them the most humiliating loss of their careers, which l thoroughly support.

North by 35

 

[George]

I think he got good praise on here for 3 of the last 4 games. His form is certainly good enough apart from last week. Can’t remember a post bagging him in those last 3 games before this week now suddenly a few reckon he is back to his bad form after one game. With Clark being injured I think hill chances of being dropped went from 5% to zero.

His form has definitely improved since the first month or whatever of the season. Since he is playing half back we could've moved Connolly in for Clark and Coffield in for Hill, sure it's not ideal but at least it sends a message to the rest of the group that we can't tolerate getting belted like that anymore and unfortunately for Hill he would be the unlucky one because there's been players in the side worse than him.

Roo used to say something about Ross back in those 09 days about sacrificing one for the good of the rest or whatever the saying was. We needed that and we didn't get it this week unfortunately.

 

[plugger66]

His form has definitely improved since the first month or whatever of the season. Since he is playing half back we could've moved Connolly in for Clark and Coffield in for Hill, sure it's not ideal but at least it sends a message to the rest of the group that we can't tolerate getting belted like that anymore and unfortunately for Hill he would be the unlucky one because there's been players in the side worse than him.

Roo used to say something about Ross back in those 09 days about sacrificing one for the good of the rest or whatever the saying was. We needed that and we didn't get it this week unfortunately.

I think Clark being injured made that nearly impossible. I know some actually say who cares if we win this week but I think the club could explode if we lose. I’m not sure it’s the right week to drop him. Butler could have gone though.

 

[George]

I think Clark being injured made that nearly impossible. I know some actually say who cares if we win this week but I think the club could explode if we lose. I’m not sure it’s the right week to drop him. Butler could have gone though.

I think the who cares if we win narrative is more along the lines of we won't know where the club is at with a win tomorrow given how bad North are. Can't really tell much about us if we win but if we lose like you said it'll be bad. Can definitely tell more from a loss than a win tomorrow.

 

[plugger66]

I think the who cares if we win narrative is more along the lines of we won't know where the club is at with a win tomorrow given how bad North are. Can't really tell much about us if we win but if we lose like you said it'll be bad. Can definitely tell more from a loss than a win tomorrow.

Well I’m hoping I learn zero if that’s the case. It’s going to be a bad enough few days not seeing friends or local footy. And I know I’m going to lose at the races. I’m not sure I can handle us losing to a very bad side. I don’t even like our side tomorrow. Our best players need to be our best players tomorrow

 

[Saint believer]

I think the coaching team last year were A1. This year we have problems.

As a glass half full person (you have to be to be a long time saints supporter), there are three things that come to mind when looking at the changes:

- performances during the week at training
- availability of like for like replacements
- no VFL this week
- you can't change 1/3rd of the team



Maybe the coaching staff have said to Butler, Higgins and Lonie only two this week - prove yourself in training. Was it Stew66 who said some were training best for the year this week?

If there is no talent to draw from you can undermine the rest of the team's confidence and decision making on the field, so you have to have a reasonable replacement who can be a reasonable link in the chain. This is usually the criticism on Dunstan who can undermine the team with bad turn overs - but he had to be in on form.

If you want players to improve in the 2nds then you need the 2nds to play.

The injuries to some may have saved others from being dropped.

My only surprise was that there may have been a possibility to have Connolly replace Hill. Again this may have been a train off during the week or just already too many changes.

One naive comment I will make from only watching the coverage on the the television is that Hill seems to ask for the ball (especially out of defence) but not get it passed to him. I wonder if sometimes he is not in the right place to call (possibly standing flat footed too close to the defender). He doesn't seem to be calling and running into an attacking space which could indicate a lack of confidence in players or team ability/confidence to execute a more attacking game plan.

Thoughts.....

 

[CaptainRisky]

Everyone who is a talented and hard working 2 way onballer that gets dropped every time he has a quiet game whilst many others dont should absolutely consider their options.

He missed in round 3 , apart from that has played every game since , do agree others are looked after but hardly enough to make Jack want to look elsewhere as unless he want to go to north not sure he would get a run at many clubs just yet

 

[jwikked]

I don’t know about you guys but I feel great today after my Thursday night meltdown. Great way to prepare for the weekend.

 

[BrutThough]

Hitting the scoreboard is a stretch I reckon, would love to see his 10 goals for the year played back to back, half would be handballs over the top in the goal square, 3 came against an insipid Hawthorn and he's gone goal-less 4 times.

I feel for all these forwards at the moment, but Dan doesn't appear capable of working his way into games when it's not going our way… he's a slalom specialist, great at running ahead of the ball for a cheapie, nowhere to be seen when the heat is on against good sides, even when getting a run in the middle.

5 disposals and a late goal means go back to Sandy and learn how to find the ball, he's had at least 5 very average games out of 10 so far but appears to have a golden ticket. Meanwhile Lonie gets dropped for 13/15 disposal 3-4 tackle games.

The main job of a small forward is to score and to apply pressure.

Butler - even if he is kicking behinds - is getting shots on goals and is getting better tackle/pressure numbers than Lonie.

Realistically, both could have been dropped but there was no one to bring in to replace them.

But Lonie isn't hard done by being omitted after kicking 1 behind in 3 games.