Preview Round 15, 2018: Melbourne v St.Kilda - MCG, Sunday 1st July, 1:10PM AEST

[Joffaboy]

I've been hurling quite a bit for the last 7 or so years.

Kiss me, I may may also be Irish… or just enjoy drinking.

I've been hurling every season since 2011

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Joffaboy]

Did i hear Cornwall?

The Cornish hate a drink, and yes there is a lot of dead campaigners over there, especially from my mob....

Will be in Cornwall in early September. Better look like fecking Poldark or I want a refund.

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[Moral Decay]

I’m Cornish too.
Do we breed like rabbits or something?

Just can't help themselves, some one bends over ……………...

 

[Gangnam Saint]

I have basically written this game off already.
Guess that means there's only upside.

 

[Premium]

Things we want to see this game
Billings to keep improving
McCartin to have a breakout game
Battle to continue his improvement
McKenzie to show why we must persist with him
Joyce to show us what he has
Sinclair to play well
Hunter to keep improving
Rice to keep playing well
Steele to get a lot of the ball with Dunstan

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Last time they played I though longer had the better of gawn.

Gawn 8, 8, 5m, 19 ho, 2t, 1.1 longer 3, 12, 1m, 34ho, 3t, 0.0.

according to Inside Football ( Who sadly haven't been doing their reviews this season ).
Got the better of Gawn in the ruck and frustrated the Demons big man. Tired a bit late.

 

[tim_saints]

Never wanted to knock a club off their tiny little perch more than I have Melbourne tomorrow. Really think we can give em a shake. Hopefully we keep it tight because if we don’t all their flat track bullies will come out to play.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Exactly;

The smart way to play kids is in a balanced team with plenty of experienced team-oriented warriors to guide the younglings and cover their weaknesses, allow them to exhibit their strengths. You need the draught horses to pull the gilded carriage.

Unfortunately we're not in the position of Sydney, Richmond, Geelong etc where their vets are already a formidable outfit, and haven't been since at least 2013, maybe earlier realistically. But we do have a few guys who have been around and they know how to keep their heads when s**t gets real. Why would they be kicking their heels in the VFL when they can actually put their experience to some use?

Newsflash: We will not make finals this year, so the remaining games are about 3 things:
1) giving experience to inexperienced AFL players, and the sensible approach is to do that in short blocks and not all at the same time and based on effort in training and VFL games.
2) Seeing which players on our list are able to play the way our club needs them to, and right now I'd hope that this is just as much Lethlean's call as Richo's, because I'm not sure I want the players to play the way Richo wants them to! Seriously, this should be about not this rubbish "Saints Footy" that we've seen, but the ambitious Saints Footy that we want to see when it all comes together.
3) Giving St Kilda players the experience of competing and winning games or at least getting close - the notion of tanking is counter-intuitive unless you plan on ditching all the players that take you to the bottom and replacing them with top draft picks that are guaranteed to play well together and win games. Nice plan!

The people wailing that putting players like Geary and Gilbert (for example) in the 22 directly contradicts the message laid out in the mid-week meeting between the club heads and long-term members should realise that when Richo was saying all the standard stuff like "it doesn't matter if they are the oldest or the youngest player, if they play the way we want, they get a shot" was actually signalling the opposite of what they'd imagined. It means that even if they are an unfashionable older player, they get a shot if they can sign off on their trademarks or whatnot, because right now we need team players and leaders. So someone like Logan Austin or Rowan Marshall who is exciting and new, but doesn't follow team rules during the game or whatever it is comes out and someone like Jarryn Geary who may not be a fan favourite, or have anything exciting about him, but gets his job done and is dependable in his coaches' and teammates' eyes comes in.

Many are upset because the one saving grace this year has been the fresh and pure youth we've played in our teams; these players already seem far less average than the more established St Kilda players, and there are still some of those in this weekend's 22:

DEBUTANT
Joyce 0 games

FRESH
Battle 3 games
Rice 5 games
Clark 10 games
McKenzie 25 games

ESTABLISHED
McCartin 33 games
Steele 49 games
Gresham 53 games
Sinclair 55 games
Membrey 61 games
Longer 63 games
Billings 76 games
Dunstan 79 games
Ross 94 games

EXPERIENCED
Weller 116 games
Carlisle 117 games
Newnes 126 games
Savage 136 games
Armitage 159 games
Brown 163 games
Steven 167 games
Geary 174 games

But too many of those young players and we look lost and disorganised. That is an even poorer platform on which to exhibit talent, as we have found out this year already. We can't just jam a team full of the best talents on our list, the list has to work as a team first, which is what I inferred from the mid-week meeting.

Austin has had 4 games already this year. Ed Phillips has had 5. White 6, Long 7, Acres 7, Coffield 8. They've had a go this year, we've seen what they can do, but Lethlean said we're going to look over the whole list, which suggests that we might not see them for the rest of the year, as we have other players we need to observe at AFL level. You'd probably say from the emergencies that Paton and Pierce might be the next cabs off the rank, they have had 0 and 1 game respectively in their AFL careers. I'd imagine Goddard and potential debutants Connellan and Freeman may also get a look, possibly Langlands and Clavarino too, though probably not for this year. That's the whole list apart from Webster and the players like Hickey, Gilbert, Lonie, Minch, Wright, etc who we've seen, and the injured Robbo and Koby, who seem likely to retire, sadly.

Lets face it, the reason we're unhappy is not that the young players aren't all playing, but that our established and experienced groups look so sub-average. In the experienced group above, I'd suggest most fans would be happy to see the back of all of them bar Jake and Stuv. Not a good space to be in, but these players are all we have for experience, and like it or not, they are necessary if we have any hope of winning a game.

BTW, I haven't read all the pages of this thread yet, so my apologies if I'm "repeating" something that another poster has since said.

Melbourne is fielding a younger and less experienced side than us

 

[Human Person]

Things I want to see

Gresh to do some magic.


That is all, anything else Is a bonus.

 

[George]

Gameday is up;

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/round-15-melbourne-v-st-kilda.1197950/