Preview Round 18, 2022: Western Bulldogs v St.Kilda - Marvel Stadium, Friday 15th July, 7:50PM AEST

[BrutThough]

No doubt both of those two points are true. Nobody said he was May or Rance. But the foolishness of saying he wouldn't be missed was shown on Saturday.
Not only do we need Howard, but we need another tall, go hell for leather for Liam Jones. I reckon him at FB, Howard at chb, Battle to Paton or Websters position with Highmore, makes our backline look so much stronger.

Someone said we looked badly organised on Saturday down back, maybe one of Howards strengths is his organisational capacity for the backline. Hadn't thought of that aspect.

Coffield could also be a huge addition to the backline next year as that interceptor we lack and as someone with great foot skills.

 

[Joffaboy]

Coffield could also be a huge addition to the backline next year as that interceptor we lack and as someone with great foot skills.

How soon we forget.

 

[gringo2011]

I reckon he could be a awesome intercept player. Same size as paddy mccartin.

Sharman is one of the best kicks at goal since Plugger and we are making him a FB. It's up there with the waste of time playing Battle on a wing.

 

[lewdogs]

Well it's a big game. Amazing to look at the ladder and find we're even with Richmond and only a game behind Sydney and Carlton. It certainly doesn't feel that way with how we're playing but jeez it would be a nice week to get rolling again.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Sharman is one of the best kicks at goal since Plugger and we are making him a FB. It's up there with the waste of time playing Battle on a wing.

Saw Plugger play full back against Carlton at Princes Park early on.

It was done as education to assist his progress as a forward.

I doubt the Cooper move is anything more sinister and probably a good time to do it with a few other key defenders unavailable for the Zebs.

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

Saw Plugger play full back against Carlton at Princes Park early on.

It was done as education to assist his progress as a forward.

I doubt the Cooper move is anything more sinister and probably a good time to do it with a few other key defenders unavailable for the Zebs.

When you're undermanned it's much more preferable to go with a small forward line (or with a ruckman at FF) than go small in defence (or a ruckman at FB).

 

[Tyrian Lonestar]

Sharman is one of the best kicks at goal since Plugger and we are making him a FB. It's up there with the waste of time playing Battle on a wing.

Natural footballer with great mark & kicks as straight as Gunston & Heatley.
Special kind of stupid to f**k around with that.

 

[borderbarry]

The development of Sharman has so far been pathetic. He has gone from a player who has never kicked less than two goals a game to a defender?

 

[phantom13]

Who said he shouldn't hand ball? It is directly comparable to his replacement who took your advice and cost us a goal.
Maybe Howard takes the safer option when he makes his on field decisions, look at the match ups further down the field. What happens if Sinclair or Hill are 50 metres away?
Should he try to handball or kick to them?
Problem with absolute lists, they make the creator of those lists look a tad silly when put into practice. I would like Howard to take the best option available, that could be handball, kick down the line, a 15 metre kick to an unmarked player or something as sensible. If Sinclair or Hill or Webster are around and that is an option take that for a handball.
I would like Howard to be May but he isn't, however he is the best we have. Someone mentioned Liam Jones. Would be ideal at FB with Howard CHB, that would make Howard look better even without him improving, which I stress I would like him to do.

Anyway I never said you were one of the haters, critisism of a player is fair, unless you said he should be dropped or we wont miss him, the post didn't even apply to you.

It was a reply to me directly... Anyway, we can all move on.

 

[AirWinmar]

You're right, the comparison to Logue isn't totally fair.

However I still think my point stands regarding the cohesion of the unit as a whole. How can we expect Joyce to walk into a side and perform when he has little to no gameday chemistry with the rest of the unit? To me it seems like a failure of the club that we have one legitimate AFL KPD in Dougs and one not quite AFL level back-up who is being set up to fail.

We don't know if the club expected that tho, you'd think that they would have given him a clear role and told guys like Wilkie to help out and instruct where he can.

 

[St Kilda Death]

The development of Sharman has so far been pathetic. He has gone from a player who has never kicked less than two goals a game to a defender?

You’re right, st kildas development of Sharman has been pathetic.
Still a beanpole.
If he was at Essendon, Collingwood, west coast,
He would be 100kg by now.

Get the Juice saints!

 

[CursingFijian]

Tim English roaming around the forward line against Highmore, Battle and Joyce worries me.

 

[pebblesofsand]

Not a chance they are at the same level of development. Darcy will give him a bath

Well he didn't do it on Sunday. Adams matched up on Darcy whenever he was playing forward. The only clear possession Darcy got on him in the first half was a mark up on the wing. The rest of the time Adams broke even in the contests.

Don't think either are any where near ready ATM - which was my point.

 

[plugger66]

Just read Byrnes had only 70 minutes game time. Suggests to me he is playing. Probably wrong but that is a strange amount of game time Think Paton has to play well. Joyce comes out.

 

[Minga]

This is the vibe of the season and ultimately this era of further disappointment.

Give me more of a Moon Shaped Pool kinda vibe, Tinker Tailor Soldier Saints won’t make the eight rich man poor man, or, True Love Waits (until next season). There’s a lot more I could do but I’ll restrain

 

[stfan]

Sharman is one of the best kicks at goal since Plugger and we are making him a FB. It's up there with the waste of time playing Battle on a wing.

I think that what they are really doing is to play him in defense for a while in order to help round out his game.

 

[seasonedsainter]

If they drop Joyce after 1 game (again) I truly hope he goes to another Club and has a long and fruitful career, as many others have done recently after nuked by the Saints, as we clearly struggle hard to manage and get the best out of our players.

Yet at the same time we'll gift triple-digit games to ineffectual players simply because of where we took them on draft night. Or throw millions at a washed-up 'star' any man and his dog can see is finished.

Such quality of thinking at the Saints eh [emoji15][emoji2357]

 

[Diehard Saint]

If they drop Joyce after 1 game (again) I truly hope he goes to another Club and has a long and fruitful career, as many others have done recently after nuked by the Saints, as we clearly struggle hard to manage and get the best out of our players.

Yet at the same time we'll gift triple-digit games to ineffectual players simply because of where we took them on draft night. Or throw millions at a washed-up 'star' any man and his dog can see is finished.

Such quality of thinking at the Saints eh [emoji15][emoji2357]

Not sure Dunstan is having such a fruitful career. Bruce’s tenure at the Dogs has been mixed, notwithstanding his acl, and we didn’t actually nuke him.
Hind has his moments but is still pretty meh.

Who has gone on to a long and fruitful career recently?

I like Joyce but not sure he’d get a gig anywhere he’s likely to play seniors regularly.

 

[tomjoad]

Interesting discussion regarding Joyce. Fremantle had a disposal efficiency of 82% against us. The league average is 73%. You could be full back of the century and you're going to have a hard day at the office if the ball is coming in so clean. Our defenders need help from the midfield or they are constantly going to face 1 v1 situations. Also, when a team gets 26 shots on goal from 47 entries, that to me suggests more of a team defence issue rather than resting completely on the shoulders of the defenders.

Exactly this. The third and last quarter had nothing to do with our back 6...other than the stress induced comedy of errors that took place. Our on ball division had their balls stomped and were made to wear it. They were thoroughly humiliated by Freo. We were effectively lashed and spanked into submission. The mids were full blown dominated by a much better, better drilled, team. They toyed with us...we allowed it. That was the game.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Sandy played Sharman down back for the full game last week and the coach reckons he looked a natural. Who knows?

 

[Saints TV]

Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[tomjoad]

Sharman is one of the best kicks at goal since Plugger and we are making him a FB. It's up there with the waste of time playing Battle on a wing.

I would agree, but sometimes having a potentially good forward with a bit of natural footy ability and nous, can benefit from seeing the game down back. He has the ability to hold his own down there...as long as no one is expecting miracles. However his position is definitely as a forward...but perhaps knowing how a defender [has to] think could be good for him.

 

[St Kilda Death]

I would agree, but sometimes having a potentially good forward with a bit of natural footy ability and nous, can benefit from seeing the game down back. He has the ability to hold his own down there...as long as no one is expecting miracles. However his position is definitely as a forward...but perhaps knowing how a defender [has to] think could be good for him.

I don’t see him needing that.
He’s a good natural footballer as you said.
Only thing holding him back is weight/strength.

Edit:
Ok I’ve just caught up that this is a real thing.
Makes sense to use him down there if he’s up to it considering he can’t get a gig up forward atm.

 

[Rooster 24]

Not sure Dunstan is having such a fruitful career. Bruce’s tenure at the Dogs has been mixed, notwithstanding his acl, and we didn’t actually nuke him.
Hind has his moments but is still pretty meh.

Who has gone on to a long and fruitful career recently?

I like Joyce but not sure he’d get a gig anywhere he’s likely to play seniors regularly.

Yep Dunstan going the same way as Mav Weller and Hugh Goddard. They absolutely killed it at their new clubs ! Newness was a bruise free battler at St.Kilda and is no better at Carlton. Notwithstanding there were other issues at play, Jack Steven completely tanked at Geelong. Obviously the McCartin situation was a bit different but not too many recent delistiings have made much of an impact.

 

[gringo2011]

Yep Dunstan going the same way as Mav Weller and Hugh Goddard. They absolutely killed it at their new clubs ! Newness was a bruise free battler at St.Kilda and is no better at Carlton. Notwithstanding there were other issues at play, Jack Steven completely tanked at Geelong. Obviously the McCartin situation was a bit different but not too many recent delistiings have made much of an impact.

Dunstan would have known he was just an insurance policy if one of their mids went down 2 weeks before finals. He's going okay in the VFL by the look of it.