Preview Round 2, 2019: Essendon v St.Kilda - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 30th March, 4:35PM AEDT

[tim_saints]

Richo in his presser didn’t sound all that willing to say Brown would come straight back in, he said he’d be close but hesitated big time on saying he’s a walk up for this week.

I’d say if we make a change it’s probably going to be one or two of Marshall, Clark and Acres that come in.

Richo absolutely said he’d take a look at the ruck so don’t be surprised if we play two or at least give Marshall the nod over Pierce.

 

[BrutThough]

Not saying Luke shouldn’t play , but apart from Steven we lack badly zip from centre bounce .
Acres , Clark on ball change that.
Luke’s attack on ball last quarter , was pivotal.
My beef is playing Luke , Ross & Steele in contested role in the centre square together.

Playing 3 small forwards in one team is ridiculous, because you can’t rotate midfield and they
fatigue

Ross isn't a contested player. Dunstan provides that inside grunt we are missing. Plus, there is no point having a lot of zip if there is no one to get them the ball. And right now (over the JLT and rd1), Dunstan has been consistently been getting more contested possessions and clearances than the other mids.

If we brought in Hunter or Acres for Dunstan, we would be even weaker at the contested stuff and with such a weakness in the ruck, we need someone who can crack in and win the ball.

 

[BrutThough]

I'd be happy with that if Dunstan was actually getting elite contested numbers, but he hasn't. He averaged less that 10 contested possessions last year, which for a guy that does little on the outside, is just not good enough. He needs to either get that number closer to 15, or improve his outside work. The latter will be harder.

He had 13 yesterday which isn't a bad start and may see him get a game next week bit overall it was a fairly average game for him.

Oner JLT and Rd 1, he has been averaging more contested possessions and clearances than anyone else in the team. yes, he isnt elite but right now he is one of our few mids actually delivering in that area.

 

[Circus]

Out.
Sinclair, Dunstan, Kent, Pierce.
In.
Clark, Acres, Young, Marshall.

Plus Hind for Savage with Webster kicking in and not going to the left half back flank all the bloody time. Surely we can at least be much more creative with kick ins!

 

[JG22]

Expecting minimal changes.

Calls to drop Sinclair way off.

Dunstan unlikely, had 13 CP.

Can’t see us dropping Kent for Acres or Clark. They’re not forwards.

Brown surely in, likely for Wilkie.

 

[Circus]

Out: Long, Mckenzie, Dunstan, Pearce, Battle/Wilkie
In: Young, Clark, Acres, Marshall, Brown

Sorry, Mckenzie and Long have to come out after the shocking performance, both gave away stupid free kicks and not good enough yet. Pitty one of Battle/Wilkie needs to come out.. as both of them played alright..

I disagree with dropping McKenzie. He did very well in a few tight situations and his kicking was precise to allow us to open up play. Those last quarter possessions to Swallow looked bad but need to be better understood. Swallow is a very talented footballer, even on one leg. If he was in our team he'd also be our captain and an absolute star. DMac's overall performance shouldn't be misjudged on a couple of mistakes.

 

[Sir Skid]

Young would be stiff not to get a gig if Kent and Long come out.

Not convinced either of these two will get dropped.

 

[Circus]

OUT- Savage, Dunstan, Pierce
IN- Clark, Acres, Marshall

If Brown is available and we decide to play him it's going to have to be Joyce or Wilkie which is unfortunate because they both showed a bit today.

Sinclair and Kent on notice as well.

On SM-G955F using BigFooty.com mobile app

How about keeping both Joyce and Wilkie who will be far better after they have played 10 games together and more so after a season and then another season. How can they improve without playing together. Brown to slot back in to provide direction to them to help them learn. Battle to the forward line where we need another marking forward.

 

[luca77]

I think we will go in unchanged, assuming no injuries or suspensions.

I'm with you, I can't see them dropping any/many after a win first up.
Kent didn't have a great day, but I can't see him playing much worse than that, he kicked the sealer and he gives us a fair bit of goalkicking confidence up forward. It's pretty important I think after last year.
As much as I'd love to have Clark/Acres/Coff in there, I can only see them bringing in Brown for Wilkie/Joyce or maybe Marshall for Pierce (but doubt that will happen).
Having said that, if Clark, Acres and Coff aren't regulars by season end I'll be really disappointed and a bit concerned.
DMac frustrates me a bit, but so did Webster a few years back. Still think there's a good chance DMac can be a solid player. Was way too soft last weekend when playing on a bloke on one leg though.

 

[Moral Decay]

You want 5 dropped from a winning team. Lol.

A question to anyone, who is the inside mid to get 8 clearances and 13 CP's out of Acres, Clark, Coffield, Armo, Phillips, or Paton?

Sorry mate but who is the inside mid going at 50% DE? Any worse and he can pull an opposition jumper on play for them and be of more benefit to us. All that good work he has done and not a hell of a team benefit.

 

[gringo2011]

Not convinced either of these two will get dropped.

Kent should be dropped, he was poor and really nothing to gain playing him while he's not performing. He's not a id that needs game, he's an experienced senior player. Long I'd keep in.

 

[Saints43]

If Coffield can find form. Savage was poor but I'm not sure it isn't trying to interpret a new game plan.

I think Coff said that he'd been training with the midfield group so needed to do a block of defensive training before he could be selected as a defender.

 

[Stewart66]

Ross isn't a contested player. Dunstan provides that inside grunt we are missing. Plus, there is no point having a lot of zip if there is no one to get them the ball. And right now (over the JLT and rd1), Dunstan has been consistently been getting more contested possessions and clearances than the other mids.

If we brought in Hunter or Acres for Dunstan, we would be even weaker at the contested stuff and with such a weakness in the ruck, we need someone who can crack in and win the ball.

I think a few are getting confused .

Richardson has continually played Acres as winger , floating half forward , even the year Koby Stevens was
recruited was played in practice games as a tagger completely lost confidence sounds familiar to a number
of players .
As have continually remarked like Dunstan as a distributor , but Luke has to get better by hands as footskills
limited , heart and soul player think Steele is improving every game.
My beef is we continually play 3 types together at centre bounce , Billings , Ross , Newnes for mine should
be wingers / sweepers because they can distribute the ball by foot .
Clark , Steven , Acres & Gresham are the release players it is about different combinations , we recruited
Kent with the promise of midfield time doubt he played a minute there .

Clarkson & Chris Scott have always been the reference point , do you think Constable would be played
in middle of the ground and Selwood only attend 6 centre bounces under Richo No chance

 

[StCicatriz]

who are essendon running with for their fwd setup?

 

[Joffaboy]

Hey would anyone that has a Telstra account be able to post the team tracker for all the games in round 1? I wanna see where saints stack up given we are "the fittest team in the comp" per lethers. Would be greatly appreciated.

And what will that prove exactly? We played in 28 degree heat and ran 280ks, collingwood and Geelong ran 288 ks in cool evening conditions, GWS ran 242ks in wet conditions.

Means SFA except for Essendon who ran 147 kms

 

[George]

If anyone wants to have a crack at doing the preview let me know, otherwise it'll be up sometime late tonight.

 

[Saint Watto]

As stupid and unscientific as it sounds, in the Melbourne fishbowl, this nearly always translates into a win for the team receiving the blowtorch.

Agree there NarklesHelmet…..it normally always happens.

As much as I was jumping for joy when watching the Bombers score yesterday...….my mind flicked to the "blowtorch" theory.

Given that we'd just fallen over the line I thought...Oh Oh.

It reminds me of when Robert Walls used to do his Friday column in the Age several years ago...….whoever he bagged in his column....the individual or team would always respond.

Whenever we had a big game coming up....hoped he'd sink the boots into us...lol.

He was pretty good at sinking in the boots too.

 

[plugger66]

My ins would be Clark Marshall acres. Outs pierce dunstan McKenzie

I think it will be acres brown for Joyce dunstan

 

[Joffaboy]

Sorry mate but who is the inside mid going at 50% DE? Any worse and he can pull an opposition jumper on play for them and be of more benefit to us. All that good work he has done and not a hell of a team benefit.

You are correct his disposal really needs to improve but 13 CP's, 8 Clearances, 7 tackles is a good return.

His only real replacement ATM is Armo, none of the others could do his job.

Hanners is the ideal pick, like Carlisle is the ideal pick for Wilkie, but they aren't available.

 

[Strahany]

I wouldn’t be against some form of pseudo-ruck-zone set up with Pierce and Marshall.

Pierce as the main ruck, whilst Marshall starts on the forward flank.
Pierce takes ruckwork around the midfield and into defensive 50, whilst Marshall pushes up to act as the chop-out-link up mark (and also take a midfield ruck contest after a quick clearance so Pierce doesn’t have to rush to the contest). Meanwhile, whilst the ball is forward of Centre, Pierce could act as the spare man to cut off opposition clearances, or float forward if the aggression is warranted.

This would mean they’re effectively rucking simultaneously, but less benching should be required as one ruckman won’t need to exert themselves to make distant contests. It would also mean they could put attention into the opposition ruck off the ball (e.g ball coming from our forwardline, Marshall can harass their ruck whilst they’re attempting to make it towards Pierce’s “zone”). Of course this wouldn’t be set in stone, but the rough idea of it is there.

I feel like we might see teams using some players in tandem to generate the free player now that the 6-6-6 rule means that you can’t merely drop a player back.

 

[Joffaboy]

My ins would be Clark Marshall acres. Outs pierce dunstan McKenzie

I think it will be acres brown for Joyce dunstan

So you think Acres can play Dunstans role?

Don't know about that

 

[plugger66]

So you think Acres can play Dunstans role?

Don't know about that

Not really. I think Steven will in the middle for most of the game and Acres can have a little bit in the middle. I just cant think who else could be dropped if they play Acres.

 

[Keg on legs]

Essendon will cop the mother of all blowtorches from the media this week.

As stupid and unscientific as it sounds, in the Melbourne fishbowl, this nearly always translates into a win for the team receiving the blowtorch.

The only hope for us is if Essendon are really even worse than we realize and /or they’ve stopped buying into what their coach is selling (which looked a distinct possibility from what I watched of their game today).

Taking the above into account, I’d say the blowtorch wins out and we lose but we are not without hope at all. It’s a tough league to predict nowadays.

Agree re the blowtorch theory. The media are gonna be all over them this week and surely they are the focus of all the footy shows tonight.

But - if we prepare well and ensure we are ready for them i reckon we still have the game plan to beat them.

As i said preaseason - They love to slingshot out of defence but they dont really buy in to 2 way running as a collective.

If we hit them, shut down their attacking rebound and don't allow them to run in waves I'm not sure they have the answers to a hard physical contest. I struggle to think of 1 hard unit for them who loves the physical stuff.

Parker is a key here. That manic fwd 50 pressure is so important against a team that sets up everything from their defensive arc.

The key is not to let them get their tails up and wear them down physically.

 

[SaintersUnite]

In: Marshall, Acres, Brown
Out: Pierce, Dunstan, Long

Straight swap of ruckman, Marshall is much better around the ground and will be competitive against Bellchambers regardless. Acres for Dunstan as the latter isn’t consistent or damaging enough with his disposal. Brown to come in, pushing Joyce to CHB and Battle up front for a three tall forward setup. Long to come out for Battle as he needs a boot up the arse for his stupidity, as much as I love the bloke he needs to control that aggression.

Optimistic outcome: Saints by 21
Pessimistic outcome: Bombers by 43


St Kilda and proud.

 

[Sir Skid]

Agree re the blowtorch theory. The media are gonna be all over them this week and surely they are the focus of all the footy shows tonight.

But - if we prepare well and ensure we are ready for them i reckon we still have the game plan to beat them.

As i said preaseason - They love to slingshot out of defence but they dont really buy in to 2 way running as a collective.

If we hit them, shut down their attacking rebound and don't allow them to run in waves I'm not sure they have the answers to a hard physical contest. I struggle to think of 1 hard unit for them who loves the physical stuff.

Parker is a key here. That manic fwd 50 pressure is so important against a team that sets up everything from their defensive arc.

The key is not to let them get their tails up and wear them down physically.

Agree. Thats why Long plays and possibly manic Robbie Young comes in for Kent.