Preview Round 2, 2021: St.Kilda v Melbourne - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 27th March, 7:25PM AEDT *SPUD'S GAME* *SINCLAIR 100TH*

[George]

Always good to beat the Dees so hopefully we can get it done on Saturday night.

First home game of the year, and it looks like Jones and King will return. Possibly Marshall.

Also this is Spuds Game, we have a separate thread for that news, was thinking about merging these two threads together but left it for now.

Can't wait to get down to Marvel, I can't actually remember the last game of football I went to. Possibly 2019 v Carlton at the MCG. Long long time ago.

 

[Sully111]

Bring it on

I honestly feel like we're a good chance to beat anybody.

 

[puppy_dog7]

Hopefully we have Jones back as that extra mid/half back rotation, and obviously big Maxy. We have the fitness, speed and dangerous forward line to be too much for the Dees. Gawn presents a worry, but shouldn't be the difference imo.

 

[TheEnsign]

Did anyone see the Melbourne / Freo game on the weekend; specifically where Melbourne's scoring shots were coming from? My initial thought was next week should be a run & gun goal fest - we have the fitness and forward line to do it, the rules now support it, and a Melbourne without Weidemann and Brown just doesn't have the firepower I think.

However, I see they had 25 scoring shots although heaps of behind (with a big spread of goal and point kickers) so I'm wondering did they blow a lot of genuine chances or was it a lot of blazing from on / outside 50 or deep in the pockets?

 

[FQFjt]

Last year we played them, we were out-coached and Steven May

1

Steven May

Age

32

Ht

193cm

Wt

101kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

10.5

4star

HB

4.2

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

307.3

4star

D

15.5

4star

K

12.1

5star

HB

3.4

2star

M

3.4

3star

T

0.5

1star

MG

378.4

5star

D

12.4

4star

K

8.8

4star

HB

3.6

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.8

4star

gave King a bath. I don't expect the first to repeat itself, and I hope that King has learned something from the second. I want Battle to take Lever out of the game.

Gawn is a problem, but him dominating does not correlate that highly with Melbourne winning.

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

Did anyone see the Melbourne / Freo game on the weekend; specifically where Melbourne's scoring shots were coming from? My initial thought was next week should be a run & gun goal fest - we have the fitness and forward line to do it, the rules now support it, and a Melbourne without Weidemann and Brown just doesn't have the firepower I think.

However, I see they had 25 scoring shots although heaps of behind (with a big spread of goal and point kickers) so I'm wondering did they blow a lot of genuine chances or was it a lot of blazing from on / outside 50 or deep in the pockets?

Melbourne were atrocious... they were just very fortunate that Freo are decimated with injury & that ex Essendope spud Collier couldn’t take his chances.

To add to that... Lever & May took about a thousand intercept marks so if we play intelligently & not bomb it long like we did in the Alice last year, we’ll absolutely belt them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lewdogs]

We need to be wary of Lever and May. Stop them and I think we win.

You'd think we would have a plan seeing as May basically beat us singlehandedly last year.

 

[Pardon me]

Smack and Battlecat rotating forward to break packs open and get our little guys some crumbing goals. Should be a fun game to watch.

 

[BrutThough]

We need to be wary of Lever and May. Stop them and I think we win.

You'd think we would have a plan seeing as May basically beat us singlehandedly last year.

With King back, I'd send Battle to one of them in that defensive role he did to Haynes last year. Probably better suited to Lever here

Then direct the players to not kick it to King, who May will likely be starting on.

Membrey to kick 6.

 

[Armoooo]

For the love of god, do not kick it to May 20+ times this year. As soon as either him or Lever start getting their hands on it, look elsewhere. Hit up one of our smalls in the pocket, try the bomb from 55, just do not kick it to May's advantage in one on one contests v King time and time again.

Their forward line is weak, our backline can more than cover them and provide the drive we need.

Our midfield can break even if they play it smart. As soon as we get on the overlap, their slow inside mids become liabilities. Let them get their aimless bomb clearances, we'll have blokes behind ready for that, but make sure to hurt them on the overlap and the rebound.

If we can provide good honest contests and our typical pressure, the deciding factor will be how smart we are going into the forward 50.

King, Membrey, Battle, Higgins, Billings, Butler, Gresham and Lonie are some seriously talented players, lets hope we have guys like Sinclair and Hill hitting them lace out all night/

 

[The_Snake26]

Who goes out?
King and Jones are walk up starters.
McKenzie the obvious one.
Bytel could be the unlucky one. Was serviceable with a game high 10 tackles. Would be unlucky.
McKernan could be the other but i think we need him to give king a chop out. He can’tbe first choice against Gawn so Hunter stays in.
good problems to have

 

[Armoooo]

With King back, I'd send Battle to one of them in that defensive role he did to Haynes last year. Probably better suited to Lever here

Then direct the players to not kick it to King, who May will likely be starting on.

Membrey to kick 6.

Great call.

Battle can shut down Lever's drive, probably beat him in the one v one wrestles as well.

As talented as King is, I still don't think he has the frame to avoid being monstered by May like last time. Only hit him up on the lead IMO.

 

[Armoooo]

Who goes out?
King and Jones are walk up starters.
McKenzie the obvious one.
Bytel could be the unlucky one. Was serviceable with a game high 10 tackles. Would be unlucky.
McKernan could be the other but i think we need him to give king a chop out. He can’tbe first choice against Gawn so Hunter stays in.
good problems to have

Honestly, is Jones a walk-up start? He was very good at times last year and I believe our best 22 going forward features him, but I don't think he is so good that it would hurt him to earn his spot back in the team through the VFL.

Bytel deserves a second chance, did nothing wrong and with a fit Crouch we may struggle to get too many more looks at him. Seb Ross was one of the most influential mids on the ground thanks to his two goals and looks the best he's been for a few years.

I would bring in King for McKenzie.

If there are concerns we are too tall, we can consider dropping Highmore for Jones and moving Battle back.

But yeah, I think I would just do the one change. Too good of a win to make changes that don't necessarily need to be made IMO.

 

[Klaatu]

We need to be wary of Lever and May. Stop them and I think we win.

You'd think we would have a plan seeing as May basically beat us singlehandedly last year.

Lever & May only had Taberner to contend with it will be a big ask to cover King,Battle,Mc Kernan and Membry,Jones has to play because of his pace at Marvel stadium.

 

[FQFjt]

Honestly, is Jones a walk-up start? He was very good at times last year and I believe our best 22 going forward features him, but I don't think he is so good that it would hurt him to earn his spot back in the team through the VFL.

Bytel deserves a second chance, did nothing wrong and with a fit Crouch we may struggle to get too many more looks at him. Seb Ross was one of the most influential mids on the ground thanks to his two goals and looks the best he's been for a few years.

I would bring in King for McKenzie.

If there are concerns we are too tall, we can consider dropping Highmore for Jones and moving Battle back.

But yeah, I think I would just do the one change. Too good of a win to make changes that don't necessarily need to be made IMO.

I think Jones is definitely a walk up start. He's tough as nails, wins clearances and genuine pace over first 20m. He's a huge point of difference in our midfield setup, and will ease some of that pressure on Steele. There were times last year when he was being tagged, he was that damaging.

 

[plugger66]

Jones and king back. McKenzie and maybe a ruck out but I have no idea who could be second ruck. It won’t be king unless it’s in the forward line.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Yep, Jones is bit of a barometer for us. When he plays well we generally win. Having him in there also frees us up to play Gresh forward more.

 

[god_of_the_universe]

Would love to see a big win by the boys this weekend. Hopefully I can manage to snag a ticket when they go on sale tomorrow!

 

[The Punter]

Obviously the two ins will be Jones and King.

It will be interesting to see who the outs are. Hunter and McKernan were OK but in the opposite ways we expected before the game - Hunter was better around the ground and McKernan was better in the ruck. Perhaps we can go with one of them this week and roll the dice with a Battle or a King at a pinch. Gawn is probably going to beat whomever we play in the ruck with Ryder and Marshall still unavailable.

Jones in for McKenzie seems pretty obvious, although McKenzie did little wrong and that change may pre-empt Clark moving back into the defender rotation, which I don't want to see. I though Highmore looked every bit a first gamer, but Melbourne's forwards currently aren't that tall and I don't like dropping blokes after one game.

Suggested team for next week:

Defenders: Howard, Wilkie, Coffield, Long, Highmore, Sinclair, Webster
Midfielders: McKernan, Steele, Ross, Billings, Hill, Jones, Clark, Bytel
Forwards: King, Membrey, Butler, Lonie, Higgins, Gresham, Battle

 

[Armoooo]

It's so unlucky that the two blokes who were arguably our worst performers, are the ones that we have no replacement for and will be needed to try and reduce the impact of the best player in their respective position from the opposition.

Just thinking out loud here, but if we drop D-Mac and Hunter for King and Jones, could we get Battle to simply tag Gawn? send him into the ruck knowing he's going to get beaten, but he can be an extra mid when the ball hits the ground and follow him around and just scrag him all day.

There is a huge size diffence but Battle is tough as nails and honestly, I reckon he would relish the seemingly impossible task.

 

[aussierulesrules]

It's so unlucky that the two blokes who were arguably our worst performers, are the ones that we have no replacement for and will be needed to try and reduce the impact of the best player in their respective position from the opposition.

Just thinking out loud here, but if we drop D-Mac and Hunter for King and Jones, could we get Battle to simply tag Gawn? send him into the ruck knowing he's going to get beaten, but he can be an extra mid when the ball hits the ground and follow him around and just scrag him all day.

There is a huge size diffence but Battle is tough as nails and honestly, I reckon he would relish the seemingly impossible task.

Reckon we need Battle to play on Lever and not let him take easy intercept marks, like the job he did on Haynes late last year.

 

[Yabadoo22]

McKenzie played his role but will be first out, I can see him being the medical sub a lot this year due to his versatility. The other out isn’t so easy. I thought both mckernan and hunter were fairly poor but we have no other choice at the moment. And I feel like we need both of them to try combat Gawn. There’s probably 2 options we could go. First drop bytel for Jones, which is the more obvious midfielder for midfielder swap. I liked bytels game and I think we should persist with him but I also see the logic of leaving him out. The other option could be highmore out for Jones. Once again I thought highmore did ok, although he did seem to go to ground to easy a few times. Melbourne don’t have a big potent forward line so we could get away with Howard and Wilkie as the second tall, or if not play battle down back.

out: McKenzie, highmore
In: Jones, king

B: Webster Howard long
Hb: coffield Wilkie Sinclair
C: hill Steele Ross
Hf: billings membrey Higgins
F: butler king mckernan
Foll: hunter Gresham Clark
Int: battle Jones bytel lonie
sub: McKenzie

 

[schmuttt]

Surely you win this comfortably if you're to be any good this year? Our mids and Gawn were very poor against Freo so I'd expect them to bounce back but st kilda at docklands is never easy and we're relying on a piecemeal forwardline.

 

[Heavensent]

We need to be wary of Lever and May. Stop them and I think we win.

You'd think we would have a plan seeing as May basically beat us singlehandedly last year.

Battle to May to negate his influence. Just like he did v Haynes against GWS last year

 

[ScrappyDo]

Tough job following up from such a slog.
All in all I think we should win if we play smart, but the ruck situation is the fly in the ointment for mine.
Right now I think best to bring back Jake to contest the high-ball and Doogs can go with TMac. Highmore probably to miss after a reasonable debut.

Ins: King, Jones, Snake
Outs: Highmore, Dmac, Smack/Punter