Preview Round 7, 2020: Adelaide v St.Kilda - Adelaide Oval, Monday 20th July, 7:40PM AEST *BYRNES DEBUT*

[The_Steadier]

Fairly obvious I’d have thought.
You become what you’re willing to accept.
So, if we’re happy with our most senior leaders having two tackles between them, willing to accept their disgraceful ball use, fine with decision making akin to local reserves, then maybe that’s why we’re where we find ourselves.

And what do you become when you're willing to accept throwing the toys out of the cot and making selection decisions based on emotional, baseless preconceptions after 1 bad loss?


I don't understand why you are lumping gears in with seb with regard to disposal and decision making.
What's been disgraceful about geary's decision making and ball use this year?

You need to stop looking at geary with the eyeballs you had in 2017.

Geary's disposal has been rock solid for a good 2 years now

 

[AirWinmar]

How specifically was Ratten deplorable?
Fremantle upped the ante after 1/4 time and players failed to adjust
We got beaten in the uncontested part of the game and they had 6 more marks inside 50
Suggests to me that there was a lack of pressure on the Fremantle ball carriers and the ball was coming into our backline with heat.
Not much a coach can do in a game to arrest a slide when the players are down on effort and leadership.
Hope he makes a bit of statement this week at the selection table

On top of that we weren't running to create space and options ahead of the ball when we did have it

 

[puppy_dog7]

I'm glad people are seeing what I've been seeing with Ross for the last 2 years. Even when he has a half decent game (few and far between) you just need to look at what his direct opponent is doing. He may average 25 touches last few years, but his direct opponent would have atleast the same amount but with more hurt factor.

Missed the 1st half of the game and only watched the 2nd which was enough.

Need to go

- Marsh been saying this since the Collingwood game, but are way too tall and need a runner. If Ratts wants to play like that, then Ryder is more effective to at least ruck.

- Ross for the above mentioned

- Geary the backline has passed him by. His new position should be to tag the teams best running back (Laird) or he is out of the side. The backline has been looking decent last 3 or so week's with the right size and set up

- Long suspended

- Lonie has not fired a shot last 2 games. Plays 1 good game every 6 and now with Butler as the genuine smalls needs to go

Outs
Ross, Long, Marsh, Lonie

Ins
Webster, Sinclair, Byrnes/Bytel, Ryder/Parker

Players that need to pull their finger out massively are Marshall (been towelled up most week's bar against the dogs and maybe blues) and Hill who can't get the balk more than 12 times to save himself

LOL STFU. In all honesty, how do you think a player can win, not 1 but 2 Best and Fairest's and barely ever play a half decent game? i agree he's been poor this year and in the middle of the year last year, and should be on notice to lift or get dropped, but you're literally spitting s**t if you don't think he ever plays a good game.

 

[AirWinmar]

You must not have watched the game. This is squarely on the players, has nothing to do with coaching. It's mentality and work ethic.

I agree with you. The only coaching things I thought didn't work were:
Didn't look like Gears had a position and we threw him around a bit, can understand why but don't think it worked.
Marsh in the midfield didn't work.
None of it matters if the players stop running tho, so not why we lost

 

[CaptainRisky]

And what do you become when you're willing to accept throwing the toys out of the cot and making selection decisions based on emotional, baseless preconceptions after 1 bad loss?


I don't understand why you are lumping gears in with seb with regard to disposal and decision making.
What's been disgraceful about geary's decision making and ball use this year?

You need to stop looking at geary with the eyeballs you had in 2017.

Geary's disposal has been rock solid for a good 2 years now

Yeah , i loved his barrel in the last two mins

 

[AirWinmar]

Yeah , i loved his barrel in the last two mins

Well everyone wants to bring back the barrell

 

[CaptainRisky]

Well everyone wants to bring back the barrell

Now that's a Barrel

 

[Dard Ball Get]

And what do you become when you're willing to accept throwing the toys out of the cot and making selection decisions based on emotional, baseless preconceptions after 1 bad loss?


I don't understand why you are lumping gears in with seb with regard to disposal and decision making.
What's been disgraceful about geary's decision making and ball use this year?

You need to stop looking at geary with the eyeballs you had in 2017.

Geary's disposal has been rock solid for a good 2 years now

Very emotive
I have been on about Seb’s form for 18 months, and Geary similar.
I lumped them together because they’re our “leaders”. Has Geary’s disposal improved? Yes, hard not to.
His decision making was despicable on the weekend and may have cost us a win. What I’m saying is we are going nowhere if our leadership has a sum total of “tried hard” (Geary), and “has been at the club a bit longer than others” (Seb)

 

[cooperrules]

You must not have watched the game. This is squarely on the players, has nothing to do with coaching. It's mentality and work ethic.

I think it has to go both ways. Its happened twice now. Ratts cant get off scott free he needs to take his own share of the blame. Im not convinced ive always said he has that richoness about him.

 

[Crusty Undies]

We should honestly be dropping Geary. At the end of the day we lost the game because he, a 32 year old experienced back pocket and the captain of our club in his 3rd year now made an absolutely horrendous, unforgivable decision. Should also drop Hill, Marsh and Kent too go with Long's suspension. 5 changes, swing the axe and nip this in the bud under Ratten. No more redeem yourself next week bullshit. Perform or don't play. Enough is enough, we've given players 2nd chances for 8 years now. Let's see Byrnes and Bytel, give Connolly, Langlands, Sinclair, Webster idgaf; if they've been putting in effort and performing in the scratchies and at training play them over the people who think they're safe in the team.

I remember Ross Lyon doing the same thing with Dal Santo and Milne and when those two came back they played the best 2nd half of a season of their careers.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Aint gonna happen..

Surely not
No way hill will get dropped
I doubt seb either

 

[George]

I think it has to go both ways. Its happened twice now. Ratts cant get off scott free he needs to take his own share of the blame. Im not convinced ive always said he has that richoness about him.

A team doesn't squander two 6 goal leads because of coaching. That's a psychological issue with the playing group.

 

[Saintbloke]

Ratten can not do nothing when no one is winning the contested ball, anyway we lost and hopefully the team will show more effort against the Crows and I'm sure they will.

I remember after we lost to North people where saying we will be lucky to win any of the first 4 games , well we are now 3 and 3 , have beaten teams people thought we had no chance to beat and lost against teams we thought would we would win.

The coaching panel have brought in a new brilliant style of play and are playing one of the youngest squads in the AFL , so no doubt there will be teething problems especially when you put together a team which half of the squad have hardly played together.

Ratts said that the team basically needed slow down when the situations demands, not just be running flat out. It cost us in the last quarter when the backline and wings just ran up the ground so hard and Geary bombed the ball under pressure, and left Freo forwards all alone and the rest was history, but the coach is responsible a lot for instilling discipline into the team.

 

[Impatient Saint]

Saints under Ratten 6-1 @ Marvel 0-5 away. Time to address that Ratts if you want to be serious finalist...

 

[borderbarry]

He was second best on the ground last game.

Even though Ben did him a favour and put the Freo ruckman out of the game, he was then beaten by their number twp ruckman. unless you mean Paddy was 2nd besr on the ground.

 

[plugger66]

Even though Ben did him a favour and put the Freo ruckman out of the game, he was then beaten by their number twp ruckman. unless you mean Paddy was 2nd besr on the ground.

No I mean he was second best on the ground just one game ago against Carlton.

 

[mightymalaka]

We should honestly be dropping Geary. At the end of the day we lost the game because he, a 32 year old experienced back pocket and the captain of our club in his 3rd year now made an absolutely horrendous, unforgivable decision. Should also drop Hill, Marsh and Kent too go with Long's suspension. 5 changes, swing the axe and nip this in the bud under Ratten. No more redeem yourself next week bullshit. Perform or don't play. Enough is enough, we've given players 2nd chances for 8 years now. Let's see Byrnes and Bytel, give Connolly, Langlands, Sinclair, Webster idgaf; if they've been putting in effort and performing in the scratchies and at training play them over the people who think they're safe in the team.

I remember Ross Lyon doing the same thing with Dal Santo and Milne and when those two came back they played the best 2nd half of a season of their careers.

Agree Crusty! Changes need to be made after a performance like that! But I see your boy Seb survives yet again!
If you want the coach to make a Dal or Milne statement then surely it's time for the ultimate protected species in Ross to go back and learn that he can't keep getting gifted games on the back of his performance!

He was absolutely woeful and anonymous in the same game. Which in itself is an impressive feat! How one can go completely missing yet be so conspicuous with his sh!tness is a double banger that on reflection means yeah why not play him again and see if he can repeat these heroics!

 

[Crusty Undies]

Agree Crusty! Changes need to be made after a performance like that! But I see your boy Seb survives yet again!
If you want the coach to make a Dal or Milne statement then surely it's time for the ultimate protected species in Ross to go back and learn that he can't keep getting gifted games on the back of his performance!

He was absolutely woeful and anonymous in the same game. Which in itself is an impressive feat! How one can go completely missing yet be so conspicuous with his sh!tness is a double banger that on reflection means yeah why not play him again and see if he can repeat these heroics!

Nup full scorched earth drop seb too. They all need the kick up the arse at this point it seems. The only reason I see to keep Seb in is that we need someone to toss the coin next week and it was Geary not ross who ultimately cost us the game. If he makes it through this week though and flubs it next week I'm fully in favor of dropping Ross too.

 

[Crusty Undies]

Also I'll kindly thank you to never call Seb Ross my boy ever again mightymalaka! I've defended him when I thought he was unfairly criticised before but the criticism he's receiving now is 100% justified so no complaints from me.

 

[FQFjt]

We need to be getting way more out of Gresham. He showed glimpses of being a special talent in the early days and now he's seriously plateaued into a GOP. If he needs to be played more forward to extract his best form then just do it, and bring in Byrne or Bytel. But something has to give.

 

[XhazzafootyX]

In the mix: Selection shake-up on the horizon ahead of clash with Crows

With Brett Ratten hinting at sweeping changes following last Saturday's match against Fremantle, several Saints are in the running for a senior recall.

www.saints.com.au

 

[Diehard Saint]

The Bleedout. It seemed to be inevitable from about 5 minutes into the second quarter. We just lay down and even a lethargic and disinterested Freo seemed to just shunt us out of the way like a glacier grinding it's way across a continent.

Have we got a psych at the club?
Would be a fascinating thing getting into the heads of these guys.

 

[Ducky Tie]

We need to be getting way more out of Gresham. He showed glimpses of being a special talent in the early days and now he's seriously plateaued into a GOP. If he needs to be played more forward to extract his best form then just do it, and bring in Byrne or Bytel. But something has to give.

I've been keen to see how he develops in midfield, hoping he can get to elite level but I'm starting to think the same as you. He looks like Hugh Greenwood in midfield. Gets good clearance numbers and contested ball but not much on the outside and poor kicking.

It's easy to forget how good he was looking in the forwardline. 35 goals and 20 goal assists in a rubbish team at age 20 is amazing. He was well on track to be an elite small forward of the comp. It was definitely worth giving him an extended run in the middle and I still would put him in there at times but as you say, we need to get more out of him.

 

[Diehard Saint]

We’ll beat the Crows comfortably like we did the Bulldogs and Richmond and everyone will be happy and optimistic again.

Then a week later we’ll get hammered by Port like we did in China last year and that week will be similar to this one.

Hurray for consistency!

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Different scenario completely.
None of us will go into the Port game expecting a win.
Against Freo we definitely were expecting a win - and they completely stuffed it up - hence the huge emotional outbursts on here this week.

Losing to Port will not elicit anywhere near such a reaction, unless we are so close and lose it in the manner of the last five minutes of the Freo game.

 

[plugger66]

We need to be getting way more out of Gresham. He showed glimpses of being a special talent in the early days and now he's seriously plateaued into a GOP. If he needs to be played more forward to extract his best form then just do it, and bring in Byrne or Bytel. But something has to give.

I thought he pretty good on Saturday. So did rats.