Review Round 7, 2025 - St.Kilda vs. Brisbane Lions

[Nunez]

This is the season from hell for Smith isn't it.

Maybe we should look into Draper.

Hi Elixuh do you think we should sign Draper?

 

[Sunny Land]

Was at the game on Saturday and just watched the replay this afternoon. Things that stood out for me in both the live game & replay:

a) Higgins really had the better of Noah. His speed was to much for Noah to handle. Wonder if Starc would have handled it better?
b) Day's best game thus far. Really excited to see him continue to improve and have the knockers stop knocking.
c) Lachie is the cleanest footballer in the game...almost never fumbles. 3 brownlow points again!!!
d) Hippy's energy and effort first rate.
e) Charlie concerning body language and lack of effort. Hope he finds some form this week.
f) Motty is going to be exciting as he matures. Great game. Dont like his bombs into the forward line but that will improve.
g) Zorko is such a valuable player when he has the ball.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Injury list today:
View attachment 2299158

Kiddy not on it, playing VFL this week ?

 

[fchap]

Kiddy not on it, playing VFL this week ?

Yep likely to play VFL this week according to the injury report.

 

[GenericUsername202]

Kiddy not on it, playing VFL this week ?

Looks like he will be playing in the VFL according to the lions website. Will be interesting to see what happens to zorko's role when he comes back considering Zorko took his rebounding defending role when he went down last year.

 

[Nunez]

Looks like he will be playing in the VFL according to the lions website. Will be interesting to see what happens to zorko's role when he comes back considering Zorko took his rebounding defending role when he went down last year.

Suspect he'll go back and Fletcher will move back to the wing.

 

[thedigger]

f) Motty is going to be exciting as he matures. Great game. Dont like his bombs into the forward line but that will improve.

David King gave him a big rap on monday.

 

[M Malice]

Kiddy and Zorks distribution by foot out of the defensive half is going to be a joy to watch and it will be a nightmare for the opposition to shut down both.

 

[blueiris]

It’s great to have Coleman back hopefully he stars at VFL level and isn’t far off returning to the seniors

 

[Tom14]

This is the season from hell for Smith isn't it.

Maybe we should look into Draper.

 

[Elixuh]

Hi Elixuh do you think we should sign Draper?

 

[Jivlain]

Is he doing an Arthur?

 

[Grasshopper17]

I'll take it.

For those lamenting the lack of a bigger percentage boost, Lyon was dropping so many players behind the ball in the fourth to stop it blowing out. I bet ZoBlitz can provide feedback to him on that.

Yeah look honestly, at the game I got a bit grumbly in the last quarter. I generally do when we finish off games like that, and I'm probably not going to change

BUT

Once the dust settles, we won every quarter (both on the scoreboard AND on expected score) and really, we did what a good team should do to an average team.

And it's April.

 

[Elixuh]

Is he doing an Arthur?

It’s the last thing Nunez will see

 

[Nunez]

It’s the last thing Nunez will see

 

[Grasshopper17]

In regards to the game. That first quarter was the best we’ve played all year albeit our finishing was poor.

Our pressure and defensive structure was certainly the best it's been all season, or close to it.

The fact the ball spent so much time in our forward zone however actually seemed to limit our scoring opportunities, as counterintuitive as that may seem, simply due to the congestion it created. We only managed 9 shots from 24 entries in the first quarter - 38% which is never gonna get it done. The worst team in the comp at this is Carlton and even they are going at 43% so far this season.

Each quarter however we improved in this noticeably: 55% (6 from 11) in Q2, 65% (11 from 17) in Q3, and a scarcely believable 93% (13 from 14!) in the last quarter. Geelong are #1 in the comp at this at 53.8%. So we were definitely able to break them down defensively the longer the game went on.

Some of those shots in the last quarter might have been a touch adventurous tho to be fair: 2.98 expected points per shot compared to 3.52 for the first 3 quarters. For reference, AFL average is 3.27 expected points per shot.

 

[Denno]

Was at the game on Saturday and just watched the replay this afternoon. Things that stood out for me in both the live game & replay:

a) Higgins really had the better of Noah. His speed was to much for Noah to handle. Wonder if Starc would have handled it better?
b) Day's best game thus far. Really excited to see him continue to improve and have the knockers stop knocking.
c) Lachie is the cleanest footballer in the game...almost never fumbles. 3 brownlow points again!!!
d) Hippy's energy and effort first rate.
e) Charlie concerning body language and lack of effort. Hope he finds some form this week.
f) Motty is going to be exciting as he matures. Great game. Dont like his bombs into the forward line but that will improve.
g) Zorko is such a valuable player when he has the ball.

Considering the way he completely dismantled Higgins last year (4 disposals - lowest ever in a full game), and his average disposals against us is lower than any other team, I dare say Higgins would have been breathing a sigh of relief that Starcevich was unavailable.
All things being equal, him coming back into the team will help steady the ship down back (points against), and will hopefully push us into the top right quadrant in the Fox Premiership window (for what that's worth).

 

[Elixuh]

Considering the way he completely dismantled Higgins last year (4 disposals - lowest ever in a full game), and his average disposals against us is lower than any other team, I dare say Higgins would have been breathing a sigh of relief that Starcevich was unavailable.
All things being equal, him coming back into the team will help steady the ship down back (points against), and will hopefully push us into the top right quadrant in the Fox Premiership window (for what that's worth).

I can’t recall, were a lot of Higgins involvements off either broken play or turnover? Was there maybe one genuine crumbing goal in the contest? I can’t remember.

 

[Section 5]

Higgins is second in the Coleman race 3 goals behind King from the Suns
Higgins is averaging a tick under 3 goals a game.
Players when they are in form are hard to beat. Things tend to also go there way when they're in form.

Answerth was still involved in the game. Similar stats to his previous games.
Had 14 disposals @100%, 6 marks but no tackles. Only the second time this year with 0 tackles
Also had season highs of 3 clearances and 3 inside 50's.

It's just his opponent only had 3 kicks for the game resulting in 3 goals.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Higgins is second in the Coleman race 3 goals behind King from the Suns
Higgins is averaging a tick under 3 goals a game.
Players when they are in form are hard to beat. Things tend to also go there way when they're in form.

Answerth was still involved in the game. Similar stats to his previous games.
Had 14 disposals @100%, 6 marks but no tackles. Only the second time this year with 0 tackles
Also had season highs of 3 clearances and 3 inside 50's.

It's just his opponent only had 3 kicks for the game resulting in 3 goals.

And 1 was because Fletcher fell over

 

[briztoon]

Was at the game on Saturday and just watched the replay this afternoon. Things that stood out for me in both the live game & replay:

a) Higgins really had the better of Noah. His speed was to much for Noah to handle. Wonder if Starc would have handled it better?
b) Day's best game thus far. Really excited to see him continue to improve and have the knockers stop knocking.
c) Lachie is the cleanest footballer in the game...almost never fumbles. 3 brownlow points again!!!
d) Hippy's energy and effort first rate.
e) Charlie concerning body language and lack of effort. Hope he finds some form this week.
f) Motty is going to be exciting as he matures. Great game. Dont like his bombs into the forward line but that will improve.
g) Zorko is such a valuable player when he has the ball.

Higgins isn’t that fast.

But he’s a very smart player and maximises every ounce of ability within himself.

 

[martinson]

Higgins isn’t that fast.

But he’s a very smart player and maximises every ounce of ability within himself.

He'd be good in a top team because you'd know every time you got it near him in the right way he's going to really hurt the opposition.

 

[Sunny Land]

Higgins isn’t that fast.

But he’s a very smart player and maximises every ounce of ability within himself.

In the game on Saturday his first 5 metres off the mark blew Noah away. Starc i think would have been different.

 

[Bucking Beads]

In the game on Saturday his first 5 metres off the mark blew Noah away. Starc i think would have been different.

Not sure Starc is any quicker than Noah TBH. Our defensive speed is clearly one of our weaknesses. We generally cop a hiding from the smaller forwards

 

[briztoon]

Not sure Starc is any quicker than Noah TBH. Our defensive speed is clearly one of our weaknesses. We generally cop a hiding from the smaller forwards

I haven’t seen data for Wilmot, but Starcevich held all the top speeds for our current defenders.