Autopsy Round 8, 2019: St.Kilda v West Coast

Game went almost as expected. WC, by there lofty standards were fairly average and we were well below our best. Their poor kicking kept us alive and probably in the the end the score board covers up the gap between the better sides and us (in our current form).

The zip, excitement and willingness from the first few rounds has all but disappeared as the injury toll begins to really impact our play and confidence. In particular we are in desperate need of some on field leadership - all of our leaders are in the medical room at present and it is really showing on the field. Seb Ross, a borderline A grade type, is not a natural a leader but we have so few options the role is given to him and it seems to really impact his play. Someone has to step up - Bruce lead the way Saturday night, he needs some mates, Steele, Billings, Skunk, Newnes have to step up.

We all knew this was coming, a quick glance at the fixture from early in the season shows we are in the midst of an incredibly tough few weeks. We need a spark this week against the Maggies at the 'G - a shot in the arm that give us back the belief, the hunger and desire, irrespective of the result.

We have the Blues on Sunday week under the roof, anything but the four points and we can forget about all of the goodwill created over the first few weeks, it will be gone. The knives will be out, the press will be smelling blood and we will be back to where we were only 12 months ago.
 

luca77

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Game went almost as expected. WC, by there lofty standards were fairly average and we were well below our best. Their poor kicking kept us alive and probably in the the end the score board covers up the gap between the better sides and us (in our current form).

The zip, excitement and willingness from the first few rounds has all but disappeared as the injury toll begins to really impact our play and confidence. In particular we are in desperate need of some on field leadership - all of our leaders are in the medical room at present and it is really showing on the field. Seb Ross, a borderline A grade type, is not a natural a leader but we have so few options the role is given to him and it seems to really impact his play. Someone has to step up - Bruce lead the way Saturday night, he needs some mates, Steele, Billings, Skunk, Newnes have to step up.

We all knew this was coming, a quick glance at the fixture from early in the season shows we are in the midst of an incredibly tough few weeks. We need a spark this week against the Maggies at the 'G - a shot in the arm that give us back the belief, the hunger and desire, irrespective of the result.

We have the Blues on Sunday week under the roof, anything but the four points and we can forget about all of the goodwill created over the first few weeks, it will be gone. The knives will be out, the press will be smelling blood and we will be back to where we were only 12 months ago.
Our draw after the Pies is as good as you could ever hope for. I hope with a few players coming back after the bye, Stuv takes a look at the draw and says "Yeah, gimme a piece of that".
 
Aug 30, 2017
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Someone who has gone a bit under the radar in that game is Newnes.
15 disposals, 8 effective, is kind of 2018 to me.
Seems to me he plays a role that Hind could have a shot at.

I would consider moving him forward if Long is being dropped. Then Hind can take his spot & Gresh can continue in the midfield.
 

Premium

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Marsh , Hunter and White should come in this week - they all look better than some we had play against the WCE.
Marsh is a proven back line player and with 26 touches is just about as many as a mid.
Hunter showed he is a level above VFL , so let him back into the team.
White was just outstanding

I don't care who they drop just get them in the side
 
Oct 2, 2010
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Someone who has gone a bit under the radar in that game is Newnes.
15 disposals, 8 effective, is kind of 2018 to me.
Seems to me he plays a role that Hind could have a shot at.
Played one below par game for the year but otherwise has been crucial to our improved form and actually getting the ball into the forward line.
Probably struggled with Phillips coming in and playing a similar role to him meaning he had to spend time elsewhere.
 

St Kilda Death

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Difference between 2 sides was jjk.
Need someone else up forward to take contested grabs and crash packs.
Paddy would have been nice.
King?
Jake?
 
Difference between 2 sides was jjk.
Need someone else up forward to take contested grabs and crash packs.
Paddy would have been nice.
King?
Jake?

Most people don't recommend playing injured players. Playing skinny noob's who haven't played a full game since they busted their ACL a year ago is probably not recommended either.

People have suggested ( since you are too lazy to read back just a little bit ).
: Newnes forward and Hind in. ( Kicked 18 goals in 15 games last year, despite becoming the whipping boy ).
: Battle forward and bring Joyce or Marsh in.
: Bring Longer in and play Marshall forward.

If you are going to suggest Paddy, King or Jake, you might as well suggest Jeremy bloody Cameron.
 

Circus

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One of the great features of our game is the comraderie between players and teams at the end of a game. After a couple of hours of fierce competitive sport they show each other respect.

Josh Kennedy did a kind, generous and gentlemanly act during the 3rd quarter, I think it was. It was when he caught Battle with the ball because he was effectively trapped with it and unable to get rid of it. While they were both on the ground and after Kennedy had been awarded the free he patted Battle on the back. To me this showed Kennedy's respect for the young bloke and the fact he was done cold through not fault of his.

On a night of many lows that act was the highlight for me. Kudos to Kennedy and to Josh Battle for having earned the respect of a champion player!!!
 

MrFoster

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I agree. The reality is we just haven’t drafted many genuine midfielders. That needs to change.
Hope we pick up an inside midfielder at the mid season draft.. we really need players who can get win the ball in first place.. Sadly Coffield is another half back flanker and not a mid. Many recruiters think you can turn atheletic utility type players into gun midfielders... it’s like teaching irish players how to kick, you can’t learn how to be a pure mid when you’re 19-20.. it takes years of experience and you need to have the right physic/instinct to do it as well.. being quick and tall is not it.. unless you’re really talented and is super competitive.. Coffield to me is a quick half back general with a good kick, another Robberton maybe.. Constable from Geelong on the other hand is a genuine mid. So our recruiting has to get better... We draft so many utilities rather than for real positional needs.. E.g. Acres was a half back flanker, Billings was a forward when we said we wanted to turn them all into gun mids.. Clavinrno is a 3rd tall when we wanted a key back, how many half back/half forward players do we have, yet we are short in genuine mids, ruck(We delisted Pearce then redrafted him, after 6 years on the list), key back (we’re short on keyback for years so Fisher anf Gwilt had to play tall) and key forward (Yes, Mccartin is injured but do we have another key forward to handle 1 injury)?
 
Hope we pick up an inside midfielder at the mid season draft.. we really need players who can get win the ball in first place.. Sadly Coffield is another half back flanker and not a mid. Many recruiters think you can turn atheletic utility type players into gun midfielders... it’s like teaching irish players how to kick, you can’t learn how to be a pure mid when you’re 19-20.. it takes years of experience and you need to have the right physic/instinct to do it as well.. being quick and tall is not it.. unless you’re really talented and is super competitive.. Coffield to me is a quick half back general with a good kick, another Robberton maybe.. Constable from Geelong on the other hand is a genuine mid. So our recruiting has to get better... We draft so many utilities rather than for real positional needs.. E.g. Acres was a half back flanker, Billings was a forward when we said we wanted to turn them all into gun mids.. Clavinrno is a 3rd tall when we wanted a key back, how many half back/half forward players do we have, yet we are short in genuine mids, ruck(We delisted Pearce then redrafted him, after 6 years on the list), key back (we’re short on keyback for years so Fisher anf Gwilt had to play tall) and key forward (Yes, Mccartin is injured but do we have another key forward to handle 1 injury)?

I agree with a lot of that, but i'd hope Clavarino , at his height , can become more than a 3rd tall.
I hope that Battle gets another chance forward after Carlisle is better, and don't forget Mr King.

Recruiters are far from perfect when it comes to drafting the best mids and understanding their future roles..

Dayne Beams pick 29 2008 Hamish Hartlett pick 4.
Nathan Fyfe ( not a true mid -some at Freo wanted Bastinac ) pick 20 2009. Morabito pick 4. "Forward "Dustin Martin taken after mids, Scully and Trengove.
Luke Parker pick 20 2010. ( Forward ) . Swallow and Polec early picks.
2012. O'Rourke and Toumpas taken ahead of Wines and Macrae.
2013 Cripps taken after Billings, Aish, Bont, Salem , Freeman, Sheed, Lennon.
 

cooperrules

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I would of given the Eagles performance a 6-7 out of 10.

And that was still good enough to beat us comfortably.

Not good enough imho.

I don’t mind losing but not when the opposition doesn’t need to get out of third gear.
They put the foot on gas for about 15 mins and the game was gone. Were always in top gear just to survive a thrashing. Sooner or later the engine is going to blow.
 
Oct 2, 2010
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St Kilda Death

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Most people don't recommend playing injured players. Playing skinny noob's who haven't played a full game since they busted their ACL a year ago is probably not recommended either.

People have suggested ( since you are too lazy to read back just a little bit ).
: Newnes forward and Hind in. ( Kicked 18 goals in 15 games last year, despite becoming the whipping boy ).
: Battle forward and bring Joyce or Marsh in.
: Bring Longer in and play Marshall forward.

If you are going to suggest Paddy, King or Jake, you might as well suggest Jeremy bloody Cameron.
Maybe I should be more specific, but I didn't mean next week.
And paddy was past tense.
 

bergholt

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Coaches Votes
9 Elliot Yeo (WCE)
5 Luke Shuey (WCE)
4 Josh Bruce (STK)
4 Liam Ryan (WCE)
3 Jack Billings (STK)
2 Jamie Cripps (WCE)
2 Shannon Hurn (WCE)
1 Luke Dunstan (STK)

https://www.aflcoaches.com.au/awards/the-aflca-champion-player-of-the-year-award/leaderboard


Bit of a mixed bag here. Not surprising since there didn't appear to be a dominate player for either side.

Screen Shot 2019-05-13 at 4.16.26 pm.png


Adding Dunstan to the list gives us 17 players with votes for the year now. Still none for Battle or Wilkie though.
 
Difference between 2 sides was jjk.
Need someone else up forward to take contested grabs and crash packs.
Paddy would have been nice.
King?
Jake?


He had one awesome crash packing mark but the only real difference was the frees for arm chopping that they didn't seem to notice when Bruce was marking. Also didn't pay 2 marks which was an overly technical interpretation not usually pulled up.
 
One of the great features of our game is the comraderie between players and teams at the end of a game. After a couple of hours of fierce competitive sport they show each other respect.

Josh Kennedy did a kind, generous and gentlemanly act during the 3rd quarter, I think it was. It was when he caught Battle with the ball because he was effectively trapped with it and unable to get rid of it. While they were both on the ground and after Kennedy had been awarded the free he patted Battle on the back. To me this showed Kennedy's respect for the young bloke and the fact he was done cold through not fault of his.

On a night of many lows that act was the highlight for me. Kudos to Kennedy and to Josh Battle for having earned the respect of a champion player!!!


I assumed he was patronising him.
 
May 6, 2009
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Just having a quick look at the ladder. We have beaten every team we have played sitting outside the 8 and lost to every team we have played inside the 8.

Sounds exactly right.

We've been a midtable team for the last nearly 4 years (last year was a dogs breakfast anomaly).

Our current form and position accurately reflects where we are at, and where we've been at, for a long time.
Average.
Not bad, not great.

List is young so hopefully there is enough natural improvement left in this group to push for a flag in coming years.

But our Achilles heel midfield needs a major overhaul before we can match it with any serious teams like WC.
 
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