Preview St Kilda v Adelaide at AO, Sunday Mar 16 at 12:30 (Melb time)

[beside the seaside]

Thought it might be nice to get the preview thread up and running, hope that's ok mods.

We travel to our new home town for the first of three games in five weeks. Adelaide are up and about with some new signings and a couple of good pre-season results. We have copped it left right and centre following a poor performance against Port.

Inclusions will be interesting considering a lot of players are thereabouts including some of our best. Also a few guys will be aiming for a debut with Boxshall, O'Connell, Hall and Trav all showing something.

Hard to see us getting a win here but if we could it would be one for the ages. Hopefully at the least it's a performance we can build on and gain some form through a tough run start to the season.

 

[Miha]

 

[botts]

Gonna be a right old walloping

 

[Remboy]

Gonna be a right old walloping

Yeah, I’ve had to temper my expectations a bit. Saints will probably only sneak home by 60-80.

 

[dudeintheswamp]

Certainly looking like it'll be some crazy sort of makeshift forward line with King, Owens and Sharman unlikely starters. Marshall in doubt too and no Howard and Battle so tall stocks very thin everywhere. Boyd and Keeler both probably get to play earlier than they would've expected. Pretty hard to see us getting close.

 

[SaintsofSteel]

I guess we will know who will be available leading into next week, but we either go into the game with a number of underdone senior players or a group of debutants. Either way the Crows will be rubbing their hands together and believing they have an easy kill for the first game of the year. If we can turn last week's form around and scratch out a win it will be a coaching master piece!

We dont have the depth of other clubs, but at some point you would hope our luck with injuries has to change!

 

[Nutsngum]

Certainly looking like it'll be some crazy sort of makeshift forward line with King, Owens and Sharman unlikely starters. Marshall in doubt too and no Howard and Battle so tall stocks very thin everywhere. Boyd and Keeler both probably get to play earlier than they would've expected. Pretty hard to see us getting close.

Unless something goes wrong in the next two weeks, Marshall is scheduled to resume full training this week so I would absolutely think is a certainty to play at this stage.

Owens and Sharman are the big ifs for me. Owen's looks to have only a minor AC "pull" for lack of a better term so a couple of weeks of no contact training might just see him back to 100%, but then I've been wrong about shoulders before on here.

Sharman is the same.. you kind of see players come back playing really quickly from hand injuries so its a who knows at this point.

Would like to see Keeler debut though as I think he can be deployed at either end where needed.

 

[SG34]

Do we think Ross would have the gall to pull an all out-and-out quagmire, trench warfare super low scoring slug fest ? (March weather obliging, which is grasping straws perhaps ) But even dry weather? Does he have the credit in the bank to be able to begin the season in such a way? Would the fans and media uproar be too much? Would ego mess it up. Because fair dinkum, I reckon that’s the only way we can distort the paradigm (whatever that term is) the only way we can really upset the entire footy world - and especially Adelaide. We restrict them to four goals by half time . We kick 0.3 followed by a solitary goal, and go into halftime 1.3 plays 4.9. Then, in a magic burst mid third quarter, we snatch four in the trot before calling in the cement trucks again. Final score St Kilda 7.11 defeat Adelaide 6.12 in one of the ugliest season opener games in the history of AFL/VFL played in fine weather. The Adelaide fans and press furious. Ross can do it. Come on. Cement trucks. Bring ‘em on

 

[jonosmatesheep]

Do we think Ross would have the gall to pull an all out-and-out quagmire, trench warfare super low scoring slug fest ? (March weather obliging, which is grasping straws perhaps ) But even dry weather? Does he have the credit in the bank to be able to begin the season in such a way? Would the fans and media uproar be too much? Would ego mess it up. Because fair dinkum, I reckon that’s the only way we can distort the paradigm (whatever that term is) the only way we can really upset the entire footy world - and especially Adelaide. We restrict them to four goals by half time . We kick 0.3 followed by a solitary goal, and go into halftime 1.3 plays 4.9. Then, in a magic burst mid third quarter, we snatch four in the trot before calling in the cement trucks again. Final score St Kilda 7.11 defeat Adelaide 6.12 in one of the ugliest season opener games in the history of AFL/VFL played in fine weather. The Adelaide fans and press furious. Ross can do it. Come on. Cement trucks. Bring ‘em on

I personally would love to see it, the colorful stuff can come later. Get the W and fire up Kane Cornes for another week before pumping Geelong 19.5.119 to 8.12.60 the following week. Flag Saints.

 

[The Punter]

Crows are flaky.

 

[gringo2011]

I guess we will know who will be available leading into next week, but we either go into the game with a number of underdone senior players or a group of debutants. Either way the Crows will be rubbing their hands together and believing they have an easy kill for the first game of the year. If we can turn last week's form around and scratch out a win it will be a coaching master piece!

We dont have the depth of other clubs, but at some point you would hope our luck with injuries has to change!

I think our injury issues are magnified by having an extremely strong senior core and a very minimal second tier. If we lose an older gun we have to send in a C grade depth option or a very young kid. When you look at other top 8 sides they seem to have a much better spread of second tier talent and less youth.

 

[gringo2011]

Do we think Ross would have the gall to pull an all out-and-out quagmire, trench warfare super low scoring slug fest ? (March weather obliging, which is grasping straws perhaps ) But even dry weather? Does he have the credit in the bank to be able to begin the season in such a way? Would the fans and media uproar be too much? Would ego mess it up. Because fair dinkum, I reckon that’s the only way we can distort the paradigm (whatever that term is) the only way we can really upset the entire footy world - and especially Adelaide. We restrict them to four goals by half time . We kick 0.3 followed by a solitary goal, and go into halftime 1.3 plays 4.9. Then, in a magic burst mid third quarter, we snatch four in the trot before calling in the cement trucks again. Final score St Kilda 7.11 defeat Adelaide 6.12 in one of the ugliest season opener games in the history of AFL/VFL played in fine weather. The Adelaide fans and press furious. Ross can do it. Come on. Cement trucks. Bring ‘em on

I think he would and he should. Plan for a slow bleed out kill. We are in it to play finals not play pretty. If we can't win it, at least keep it close. Percentage will be like extra wins this season.

 

[Train12]

Potentially one of the positives if crows play all 3 big forwards is they will be slow when the ball hits the ground!

Cornes and King were saying that yesterday as a potential concern.

Just need to get it to ground and pounce, or maybe not great weather

 

[The Punter]

Potentially one of the positives if crows play all 3 big forwards is they will be slow when the ball hits the ground!

Cornes and King were saying that yesterday as a potential concern.

Just need to get it to ground and pounce, or maybe not great weather

It'll be high 20s and sunny - put your house on it

 

[gringo2011]

Potentially one of the positives if crows play all 3 big forwards is they will be slow when the ball hits the ground!

Cornes and King were saying that yesterday as a potential concern.

Just need to get it to ground and pounce, or maybe not great weather

Sounds like the Hawks defence this year. They have done away with smalls and playing 6 KPBs instead. Hopefully you can scrap the ball in under their feet.

 

[Remboy]

It'll be high 20s and sunny - put your house on it

Need to move the game to Queensland. How do we play in cyclones?

 

[Diehard Saint]

Crows are flaky.

Always lots of upsets round 1.
Why not us?
Also, maybe the Crows look at our last practice game and underestimate us.
I'll be there - so I really hope so.

 

[Remboy]

Always lots of upsets round 1.
Why not us?
Also, maybe the Crows look at our last practice game and underestimate us.
I'll be there - so I really hope so.

Good point. The first couple of rounds clubs tend to be all over the place. Some are fired up from round one while some are easing their way into the year.

 

[jumperfan]

Not feeling positive about this one. Picked up Thilthorpe in my SC draft league the other night as I’m that confident he’ll torch us again.

 

[SaintlyHymns]

The optimist in me says that if - and I mean IF - we were to go over there and win, it would be the most significant victory we've had in 15 years.

Expect the bus parked all over the place.

 

[Suburbanhack]

Back after a long hiatus. Email linked to previous AC is now active so had to start again. Was an infrequent contributor but despite rookie status I have been around for a while.

Still early days but honestly thought NAS, Owens and Windhager would be the holy trinity to help take us to the promised land. But so far on exposed form only NAS has lived up to (exceeded) those expectations. Have always been bullish on Windhager. He just looked like a player but approaching his 4th season he simply hasn’t and doesn’t do enough. Kicking lacks penetration and aside from some a few notable games as a tagger has not come on as I thought he might. Owens stalled last year but has a point of difference and I remain optimistic. Of the others who have been on the books for a few years – Heath looks miles off it and remains a VFL standard ruckman. Caminetti serviceable but limited, however with the absence of talls he probably has to play the early rounds. To me Keeler looks like a natural footballer. Good size, athletic, can take a mark and is a decent kick. Has all the tools and should debut in Rd 1 along with Boxshall and Boyd.

While I don’t read too much into practice match results, was disappointed with the more established blokes on Saturday. For the most part the younger inexperienced players acquitted themselves well.

 

[gringo2011]

Always lots of upsets round 1.
Why not us?
Also, maybe the Crows look at our last practice game and underestimate us.
I'll be there - so I really hope so.

Lyon got the jump on others in 2023 by coming in fitter and more prepared than the rest of the comp. We levelled out after a while but already banked wins.

 

[Greshs Eye]

Full strength crows in front of a heaving stadium would have been a real challenge even if fully fit. It will be dry conditions and probably an absolute goals fest. Given our poor starts in both games, I am not optimistic unfortunately.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

I'm really hoping we don't put any underdone or injured players on a plane for an interstate round one match and then expect them to back up in round 2 off a 6 day break.

My preferred team (given the circumstances):

B: Webster, Cordy, Schoenmaker
HB: Nas, Wilkie, Sinclair
C: Hill, Steele, Wilson
HF: Higgins, Caminiti, Garcia
F: Butler, Keeler, Wood

Foll: Boyd, MacRae, Clark
Int: Boxshall, Stocker, O'Connell, Windhager
Sub: Jones


Not available:

King
Sinclair
Marshall
Henry
Phillipou
Howard
Sharman
Owens
Dow
Tauru

Not ideal missing 8 of your best 22 in round one. We saw in the beginning of 2023 that it's better to pick fit players though - just look at what happened then and what happened when we picked Crouch last year.

Edit: Forgot Windy, though he's borderline after pre season form

 

[dudeintheswamp]

A little surprised they didn't play Caminiti at CHB against Port. Very difficult at this stage to predict who they might use down there with Cordy and Wilkie against the Crows.