the most pleasing thing

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

for me the best thing to come out of the game on saturday was the fact that so many players contributed to the win and when the game was there to be won in the last 1/4 the leaders of the club in thompson, burke, harvey, loewe and gehrig stepped up. it was obvious that the mental weakness our team has displayed previously has been highlighted as a major part of our game that has to be rectified and the effort after 3/4 time is the first positive step forward.

most of the papers could not pick who our best player was and there was no real standout just a good overall performance by most of the team.

our aggression and attack on the ball was fantastic, win, lose or draw i will be happy if the team can show the same endeavour and aggression as they did saturday. it started from the first bounce when the much maligned troy shcwarze put his body on the line in the first real contest of the day, and for the rest of the game the trend continued by all our team.

big fraser has become my favorite player, to see him break free and run down the ground should be an indicator of what sort of season he could have this year.

grant thomas had an excellent debut. his use of blake on campo was a complete surprise to me and to instill the self belief in jason blake that he could run and beat one of the games best running midfielders was a real feather in his cap. his use of harvey to curb ratten was not a surprise, whilst most people have forgotten how good banger is, i certainly haven't. the only doubt for me was how he would return after his knee injury, it seems to me that harvey has now gotten rid of all those other niggling injuries that he has carried for a couple of years and will be back to his damaging best this year. crippas jog on lappin just shows us what we have missed for the last couple of years.

whilst a win in round 1 against the old foe was fantastic for club morale any real improvement in the side can only be measured in the next few weeks. if they show the same aggression and commitment to the contest i am sure a few more wins can follow.

wasn't it pure joy to be belting out the song at the 18 minute mark of the final 1/4, give me more please i loved it.

go saints.

 

[sammm]

culd you tell me what the didference were between last year round 1 and this year round 1.? St kilda did win both both, after 1 round least year they went down hill!!!

there must be didfferences in the type of win it was, shouldn't it ?

 

[sainter]

Fantastic start to the season.

The endeavour and aggressiveness was something we haven't seen by our team for a few years. (That's the major difference between the round 1 victories of last year and this year in my opinion Sammm)

Trent Knobel was a revelation in the ruck. The thing that excites me so much about him is that he is still very raw. With Trent the club has a lot to work with and I'm sure he'll thrive under the coaching of Matt Rendell.

Gehrig was a rock once again. What I liked about his game was that he not only beat his opponent convincingly but drifted forward and set up a lot of forward thrusts. Seeing him get the ball on the wing, take a couple a bounces, handball it to Black inside 50 and to see Black kick the goal to seal the match was magic.

I didn't think Thomas' decision to play Blake on Camporeale was as much of a surprise because Blake played on him late last year. Like you said STL his performance was excellent. As a 6"2 player with very good endurance, Blake has the attributes to become a top AFL player. Keep a count of his diving smothers, I haven't seen another player in the league make more of these than he does.

The decision to play Harvey on Ratten was a masterstroke. I can't remember a better return to senior footy after a 9 month lay-off from a knee injury from anyone.

Again like you said STL it was such an even performance. Milne was an excitement and continues to be brilliant and terrible within a space of minutes but you never know what you're going to get with him and that's why he's so exciting. Black made an impressive debut, Crippa towelled up Lappin, Burke lifted us in the last quarter when the game was on the line, Thommo was his usual inspirational self, the revival of Aussie Jones has almost been worth the wait (WHAT A GOAL!) and Peckett has been one player to be consistent all preseason.

If we can follow it up with a win on Sunday, what an unexpected start to the season we have made.