Does anyone see Luke Ball trotting to the bench at the start of each quarter and think that the club may rest him before or just after the split round to freshen him up ? seems obvious he has a niggle - is playing about 60% game time. I thought as an in-and-under replacement, Armo would be a the mai...

Roslyn Street

Essendon employed a strong zone and did us for pace at crucial times. Pace is no good if you don't use it, but it seemed the Essendon mentality was to play on at all costs. Saints haven't encountered all of these factors combined. Dare I say it good coaching - it pains me too ! Pace has always been ...

Prefer 'The Age' article too. The Herald-Sun one spends too much time glorifying StKilda as a monster of the competition with a massive track record. Look no further than Geelong, Mark ! Lines such as "StKilda finally trickling blood" (when was that?) were glorified images versus the more ...

It gives Ross Lyon something to work with this week, even with the shorter break going into y'days game there are some areas to note with Essendon. 1) the zone. It looked from level 3, Essendon held the kickout zone very well and there were no easy getaways. 2) a few times Essendon had forwards in t...

Have to drive 200km to get home so made for a late one ! Good to see some fellow Saints on the Hume though.

Why cant Melbourne play all these time slots. Think a Sat. night would have pulled a 40+ crowd.

A strong win so we will take the points ! It was always going to be an intense struggle, I thought the Doggies zone was good first half and made us make some poor errors. Forced us to go short, take short options so plenty of contested ball up for grabs. If you review our games we kicked 10 in 2nd q...

Clinton Jones 2008 stats were (averages) disp 18 tackles 3.35 goal 0.35 contested 4.65 disp % 73.57 clearances 1.41 clangers 1.35 clangers as a % of disposals 7.5% (this year 8.7%) In 09 Dal is 7.6% and Luke Ball 11%. My stats for the week ahead: Clearances STK rank 4 WB rank 3 Contested STK 1 WB 5 ...

The poster was as Ross Lyon head super imposed on Conan the Barbarian. He seemed pretty eager to grab that poster and take it home ! I could see him yelling to his wife as he walked through the door "guess what !" GT described Ross as an introverted fella - the coaching spotlight had obvio...

He reminds me of a cross between a young Milne and a Stevie Baker. He bobs up when the opposition don't expect it, can finish off but looks hard as nails.

worst tackler in the team...Roo !

worst 3...Roo, Max and Geary last year ? Sam Fisher there also

Port spend a lot of time in possession - in fact they are the no 1 side for possessions. They are +253 or averaging over 63 more possessions a game. Its not just short passing as they handpass relatively more than the average AFL side. Port rank no 16 for contested % as a part of their overall dispo...

If we signed Westpac as a major bank and/or brand name that would be a great get....St George and Westpac have now merged and are Australia's largest bank, so from that point of view its a strong coup for the club.

Welcome aboard St George.

Stanley at one stage was keeping up with the midfielders and laying tackles. Very similar to the Youtube videos of him playing for SA - lots of following up his own ruck work. Macca has advantages of physique and more damaging up forward at this time. Stanley will be a very mobile option in the futu...

Indeed great thread. I'm pretty sure your assumptions on most players were accurate - I noted the ones you called ordinary didnt go on and do much. What stood out was the gulf between the top 10 at the club and the next batch of 10 players. Premiership teams run deep. I was waiting for the differenc...

Agree, no change especially with Gwilt doing okay. Pressure seems assured in coming weeks though - X, Max and Raph would come back at their best. Jack Steven, the forgotten one and Armo waiting in the wings for midfield / fwd rotations. Eddy in that mix. Goose, Begley and Macca if a spot opens up wi...

Saints just need to apply the pressure that everyone incl. Neil Craig and Worsfold are talking about. Its not like Freo can sustain the fury that is...they can't rely on a strong enduring culture, quality form, quality players with heart or there strong record at Jihad. None of those factors apply. ...

Burgoyne out for Rd 5 and looks like Cooney will be recovering from knee surgery rd 6 clash vs Dogs. All the cards are falling thus far.

everyone knows Roo is underdone, he should be about ready now. as far as fwd line performing, it is only rd 2 - stats are Points for rank 10 Inside 50's rank 11 points agst rank 1 inside 50's (opp) rank 1 Obviously early days and we have played 2 teams that dont pepper the goals and are defensive in...

Not sure we rush back X or Max at this stage. Both would be great inclusions but history says X especially needs a solid base. With Gilbert, I would like to see him played predominantly off a wing. His role would be a floating runner between HB and HF. Also he'd have a role as a high forward defensi...

The input to the equation is the Kosi's, the Dal's, the Gilbo's taking the next step. The hoped for outcome is consistency of effort across 4 quarters, 22 games and finals. The side issues of kicking efficiency and forward pressure are in the background. Kosi dominated in 05 when Roo was out injured...

Saints barometer will rise if we get the following; a) Existing players to improve - Dal and Kosi good examples b) New players to improve - looking to Armitage and Gilbert here. Both were averaging 12 possessions in 08, expect that number to be 16-18 at season end. c) Improvement in field kicking - ...

Ross Lyon is looking for consistency this year. Its not like class and ability fall into that category. Application does. It was a very similar opening to the Carlton game round 2 last year. We won by 40 points but Carlton kicked the first 4 goals from memory. The concern is where we get "off s...

We also struggle to score because of 2 factors; - lack of inside 50's from our key midfielders - lack of penetration with the kicks into F50 (few of Hodge, Dew, Young types) In 08 , Joey was our leading midfielder providing entries. Bally was well down on this count compared to elite mids in the com...

and next best M...