Defence horribly exposed

[Watts the Buzz]

I along with a few others feel that our defence is our achilles heel this year and I thought in the first half we were made to look really second rate the way we just kept leaking really easy goals and I think that's where we lost the game. Worst game I've seen Mr. Consistency Blakey play for a long long time, Gwilt is still miles off it, Fish will take a couple of games to get his touch back, Raph was fumbling and falling over and I think we missed the composure of our least experienced defender Tommy Simpkin tonight.

We made amends in the second half and played a lot tighter but we need to be better than what we displayed in that first half if we consider ourselves serious contenders. Thought Geary gave us a lift when he came on and I think he's too good a player to be sub.

[Moods]

Completely disagree.

Our fwds cost us the game tonight. Had plenty of opportunities to win us the match and they stuffed it up. Mids gave them enough supply to get the job done I thought. The way the game was played it moved really quickly on the rebound from end to end. I thought Dempster was quite good, liked Gilbert's game, Gwilt played well on Tippett considering what he was giving away in height and weight, Fish got better and better as the night wore on, was happy with Clarkes games, and thought that Gears played really well when he came on. Blakey was the only one who was disappointing. BJ had a poor night as well down there.

Easy to blame the defenders when we lose and everyone ALWAYS points the finger at the mids. For mine it was the fwds fault tonight. Kos was awful, Milne only redeemed himself at the end, but is too often missing easy shots, Roo was quiet, Milera was poor, and Schneides played well. Siposs got better as the night went on.

[dcstkfc]

I'm somewhere in between. I reckon we were the better side between the arcs but their forward line was better than ours.

[ShanghaiSaint]

yep if we kicked 50% better game would have been ours.

[battye]

I also agree that the game was lost in the back half. Yeah we missed a lot of easy shots (probably would have won had we snared them), but equally had the defence not been stationary on countless occasions then Adelaide wouldn't have scored so freely. How many times did they kick a goal from an uncontested mark? I'll bet it was a number of times more than we did.

[Watts the Buzz]

Agree that the forwards overall were pretty average as well - in fact it's difficult to understand how we got as close as we did given that we had so many players down - midfield definitely kept us in it, primarily Dal who played a ripper. Got to give us a lot of heart to know that we lost by under a goal against a premiership favourite and there is soooooo much room for improvement; consider also that were playing interstate and coming off numerous six day breaks.

Still think the defence was sub standard in that first half though - I know the ball was bouncing around a lot from end to end but to have conceded nearly 100 points by only half time just isn't good enough.

[Griggsy]

Defense is an issue. Blake can't take the key forward and Gwilt looks slow. I was confused at one point Gilbert was in a 1v2 for way too long, made a great effort but no help came and ended in a crows goal.

I get it to a degree with a different style of play but they really need to work it all out

[Old Mate]

Big forwards monstering our backs is a common pattern this year.

[BigMart]

No KPD was highlighted in November....

But it was more about the ease at which Fwds found the ball in D50. Defenders zoning off and pointing fingers is common in the back half.

Rutten, Shaw, Talia..... That's how you play back

[Rosco]

Big forwards monstering our backs is a common pattern this year.

This. The back unit is good when the third man gets to the contest, but we are horribly lacking a key back. It was a good thing that Tippett and Walker can't kick straight or could have been more ugly at 3q time.

[The OtherThommo]

Oh bulls***, BM. They won by half a kick and we butchered scoring op's. Roo was in the rooms b4 1/4 time being tested - ergo we didn't have our front half in tact. Yet, we lost by half a kick. Talia's a hack, Rutten's a witch's hat and they won because they converted - we didn't, it's simple.

Or, to put it another way, with a modicum of luck and poise, we do a side with massive momentum on their own dungheap, comfortably. Now listen carefully - they will trouble no-one from now on. But, we will.

[kalsaint]

Completely disagree.

Our fwds cost us the game tonight. Had plenty of opportunities to win us the match and they stuffed it up. Mids gave them enough supply to get the job done I thought. The way the game was played it moved really quickly on the rebound from end to end. I thought Dempster was quite good, liked Gilbert's game, Gwilt played well on Tippett considering what he was giving away in height and weight, Fish got better and better as the night wore on, was happy with Clarkes games, and thought that Gears played really well when he came on. Blakey was the only one who was disappointing. BJ had a poor night as well down there.

Easy to blame the defenders when we lose and everyone ALWAYS points the finger at the mids. For mine it was the fwds fault tonight. Kos was awful, Milne only redeemed himself at the end, but is too often missing easy shots, Roo was quiet, Milera was poor, and Schneides played well. Siposs got better as the night went on.

Forward conversion was poor but 103 points by Adelaide by 3/4 time is unacceptable. Quick trransition from the midfiled to forwards caned the defence early. This is clearly the midfields and rucks resposnibility and accountability to stem the flow and at least put pressure on opposition ball players. Same thing happened in the match against the Eagles. Cox had a field day with unpressured ball delivery. I note the defence was short that day but no one could beat forwards when precision clearances give the opposition a huge advantage like that. Guess what we came back in that game too but didnt get the 4 points. Needs consistency from midfield. Id rucks dont perform get another on baller IMO.

This radically improved after half time but we always playing catch up and the forwards didnt help the cause at that time.

[BigMart]

Did they convert well in the last.... Do you know why we got within a point.... They kicked 6 straight behinds.. Two of them go through, we roll over.

You judge a defender by their opponents effectiveness OK

Kosi and Nick
15 possessions, 9 marks, 2.3 goals between them.

Walker and Tippett
Had slightly better games yeah, not sure their exact stats... But 7.6 goals I think??

If Rutten is a witches hat.... Let's use one next game

[The OtherThommo]

Our conversion deficiencies in the first 3 quarters gave them the break - their errors in the last were incidental. Kosi, Riewoldt and Milne missed within 10 minutes to give us the lead in the 2nd, yet they counter punched and we looked like falling apart - but we don't.

[Devilhead]

They kicked quite a few the difficult ones and we missed the quite a few easy ones - welcome to the Saints!!

[Junction Oval]

On the topic of defense, agree that our mids were slaughted early on, putting lots of pressure on the backs.

However, the lack of pressure and body-on-body contact by our backline was a very poor effort. We looked dis-organised and under-sized down there. Gwilt is looking very slow and lacking confidence. We let them get away early, which was collectively a poor effort. The bye is much needed.

[spert]

The defence was put under too much pressure early in the game by the winning Crow midfield, as our mids again were flat-footed early and didn't hit their stride until too late in the game. We need another big body in defence and that's a recruiting issue.

[borderbarry]

I believe we lost the game because of our disposal. Not only were we poor at kicking for goal, but our field kicking was pathetic compared with theirs as well.

[SainterK]

You are so right Barry.

Turnovers.

Time to really assess the poorer kicks in the side and if they suit this game plan or not.

[The Redeemer]

Oh bulls***, BM. They won by half a kick and we butchered scoring op's. Roo was in the rooms b4 1/4 time being tested - ergo we didn't have our front half in tact. Yet, we lost by half a kick. Talia's a hack, Rutten's a witch's hat and they won because they converted - we didn't, it's simple.

Or, to put it another way, with a modicum of luck and poise, we do a side with massive momentum on their own dungheap, comfortably. Now listen carefully - they will trouble no-one from now on. But, we will.

They missed some easy ones too.....

What is the point in troubling a team when we do not get the 4 points? nothing...

[SainterK]

Just listening to SEN's crunch time interview.

The voice over had Geary involved in two of the late goals?

Can't quite recall much of the rush of the last quarter, was he significant to the comeback?

I hope he is back in next week.

[spert]

I hope Geary and Simpkin are in the team.

[magnifisaint]

Did they convert well in the last.... Do you know why we got within a point.... They kicked 6 straight behinds.. Two of them go through, we roll over.

You judge a defender by their opponents effectiveness OK

Kosi and Nick
15 possessions, 9 marks, 2.3 goals between them.

Walker and Tippett
Had slightly better games yeah, not sure their exact stats... But 7.6 goals I think??

If Rutten is a witches hat.... Let's use one next game

Open you're eyes dingbat. Look at the first 3 quarters and you'll see that they were kicking them out of their arse. They weren't missing any of them whereas Milne, Riewoldt and Kossie were missing dead in front. Kick those and there's a little scoreboard pressure. Sure they missed a few in the last when it didn't matter but in the first 3 quarters they hardly missed. You are such a negative egotistical moron!

[magnifisaint]

Just listening to SEN's crunch time interview.

The voice over had Geary involved in two of the late goals?

Can't quite recall much of the rush of the last quarter, was he significant to the comeback?

I hope he is back in next week.

Got us back in the game in the last. He played well and is a good footballer

[BigMart]

Tippett could have kicked 8... He missed three sodas

Did you only notice the shots we missed??

Rutten and Talia did what backmen should do.... Stop their opponents
Blake and Gwilt were pantsed