Round 1 Team

[Con Gorozidis]

Gilbert ?
Can he even run ?

[FQF]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

The reasoning is that although we are developing, we still need to be competitive and ideally win.

Jones advances that purpose at this stage more than Ross or Murdoch.

[PJ]

Pretty happy with that team. I'm not sure why you'd questions Jones inclusion given our lack of mid experience. If you aren't going to select Jones on form then why would you have him on the list? Form has to be the criteria for selection otherwise why put in any effort when anyone with a reasonable skill set gets in.

[mad saint guy]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

...he tries to tackle...runs lots...blonde hair...used to tag etc

[dragit]

I'm certainly not a huge Jones fan and wouldn't have re-contracted him for this year but…

If he was going to play this year, this is the week. With Hayes, Montagna, Steven, Schneider & Weller unavailable… we are in a pickle, a midfield pickle.

[Freebird]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

Give it a rest..he runs his guts out and regularly extracts the ball

[8856brother]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

Simple. We have no midfield.

[thejiggingsaint]

Looking forward to being there on Satdee! GO SAINTS! (to hell with the rest!)

[joffaboy]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

No need, you have absolutely no idea.

We have no Joey, Lenny, no Jack, no Fisher, no Scneids.

We have a host of youngsters making debuts, and you want one of the few hard bodied mids/taggers we have left out of the team.

Fair Dinkum

[saintspremiers]

Why is Stanley in ahead of both Lee and Longer.

Madness.

[joffaboy]

Why is Stanley in ahead of both Lee and Longer.

Madness.

Because Lee cant play ruck and Longer isn't a forward.

Why do you come up with such rubbish all the time?

[whiskers3614]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

No need, you have absolutely no idea.

We have no Joey, Lenny, no Jack, no Fisher, no Scneids.

We have a host of youngsters making debuts, and you want one of the few hard bodied mids/taggers we have left out of the team.

Fair Dinkum

Not often I agree totally with JB, oh well even a broken clock shows the right time twice a day!

[joffaboy]

I'm still absolutely and utterly lost as to why Clint Jones is still getting a game. He's made a career out of not being able to kick and yet still ....

Given we're now in full re-build mode, would Seb Ross (or Murdoch) not be a significantly better option there ? Either play him as a run-with or just let him off the leash. Clint Jones plays little if any part in our future.

Someone please rebut my argument with logic ....

No need, you have absolutely no idea.

We have no Joey, Lenny, no Jack, no Fisher, no Scneids.

We have a host of youngsters making debuts, and you want one of the few hard bodied mids/taggers we have left out of the team.

Fair Dinkum

Not often I agree totally with JB, oh well even a broken clock shows the right time twice a day!

I was gunna write the same about Freebird . This Saintmatt is giving us a common enemy

[BigMart]

Longer is injured.... And can't playa fwd anyway

Lee can't ruck and/or run.... He was unimpressive against Frankston's defenders last week

Stanley is the trump

Young McDonald will measure up ok on Rooey if their mids go OK

Frawley will beat Beau... Beau maybe used as a decoy

Who will take the 200cm Stanley, or 201cm Hickey?

Really this is a great opportunity for Rhys... Playing third fiddle, and getting a run around on the ball

[BigMart]

Surprised Marworth is underdone.... He appeared fitter than Lee, TDL, Siposs last week

[Toy Saint]

Not much mention of Murdoch this pre-season, anybody know where he's at?

Reckon our forward line can find a spot for anybody called "Bull"

[cwrcyn]

Why does Jones get a game? Because of his gut running and his ability to get from contest to contest. He is a relentless runner, and we don't have enough of them. Lee doesn't play because he hasn't developed the tank to play half a game, let alone a full one. Longer has a slight injury. Murdoch is coming off any injury, too.

I wouldn't say that anyone who missed out is unlucky. The only contention for me is that someone else could replace TDL as an emergency.

[Enrico_Misso]

Great to have so much new blood coming in to the team.

Hopefully we will be looking back in 5 years and saying "Wow I remember their first game against Melb back in 2014, now they are stars"

[bergholt]

12 Changes from Round 22 v Freo

OUT: Hayes (susp), Montagna (susp), Schneider (inj), Steven (inj), Lee (emerg), Ross (emerg), Dal Santo (fa), McEvoy (trade), Ledger (delist), Blake (ret), Koschitzke (ret), Milne (ret)

IN: Billings (0 games), Delaney (26), Dunstan (0), Gwilt (109), Maister (40), Newnes (25), Saunders (10), Savage (56), Stanley (39), Templeton (0), Webster (11), Wright (8)

Not much experience coming in there! R22 the average age was 26.9. Now it's 24.1. Average games played was 135, now it's 66! Huge difference.

We haven't had a team with an average age under 25 since R19 2009 - that Hawks game in Tassie. Before that it was Armo's first game (along with Sweeney and Brad Howard), against the Hawks again in R8 2007. But those teams still were nowhere near as young and inexperienced as this one.

[gringo]

Lee had shoulder issues preseason and is coming from a fair way back. Richo has suggested that jones and Saunders would play defensive forward roles so pretty much what he said. Gilbert is extremely unlikely to play. Billings should be sub.

[Junction Oval]

It's the Dee's experienced mids that are going to cause the problem and do the carving-up.

However, it's still not a bad get to be playing the Dee's, first-up. At least we should have a chance, despite our top guys not playing.

[maverick]

Will anyone score?

Well we won't, you have to get the ball first….

[bergholt]

This video with Richo telling us about the team is really good:

http://www.saints.com.au/video/2014-03- ... er-round-1

Great initiative! Obviously the media guys are stepping it up again this year, really good to see.

Not sure how much there is to any of this but here's basically the players he singled out:

Eli Templeton: "combination of forward and midfield, he's a really good long runner, opportunist in front of goals"

Clint Jones: "a combination of forward and mid... some really good defensive roles for the club in the past and he's a significant chance to play a similar role on the weekend but initially he'll start forward"

Shane Savage: "he'll play a combination of inside and outside, he's had an enormous pre-season"

Luke Dunstan: "hasn't missed a beat, played predominantly inside, done a lot of work with Lenny Hayes... you're going to love the way Luke goes about his footy, he's really hard, he's quite aggressive, he's already quite mature physically"

Webster and Wright: "they're going to play a lot of footy together so really exciting to see those two in the team to give us a bit of rebound"

Luke Delaney: "big bodied defender, he'll play on the big forwards, whether they're deep or whether they're high, he's got really good endurance"

Jack Billings: "we mentioned publicly that he's going to potentially take a while... he comes in with some issues to his body, he's going to be a fantastic player, so the expectations on Jack initially are not incredibly high but a very exciting player, he's going to play a lot of footy for us forward and through the midfield"

[matrix]

Throw in lenny schneids joey jack and fisher and we don't look bad you know.
Got some talented youth too.
I'm looking forward to this year no matter where we finish on the ladder.

[Con Gorozidis]

Blondest forward line ever selected in vfl/afl history .
Maybe at any level.