Thought the night reflected poorly on the coaching

[skeptic]

Whilst i doubted we would ever have won, a couple of things really bugged me tonight...

Firstly i thought the team was chosen poorly

I feel like the selected team really lacked pace and polish and the forward line didn't have much x-factor. Really disappointed Milera didn't play.
May have been a good night for Savage too though his form certainly didn't warrant it.

Also thought that with Geary out as well as Eli... I had concerns about their small forwards which was why I was glad to see Mav play... Couldn't believe they made him sub. Was exactly the type of player we needed earlier. Saunders was also one that seemed like he would have been well suited to this type of opposition.

Those aside, i feel like we took a big step back RE actually knowing how to play.

Saw us...
- regularly kick and handball short to contests
- frequently kick to an out manned Roo
- had a hard time protecting the corridor and staying on the right side of the contest.

Also thought we saw signs that this young team is tiring as well... Many didn't appear to run, spread, chase hard enough... All this we were doing earlier

Think the break came at a good time

[bergholt]

What's this "x-factor" that Milera and Savage have? How do Schneider, Billings and Acres not have it?

After half-time we kicked 5.12 to their 5.5. Their goalkicking was good, ours was below standard. Hard to worry too much about team selection and tactics if we're going to miss easy ones.

[BackFromUSA]

As the free kicks evened up and we were able to get some flow going so evened up the scoring shots ... but while they kicked 8 straight in the 2nd quarter we kicked point after point in the 3rd. Missed our chance.

[SainterK]

What's this "x-factor" that Milera and Savage have? How do Schneider, Billings and Acres not have it?

After half-time we kicked 5.12 to their 5.5. Their goalkicking was good, ours was below standard. Hard to worry too much about team selection and tactics if we're going to miss easy ones.

Their first quarter kicking was woeful, only thing that kept us in it really.

[luc1966]

As the commentators said structure wise we are good the problem is we have one genuine forward

[saintspremiers]

As the free kicks evened up and we were able to get some flow going so evened up the scoring shots ... but while they kicked 8 straight in the 2nd quarter we kicked point after point in the 3rd. Missed our chance.

Carlton shouldve been 5 goals up at qtr time though

[BigMart]

System vs System

You can tell which is more effective by looking at the movement of the footy, which In turn effects ease of scoring opportunities thus scoring efficiency

Out movement fwd was irregular, haphazard or chaotic

They moved the ball with ease?

Skill reasons

Structure reasons

Personnel reasons

[Jimmy O'Dea]

We had a real crack after quarter time which was great to see. I am over Stanley's bruise free style of footy. Whilst others around him are hard at it he has little physical impact on the game and defensive efforts are poor.

[Saints94]

It would have been great if we showed up in the first half but your going to get that with a young team. Just proves to me what we can become if all the players are in sync for the majority of the game Ie: against Essendon

[st_Trav_ofWA]

We had a real crack after quarter time which was great to see. I am over Stanley's bruise free style of footy. Whilst others around him are hard at it he has little physical impact on the game and defensive efforts are poor.

i disagree on that some what ... i felt Rhys threw himself into the contest pretty well late in the game crashing the packs and throwing his weight around the problem is it was too late as the contest was pretty much dead by that point ... the thing with rhys is i actually think he go's better without Roo out there ... its almost like when Roo is on the bench Rhys sorta thinks "yep its my time to get the job done" but once Roo gets back its more "i gotta get outa roos way"

[magnifisaint]

so why should the coach be blamed?
It wouldn't matter if Alan Jeans was coach, we don't have the players at the moment. You can blame the list management of the last 7 or 8 years.

[Cairnsman]

I mean really!, how anyone can say the team was poorly chosen is really just trying to create conversation for conversation's sake. I mean really!, it's called a rebuild, not just a mild refurb or tweak, but a full blown, stripped down to the skeleton and start again rebuild, bit-by-bit. What bit of "total rebuild" don't people get when they lash out and blame a loss on the coach.

I thought it would have been pretty obvious that our 3 wins were neatly categorised in the "nice-to-have" basket, and the Bombers win was an even nicer one just because it was the Bombers but based on where the Bombers are at it wasn't that big a deal in hindsight. We are now where most thought we would be prior to round one.

Saying last nights game was a step backwards in any regard is just laughable IMO.

[BringBackMadDog]

the biggest problem we have is not enough players with line breaking speed. In todays football when the entire side pushes back to defend, once you win possession you need to have players who can break quickly and get into space. Everytime we win possession we have to either handball in close or chip sideways till we get enough blokes ahead of the ball. The problem with this is we aren't skilful enough to hold possession for too long, invariably we turn it over and then get caught on the rebound. Happened about 5 or 6 times last night.

[skeptic]

What's this "x-factor" that Milera and Savage have? How do Schneider, Billings and Acres not have it?

After half-time we kicked 5.12 to their 5.5. Their goalkicking was good, ours was below standard. Hard to worry too much about team selection and tactics if we're going to miss easy ones.

I was meaning in more of a forward movement flow

we tended not to look that dangerous up forward, especially early.

I certainly didn't mena to suggest that Adam and Billings were to blame for this... just thought that Terry would have been a good addition too

[magnifisaint]

I mean really!, how anyone can say the team was poorly chosen is really just trying to create conversation for conversation's sake. I mean really!, it's called a rebuild, not just a mild refurb or tweak, but a full blown, stripped down to the skeleton and start again rebuild, bit-by-bit. What bit of "total rebuild" don't people get when they lash out and blame a loss on the coach.

I thought it would have been pretty obvious that our 3 wins were neatly categorised in the "nice-to-have" basket, and the Bombers win was an even nicer one just because it was the Bombers but based on where the Bombers are at it wasn't that big a deal in hindsight. We are now where most thought we would be prior to round one.

Saying last nights game was a step backwards in any regard is just laughable IMO.

+100

[Con Gorozidis]

Just wonder if the coach gave express instructions to chuck a mongrel punt on to your boot as soon as you got it?
Seemed to be the order of the day .

[Cairnsman]

What's this "x-factor" that Milera and Savage have? How do Schneider, Billings and Acres not have it?

After half-time we kicked 5.12 to their 5.5. Their goalkicking was good, ours was below standard. Hard to worry too much about team selection and tactics if we're going to miss easy ones.

I was meaning in more of a forward movement flow

we tended not to look that dangerous up forward, especially early.

I certainly didn't mena to suggest that Adam and Billings were to blame for this... just thought that Terry would have been a good addition too

That's a big back-down and tempering of the suggestion that the coach did poorly and made bad team selections and that the team took a big step backwards.

[66 Saints]

System vs System

You can tell which is more effective by looking at the movement of the footy, which In turn effects ease of scoring opportunities thus scoring efficiency

Out movement fwd was irregular, haphazard or chaotic

They moved the ball with ease?

Skill reasons

Structure reasons

Personnel reasons

yes but with experience reasons falling into personnel and adjusting to new coach/players into structure... Skills do still concern me, hopefully as our list management continues its rollover the skill level rises...

[dragit]

Just wonder if the coach gave express instructions to chuck a mongrel punt on to your boot as soon as you got it?
Seemed to be the order of the day .

I'm pretty sure he said

Right-o boys, make sure we come out really softly, butcher the footy at every opportunity including all forward entries which must be mongrel-punts directed towards the skipper… and give plenty of space to Gibbs, Yarran & Menzel - they're no good we'll exploit them.
And Rhys - I don't want to see you get a touch this week, leave it to Nick will you?

[BigMart]

Our structure fwd of the ball is sometimes missing... Creates turnovers from poor entries or poor shots on goal

Hence, inefficiency

[Dis Believer]

the biggest problem we have is not enough players with line breaking speed. In todays football when the entire side pushes back to defend, once you win possession you need to have players who can break quickly and get into space. Everytime we win possession we have to either handball in close or chip sideways till we get enough blokes ahead of the ball. The problem with this is we aren't skilful enough to hold possession for too long, invariably we turn it over and then get caught on the rebound. Happened about 5 or 6 times last night.

This. The hawks ran away from us like we were witches hats and the Bloos ran past us easily. Combined with lack of continuity in team selection we lack flow and cohesion in our ball movement. Combine that with a lack of pace and we are in for a long season.

Gilbert, Wright, Savage, Milera, all would add pace to the line-up, (in varying degrees) but injuries and/or form mean they aren't there. WIll take time, but Rome was not built in a day, nor will our next premiership team be built in a year.

[fingers]

Whilst i doubted we would ever have won, a couple of things really bugged me tonight...

Firstly i thought the team was chosen poorly

I feel like the selected team really lacked pace and polish and the forward line didn't have much x-factor. Really disappointed Milera didn't play.
May have been a good night for Savage too though his form certainly didn't warrant it.

Also thought that with Geary out as well as Eli... I had concerns about their small forwards which was why I was glad to see Mav play... Couldn't believe they made him sub. Was exactly the type of player we needed earlier. Saunders was also one that seemed like he would have been well suited to this type of opposition.

Those aside, i feel like we took a big step back RE actually knowing how to play.

Saw us...
- regularly kick and handball short to contests
- frequently kick to an out manned Roo
- had a hard time protecting the corridor and staying on the right side of the contest.

Also thought we saw signs that this young team is tiring as well... Many didn't appear to run, spread, chase hard enough... All this we were doing earlier

Think the break came at a good time

This irritated me no end!!!

[Con Gorozidis]

Wright would have been very handy last night.

Would have least provided some resistance against Gibbs and Yarran with his pace and run down tackling.

[Sainternist]

I mean really!, how anyone can say the team was poorly chosen is really just trying to create conversation for conversation's sake. I mean really!, it's called a rebuild, not just a mild refurb or tweak, but a full blown, stripped down to the skeleton and start again rebuild, bit-by-bit. What bit of "total rebuild" don't people get when they lash out and blame a loss on the coach.

I thought it would have been pretty obvious that our 3 wins were neatly categorised in the "nice-to-have" basket, and the Bombers win was an even nicer one just because it was the Bombers but based on where the Bombers are at it wasn't that big a deal in hindsight. We are now where most thought we would be prior to round one.

Saying last nights game was a step backwards in any regard is just laughable IMO.

Spot on, Cairnsman!

Plus, neither Milera or Savage have a future at AFL level.

[mr six o'clock]

As the commentators said structure wise we are good the problem is we have one genuine forward

Yes
This is the main problem .
This year in most games we have had round about the same amount of scoring shots as our opposition .
the two exceptions being the adelaide and hawthorn games .
Our problem is our only realiable goal kicker is roo . An amazing stat as his career conversion rate is 60% and this year its currently 82%

Scoreboard pressure is what the games about so until we can find some goal kickers , we're going nowhere .