The Wash Up from the Crows game

[Ghost Like]

Bad kicking hurt our momentum and gave them belief. With each point we went in our shell and each of their goals without a behind left us in our shell.
I really hope they didn't play Bruce carrying a quad strain, didn't we fall the playing injured players last year? That worked out well.
Marshall, even in his infancy, could arguably be our most important player. We gave Billy a one year contract for insurance, unfortunately we lost the game and our no claim bonus. He really is more liability than value to the way we have been playing and have to play this year. I cannot remember him helping our backs out and was banished to full forward at one point...I've never seen that before.
Without a fit Bruce, getting smashed in the middle, pressure on us rebounding from the back half, the Crows did to us what we did to Melbourne. We will learn from this, I actually have some faith in our coaching staff, that is what the first six rounds have given me, as long as we don't select injured players.
Lonie was a huge blow, it hurt our rotations and hit ups and forward chasing. All the best to young Jack.
Kent was very poor unfortunately, he and Lonie may give Hind and Young an opportunity next week.
Sadly too many of our better players from the past few weeks had average days, JB, Newnes, Gresh and Acres. That happens, they will have many more above average games.
What disappointed me most about our coaching today was their reluctance to try or change things up a bit earlier such as Long to HB and Battle forward. Also give Parker and Paton a rotation or two through the middle.
Losing to battle hardened club is not the worst thing, not learning from the loss would be.

[fugazi]

Not too worried.
Look forward to a few changes for next week.
Hopefully see how Hind and Young go.
This year is about developing a game plan and finding a few players.
We are on track for both.
By seasons end I think we will have really got a good idea who the future us for the club.
Hopefully Coffield and Clark and King will get prolonged runs at it and show us sone quality.

[fugazi]

Finds so far this year:
1. Wilkie intercept king and good kick
2. Battle in defence, strong mark and great kick
3. Parker manic pressure, marking and X factor
4. Long and Lonie's form in the forward line

[samuraisaint]

Bad kicking hurt our momentum and gave them belief. With each point we went in our shell and each of their goals without a behind left us in our shell.
I really hope they didn't play Bruce carrying a quad strain, didn't we fall the playing injured players last year? That worked out well.
Marshall, even in his infancy, could arguably be our most important player. We gave Billy a one year contract for insurance, unfortunately we lost the game and our no claim bonus. He really is more liability than value to the way we have been playing and have to play this year. I cannot remember him helping our backs out and was banished to full forward at one point...I've never seen that before.
Without a fit Bruce, getting smashed in the middle, pressure on us rebounding from the back half, the Crows did to us what we did to Melbourne. We will learn from this, I actually have some faith in our coaching staff, that is what the first six rounds have given me, as long as we don't select injured players.
Lonie was a huge blow, it hurt our rotations and hit ups and forward chasing. All the best to young Jack.
Kent was very poor unfortunately, he and Lonie may give Hind and Young an opportunity next week.
Sadly too many of our better players from the past few weeks had average days, JB, Newnes, Gresh and Acres. That happens, they will have many more above average games.
What disappointed me most about our coaching today was their reluctance to try or change things up a bit earlier such as Long to HB and Battle forward. Also give Parker and Paton a rotation or two through the middle.
Losing to battle hardened club is not the worst thing, not learning from the loss would be.

Agree with a lot of this.
One thing though; a lot of the Adelaide players out there tonight had less than 20 games experience. That's one sobering thought.
However, I temper that with the fact that they have Sloane, Laird, the Crouch brothers and Atkins in their midfield. That is a seriously good midfield.
I think our biggest issue today was injuries to key personnel - Marshall and Geary before the game, Lonie during it, and carrying an injured Bruce into the match.
Had a lot of players down - you get that. At least we played the match out and we already have four wins in the bank. They are two big positives - and so is the form of Parker, Paton, Wilkie and Long, so there's four more pluses right there.
I think the club have to look at next week against the Giants up in Sydney as an opportunity to build some belief.
Still think we're a 9 win maximum team, with a lot of narrow losses, and today's result does nothing to dispel that opinion, but with every injury we get, it brings an opportunity to those who may not ordinarily get one.
In the back half of seasons we often see young or inexperienced sides tire and drop off the pace, but this season may be different for us, as we can bring back Carlisle, Hannebury, Austin and maybe even McCartin if he can ever train again.
A loss by under five goals was disappointing but if the club uses it as an opportunity to learn from it we can turn a negative into a positive very quickly.

[Scollop]

I really hope they didn't play Bruce carrying a quad strain, didn't we fall the playing injured players last year? That worked out well.

I remember how we played Longer in round 2 last year against North Melbourne. I remember hearing about Newnes and Weller being played when they weren't 100%. I remember when Tom Hickey had a hamstring tear during a game and Cho was on the boundary line yelling at him to get back out there

[spert]

I have been thinking that we lack another good big mark in the forward half- maybe King eventually, but it bit us today, and Bruce clearly wasn't fit enough and should not have played. Our mids let the Crows dictate play far too easy. We're not going to beat too many more sides with that kind of effort.

[guitars4]

When you lose the clearances like we did after half time you have a snowman's chance in hell of winning. Unfortunately they were way too good (as much as I hate say it ) that's reality we have along way to go but at least I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Going to be a very challenging 3 or 4 weeks ahead of us so lets keep it in perspective

[BarryGrogan]

Not too worried.
Look forward to a few changes for next week.
Hopefully see how Hind and Young go.
This year is about developing a game plan and finding a few players.
We are on track for both.
By seasons end I think we will have really got a good idea who the future us for the club.
Hopefully Coffield and Clark and King will get prolonged runs at it and show us sone quality.

I still really worry that Richardson just doesn't know what a good game plan looks like, and that he is a good judge of who are the right players to carry it out.

[Enrico_Misso]

It was like a flashback to 2018.

Pretty good at winning the ball but sub-standard at using it.
- missing targets
- no-one presenting as a target
- handballing to players under the pump
- kicking direct to an opponent
- kicking long to a contest where we were outnumbered
- the Ben Dixon failing to convert straightforward set shots factor
- invoking the "switch" as a defensive (desperate) tactic rather than an agressive move
- thrashed in the clearances

What happened to that fast efficient precise football from last week?

[degruch]

It was like a flashback to 2018.

Pretty good at winning the ball but sub-standard at using it.
- missing targets
- no-one presenting as a target
- handballing to players under the pump
- kicking direct to an opponent
- kicking long to a contest where we were outnumbered
- the Ben Dixon failing to convert straightforward set shots factor
- invoking the "switch" as a defensive (desperate) tactic rather than an agressive move
- thrashed in the clearances

What happened to that fast efficient precise football from last week?

Pretty much what I saw too...the old 3rd/4th disposal in the chain from defense being the happless bomb into the F50 was back too. Their mids were all over Longer's ruck work, sharking it far too easily. In the 3rd they dragged us wide consistently, then tacked back to the middle far too easily with precise disposal, leaving us running around like headless chooks. Gresh seemed to be back in our D50 far more often than I'd like to see (which is ever, really), and after Savage's interview during the week I was surprised to see some pointing and bad body language out there too.

Whilst I think a lot of the rot fell back to some crucial injuries (fwd line was in particular disarray without Lonie's pressure at ground level and Bruce an ineffective target) and we were considerably outsized, but really showed how far we need to go to compete with the big boys in quality of disposal. Never mind, I too hope to see us learn from the defeats.

[prwilkinson]

Weren’t quite clean enough with the footy today. Poor handballs and wasted opportunities. Crows converted well and worked their way back into the game nicely. Frustrating game but ahh well, just enjoying the ride. Should be another good test next week against the Weagles. Go Saints!

[Waltzing St Kilda]

It was like a flashback to 2018.

Pretty good at winning the ball but sub-standard at using it.
- missing targets
- no-one presenting as a target
- handballing to players under the pump
- kicking direct to an opponent
- kicking long to a contest where we were outnumbered
- the Ben Dixon failing to convert straightforward set shots factor
- invoking the "switch" as a defensive (desperate) tactic rather than an agressive move
- thrashed in the clearances

What happened to that fast efficient precise football from last week?

Could add:
Billy Longer
Is Newnes playing?
McCartin watching on
Richo sucking his lips
Comprehensively outskilled
Can't kick a goal while they can't miss
Soft frees for the opposition

[bigcarl]

Certainly could have done with another tall today. We were schooled by Tex. Perhaps we’d have played both Marshall and Longer had Marshall been fit and that might have made a difference.

Then again, if your opponent kicks eight straight - or whatever it was - to start the match, you are really up against it. We didnt even kick that badly really, but it’s hard to build scoreboard pressure when your opponent is making everything.

[SuperDuper]

We really missed Carlisle today. We got done in the air on several occasions resulting in Crows goals, where Carlisle would have won those contests hands down. Tex even looked good in the air.. Carlisle is in another class in aerial duels and would have stopped a lot of their attacks.

Marshall would have also helped... I thought Billy was better than usual but simply put, Marshall is significantly better

[twirlyhair]

Not too worried.
Look forward to a few changes for next week.
Hopefully see how Hind and Young go.
This year is about developing a game plan and finding a few players.
We are on track for both.
By seasons end I think we will have really got a good idea who the future us for the club.
Hopefully Coffield and Clark and King will get prolonged runs at it and show us sone quality.

I still really worry that Richardson just doesn't know what a good game plan looks like, and that he is a good judge of who are the right players to carry it out.

Well I think you need to direct your question to Rattan who was bought into the club to improve our ball transition. That is why he is at the club.

[twirlyhair]

Weren’t quite clean enough with the footy today. Poor handballs and wasted opportunities. Crows converted well and worked their way back into the game nicely. Frustrating game but ahh well, just enjoying the ride. Should be another good test next week against the Weagles. Go Saints!

Yes agreed. For those who know the cycles that are inevitable in football, you need to consider that we were due for a down week. The Saints have been 'up' for 7 weeks (including the JLT). Add injury and illness, and a lack of personal against a team that was always able to exploit our weaknesses, then yes, we were due for a not so good game. Just the season at the end of the season. So far it has been much improved.

[thejiggingsaint]

Bad kicking hurt our momentum and gave them belief. With each point we went in our shell and each of their goals without a behind left us in our shell.
I really hope they didn't play Bruce carrying a quad strain, didn't we fall the playing injured players last year? That worked out well.
Marshall, even in his infancy, could arguably be our most important player. We gave Billy a one year contract for insurance, unfortunately we lost the game and our no claim bonus. He really is more liability than value to the way we have been playing and have to play this year. I cannot remember him helping our backs out and was banished to full forward at one point...I've never seen that before.
Without a fit Bruce, getting smashed in the middle, pressure on us rebounding from the back half, the Crows did to us what we did to Melbourne. We will learn from this, I actually have some faith in our coaching staff, that is what the first six rounds have given me, as long as we don't select injured players.
Lonie was a huge blow, it hurt our rotations and hit ups and forward chasing. All the best to young Jack.
Kent was very poor unfortunately, he and Lonie may give Hind and Young an opportunity next week.
Sadly too many of our better players from the past few weeks had average days, JB, Newnes, Gresh and Acres. That happens, they will have many more above average games.
What disappointed me most about our coaching today was their reluctance to try or change things up a bit earlier such as Long to HB and Battle forward. Also give Parker and Paton a rotation or two through the middle.
Losing to battle hardened club is not the worst thing, not learning from the loss would be.

Abso-blooming-LOOTELY! spot ON!! A sober, and realistic assessment of what was for all of us a disappointing day and result. KUDOS!!!

[spert]

Good wash up.. I reckon the boys dropped their heads when Lonie went down, and took a while to get back into the pressure game, but the Crows had already got momentum up. I think Tex and Lynch had an easy day at the office- they simply presented, and got the ball kicked to them.
The midfield setups looked similar to the Freo game, where it was all defence and no attack- where the Freo mids just casually ran through the middle at centre bounces and were the only ones touching the ball..same thing yesterday- too busy blocking instead of attacking the loose ball. The coaching panel need to work out what they're doing with clearances and stoppages. Concerned that Gresh is not really doing enough, same for Sinclair- a couple of nice things but not busting a gut in the process- we had a chance at the start of the last quarter, but seemed to just go in the same gear- we haven't got that "lead by example" player who really lifts to the occasion unfortunately.
The more I think about it, the more I think that selecting Bruce was a really dumb move- we lost mobility deep in the forward line as a result, and coupled with Marshall out, it was a mess of a forward half, many times caught playing behind.

[thejiggingsaint]

Good wash up.. I reckon the boys dropped their heads when Lonie went down, and took a while to get back into the pressure game, but the Crows had already got momentum up. I think Tex and Lynch had an easy day at the office- they simply presented, and got the ball kicked to them.
The midfield setups looked similar to the Freo game, where it was all defence and no attack- where the Freo mids just casually ran through the middle at centre bounces and were the only ones touching the ball..same thing yesterday- too busy blocking instead of attacking the loose ball. The coaching panel need to work out what they're doing with clearances and stoppages. Concerned that Gresh is not really doing enough, same for Sinclair- a couple of nice things but not busting a gut in the process- we had a chance at the start of the last quarter, but seemed to just go in the same gear- we haven't got that "lead by example" player who really lifts to the occasion unfortunately.
The more I think about it, the more I think that selecting Bruce was a really dumb move- we lost mobility deep in the forward line as a result, and coupled with Marshall out, it was a mess of a forward half, many times caught playing behind.

Agree 100% with your point about playing an unfit Josh Bruce. An ideal opportunity (IMHO) to have blooded someone like Young into the side.

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

It just wasn't our night and many things went against us plus we played a pretty good footy side/club that are in form and wanted to win more than us. We are still 4-2. The club needs to get up for next week and recharge.

[thejiggingsaint]

It just wasn't our night and many things went against us plus we played a pretty good footy side/club that are in form and wanted to win more than us. We are still 4-2. The club needs to get up for next week and recharge.

That's fair comment Colleague. As I've stated elsewhere on this forum, and in many threads, I am taking this season very much "One game at a time". You make a good point re: our 4-2 status. I much prefer being in OUR position than say, North or the Demons....jeez, even Sydney!! YES! we have been given a wake up call! YES it was disappointing!!! Was it entirely unexpected? errrrrrrrrrr NO! Adelaide are a darn good side, and though ultimately well beaten it was hardly a flogging. GWS are going to be an enormous challenge for the boys, but CAN be beaten!

[thejiggingsaint]

After the (understandable) euphoria after last week's display by the boys in beating Melbourne, it was very much on the cards that Adelaide would provide us with a much sterner test. In my humble opinion this season has (thus far) provided us with a very welcome respite from all the (predicted) "doom & gloom" [some of it from our fellow saints supporters on this forum] It is SO "early days: its not true! I was in NO way "preparing to order GF tickets" after last week's win (enjoyable though it was) ... by the same token, there is NO WAY that I'm ready to roll up me swag and call it "season over" after one disappointing loss. One game at a time! GO SAINTS! (to Hell with the rest!)

[SemperFidelis]

This was not a final. WE MUST NOT keep selecting players who are touch and go on the fitness front.

Exhibit A. Newnes last year
Exhibit B. Bruce at the start of last year.

Drives me nuts. We have some degree of depth and we need to use it.

Sure, it would have seemed risky to leave out Bruce yesterday, but a fully fit Battle forward and Joyce or Marsh up back would surely have produced a better outcome.

[Yorkeys]

Does anyone else feel for Billy L. It seems to me he tries his darndest but just isn't capable at AFL level given the class of ruckmen generally and most mid fields. I can see why AR likes him, he recognises a genuine trier, but so was the horse I backed in the Hawkesbury Cup that came last. Will still feed and pat him but won't put hard earned on him again. (And to be clear, I'm talking the horsey not Billy). Lewis P has to be reserve ruck for rest of season.

[King12]

Does anyone else feel for Billy L. It seems to me he tries his darndest but just isn't capable at AFL level given the class of ruckmen generally and most mid fields. I can see why AR likes him, he recognises a genuine trier, but so was the horse I backed in the Hawkesbury Cup that came last. Will still feed and pat him but won't put hard earned on him again. (And to be clear, I'm talking the horsey not Billy). Lewis P has to be reserve ruck for rest of season.

Can't be, Lewis hasn't played anywhere for a month.

Plus, he is worse than Longer. Not sure where you are coming from with that idea really. Anyway, just an opinion really. All the best.