Saints Mid-season report card

[Sanctorum]

If you haven't read it, check out the following article on the St Kilda website:

https://www.saints.com.au/news/2019-06- ... eport-card

In essence the club believes that the team has performed reasonably well overall, considering the problems covering long term injuries to a number of important players.To a certain degree I go along with that, but it does not explain the continuing failure to convert in front of goals, which could well have cost them two or three games.

That aside, it is quite obvious that in the past 6 games the team has by and large played poorly, little semblance of an obvious game plan, poor ball handling when in possession leading to costly turnovers, and far too many "Hail Mary" bombs into the forward 50, which were easily repelled by the opposition defences.

The club is upbeat about turning things around in the 2nd half of this season, and with the addition of Dan Hannebery to provide some badly needed onfield leadership that may well occur. Likewise it is likely that Max King will provide much needed height and strong marking to the forward line once he debuts.

This Saturday's game against the GC Suns in Townsville is to my mind the most important game for the Saints in 2019 - it is a MUST WIN if the club is going to keep their hopes of finishing in or near the top 8. The team needs to put up a much better display of teamwork and execute a game plan that results in unrelenting attack and defence.

A loss will make it nigh impossible for the Saints to face the upcoming clashes with any degree of confidence: Lions, Tigers, Kangaroos, all of whom are ranked above St Kilda on the AFL ladder.

My biggest concern about the GC Suns is that they have some really talented talls and if the Saints again fail to select a ruckman (even Billie Longer will do) to help Marshall then I fear the worst....

[skeptic]

Our biggest wins for the year came against team 16 & 18 on the ladder
Our 3 rounds of teams above us against team 9, 10, and 11 by a combined total of about 20 points

Meanwhile we've lost to all teams we've played against currently in the 8 and they've all been big losses... Collingwood, GWS, WCE, Adel and Port

Not really the improvement I was hoping for

[Wayne42]

it's a wonder the report didn't say the team had almost over-achieved. for a team of battlers.

[WellardSaint]

this is seriously deluded.
The article says clearly that if we had been much more accurate, we would be "finals contenders"?
How insane is that comment?

It's like Daniel Ricciardo saying if his Renault engine was more reliable, he would finish in the top 6 or so and therefore earn points in F1 !!!
Well, his engine isn't the best, or his mechanics haven't solved the issues, so he ain't getting the results.

Ben Dixon ame on board 18 months ago to fix our accuracy, and it's not working at all.
Dermie came in this year, still no good.
Ratten is supposed to be our transition expert, but hey, ball still getting bombed into F50 just like always
It's a problem that seemingly can't be fixed, and we are horrible at it.

[saintsRrising]

Back half good.

Forward entries atrocious.

Wilkie a real find.
Marshall now rucking looks to have great potential.

Parker shows good potential but obviously needs to learn how to play team footie.

Kent if he had seized his chances could have been good value. But as when he was at the Dees fritters too many opportunities away. Which sums up our overall forward line this year.


Long has a lot of talent, but he plays all instinct with little thought and so often does more harm than good.

Midfield is only so so and that remains our biggest problem.

Strategy to keep playing so many specialised small forwards is not working. They are overall too raw and go missing t0o much. Club probably tried to copy the Tiges in this. Time to instead have a look at say Hind and Langlands who will still make us quick but who will be more likely contribute more over the course of a game.