Clarko on AFL360

[Sanctorum]

In case you missed it, Alastair Clarkson was a panellist on AFL360 on Thursday night and mentioned that he had attended the game between Melbourne and St Kilda last Sunday, one of only two he has attended since retiring in 2021. When the panel talked about the forthcoming match between St Kilda and Geelong he was quite upbeat about the Saints, saying that he really rates the team as potential finalists in 2022.

He felt St Kilda had started poorly in the 1st quarter against the Demons, constantly moving the ball slowly and sideways, which allowed Melbourne to take the initiative and control the momentum. This to me suggested he was critical of the Saints game plan because he went on to say that at some stages in the 2nd half St Kilda managed to get on top of Melbourne and displayed their capacity to dominate the game.

It is quite clear to me that unless St Kilda takes control early in games against the top teams, they are going to find it hard to win, and to me it is up to Ratten & Co to make sure that the players have a game plan that will focus on attack, as opposed to "keepings off".

[Teflon]

Interesting I have no idea why you start a game against best team in comp and decide to play another game style?

Did it against Pies too and it cost us

Dumb coaching

[Sanctorum]

Forgot to add that he raved about Jade Gresham - reckons he is a future champion, which is interesting as it wasn't one of Gresh's better games.

[Rubyjo]

He may well coach Tasmania . Had a lot to say about that.

[SunnyErnie]

He may well coach Tasmania . Had a lot to say about that.

But Tasmania is at least 5 years away

[asiu]

He may well coach Tasmania . Had a lot to say about that.

he's been consistent re his attraction to and understandings of needs in relationship to that opportunity over the longer term
it'll take to develop a competitive footy playn unit

thats where he'll end up ... imo

[shanegrambeau]

Interesting I have no idea why you start a game against best team in comp and decide to play another game style?

Did it against Pies too and it cost us

Dumb coaching

My hunch is because weve been jumped at the start of games at least three times this year. Therefore, the idea was to rake the sting out of the oppositions thrust, allow us to settle and then go from there.

Obviously didn’t work.

But worth a try?

No. Evidently.

[Impatient Sainter]

Interesting I have no idea why you start a game against best team in comp and decide to play another game style?

Did it against Pies too and it cost us

Dumb coaching

Yep it cast us back to the Richardson days - a coach lacking belief. Hopefully unlike AR, Ratten can learn from it.

[saintsRrising]

He felt St Kilda had started poorly in the 1st quarter against the Demons, constantly moving the ball slowly and sideways, which allowed Melbourne to take the initiative and control the momentum.

This to me suggested he was critical of the Saints game plan because he went on to say that at some stages in the 2nd half St Kilda managed to get on top of Melbourne and displayed their capacity to dominate the game.

Ah, but was it the gameplan, or was it more that our players started to hesitate , and went into their shells after making some poor skill errors that led to turnovers?

I think it was more the second.

The Dees were primed to play us and came out pretty much flawless.

Saints actually started well but skill wise had some poor executions in passing that let the Dees in and they then punished us.

Our players rather than just accepting that it was a poor kick, or poor handball, to me started to look more for the easy pass rather than the attacking and quick option. So we went into our shells and to stop and look, and to go sideways or backwards more.

That slowed us down. And against the Dees being slow and indirect with the ball is deadly as they are just so well drilled, and quick to act, that they get numbers back and it then becomes near impossible to move the ball well.

In the second half our players got their mojo back, and we became competitive again. With the quick ball movement the Dees were under more pressure, and as a consequence started to make mistakes.

It is quite clear to me that unless St Kilda takes control early in games against the top teams, they are going to find it hard to win, and to me it is up to

Against any team you need to play well for the majority of the game. Against the Dees we went missing for too much of the game.

Against the Dees we could still have won the game if were not winning early on. But we were just not at all competitive, and some of our players were just shell shocked.
Games will always have ebbs and flows, but the problem was that our our players just lost the plot for way too long, and that was made all the worse as the Dees had a period when they just could do no wrong. ie Brown's two roving snapped goals that Stevie Milne would have been proud of. So we were down, when they were just flawless.

Ratten & Co to make sure that the players have a game plan that will focus on attack, as opposed to "keepings off".

We do have an attacking gameplan. The main reason we lost to Port for example was in that first quarter when we were dominant we missed several really easy goals.