Morning after - still not worried

[suss]

All the silly posts on here that suggest we should rush the likes of Stanley, Walsh, Gaertner, J Smith et al into our team are just plain silly.

There's merit in bringing in Stanley. We looked better with Kosi in the ruck was night. Stanley covers the forward option aspect and could go into the ruck too. His pace and defensive pressue would have to be better than Kosi - based on speed alone.

But I agree with the others - whilst Heyne and Smith look promising , there's no evidence they'll do any better than those in the current team. And you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater - this team has won 25 from its last 30 games - this is an exercise in tinkering not a complete restructure.

So for mine I'd give Stanley a run at the expense of King and Peake a run at the expense of Steven.

[saintsRrising]

Intensity was crap.

Seriously weak as pyss.

Our tackle rate was well down on 2010 levels, which are well down on 2009 levels.

Not good enough. Lenny was the only bloke putting it on the line.

We have two ways to respond to this. Come out and give Essendon a fkn physical hiding.

Or just walk off into the night.

If you have to lose, then go down fighting for **** sake. Saints footy? That wasnt saints footy as far as I am concerned.

This is the issue. Intensity and effort was so far off last night any team would have beaten us. This is something that can be fixed quickly. And I trust will be.

As in the thread I started I believe that this is the No 1 issue.


There are other issues though, not least of which is that our forward line is lurching along with different structures fronm week to week with unfortunately many of the tallish options tried there to date not working.

Kosi is a No 2 Banana who is adversely affected by trying to be the No1 Banana, a role which he is not good enough for.

[Beej]

To suggest that this game was just a "one off" or "not our night" is a simplistic view IMO.

We have problems that need to be addressed, and quick.

[meher baba]

Yes, sRr, Geary has been a bit disappointing too. I would send him to the VFL next week along with Steven and Raph or Dawson: my INS being Armo, Eddy and Heyne (would prefer Lynch, but am assuming he's still injured).

Why Heyne?

Have you seen anything of him?

Eddy yes, but Heyne?

Would actually prefer Tommy Walsh.

I'm going on the basis that Heyne is allegedly some sort of a forward, has been named as an emergency a couple of times, and that the selectors presumably know what they are doing to some extent.

We need another target man up there: he doesn't have to be super tall (Riewoldt isn't super tall), but he needs to be able to run into space and draw defenders away from Kosi so that he doesn't get surrounded as he often did last night.

The fact that nobody knows much about Heyne is an advantage. They all know that Gwilt can't mark the ball overhead, so they don't pay much attention to him when he goes up forward.

Stanley would be ok too: I would put him ahead of McEvoy or Pattison as a foil for Kosi. But I reckon that, at this stage in his career, he's just a gamble.

Walsh would be even more of a gamble IMO: he hasn't even played up forward yet for Sandy. Things aren't quite that desperate yet.

[meher baba]

To suggest that this game was just a "one off" or "not our night" is a simplistic view IMO.

We have problems that need to be addressed, and quick.

To suggest that a team that has had a 80/20 win/loss ratio over a run of almost 50 games has urgent problems is a bit of an overreaction, now, isn't it?

You see, I consider that the only serious "problem" that has emerged in recent weeks is the same one that has existed for at least 5 years: we are enormously dependent on our superstar player Nick Riewoldt.

With Riewoldt in the team, we have a list and a game plan which enables us to beat most other clubs. Without Riewoldt, we come quickly back to the field. He plays a critical dual role: he is both our main scoring option and our main escape valve coming out of defence when other teams man up or zone effectively.

This isn't the end of the world: from what I saw last night, Carlton are extraordinarily dependent on Judd. We all know that Fremantle need Pavlich at least as much as we need Riewoldt. The Dogs, Collingwood and Geelong have somewhat more even lists, but they have other areas of vulnerability.

Without Riewoldt, we have beaten the two teams currently on top of the table and also the Dogs, who almost beat us in a PF last year. So we aren't hopeless without Riewoldt, just significantly less effective.

Certainly, if Riewoldt doesn't make a successful return to footy this year, we are cactus for 2010.

But, as things stand, I expect us to lose another 5-7 of our remaining 15 games (one or both of our games against the Bombers and our games against Geelong, Freo away, Eagles away, Brisbane away and the Pies at the G). I expect us to win the rest.

This will leave us on up to 15 wins and more likely to be in the top 4 than not and therefore still a good chance for the flag.


BUT

It also means that there will be up to 7 more mornings like this one for us to endure.

So supporters like you and dozens of others on here are going to need to learn either to harden up, or to shut up.

[saintsRrising]

The Blues also thrashed the Cats recently..and for similar reasons.

So I would not panic just yet.

But yes there are "problems" that the coach needs to wotk on...including those above the shoulders".


More teams are up and about this year which IMO means that the wins will be more spead along this year. It is a more competitive year.

This is not to say though that we were not dreadful against the Blues, for we were.

We need to get back into good habits and workrate though, rather than radical new soltions. Forward line does need tweaking though.

[SainterK]

I'm glad Eddy has been brought up by someone, didn't he have something like 3 goal assists the week he played?

I liked his game, I like someone with the smarts to set up goals.

Is it just me, or do we seem to have an abundance of players able to be the finishers, but not many capable of setting them up at the moment?

[SydneySainter]

Face it, we are in big trouble.

We've carried our mediocre pre-season form into the home and away and to put it nicely, our team looks very ordinary without Roo.

A slow midfield, a virtually non-existent forward line and a back-line in tatters. How often have we seen our so called fortress defence? Leaked goals against the Swans, Dockers and Blues and the Pies did part of the job for us by kicking 4.17.

For a team that should have won the flag last year and supposed to be on a quest for unfinished business this year, we certainly look nothing like the Bombers of 2000, Eagles of 06 or the Cats of 09.

[kosifantutti23]

a back-line in tatters. How often have we seen our so called fortress defence? Leaked goals against the Swans, Dockers and Blues and the Pies did part of the job for us by kicking 4.17.

Take a good hard look at the ladder. Conceded 490 points, almost 60 points less than any other team in the league.