Match thread v Blues

[sunsaint]

Only seven rounds left. Going to be a great tussle with Brisbane for the spoon - will go right to the wire. I'm excited. Think we can just edge them for 17th, but it's lottery stuff.

you obviously havent seen too many Lions games - they are far more competitive than us

[spert]

Whatever excuses might be made, yet again the club has fielded a totally uncompetitive team, and obviously the coach went home at half time.

[cwrcyn]

If you get the ball 80 times less than the opposition, and then you butcher it 50% of the time, these are the results you get.

Basically, the rebuild should be around players who have elite skills and excellent decision making.

At the moment, we have many nervous nellies with the ball in their hand, a treacle slow midfield, undersized key defenders and some players who are not AFL standard.

Jones, Ray, Delaney, Ross, Dempster, Steven, Gilbert, and Weller are not any threat with the ball in their hands

Dunell, Milera, Simpkin offer us nothing in the medium to long term (and little in the short term)


My observations from today


Gwilt should be playing on a medium sized forward instead of 200cm giants. I feel his career is being jeopardised by ridiculous expectations on what a 188cm defender can manage.
Stanley did plenty of good things today and made many excellent leads, only to be ignored by team mates kicking to Riewoldt in a 2 on 1 situation.
Our forward line functioned better when Reiwoldt moved up the ground to the wing or half back
Apart from one speccy on the wing today, Dempster's marking has deserted him in the past 18 months. He made three atrocious marking errors today which cost us goals
Weller is an effective tagger, but is no Brendan Goddard when he has the ball in his hands
WE are the slowest team in the AFL

[desertsaint]

Only seven rounds left. Going to be a great tussle with Brisbane for the spoon - will go right to the wire. I'm excited. Think we can just edge them for 17th, but it's lottery stuff.

you obviously havent seen too many Lions games - they are far more competitive than us

Hey, I'm wearing my saints glasses. Block out 75% of all depression rays. Bought them at OPtimiSM.

[Scollop]

Two good posts

My belief has always been that the string of recycled players like Jones, Ray, Dempster, Delaney, Weller (and earlier Peake, Polo) will ony take you so far. You need to find new talent that you can mould and that has unlimited upside. Sure you have more chance of a diamond high in the draft, but they are also found in the 2nd and 3rd rounders and in the rookie drafts

If you get the ball 80 times less than the opposition, and then you butcher it 50% of the time, these are the results you get.

Basically, the rebuild should be around players who have elite skills and excellent decision making.

At the moment, we have many nervous nellies with the ball in their hand, a treacle slow midfield, undersized key defenders and some players who are not AFL standard.

Jones, Ray, Delaney, Ross, Dempster, Steven, Gilbert, and Weller are not any threat with the ball in their hands

Dunell, Milera, Simpkin offer us nothing in the medium to long term (and little in the short term)


My observations from today


Gwilt should be playing on a medium sized forward instead of 200cm giants. I feel his career is being jeopardised by ridiculous expectations on what a 188cm defender can manage.
Stanley did plenty of good things today and made many excellent leads, only to be ignored by team mates kicking to Riewoldt in a 2 on 1 situation.
Our forward line functioned better when Reiwoldt moved up the ground to the wing or half back
Apart from one speccy on the wing today, Dempster's marking has deserted him in the past 18 months. He made three atrocious marking errors today which cost us goals
Weller is an effective tagger, but is no Brendan Goddard when he has the ball in his hands
WE are the slowest team in the AFL

I am more concerned with our senior players as a whole rather than Richo.

They are meant to be mentoring our kids and showing the way. Today they were not just passengers, but anchors!!!

The kids as a group put in a lot more than today than the older bracket.

Time for a clean slate. Roo and Lenny can stay, but the others are just a waste of space.

Time for our new generation It is going to be painful fora number of years. But I am happy to watch players playing for a future. I am not happy watching guys who are now there only for the pay-cheque. It is pointless.

A philosophy of trying to top up with Gamble, Pattinson, Jess Smith etc. destroyed our chance of a quick rebuild or ability to be a competitive team. I was extremely pissed off after we made the same mistakes over and over again throughout the Lyin tenure. More recently I'm not sure if the Lee and Hickey picks will be fruitful in the longterm.