What happened to our early season form?

[Jacks Back]

What happened to our early season form and goal kicking?

We were running like the wind, fast play-on style. Great to watch. Even channel 7 started showing our games. And straight kicking for once (I couldn't believe it).

Now we can't kick a goal to save ourselves. We've gone back to plodding. Bombing it long into the forward line.

Can Roughy save us?

[shanegrambeau]

What happened to our early season form and goal kicking?

Gone the the dogs.

Bullies are looking better. But Ross the Boss is hilarious talking to Mathew Llyod, who can barely contain himself looking at his phoney TV persona talking about what St Kilda has to do to make finals. Rossthe Boss is such comedy, I love it.
He sounds so disingenious. So funny. The familiar and pointed but optimistic lilt of the voice. Mathew Lloyd is a pretty wooden actor, but it so funny watching him trying not to laugh when he says 'RosstheBoss' and Llyon starts talking. He has some good points too.
So funny.

[The_Dud]

Yep, thought we turned the corner the first half of this season, then we just regressed back to Richo era stuff...

Friday will say so much, I’m hoping we go for it and take some risks with how we play, certainly can’t dish up the same crap we have the last month and expect a positive outcome.

[bigred]

It is interesting isn't it. The difference in how we are playing in general and our avenue to goal.

Chalk and cheese.

I'm starting to think it may have a lot to do with Gresham.

Maybe Roughead is the catalyst to flick that switch again?

Our best form in the early half of this season was good enough to beat ANYONE.

[Wayne42]

The opposition studied the way we were playing early in the season and put the clamps on.
Players lost confidence, lost form, lost the ability to find time and space.

Result is we are now back to playing Richo ball, which won't win much at all.

[saintbob]

Opposition coaches sat back and watched the 1st five games and thought s***, if we put our 2 best marking defenders 20 metres out from the Saints goals they’ll just keep kicking it to us and guess what that’s exactly what we’ve done for the last 12 f****** weeks!!!!

And unless Ratten is a really f****** good poker player, and I’m hoping like f*** that he is, I’m guessing that’s what we’ll keep doing until we get bundled out in week 1 of the finals.

[bigcarl]

I'm starting to think it may have a lot to do with Gresham.

As soon as he fell over I sensed we were in trouble, particularly with Hannebery injured.

In the middle, Steele is an A-grader and Ryder and Marshall are A-grade ruckmen, but after that it is just solid players. Not a great deal of flair.

I thought the obvious move was Clark into the middle, but, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen until the second half of last week. Ratts should have backed him in.

Without Gresham there is limited drive from the middle. Ball movement is slow and defensive and it gives opponents time to flood our forward line.

Small forwards are of limited use in heavy traffic like that. Big forwards are forced to take pack marks against two or three opponents.

The rest is just confidence, or lack of it. We’re not done yet, but it isn’t looking good

[shanegrambeau]

What are we doing differently now compared to 'then'.

'Then'

King was a decoy.

We just charged the ball forward and over their wall.

Teams were unsure how to approach the shorter games and the explosive swings.

We kicked straight when expectations were low.

Our defence with Carlisle was great.

Other teams having a really hard time


Now

Carlisle in dog house

Expectations risen, pressure up, kicking for goal gone to pot

King is a primary target for us, and for the opposition

Teams are becoming more zone orientated and adept at mix tempo football and control as the the season wore on. We lack the class for a system and our chaos approach is exposed.

Losing Gresham and Hannebury and Carlisle doesn't help the class and experience deficit.

Other teams really getting their ships in order

[Teflon]

Whose confident??

[bigred]

Not me that's for sure. Expectations well in check now.

[CURLY]

We are the youngest team in the top 8 and you can see we are running out of gas. This was always going to be a tough year for the younger groups.

[Yorkeys]

Fumbling crept in, feeds on itself and is contagious. Takes confidence and composure with it. Stop converting shots for goal and you breath life into the opposition, making putting them away even harder. Need an All Blacks skills coach for a few months. List rotation has not been shrewd or compassionate - must be hard for a lot of guys to know they are not a chance to play unless they injure a team mate at training - possibly leading to cliques of haves and have nots and as the losses pile up resentment, then the whole vibe sours. Not easy to live close for months, even in paradise. Worry about the "coaching upheaval" Tony74 alluded to. What's that all about. And of course in a hothouse environment you need good leaders and it appears we lack those. Senior defender self absorbed, captain struggling with form, several high priced experienced recruits just not delivering. A coaching nightmare at the pointy end of the season. Need some luck early tonight to light the fuse, get in a final and release that monkey off our back.

[freely]

I'm confused. Is Roughead even a coach?

[Beno88]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

[CURLY]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

[Vortex]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

[SaintPelican66]

What happened to our early season form and goal kicking?

We were running like the wind, fast play-on style. Great to watch. Even channel 7 started showing our games. And straight kicking for once (I couldn't believe it).

Now we can't kick a goal to save ourselves. We've gone back to plodding. Bombing it long into the forward line.

Can Roughy save us?

It's all above the shoulders. Positive off season led into the season proper. Then a few close losses and a few injuries led to loss of confidence. Lets hoope they get it all back tonight. Sunny days.

[saynta]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

[SaintPelican66]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

[saynta]

What happened to our early season form and goal kicking?

Gone the the dogs.

Bullies are looking better. But Ross the Boss is hilarious talking to Mathew Llyod, who can barely contain himself looking at his phoney TV persona talking about what St Kilda has to do to make finals. Rossthe Boss is such comedy, I love it.
He sounds so disingenious. So funny. The familiar and pointed but optimistic lilt of the voice. Mathew Lloyd is a pretty wooden actor, but it so funny watching him trying not to laugh when he says 'RosstheBoss' and Llyon starts talking. He has some good points too.
So funny.

Geez, I forgot how much I hate that prick. Ross the flosser tosser Lyin. What a see u....

[Vortex]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

Lots of people talking about it this year Stinger/Harry M. And I'll make this prediction, after this last round of footy you will hear more about it from the supporters who don't have a team in the finals.

[skeptic]

Personally I put it down to our lack of rotations...

The turning point was the Geelong game...
4 day break, tired list, people pressing for selection

Should have rested Gresham, Clarke, King, maybe whoever else was really struggling (tired) e.g Wilke perhaps

Instead we went in tired and not ready, got smashed around the park, lost Gresham and carried on with the struggling list.

One thing about AFL football now is that it’s more taxing then ever before even with shorter quarters, because the expectation is shorter bursts of higher intensity
Go all out 100%. Rest for a few minutes then go again

That type of model is taxing and a lot of your mods as a result really tend not to be able to sustain it week in and week out over a long season.

IMO a winning strategy especially for guys that have soft tissue histories like Jones and Hannebery is that you need to rotate them out every few weeks and rest them for a week. Otherwise the just break down.
It’s a good rule rule of thumb for anyone that is doing a ton of running because a) fatigue impacts recovery and in increases the risk of injury and b) it gives opportunity to the Bytels and Byrnes of the world or the Savages and Dunstans to rotate in

Anyway...
We hit that point then players began to stagnate
King tired
Kent lost form
Geary seems out of sorts
Carlisle went through whatever he went through
Howard and Wilke dropped a bit with the changed structure
Hind, Lonie, Marsh failed to cement their spots

And instead of keeping a clear structure , rewarding form and dropping those that stagnated...

We went all over the place in a way that makes very little sense to me at least

You didn’t see Austin or Clav come in to replace Carlisle... we went smaller and got exposed down back.
Battle went back sometimes, also played a lot as a forward and mid

We were missing Gresh’s speed and creativity in the midfield and up forward...
We persevered with 5 small forward that could barely touch the ball between them and could only play forward

King has looked tired and his form has dropped... instead of moving Battle forward consistently with Marshall dropping in as a third tall periodically
We mostly bombed it in forward towards King’s general direction hoping that the smalls would do the work wilhilst tall defenders picked off wayward kicks...
Whilst the other taller forwards made cameo appearances down there

Ultimately there is a lot to be said about perhaps not having the class in the middle to take the next step and is being a young inconsistent team.

There has also been something of an inflexibility or conservative streak in selections that I’d hoped we’d move away from this season.
A number of guys with Kent perhaps being the standout have played fairly consistently whilst being quite out of form.

Ratten seems to have a particular fondness for the small forwards approach noting that Kent, Lonie, Marsh (Alberto he is a bit bigger) and Hind have really come in again and again whilst not really doing a lot.
My views on the small forward strategy has been posted as nauseum here so I won’t bother with it suffice to say I think high risk, low reward dumb move

Personally, a better approach would have been bringing in extra run and resting guys like Gresh, Billings, Hannebery, Jones etc in the FP a lot more.

Reckon it has sunk us rather badly.

[saynta]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

Lots of people talking about it this year Stinger/Harry M. And I'll make this prediction, after this last round of footy you will hear more about it from the supporters who don't have a team in the finals.

Stinger/Harry M...bahahaha. Wrong again. What was your last nick, Go on you can tell me. I will keep it a secret.

[Vortex]

In a 22 game season, I feel we would have dropped away like in 2017 and 2019.

Hard to say really. A 22 game season may have meant Roberton Savage Webster Dunstan and others came in after reserves form.

Absolutely would have. The Asterisk cup has robbed us of development to some players.

Asterisk cup eh??? Now where have I heard that before.

Lots of people talking about it this year Stinger/Harry M. And I'll make this prediction, after this last round of footy you will hear more about it from the supporters who don't have a team in the finals.

Stinger/Harry M...bahahaha. Wrong again. What was your last nick, Go one you can tell me. I will keep it a secret.

No probs Stinger.

[bangaulegend]

Agree with pretty much will all the other posts & yeah the big thing IMO is teams have worked us out, still getting plenty of inside 50's but no easy goals over the back from point blank range as we did earlier in the season making our goal kicking stats look good however when you have to kick them from 40/50 or from tight angles as we have had to do of late we have been atrocious 4.16 FFS. Shades of 2019 all over again