Well done Richo !

[WinnersOnly]

He has said the Saints are going to play a bolder style of football in 2015 and we saw that against Brisbane. The team took risks and ran through the corridor setting up plenty of forward thrusts which was exciting to watch. They made some mistakes but in the main we were a lot harder to defend against and cut Brisbane up with our run in the last.

We still need to work on our delivery into the forward 50 and preventing our forwards from leading wide into pocket, but that will improve.

As Mav Weller said in his post game interview "at least we are playing a style of football that gives us a chance to win games".

I was critical of our style of play after the intra club and are now happy to state - well done Richo on releasing the shackles....

[damienc]

Excellent post.

[Stephen Theodore]

He has said the Saints are going to play a bolder style of football in 2015 and we saw that against Brisbane. The team took risks and ran through the corridor setting up plenty of forward thrusts which was exciting to watch. They made some mistakes but in the main we were a lot harder to defend against and cut Brisbane up with our run in the last.

We still need to work on our delivery into the forward 50 and preventing our forwards from leading wide into pocket, but that will improve.

As Mav Weller said in his post game interview "at least we are playing a style of football that gives us a chance to win games".

I was critical of our style of play after the intra club and are now happy to state - well done Richo on releasing the shackles....

Our second half was quite good. As you mentioned, plenty of mistakes, but they looked good at times, especially the last quarter.

[Bunk_Moreland]

Cant remember but I think you were very critical of Richo last season (correct me if I am wrong).

If so, good on you for calling it as you see it.

I agree, a couple of times our ball movement from the backline to score goals was quite exciting.

A glimpse of the future perhaps?

[Life Long Saint]

I agree, a couple of times our ball movement from the backline to score goals was quite exciting.

That was the most encouraging thing about our play.
Our end to end work was exceptional.
The other big plus was our defence. Given the number of inside 50's we conceded in the first half the defence stood up really well.
The downside of that, though, was that our midfield struggled early. Brisbane had 3 times the inside 50's to us in the first half. Can't afford stats like that in the season proper. We lost the clearance count by 8...Don't know what the discrepancy was in the first half but it looked significant.

The most concerning trend from last season that showed like it will continue is the panic that grips Montagna when he's in a pack. In space his ball use is excellent but he panics in a pack and either lets go a wild handball or kick - which invariably leads to a turn over. He seems to not want to take a tackle and force a stoppage. As a senior member of the midfield he needs to change this part of his game. I'd say all of his four clangers were made in this way.

But, overall, it was encouraging enough against a near full strength Brisbane and with our number 1 ruckman and number 1 forward out and our best midfielder only playing half a game.

[Solar]

The first half was 2014 all over again, defensive handpasses, slow movement etc. But as the coach noted they started to expand their vision into the centre and the quick movement meant that bad kicks could still be dangerous going forward. I like the focus on developing a winning game plan.

[Bluthy]

I thought it was interesting the way we really opened the forward line up with McCartin and Lee pushing all the way up to halfback to create a version of Pagans paddock for players to stream into. Richo's Ranch? It's quite a counter attacking style.

[spert]

I would expect to see a lot of players in line for senior positions, play huge games against what should be a poor quality Essendon outfit this Saturday, and I would also expect Richo to rev the team up for a big start from the first bounce, as I got pretty sick of of our slow starts contributing to big losses last season and that's something the coach needs to sort out this year.