Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
White Winmar wrote:He was a tad ordinary in the intra club game. Maybe AR gave him a reminder he has to earn his spot. I'm sure he has a bit of "Mark Waugh Syndrome". Looks like he's always coasting but is fiercely competitive. Dal suffered the same sorts of criticism early on in RL's tenure. Looks like Acres might have been saving himself for the real stuff. Message sent. I hope it has been well received. A fit and firing Blacres is exactly what we need.
Yeah but is this indicative of Richo's direction with this team? He wants hard workers over talent? Are we going to fill our whole team with hard working guys who have poor disposal or lack creativity (I know Acres is a bit dodgy with his kicking but his getting better and has great x-factor)? I mean he made Geary his captain - doesn't that say it all. Mckenzie seems to be in the team because he's been smashing training and time-trials. What about guys like White and Rice who can, you know, actually KICK THE BALL WELL! You know, those sort of players that premiership winning teams tend to be filled with because if you are keeping the ball the oppo can only impotently run themselves ragged and you will run over them in 4 quarters.
I worry about our average kicking ability all over the field. Richo brings guys like Brown and Stevens with average disposal because they are big bodies but little premium is given to skills, creativity and play-makers.
White Winmar wrote:No Acres? WTF? Is AR sending him another message like last year?
Hmmmm. Broke a team rule again? Or maybe he's been demoted down the pecking order.
Could just be a load issue or had a niggle or something. But ACres does strike me as someone who wouldn't impress you in the preseason - he's got this laconic, don't-seem-too-really-care style that would clash with like Weller & Geary smashing every training session. In the intra-club from what I saw he looked like a VFL reserves player, lost and not able to get in the play.
But where Acres comes into his own is the congested, lock-down game of the real season. That's when he will switch on and use his big body to barn-storm his way through tackles and use his x-factor and ability to read the game at a different level. I mean is all they care about fitness and who is training the house down? What about good old-fashioned talent and also players who bring something different to the team? You need x-factor and guys who can do the extraordinary and unexpected. Lot of AFL robots drilled in stock standard AFL decision making via hours of video brain-washing. But those who crack up the game and open the play up have something different inherent in them, which I reckon Blake does
dragit wrote:Jack Steele - 7 tackles in only 35% game time
Looks like he is on for a bit of a scrap. Surprised he didn't get a little more game time but I suppose they are taking it a bit easy given his slower start to pre-season.
Adam Kingsley in the members' email said
in 8 days the Blues game will have Acres, Sinclair, Webster and Ben Long
and we'd rest some of the older players.
I hope Jimmy W comes in for Savage, they are both halfbacks.
Lonie for Sinclair?
A real Sainter will pledge allegiance to the ❤ and despise the Pies, the Blues, and the Injectors.
Remember one of the 10 Commandments : Thou shalt have no other team before thee
Obviously at this time of year we are a work in progress, but should we be concerned that we ran out of legs after the first half? Arent we meant to be the fittest we have ever been?
We looked really slow through the midfield in the 2nd half, which happened to coincide with Jack Steven being rested. The fatigue also seriously affected our kicking with the usual shockers from Geary, Gilbert and Savage in the 2nd half.
Hickeys effort were less than 2nd rate - I mean he got owned by Trengrove in rucking duels. Has Hickey ever heard of lower body core strength eg squats and dead lifts the guy has legs like the cowboy puppet off 'Toy Story'. Lets see how our other ruckmen go against Carlton give Hickey a rest next week IMO!
*Brown shut out Dixon completely. Given their respective pay packets, surely thats a win.
*Carlisle showed great class down back
*Captaincy raised Geary to new heights
*Roberton could win a B&F if he puts it all together on a consistent basis
*Just waiting for the day that Paddy grabs a game by yhe scruff of the neck and sends defenders to the psychiatrists couch. The day is looming.
*We are not going to win 18 games this year, but we'll see glimpses of sublime footy.
Bit at the end about Blacres, apparently he will play next week, just missed out this week, needs to work on his disposal.
That sounds like a bit of throw excuse. I don't know if they don't want to publicly shame him if he's not fit enough or not working hard enough at training. But this is what worries me about bringing in guys like Stevens and Brown - they can become list cloggers keeping out our talented young players. Now Stevens may go on to be a very, very good player. But that risk is there.
It's not going to be the end of the world if Acres has to go back to VFL to learn some stuff and be more disciplined- he's still pretty young. No one has an automatic right in the team - Ball and Dal Santo learnt the hard way. Blakey will have a chance next week to strut his stuff. I think we are better with him in the team.
Bit at the end about Blacres, apparently he will play next week, just missed out this week, needs to work on his disposal.
That sounds like a bit of throw excuse. I don't know if they don't want to publicly shame him if he's not fit enough or not working hard enough at training. But this is what worries me about bringing in guys like Stevens and Brown - they can become list cloggers keeping out our talented young players. Now Stevens may go on to be a very, very good player. But that risk is there.
It's not going to be the end of the world if Acres has to go back to VFL to learn some stuff and be more disciplined- he's still pretty young. No one has an automatic right in the team - Ball and Dal Santo learnt the hard way. Blakey will have a chance next week to strut his stuff. I think we are better with him in the team.
Think you meant Dal Santo and Milne, but then again, maybe I'm wrong.
Were were at near full strength with all players in usual positions so not much experimentation
Robbie Gray - their b&f and best player who got 3 votes against us last year missing
Our best player from last year's game against Port, our Best and Fairest from last year and our best player for the last fifteen years all played about half the game.
So full strength on paper only.
Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year for 2023 "Kosi Lives"
I thought that Port Adelaide was our bogey team that we have had an absolutely shocking record against ?
So in the first half when we played we played our best line-up how did we go against our "bogey" team?
Skills in an early season pre-season game of high standard.
Does anyone actually know of a StKilda game ever when this did occur? Indeed does anyone know of such games for any team?
New game plan. Does this not actually take a little while to sort out, refine and execute?
Or is Richo meant to be some type of genius that can have his players accomplish this in one game?
Speaking of which did we not have a number of new players in the team all trying to gel with their new team-mates?
Flying the World in comfort thanks to FF Points....
Bit at the end about Blacres, apparently he will play next week, just missed out this week, needs to work on his disposal.
That sounds like a bit of throw excuse. I don't know if they don't want to publicly shame him if he's not fit enough or not working hard enough at training. But this is what worries me about bringing in guys like Stevens and Brown - they can become list cloggers keeping out our talented young players. Now Stevens may go on to be a very, very good player. But that risk is there.
It's not going to be the end of the world if Acres has to go back to VFL to learn some stuff and be more disciplined- he's still pretty young. No one has an automatic right in the team - Ball and Dal Santo learnt the hard way. Blakey will have a chance next week to strut his stuff. I think we are better with him in the team.
Think you meant Dal Santo and Milne, but then again, maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe those two did get dropped together but Ball was definitely dropped by Lyon for not spreading hard enough apparently. I heard he was furious at that as he was thrown into the centre square when still at school and made to tackle trucks as we had s*** rucks and developed osteostis pubis (spelling?) that killed his speed. The grand final last half spent on the pine was the last straw. So we gave Collingwood a very smart guy who could explain to Malthouse exactly what our system was. Well managed Rossy.
saintsRrising wrote:I thought that Port Adelaide was our bogey team that we have had an absolutely shocking record against ?
So in the first half when we played we played our best line-up how did we go against our "bogey" team?
Skills in an early season pre-season game of high standard.
Does anyone actually know of a StKilda game ever when this did occur? Indeed does anyone know of such games for any team?
New game plan. Does this not actually take a little while to sort out, refine and execute?
Or is Richo meant to be some type of genius that can have his players accomplish this in one game?
Speaking of which did we not have a number of new players in the team all trying to gel with their new team-mates?
It was a bit of a blowy night with the roof open too. They may have been trying lots of different things - same as Port - so it is really hard to know what to make of it all. I guess the biggest take away is who they think - right now - is our best 26. ACres not in there is a worry but could be rectified. Steele I thought with his footy injury would be a bit behind. Stevens and Brown straight in which I thought - you don't bring guys like that in just for the VFL. Mckenzie over Webster maybe says a lot. But 2 more games to see the others put their case and more training to come before they lock in.
Acres was I thought disappointing at the intraclub. So no real surprise to me if the coaches are indicating that he needs to do more to get.
On the other hand from what Kingsley stated straight after the game (as I watched the video on the way home from the game on the train) was that the plan was to play a number of younger players like Acres and Sinclair against the Blues. Sinclair by the way in the intraclub was more impressive than Acres.
Now do not get me wrong, Acres was very impressive at season end last year.
However at the end of the day these pre-season games are practice games with the club trying different things. Round 1 the club obviously wanted to get a look at Stevens and Steele as inside mids.
Flying the World in comfort thanks to FF Points....
and despise the Pies, the Blues, and the Injectors.
