Team v Port

[Sainternist]

Remember James Gwilt playing one of his first (the first?) games in Adelaide and kicking a couple of goals and playing pretty damn well. Brandon White is same height but it seems 14kg lighter. Uncannily he comes from Dandenong which few realise is the most southern province of PNG and both are left footers. Wantok u play for good nau - great career ahead.

Would love it if a darkhorse came trumps on the day to rain on their silly INXS parade.

[ausfatcat]

The way the big fella has been dominating the ruck at Sandy, he is possibly far more deserving to get a game than a few other blokes who have been treading water at AFL level for most of the season. If Longer was injured, I would say pick Jason in a heartbeat.

Last 3 games
7 posi 62 hitouts 1 mark
13 posi 57 hitouts 2 goals
and
10 posi 26 hitouts 1 goal


But Hickey has been keeping out of a few games (development league) or has been injured

[saintbob]

Lonie's selection is exactly what is wrong with this team, the coach obviously plays favourites instead of rewarding the blokes who have the form to warrant getting a game.

[SaintPav]

Stevens is a big out.

[Bernard Shakey]

I am with you Dal. A couple of weeks ago he had 62 hit outs. the next week over 50. He is our best tap ruckman, and possible one of the best in the AFL. I would be playing him.

Did Sandy win either of those games?

[fugazi]

While the ins are good the outs are huge.
Say what you like about our aging pair...that is a tonne of class and experience out.
I reckon we will get rolled badly a third week in a row.

Would love to see a 4 quarter fight and really take the game on...but I'm anticipating the same rabbit in the headlights effort as the last 2 weeks.

How Lonie stays in baffles me....Ive never seen a worse tackler...they basically ignore him.

Come on Saints...surprise us!

[SemperFidelis]

Wingard out. Not unhelpful ...

[WellardSaint]

While the ins are good the outs are huge.
Say what you like about our aging pair...that is a tonne of class and experience out.
I reckon we will get rolled badly a third week in a row.

Would love to see a 4 quarter fight and really take the game on...but I'm anticipating the same rabbit in the headlights effort as the last 2 weeks.

How Lonie stays in baffles me....Ive never seen a worse tackler...they basically ignore him.

Come on Saints...surprise us!

Ideally, Roo out and Skunk in, means no more "kick it to Roo" so they should look for a leading player.

However, I have been worried all year about the ridiculous forward 50 entries. Just bomb it into the square and hope a crumber gets it.
GWS game, it came off, due to luck more than anything.
Port have done their homework and will know how to make us panic. It's not hard for a professional AFL side.
I don't expect us to score more than 9 goals.
Of course the inaccuracy plays a part as well.
9 goals 14 behinds, I reckon.
And that's being generous.

[Moods]

While the ins are good the outs are huge.
Say what you like about our aging pair...that is a tonne of class and experience out.
I reckon we will get rolled badly a third week in a row.

Would love to see a 4 quarter fight and really take the game on...but I'm anticipating the same rabbit in the headlights effort as the last 2 weeks.

How Lonie stays in baffles me....Ive never seen a worse tackler...they basically ignore him.

Come on Saints...surprise us!

Ideally, Roo out and Skunk in, means no more "kick it to Roo" so they should look for a leading player.

However, I have been worried all year about the ridiculous forward 50 entries. Just bomb it into the square and hope a crumber gets it.
GWS game, it came off, due to luck more than anything.
Port have done their homework and will know how to make us panic. It's not hard for a professional AFL side.
I don't expect us to score more than 9 goals.
Of course the inaccuracy plays a part as well.
9 goals 14 behinds, I reckon.
And that's being generous.

That was our score in the 2010 drawn GF!

In the rain it maty well be enough

[Devilhead]

With Roo, Monty, Gilbert and Armo out - the future is now!

[WellardSaint]

With Roo, Monty, Gilbert and Armo out - the future is now!

Gilbo is one of our hardest, most honest workers.
He's worth TWO players when he's near the ball, his 2nd +3rd efforts are amazing.

The downside is, he has a habit of kicking out on the full or missing a target by miles.
With that much experience out, what hope is there?

[saintspremiers]

Forecast for Adelaide looks great.

Rain late arvo/evening - let's hope it arrives early.

Also it will be very windy regardless, also good news

Hopefully it's a massive slugfest - keeps the margin down!

[Yorkeys]

Bookies are impressed, Saints are now @ $6 in a theoretically 2 horse race. If it is wet and windy the price might go out to $10 and there will be much physical hurt in those conditions (do we have an enforcer?). Can't afford to fumble or give a ton of turnovers. Upside - cannot possibly draw two games in Adelaide in 2018 and sooner or later Marshall and Battle will get to play on a dry fast track - hopefully with Paddy. Final word to the boys as they enter the arena, don't panic and remember David beat Goliath - but possibly not on the banks of the Torrens. Go Sainters

[MC Gusto]

6 dollars?!!!?? That is truly a sorry state of affairs and an indictment on where our club is at

Bad loss this weekend and season is in crisis

[jays]

got a feeling we have good crack in this game

[samoht]

The midfield is where the battle lines will be drawn.
Wines, Boak, Ebert and Robbie Gray will be firing on all cylinders - this is a given - our iffy and underwhelming midfield needs to really lift and not get dominated for us to have a chance.

(Hopefully Armo is back in the side next week, fully fit and firing. Our midfield needs a boost).

[spert]

Some horrible performance stats need to do a big turnaround if we want a win. We have the worse conversion rate in the league and are 9% below the AFL average, plus we have never won at the venue and have had a few big losses there. We need a huge team improvement, and the last thing I want to see is a Port player having a huge breakout game- time for a Saints player to have huge breakout game, as we have been lacking some big individual performances from our players this season.

[bigred]

How the flower does Lonie keep getting games?

[freely]

I like "flower" a lot!

Is he important structurally somehow? Is the theory that he'll somehow worry the opposition into submission? I'm baffled too.

[Yorkeys]

Emergencies are Hickey, Long & McKenzie so coaches selectors rank him above those. Long and DMc didn't set the world on fire so perhaps JL is a symptom of a severe lack of depth, which speaks to recruitment.

[bigred]

Perhaps if they had anywhere near the game time that Lonie has, we may be able to see...

It just irks me. Lonie can do some good things, but he just gets manhandled far too often and it limits his input.

[Sainter_Dad]

Perhaps if they had anywhere near the game time that Lonie has, we may be able to see...

It just irks me. Lonie can do some good things, but he just gets manhandled far too often and it limits his input.

But he is a Jack remember!

[WellardSaint]

Some horrible performance stats need to do a big turnaround if we want a win. We have the worse conversion rate in the league and are 9% below the AFL average, plus we have never won at the venue and have had a few big losses there. We need a huge team improvement, and the last thing I want to see is a Port player having a huge breakout game- time for a Saints player to have huge breakout game, as we have been lacking some big individual performances from our players this season.

There is a huge chance that the Saints will run Port into form.
Our so-called game style lets oppo get on a roll.
Callum SInclair getting 5 goals- no other team would let him do that, not even the woeful Lions.
Look at our losses.
We get 2 goals down, the boys forget to chase and the oppo has 8-9 free men running forward of the ball, with nary a Saint in sight.
They get a point, Robbo kicks out, it comes back with interest as a goal. Our kick-ins are atrocious and we cannot send it forward. Ever.

[Wrote for Luck]

Port haven't beaten anyone decent since the first game of the season (Sydney), all other wins have been ordinary teams other than the Tigers who have also beaten them (in Adelaide).

We are fifth in the comp for disposals and Port are twelfth, but Port are number one for inside fifties and we are eleventh. We spend alot of time effing with the ball from our backline down the wing, if we do this, and Port can set up against us, their efficiency will kill us along with contested might.

In terms of marks inside fifty Port are third and we are fifth. If we get the ball in there more than our average we should be able to mark and convert better (if kicking accurately enough), as the gap between marks inside fifty is insignificant, however the number of inside fifties is. So we've got to get it in there.

Port are number two in clearances so we need to watch we don't get monstered here. They're comfortably ahead of us in contested possessions (third plays tenth) and they kick the ball much more than us (fourth plays tenth).

So they're a lot more direct but we're superior on inside fifty marking. If we can match up in the contest, and don't overuse it, we will be in the game. We have to pepper the goals and get them on the back foot as much as possible. If we try and slow things and control it, I reckon we'll lose horribly like in recent games. I'm calling to hit seven scoring shots a quarter. That's my game day target.

Any other game day targets?

[spert]

Could be good chance to try the strong marking Carlise in the forward line this game and Bruce down back- he is not doing enough as a forward right now.