Team v Dogs

[fugazi]

Patience with Luke's foot skills may have run out.

This may well be it.
Has good assets, but ultimately we need players to be able to spot up a forward regularly.
Very good depth player.

[skeptic]

Some ballsy selections finally. I'd still prefer Battle in over Ryder but overall I'm pretty happy with the team. It's a much more skilful side than we're used to.

I'm expecting to see Clark move into the middle with Dunstan out. Geary, Paton, Coffield and Long is plenty of small defenders.

Agreed.

Pbly Marsh for Butler is the change I’d make... am keen to get a look at Butler as my recollection of his first game was that it was fairly poor and overall, would prefer to see a number of others ahead of him

[bullmarket]

i noticed blake acres didn't get picked for freo. not on the injury list. hmm.

injured at training in the says leading up to this match

[spert]

Patience with Luke's foot skills may have run out.

This may well be it.
Has good assets, but ultimately we need players to be able to spot up a forward regularly.
Very good depth player.

The midfield lost it for us in the North game. Cunnington looked like the speedster that he is not thanks to lack of pressure from our mids. Someone had to get the chop at the selection table.

[mightysainters]

Changes are good, Dubstan foot skills are a liability... would still prefer Dubstan and Battle in though.
Went two Rickman to expose Bruce as second ruck because we all know he's deplorable rucking

[ace]

Changes are good, Dubstan foot skills are a liability... would still prefer Dubstan and Battle in though.
Went two Rickman to expose Bruce as second ruck because we all know he's deplorable rucking

When you touch type you need to look at the screen just in case you hit the wrong key.

[To the top]

The outcome of today’s game is a lottery - so fingers crossed

Past that a couple of observations

From today’s printed media “Giants brace for rugged Roos clash”

So, particularly with injury to Gresham and Long who are line breakers, did NM get us on the inside and being “rugged” which is where they get us?

The Dunstan, Ross, Steele conundrum was 13 goals from 60 games last season - I would look for between 30 and outperformance at 40

Marshall to me is just too good a footballer to ruck. My view is that he has the skills to dominate as a forward in today’s game

So I am happy with the selection of Ryder and Marshall as a forward

[shanegrambeau]

Seems like a complete raffle, but with odds are clearly with the Dogs. Nathan Brown (the other one) says St Kilda have nobody who can cause damage the Dogs except Hill. Wow. St Kilda paying 2.47 on Sports Bet.

[saintspremiers]

I really like the team and am really pleased Coffield gets a crack. Like a few on here I was a fan of his run of 3-4 games leading up to his injury..he seemed to settle with the pace of the game and showed he could be a really neat and effective player

As others have mentioned prob the only disappointing element is battle not getting a crack but he’ll get plenty of opportunities this year I’d think so it’s no biggie

The legendary Tonestar said we trained badly on Friday. So maybe some selections were based on that.

Given round 2 is a practice match round for points, it’s a very different proposition to a normal H&A fixture.

[bigcarl]

Marshall to me is just too good a footballer to ruck. My view is that he has the skills to dominate as a forward in today’s game So I am happy with the selection of Ryder and Marshall as a forward

You may be right. Wish we could clone him.

[Sainter_Dad]

Marshall to me is just too good a footballer to ruck. My view is that he has the skills to dominate as a forward in today’s game So I am happy with the selection of Ryder and Marshall as a forward

You may be right. Wish we could clone him.

22 Marshalls - My tiny brain cannot handle the magnitude of the awesomeness!

[stevie]

Lol my wife just heard on the radio that a Bulldogs player may have been exposed so the game today was off I said s*** the Saints are playing them

I saw nothing on here then checked the nrl site Ah ok lol

[saynta]

NRL Bulldogs, maybe.

[The Fireman]

The Poos just did a hatchet job on GWS..feel a bit better now

[Spinner]

Some ballsy selections finally. I'd still prefer Battle in over Ryder but overall I'm pretty happy with the team. It's a much more skilful side than we're used to.

I'm expecting to see Clark move into the middle with Dunstan out. Geary, Paton, Coffield and Long is plenty of small defenders.

Agreed.

Pbly Marsh for Butler is the change I’d make... am keen to get a look at Butler as my recollection of his first game was that it was fairly poor and overall, would prefer to see a number of others ahead of him

Butler an automatic in based on his form over pre season.

Showing it today too.

[Saintmatt]

Patience with Luke's foot skills may have run out.

This may well be it.
Has good assets, but ultimately we need players to be able to spot up a forward regularly.
Very good depth player.

I thought of this excellent post last night when having a look at the replay. At one point in the 3rd q - our disposal efficiency by foot was 73%. That's beyond elite - and it needed to be. Had we given the Dogs a sniff with our usual poor field kicking so endlessly tolerated during the lost Cho years and our usual poor goalkicking - we would've been in real strife.

Ratten made a big deal after the Swines game last year that finishing off your work was a non-negotiable. I must say, I doubted this when Dunstan, Geary and Ross were selected in R1 (I think even their most ardent supporters would admit they're questionable by foot) and in the space of 3 months we've found a way to deal with it - (1) get rid of Luke's opportunity to slaughter it by foot at all by dropping him - hopefully for good; (2) Have Gears play a very important lockdown role on the oppo's best rebounder (I hope he puts a blanket over Jeremy Howe this Saturday) where his iffy kicking behind the ball can't kill us; and (3) Have Seb play less of an accumulation/distribution role and more of Jack Steele's lockdown role.

Steele is a better kick and shows that he's got the skills to push forward and play as a big-bodied mid resting forward.

[Saintmatt]

B Jarryn Geary - Dougal Howard - Callum Wilkie
HB Ben Long - Jake Carlisle - Hunter Clark
C Bradley Hill - Zak Jones - Dan Hannebery
HF Jack Lonie - Max King - Jack Billings
F Tim Membrey - Rowan Marshall - Jade Gresham
R Paddy Ryder - Jack Steele - Sebastian Ross
INT Josh Battle - Jonathon Marsh - Nicholas Hind - Dan Butler
Dean Kent - Luke Dunstan - Nick Coffield

Int = Battle, Marsh, Hind and Coffield and I’ll take it.

The question for me is with shorter quarters, Battle as a make shift ruck and Dunstan as an extra mid is a better fit

I love Battle - he's going to be a serious player - probably as a wingman in the end. I've been watching him since he was in Yr 11 at Hailebury and I can tell you that his vertical leap is not great hence, they've picked Marsh. Marsh can play key forward / back and can play 2nd ruck. I can't see them selecting Ryder - the consensus seems to be that shorter quarters won't suit that strategy (too easy to defend a resting ruckman and easily exploited by a smaller defender running off)

Very interesting Saintmatt. So you would have watched a lot of Clavarino. I was hoping to get a glimpse of him this year but with the discovery of Wilkie, the return of Roberton and recruitment of Howard, that seems unlikely.

Are you as bullish about Clavarino as Battle?

G'day GL. Mmmm - not selecting Ryder and I'm glad I got that wrong. I thought for sure they'd play RoMa only as the Dogs are a fast good kicking team with great leg speed and an undersized defence. I'm glad they played Ryder - watching him slot Gresh down the throat at will was a thing of beauty. English has been taught a severe lesson by Grundy and Ryder in the past two rounds.

Back to your question. Yes - I have seen a lot of Oscar C. He's a very clever player and a solid citizen however, being a tall skinny athletic defender at TAC/school level doesn't necessarily translate to being an AFL standard backman. Especially when it appears that he's a classic ectomorph (skinny, struggles to put on size). I thought he might be a chance to replace N Brown however, we then paid quite a bit to get Logan Austin and in light of the small fortune we paid to get Dougal Howard (who I think will become a serious footballer given a little time). The way I see it - he's not dominated at Sandy (serviceable but not dominated) and is probably behind Carlisle, Howard, Austin and Brown in his position.