Fantastic...but...

[freely]

...
Jack Steele was surprisingly below his best....

I didn't spot him much either although when I did he was always hard at work! And then I didn't notice much of a contribution from the bont either. Did they play on each other? Did they cancel one another out?

[fugazi]

Ross mostly on Bont
Steele had Libber on him

[shanegrambeau]

........team will learn a lot.......

......should have been aware.....Dogs......throw the proverbial kitchen sink.......

.....next week "anything is possible"....

What can they learn? Not being clever or being an A hole ...but seriously, what can they learn that they didn’t already know, and that our opposition next week and hopefully beyond cannot also see....and replenish their confidence knowing how vulnerable we are.

OK..I step down from my soap box.....perhaps the selectors can learn something. i.e. Kent finished on the bottom of stats again, so let’s pick him yet again!

Sorry, I digress, when we get that kitchen sink manic attack thrown at us by players of higher average skill, what can we do? Seriously? Tell me one thing we can do? If you say, keep attacking, what do you mean? The tempo control thing has been vital ....perhaps it’s the short quarters? ....this year.

I’m sorry but I don’t know what you can do in that situation. Are you saying, in cricket parlance, ‘Just start throwing the bat?’ ...weve seen many lost games over years and blamed the team for not playing a controlling the ball, playing percentages, fisting instead of trying to mark opposition thrusts. We’ve all seen the coach in the presser lamenting it.

But anyway, next week, if by a miracle...and it IS possible, even without Mr Carlisle and Mr Ryder, we are in that position, and Hardwick and co have pulled out their biggest Panzer battalion at the last, I can only suggest we would try to play percentage footy and leave the adventure book for the kids.

I don’t know what I am being bitchy here. I am, so happy we got through But it is a different happy to last week. Last week was blissful joy. This week is concerned hunger, like something nasty has just happened and more nastiness awaits around the bend.

[shadrock]

Tell you what though, its better to learn that lesson after a win than a loss. Imagine if we lost and had to sit with this for a whole year. The lesson now will be heard loud and clear, we cannot try and choke a game out to win. Need to attack the whole way to the final siren. Mark and play on every time, none of this mark and slow it down then kick long up the line rubbish. Play as if you are the team down 4 goals.

[shanegrambeau]

Tell you what though, its better to learn that lesson after a win than a loss. Imagine if we lost and had to sit with this for a whole year. The lesson now will be heard loud and clear, we cannot try and choke a game out to win. Need to attack the whole way to the final siren. Mark and play on every time, none of this mark and slow it down then kick long up the line rubbish. Play as if you are the team down 4 goals.

That “rubbish” you speak of has been instrumental in helping teams control games this year. Agree?

[shadrock]

Tell you what though, its better to learn that lesson after a win than a loss. Imagine if we lost and had to sit with this for a whole year. The lesson now will be heard loud and clear, we cannot try and choke a game out to win. Need to attack the whole way to the final siren. Mark and play on every time, none of this mark and slow it down then kick long up the line rubbish. Play as if you are the team down 4 goals.

That “rubbish” you speak of has been instrumental in helping teams control games this year. Agree?

Not at all. I 100% disagree. The whole concept of being up by a short margin, taking a mark and then thinking we need to slow it down is the opposite of what should happen. Slowing it down usually leads to a long boof up the line to a heavy pack and when the opposition has everyone pushed up its almost impossible to break through. Its a panic response and slowing it down FEELS like the right thing to do, as it kills time, but in reality all it does is kill like 10 seconds and then give the ball back to the opposition. Got to take the game on, play fast, break tackles, play on where possible. I dont think thats too controversial of an opinion tbh.

[skeptic]

It’s a tricky approach because it relies on not making errors and that’s just not something we in particular can maintain.

The reality is that we were up some 26 points at 3/4 and by slowing the play down we were still up by close to 4 goals with 7min to go...
Great effort

5 min later we up by three points and certain to be overrun the longer the game went

That’s the problem

[takeaway]

...
Jack Steele was surprisingly below his best....

I didn't spot him much either although when I did he was always hard at work! And then I didn't notice much of a contribution from the bont either. Did they play on each other? Did they cancel one another out?

Ross was mainly on Bont from what I could see, and Bont got possessions but not a big impact. I think Libba was tagging Steele, and kept him reasonably quiet.

Holding on by 3pt was probably better for the team than winning by the 24 pt margin - they must pay more now attention as to how that occurred, one thing as Ratts said was poorly directed kicks into the corridor. Good experience for a young team, not many who have played a final. Momentum swings have been very common this year, finals no exception, Rich vs Bris, WCE late surge vs Pies.

[saynta]

...
Jack Steele was surprisingly below his best....

I didn't spot him much either although when I did he was always hard at work! And then I didn't notice much of a contribution from the bont either. Did they play on each other? Did they cancel one another out?

Ross was mainly on Bont from what I could see, and Bont got possessions but not a big impact. I think Libba was tagging Steele, and kept him reasonably quiet.

Holding on by 3pt was probably better for the team than winning by the 24 pt margin - they must pay more now attention as to how that occurred, one thing as Ratts said was poorly directed kicks into the corridor. Good experience for a young team, not many who have played a final. Momentum swings have been very common this year, finals no exception, Rich vs Bris, WCE late surge vs Pies.

Bont not named in Bullies best but the neither was Ross and maybe he should have been..

[older saint]

Played to retain the lead early in the 4tha nd lost momentum to take the game on. all we needed was 2 goals for the qtr ( in the end 1) and we would have been right.
Will learn from this and having blown 2 leads this year like that to hold on and win was great experience.

[freely]

Thrilled with where we are but on the subject of "but"s - was I the only one who thought the intensity of our final was way way down on the intensity of the other three? Apart from what was going on inside our heads, it looked like a home and away game to me pressure-wise. Think of Dangerfield crashing head first into whichever player it was and splitting his noggin open. Or the Collingwood heroics.Is there a danger that our young guys will get lulled into thinking they've tasted finals pressure and it's nothing to worry about? And/or would that be a good thing?

[Vortex]

Thrilled with where we are but on the subject of "but"s - was I the only one who thought the intensity of our final was way way down on the intensity of the other three? Apart from what was going on inside our heads, it looked like a home and away game to me pressure-wise. Think of Dangerfield crashing head first into whichever player it was and splitting his noggin open. Or the Collingwood heroics.Is there a danger that our young guys will get lulled into thinking they've tasted finals pressure and it's nothing to worry about? And/or would that be a good thing?

Biggest test of the year coming up for us to find the answer to your question. Last year's premiers who are battle hardened.

We were expected to beat the Dogs. If we can jag a win this week then it will be very unexpected.

[shadrock]

Thrilled with where we are but on the subject of "but"s - was I the only one who thought the intensity of our final was way way down on the intensity of the other three? Apart from what was going on inside our heads, it looked like a home and away game to me pressure-wise. Think of Dangerfield crashing head first into whichever player it was and splitting his noggin open. Or the Collingwood heroics.Is there a danger that our young guys will get lulled into thinking they've tasted finals pressure and it's nothing to worry about? And/or would that be a good thing?

Yes i think it was a level down compared to the other games, but i also think thats a style thing given the saints and the dogs are offensive minded first and foremost. I think we will look different vs different teams.

[saynta]

Thrilled with where we are but on the subject of "but"s - was I the only one who thought the intensity of our final was way way down on the intensity of the other three? Apart from what was going on inside our heads, it looked like a home and away game to me pressure-wise. Think of Dangerfield crashing head first into whichever player it was and splitting his noggin open. Or the Collingwood heroics.Is there a danger that our young guys will get lulled into thinking they've tasted finals pressure and it's nothing to worry about? And/or would that be a good thing?

Biggest test of the year coming up for us to find the answer to your question. Last year's premiers who are battle hardened.

We were expected to beat the Dogs. If we can jag a win this week then it will be very unexpected.

By whom. All underdogs won.

[Jacks Back]

Thrilled with where we are but on the subject of "but"s - was I the only one who thought the intensity of our final was way way down on the intensity of the other three? Apart from what was going on inside our heads, it looked like a home and away game to me pressure-wise. Think of Dangerfield crashing head first into whichever player it was and splitting his noggin open. Or the Collingwood heroics.Is there a danger that our young guys will get lulled into thinking they've tasted finals pressure and it's nothing to worry about? And/or would that be a good thing?

Biggest test of the year coming up for us to find the answer to your question. Last year's premiers who are battle hardened.

We were expected to beat the Dogs. If we can jag a win this week then it will be very unexpected.

I'm glad we won but we were a big underdog and will be an even bigger one this week and all the way through (if we keep on keeping on).