Post Mortem

[CQ SAINT]

bulls***. A game we could have easily won. Not blaming King and Battle but if they kicked straighter at crucial times and all those other guys lift and we come home with our tails high.
Gresham, Long, Carlisle and Ryder play and Kent, Geary, Lonie and whoever the f*** Walton is become depth. Walton. I'm guessing you mean Paton? I hope not though.

Long bow mate yeah we had some chances but they were way better . Our most important players didn't fire a shot in the fist half & the game was over . At least we fought it out & that was pleasing it could have got really ugly but we kept trying against the odds which IMO is a very good trait that will hold us in good stead for another tilt next year. Go Sainters I'm a proud supporter tonight even if the result is hard to deal with

I could point out 5 goals we easily should have kicked and 3 or 4 for them which could have gone either way.
We blew it, no doubt, but a full strength Richmond against a full strength St.Kilda is much closer than what the score tonight implied.
A brave effort, stifled by poor execution, but we pressed them for half the game and had more ball in our forward half.
Experience isn't cheap but we invested in quite a bit this year. Clark, Paton, Long, Coffield, King and Battle will be more consistent, stronger and smarter next year and we will go up another level.

[SaintPav]

We are cruising compared to one Melbourne team from what I’m hearing.

Very concerning.

[bangaulegend]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

[bigred]

Lessons from this game.

A bit of depth exposure.

And a pretty good example of what happens when you dont execute.

Stats between us and them are pretty similar.

They kicked em.

We didnt.

[CQ SAINT]

Lessons from this game.

A bit of depth exposure.

And a pretty good example of what happens when you dont execute.

Stats between us and them are pretty similar.

They kicked em.

We didnt.

Exactly.

[bigred]

We are cruising compared to one Melbourne team from what I’m hearing.

Very concerning.

Please explain?

[whiskers3614]

bulls***. A game we could have easily won. Not blaming King and Battle but if they kicked straighter at crucial times and all those other guys lift and we come home with our tails high.
Gresham, Long, Carlisle and Ryder play and Kent, Geary, Lonie and whoever the f*** Walton is become depth. Walton. I'm guessing you mean Paton? I hope not though.

If he doesn't know his Waltons from his Patons perhaps he should resist hitting the Summit button to save credibility.

Not sure we should be encouraging mountaineering!

[fugazi]

Gerard Healy makes the point that we have made a huge step this year, but it is a steeper step to become a powerhouse.

We have to be aggressive for a top midfielder

[bigred]

Ratts said a few things in the presser which give a solid indication.

They absolutely smoked us at clearances which has been our house all year. Goddam.

We didnt execute.

Gresh would have been handy as a forward moving mid.

Need to get harder. Need to be a lot stronger at the contest across the board. Our pressure was just not good enough tonight. Just not hard enough.

Need that extra mid. But need to be cautious on who we bring in as they can impact culture for good or bad.

They know exactly were we are at. Exactly.

I must say I would give Ratten and the whole group a pretty solid score for the year. They implimented a decent gameplan that suited where we are at. King isnt there yet. Close, but no dice. So we still worked out a gameplan around him that worked well for the most part. We saw regular elements of plan B's and even C's when we were really exposed... namely the Geelong game.

We were competitive in pretty much every game bar two. Including tonight.

Depth exposed.

Far too many passengers in losses. Poor execution in front of goal cost us hugely. Just incredibly poor in the losses.

Time to be ruthless. There are a few reasonable name players that will be moved on. This final stamped some papers.

If the right deal is there, or it facilites what we need, then a couple of five year players could be shipped. #6. #15. #13, #25, #5, #29, #17.. Deal with it.

We are definitely missing one or even two mids and really a key defender and another key forward.. Plus more depth across the board. But 2020 makes it hard to judge.

2020 obviously has made it tough to get a look at parts of the list. We need to see Clavarino. We need more games, more time into Bytel, Byrnes, Langlands....

Bell and Alabakis need a feeder comp. They just do. Ryder needs to be groomed as a coach and kept on deck. He was immense in the back half of the year.

We had a good year. If you were a prick you could say it was a failure as it didnt produce a premiership. But compared to the previous six years it was a f****** diamond. There is still a lot of work to do. We cannot let this opportunity slip. We cannot let ourselves go backwards.

Next year will be harder.
Next year will be graded heavier.

[bigcarl]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders - probable elites - for you.

[SuperDuper]

matched them in many ways .. they were kicking them out of their asses early, we were missing easy ones.. things fell their way including a bad call on the goal to Sinclair which was not touched, early injuries to Paton and Battle, the huge loss of Ryder and Carlisle in particular in the context of how the game was played. And yet we should have been right in it, based on play.

So no need to panic. We are not far off. Marsh is clearly not best 22, nor Savage.. Kent should get pushed out next year... Lonie had a shocker

But really, IMO we showed tonight that we are not far away

[bangaulegend]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

[bigcarl]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

You want a couple of gun mids. I just gave you a couple. How big a gun do you want? Dusty? Dangerfield? The two I gave you are future stars of the competition

[Devilhead]

So a collective summary

We were totally smashed in the middle

Many of our players had a bad night and were down

Umpires killed us and missed many frees and 50s as well as an obvious goal

We had Ryder Carlisle Long and Gresham missing from our best 22 and they were close to full strength

Yet somehow we managed to have just as many shots on goal which is a huge positive considering the other damning points

[CQ SAINT]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

As I said earlier, I do believe the next level will come via Clark, Coffield, Paton, Long, Battle and King. All still babies. They were just as important this year in taking us from 14th to 6th as Ryder, Butler, Howard, Jones and to a lesser degree, Hill.
Like Hill, in terms of value for $$$, I'd be having a hard look at Billings worth, I've heard he is on similar money to Hill.
I'd take a first and second round draft pick now if it was on offer for Billings, rather than wait.
I'd keep him too, but not on the money he will demand in his next contract. I don't get the same feeling from Billings as O do the babies above.

[whiskers3614]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

As I said earlier, I do believe the next level will come via Clark, Coffield, Paton, Long, Battle and King. All still babies. They were just as important this year in taking us from 14th to 6th as Ryder, Butler, Howard, Jones and to a lesser degree, Hill.
Like Hill, in terms of value for $$$, I'd be having a hard look at Billings worth, I've heard he is on similar money to Hill.
I'd take a first and second round draft pick now if it was on offer for Billings, rather than wait.
I'd keep him too, but not on the money he will demand in his next contract. I don't get the same feeling from Billings as O do the babies above.

Surely you're not suggesting Hill is worth more?

[Teflon]

After a game in which we got so badly beaten in the centre square, I'd probably look at our centre square setup before running through our small forwards.

Spot on
Mids mids quality mids

[CQ SAINT]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

As I said earlier, I do believe the next level will come via Clark, Coffield, Paton, Long, Battle and King. All still babies. They were just as important this year in taking us from 14th to 6th as Ryder, Butler, Howard, Jones and to a lesser degree, Hill.
Like Hill, in terms of value for $$$, I'd be having a hard look at Billings worth, I've heard he is on similar money to Hill.
I'd take a first and second round draft pick now if it was on offer for Billings, rather than wait.
I'd keep him too, but not on the money he will demand in his next contract. I don't get the same feeling from Billings as O do the babies above.

Surely you're not suggesting Hill is worth more?

What in my post would make you think that?

[Teflon]

Ratts said a few things in the presser which give a solid indication.

They absolutely smoked us at clearances which has been our house all year. Goddam.

We didnt execute.

Gresh would have been handy as a forward moving mid.

Need to get harder. Need to be a lot stronger at the contest across the board. Our pressure was just not good enough tonight. Just not hard enough.

Need that extra mid. But need to be cautious on who we bring in as they can impact culture for good or bad.

They know exactly were we are at. Exactly.

I must say I would give Ratten and the whole group a pretty solid score for the year. They implimented a decent gameplan that suited where we are at. King isnt there yet. Close, but no dice. So we still worked out a gameplan around him that worked well for the most part. We saw regular elements of plan B's and even C's when we were really exposed... namely the Geelong game.

We were competitive in pretty much every game bar two. Including tonight.

Depth exposed.

Far too many passengers in losses. Poor execution in front of goal cost us hugely. Just incredibly poor in the losses.

Time to be ruthless. There are a few reasonable name players that will be moved on. This final stamped some papers.

If the right deal is there, or it facilites what we need, then a couple of five year players could be shipped. #6. #15. #13, #25, #5, #29, #17.. Deal with it.

We are definitely missing one or even two mids and really a key defender and another key forward.. Plus more depth across the board. But 2020 makes it hard to judge.

2020 obviously has made it tough to get a look at parts of the list. We need to see Clavarino. We need more games, more time into Bytel, Byrnes, Langlands....

Bell and Alabakis need a feeder comp. They just do. Ryder needs to be groomed as a coach and kept on deck. He was immense in the back half of the year.

We had a good year. If you were a prick you could say it was a failure as it didnt produce a premiership. But compared to the previous six years it was a f****** diamond. There is still a lot of work to do. We cannot let this opportunity slip. We cannot let ourselves go backwards.

Next year will be harder.
Next year will be graded heavier.

Good post
I was quite impressed with Ratts presser I felt he nailed and you’re right you get the feel he knows exactly where we are at
If we packed a 15 and pick and could dislodge a Taranto......and somehow still nab a Caldwell....hmm...I’ve also read on BF ( cats fan who reckons he knows so who really knows) that we are up to our necks in Treloar as Pies cap space is shot and they’re keen to offload....

[bangaulegend]

bulls***. A game we could have easily won. Not blaming King and Battle but if they kicked straighter at crucial times and all those other guys lift and we come home with our tails high.
Gresham, Long, Carlisle and Ryder play and Kent, Geary, Lonie and whoever the f*** Walton is become depth. Walton. I'm guessing you mean Paton? I hope not though.

Long bow mate yeah we had some chances but they were way better . Our most important players didn't fire a shot in the fist half & the game was over . At least we fought it out & that was pleasing it could have got really ugly but we kept trying against the odds which IMO is a very good trait that will hold us in good stead for another tilt next year. Go Sainters I'm a proud supporter tonight even if the result is hard to deal with

I could point out 5 goals we easily should have kicked and 3 or 4 for them which could have gone either way.
We blew it, no doubt, but a full strength Richmond against a full strength St.Kilda is much closer than what the score tonight implied.
A brave effort, stifled by poor execution, but we pressed them for half the game and had more ball in our forward half.
Experience isn't cheap but we invested in quite a bit this year. Clark, Paton, Long, Coffield, King and Battle will be more consistent, stronger and smarter next year and we will go up another level.

On the same page I reckon Go Sainters

[Devilhead]

Think tonight only once did we kick back to back goals and they weren't in the same quarter - last one of the 3rd and first one of the 4th

At one stage in the 3rd we had 4 more scoring shots than them (10.2 to 5.11) and we did get within 16pts early in the last but the earlier misses were costly and we could never really get scoreboard pressure on them

[Josh Battle]

bulls***. A game we could have easily won. Not blaming King and Battle but if they kicked straighter at crucial times and all those other guys lift and we come home with our tails high.
Gresham, Long, Carlisle and Ryder play and Kent, Geary, Lonie and whoever the f*** Walton is become depth. Walton. I'm guessing you mean Paton? I hope not though.

If he doesn't know his Waltons from his Patons perhaps he should resist hitting the Summit button to save credibility.

Adding Paton to that list, probably after another sip of beer, sort of exposed his fragile state of mind. He will be perfect again tomorrow.

The media commentators and sports journos are concentrating on a love tap on Dougs from Lynch (albeit with his knee), when they should be scrutinising the elbow that Paton copped to his ear hole in the first quarter

Lynch was late in the contest and his arms were no where near the footy. Ben was bleeding badly and the umpires called out 'blood rule'

Very brave of Ben to contest and hold his ground when he knew the pack was fast approaching.

Will the MRO and the sports journos crucify Lynch like he deserves...the dirty prick? When Jezza Cameron cannoned into Harris Andrews he copped 6 weeks didn't he?

[realdeal]

Lonie, Kemp, Paton, Sinclair, Geary - no where near AFL standard. Neither is Marsh, but he's not one the 22.

Our handball is woeful under pressure - the main difference between the two teams. Until and unless that improves, we can't be a threat.

However, I think we all knew that the game was lost one minute before the siren last week.

Zoned out once this dude said Paton.

[StPeter]

Long and Carlisle play I think we win that game.

Kent and Marsh simply not up to it.

The player we missed most was Ryder.
We lost it in the centre clearances from which Richmond scored heavily. This wouldn't have happened with Ryder taking the centre square ball-ups.
Marshall probably broke even in the taps but our midfield was well beaten there.
They have become used to being hand-fed by Ryder which might have at least nullified this dominance.

Poor games by Kent, Lonie and Paton who always worries me when he gets ball in hand.
i thought Savage was effective and covered well for Long and Wilkie well-held Riewoldt which helped cover the loss of Carlisle.

[bangaulegend]

We have decent list crying out for a quality mid just get it done!!! If tonight didn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what else will

Hunter Clark looks a likely prospect. Get him in the middle. Gresham will be back. There's two A-graders for you

No offence but do you really think that will get us to the next level ,sure they will help but IMO anyway unless we can a serious quality mid we will struggle to stay competitive but hey IMO only

You want a couple of gun mids. I just gave you a couple. How big a gun do you want? Dusty? Dangerfield? The two I gave you are future stars of the competition

I never said a couple I'm talking one but it has to be quality . Jones is a goer & so is Ross & Steele is getting there but can you imagine if we had a Josh Kelly type how much better our structure would be . Probably a pipe dream but if you don't go hard when your in the window is opening you can very quickly fade into insignificance pretty bloody quickly so lets strike while the iron is hot. Good coach decent list get some runs on the board while we have the chance