Post Mortem

[Rickabee]

Has anybody heard why Battle was off the ground for 30+ minutes?? - Another contributing factor as he had been taking some intercept marks and added to out offence after he returned after half-time??
Was the cause due to the foot injury he was recovering from or something else?
Maybe this was a factor in the goal he should have kicked?

[bangaulegend]

I'm not sure but if it's been established you have a hotspot on your foot usually means there is a small crack or bone damage of some sort. I'm not a doctor or claim to know what Josh's issue is but its pretty hard to get over a injury like that in a couple of weeks.

[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

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

You can always find a spot for another good midfielder, sure, but let's not discount what we have already.

Ryder, Marshall, Steele are guns. Clark and Gresham will be guns if they are not already. Hannebery, has been a gun and could be again if he gets a decent run with injury. Jones and Ross goers. Sinclair improving.

It's not all that bad when you consider that three of what I regard as our best starting midfield (Ryder, Clark and Gresham) were either absent or didn't play midfield last night.

[CQ SAINT]

I'm not sure but if it's been established you have a hotspot on your foot usually means there is a small crack or bone damage of some sort. I'm not a doctor or claim to know what Josh's issue is but its pretty hard to get over a injury like that in a couple of weeks.

I'm reading that a hotspot is a friction wound, like a bunion.

[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

You can always find a spot for another good midfielder, sure, but let's not discount what we have already.

Ryder, Marshall, Steele are guns. Clark and Gresham will be guns if they are not already. Hannebery, has been a gun and could be again if he gets a decent run with injury. Jones and Ross goers. Sinclair improving.

It's not all that bad when you consider that three of what I regard as our best starting midfield (Ryder, Clark and Gresham) were either absent or didn't play midfield last night.

I don't disagree we have emerging talent Sinclair is improving Clark will be a gun (IMO) Gresham good player but Jury still out ,Hannebery ordinary tonight & injury prone ,Ryder a massive out he has been amazing this year ,Steele next captain ,Marshall champion in the making , Im not saying it's all doom & gloom we have a promising list but we also have some short comings . To get to be genuine contenders we need to be looking at what's available who's tradeable & most important get players that will give us the chance to the next level

[bangaulegend]

I'm not sure but if it's been established you have a hotspot on your foot usually means there is a small crack or bone damage of some sort. I'm not a doctor or claim to know what Josh's issue is but its pretty hard to get over a injury like that in a couple of weeks.

I'm reading that a hotspot is a friction wound, like a bunion.

Maybe as I said I'm not a doctor

[The OtherThommo]

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.

You're much closer to right, than then rest, CQ - the tale was in the scoring opportunities taken by them (incl absolute Hail Marys), and butchered by us.

As for the pot shot at Ben Paton - tripe. The kid's taken giant strides this year and, if not for a cheap shot by that dog Lynch - when Paton stood in front of a pack again, with his head up, and eyes on the pill, we would have been less likely to bleed a couple of goals shortly after.

[I love the saints!]

Lynch is a dog. And we were dogged by the umps.

[freely]

Would've liked Luke Dunstan out there tonight.

Absolutely. Huge selection mistake thinking we could replace Paddy's centre clearance work by bringing in marsh. Love Marshall but can't believe he was in the votes yesterday. His rucking was woeful and he was as slow as a wet week.

[spert]

My take on the game- lack of effort by too many. Richmond got so many easy goals through our lack of intensity and lack of defensive pressure from our midfield. Marshall needs help in the ruck to play his kind of game- didn't we have a ruckman in emergencies- Abbott?

We were robbed with that goal review, but that's where I stop with the umpires- we lost the game though dumb footy and too many passengers, plus playing Battle who they knew had a suss foot.

Some players will need to be moved on if they can't produce in finals where it counts.

[minneapolis]

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

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.

I agree with those numbers - even Billings if it is in our favor.

I believe the admin at our club are going for a flag and will do what it takes. No more mediocrity.

Step 1 was last years trading. We now need Step 2.

[minneapolis]

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

Good post.

We lost a final but I am still feeling positive (post a cooling off period after watching the game).

We were closer than we have been for 10 years and Ratts has built a base.

Richmond played really well and we fumbled nearly all night. That can be improved.

So I suppose that Cadwell will announce his intentions tomorrow?

[SaintDippa]

Post Mortem.
-Can't beat the top sides with slow ball movement and long bombs inside 50. How much better did we look after half time. If only we attacked for all Q's.
-got smashed in the 'dirty 1 percenters'. Saints free. Just tackle who ever has the footy on lie on top of him for 10 seconds stopping ball return allowing teammates to flood back. Idiot umps should be paying 50 and stop this crap.
-delist Walton. Did nothing.
-need to really understand the blocking rule. Top sides are stopping forwards running to F50 marking contests. We need to find out what defenders can get away with and push that envelope
-man up Dusty at centre bounces. Just man him up FFS.
-if your any where near the footy after conceeding a goal run around indicating 'touched'
-opposition free or mark 30 out then flame a fight hoping for a reversal

Disappointing, but as in other threads, defensively we look set up, need more skill with speed thru the middle and I'm starting to like the idea of Ben Brown if brother King is 3 years away.

[perfectionist]

...Paton stood in front of a pack again, with his head up, and eyes on the pill...

He did, but he is not big enough nor strong enough. The size of backline players has grown exponentially over the years. The classic example is Dylan Grimes. He is the same height as Nick R, yet plays on "smalls" across the back. Ben is 186 cm tall, slight and without much physical strength, for which bravery is no substitute. Both Nick Coffield and Hunter Clarke are also slight and need to get stronger, although Hunter is likely to slide into more of an on ball role.

Last year at this time, more than half the team looked like, and played like, duds. No so now. As others have noted, despite the loss of Paddy to generate drive from the stoppages, we still matched them except for forward entries, on which they capitalised miraculously until it was all over. Our game plan is good, our execution, especially handball, was poor. I didn't see any lack of commitment around the ball. I did see a lack of strength.

Our recruiting this year was as good as one could have imagined, given the picks that we had - in fact - in terms of results - as good as say 1963 or 2001 - reason enough to be positive.

[Teflon]

Agree re strength around the ball

[ace]

Mortem didn't play at all well.
Come to think of it I didn't see him touch the ball once.
Drop him from the squad and move on.

[Trev from the Bush]

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!

Predictive text is so helpful, is it not? Perhaps that should be is it? Not!

[silverhalo]

I'm now convinced that Marsh is not AFL standard - need to let him go

[shanegrambeau]

1) We needed Roberton or a taller player down back
2) Poor Paton - thuggery from elbows Lynch
3) We didn’t need Battle off the field for half an hour.
4) Carlisle should have followed Gearys lead and get his misses up for the baby.
5) We were outclassed and bullied - no more nice guy AFL. Gloves off in finals
6) We put too match faith in Howard
7) We couldn’t execute under pressure. Gears dropping easy marks, easy misses etc.
8) AFL narrative expected us to lose, brushed off Richmonds indiscretions and goal umpire mistake.
9) Why did we win the tap often and a Black and Yellow collected it so often?
10) We haven’t been very convincing for the last two months tbh. But tried.

[Yorkeys]

Hang on, I feel a pulse, stop the post mortem; the patient will be fine. Common mistake confusing a set back with finality. New test of health will be if Seb Ross is still a first choice midfielder next season or has a different role. If he is then patient still has recovering to do.

[bigred]

I've heard that Battle broke his foot in the second quarter....

[Josh Battle]

Perhaps that’s a lesson for our defensive line coach to ensure that when Dougs is up against a tall forward (if Carlisle isn’t playing or another tall defender isn’t floating around ) that we have to have someone supporting him as third man up in a 2-1 contest. Especially when Dougs is up against someone who has as much talent as Lynch.

Howard knew he was in for a tough night with Carlilse missing. The pressure got to him. It’s a lesson hard learned and he’ll improve as he gains more experience. Lynch has played 173 games and Dougs has only played 64

[perfectionist]

...9) Why did we win the tap often and a Black and Yellow collected it so often?
...

Two reasons:
The tap wasn't silver service like last week and second, we got it but handballed directly to Richmond who go the breakaway and three goals on my count.

[shanegrambeau]

...9) Why did we win the tap often and a Black and Yellow collected it so often?
...

Two reasons:
The tap wasn't silver service like last week and second, we got it but handballed directly to Richmond who go the breakaway and three goals on my count.

Did you see when Hunter got the collect, tried to switch sides (not being two-sided), was stripped of the ball, and Richmond stole it, foe a successful f50 entry.

Death by a thousand cuts stuff.

We need a two sided inside mid!!

[The Barometer]

...9) Why did we win the tap often and a Black and Yellow collected it so often?
...

Two reasons:
The tap wasn't silver service like last week and second, we got it but handballed directly to Richmond who go the breakaway and three goals on my count.

Ross is the master of the defensive side handball, Richmond run straight into it.