Game vs Melbourne

[Impatient Sainter]

It didnt look pretty and there were some significant holes, but lets remember Lyon and his crew are trying to retrain a group that has been disorganised for years.

Our biggest issue for me was our rucking and then lack of midfield mobility. Everything the Dees mids did they did with power our mids were flat footed and slow to move. The other thing that stood out was contested marking as a group we simply arent well drilled and are easily moved under the ball.

Ots still February so hopefully the entire club learns a lot from today and our coaches can implement the changes quickly.

[Saintmatt]

Where's the coverage gone??? Still had 50mins to go

Mercy rule

[cwrcyn]

Well.....reality slapped the players and the coaches in the face, and that's a good thing. Melbourne are equally the best team in the land and are a class above us. They showed up the deficiencies that have plagued us for a decade.

Mediocre, slow midfield.
Lack of cohesion
Lack of run
Poor decision making

Our coaches can fix the last three, but the first is going to be a problem for a while yet, with no fast, quality young midfielders on our list.

[Otiman]

Our biggest issue for me was our rucking and then lack of midfield mobility.

It's all about context, we had a 0 gamer against two of the best rucks ever to play the game. Ro held his own, and Moose wasnt pantsed. That's a win for me.

Mid cohesion is an opportunity, but will come with time. Melbourne has a midfield group that hasn't changed in 3 years.

[SaintPav]

Agree, it’s all about context and the context is that we are shite.

[Saintmike65]

Our biggest issue for me was our rucking and then lack of midfield mobility.

It's all about context, we had a 0 gamer against two of the best rucks ever to play the game. Ro held his own, and Moose wasnt pantsed. That's a win for me.

Mid cohesion is an opportunity, but will come with time. Melbourne has a midfield group that hasn't changed in 3 years.

Marshall tried hard but Gawn owned him most of the game..monstered him at centre bounces in particular, creating easy clearances and putting our defensive unit under the pump.

[Saintmike65]

It didnt look pretty and there were some significant holes, but lets remember Lyon and his crew are trying to retrain a group that has been disorganised for years.

Our biggest issue for me was our rucking and then lack of midfield mobility. Everything the Dees mids did they did with power our mids were flat footed and slow to move. The other thing that stood out was contested marking as a group we simply arent well drilled and are easily moved under the ball.

Ots still February so hopefully the entire club learns a lot from today and our coaches can implement the changes quickly.

We had 2 players only that could hold there head up high yesterday, Sinclair and Wilkie.
Cameo from Phillipou but that was it…we’re a mile off at this point.
My concerns about footskills & goal kicking accuracy were on show, on top of that, an overuse of handball!

[cwrcyn]

Complete lack of cohesion. To be all at sea for most of that game after a summer of working through strategies, working on skills.... The mind boggles.

We have very few proactive players. Most are reactive, and I would put half of our midfield in that category, which is a huge problem.

Boldness, confidence, and self belief is lacking in our playing group, and when that is an issue with players over the age of 25 it ultimately manifests in.a lack of leadership.

So much work to do.

Thank goodness we've recruited some youngsters with potential in tha past two years

[cwrcyn]

I'm not saying it's a write-off, though

Ross and his coaching panel will assess the players this week and next and will have to come up with the best combination they can for the first few rounds.

I have no expectations for 2023. To me this year is about finding out which of our young players are up to the task, and hopefully most will get a taste of senior football

We have no superstars among our senior core and it's a group that will not have the tools to take us to the top without an influx of talented, eager youngsters that shine early

[Viscount Jeremiah]

Why did we play Howard and Cordy as the forwards in the 1st team?

Clearly, Sharman and the new guy looked significantly better up there.

really hope our round one plans don't revolve around Howard and Cordy as our forwards.

[Impatient Sainter]

Well.....reality slapped the players and the coaches in the face, and that's a good thing. Melbourne are equally the best team in the land and are a class above us. They showed up the deficiencies that have plagued us for a decade.

Mediocre, slow midfield.
Lack of cohesion
Lack of run
Poor decision making

Our coaches can fix the last three, but the first is going to be a problem for a while yet, with no fast, quality young midfielders on our list.

I totally agree. Marshall got owned by Gawn which allowed their mids to get going, but even when Marshall evened the contest, our mids were far too static. You dont have to be quick to move 5 or 10 metres to the fall of the ball, but you need to attack the ball with purpose.

Our forward line will struggle until we get Membrey, King & Hayes back and in form. Seb Ross, Jack Billings, Nick Coffield, Dan McKenzie & Zak Jones will improve our side also when they return.

Clark looked like a park footballer playing against professionals. People defend him, but there is no way he is fit for purpose. Its his first real game in a while, but on yesterdays form he is not in our best 25.

Lyon has to trust the kids and move Windhager, Bytel, Owens and Byrnes into the midfield and really put the acid on blokes like Crouch and even our captain for their clearance work.

[The G Train Legacy]

I won’t sugar coat this…we’ve got massive issues…we were completely thrashed and Melbourne barely got out of 3rd gear!
Our footskills are below AFL standard, broken tackles, an inability to get the ball out of our defensive 50 with purpose, pedestrian midfield, Oliver and Petracca did what they pleased.
Even on the rare occasions we looked competitive, Howard, Wood & Phillipou missed relatively easy shots.

Massive issues? I didn't see that.
True Melbourne barely got out of third gear. Neither did we. We also had a fair few players out, King, Membrey, Jones, DMac and Hayes. Billings played in the reserves part of the match because he was returning from injury. We had to play with no tall forwards. Melbourne, with the exception of Fritsch, were at full strength.
We were actually competitive for most of the game, outside the second period and late fourth. If all you can say about Phillipou's game is that he missed easy shots, then your negative perception is understandable.

[spert]

We looked fitter, faster and more together as a team in last year's preseason to be honest, and I thought we would win our fair share of games, which we did with a few bad efforts along the way. The biggest thing I took out of yesterday was the lack of cohesion as a team, regardless of the opposition. RL may have a bigger mountain climb than he thought.

[Impatient Sainter]

We looked fitter, faster and more together as a team in last year's preseason to be honest, and I thought we would win our fair share of games, which we did with a few bad efforts along the way. The biggest thing I took out of yesterday was the lack of cohesion as a team, regardless of the opposition. RL may have a bigger mountain climb than he thought.

Remember RTB and his coaches are trying to re-program the group from the stoggy 2000's style Ratten had us playing. It will take time to bed in the new style and for players to do and move in sync.

[Saintmike65]

I won’t sugar coat this…we’ve got massive issues…we were completely thrashed and Melbourne barely got out of 3rd gear!
Our footskills are below AFL standard, broken tackles, an inability to get the ball out of our defensive 50 with purpose, pedestrian midfield, Oliver and Petracca did what they pleased.
Even on the rare occasions we looked competitive, Howard, Wood & Phillipou missed relatively easy shots.

Massive issues? I didn't see that.
True Melbourne barely got out of third gear. Neither did we. We also had a fair few players out, King, Membrey, Jones, DMac and Hayes. Billings played in the reserves part of the match because he was returning from injury. We had to play with no tall forwards. Melbourne, with the exception of Fritsch, were at full strength.
We were actually competitive for most of the game, outside the second period and late fourth. If all you can say about Phillipou's game is that he missed easy shots, then your negative perception is understandable.

Phillipou took a few lovely marks & showed flashes of the player he’ll no doubt become.
If you saw positives that’s fine but I wrote my post as I saw it end of story!!

[Templar]

We had 2 players only that could hold there head up high yesterday, Sinclair and Wilkie.

I thought Byrnes showed a bit.

[Vortex]

We had 2 players only that could hold there head up high yesterday, Sinclair and Wilkie.

I thought Byrnes showed a bit.

except when he was disposing by foot?

[saynta]

We had 2 players only that could hold there head up high yesterday, Sinclair and Wilkie.

I thought Byrnes showed a bit.

except when he was disposing by foot?

Well, he won't be delisted

[The Fireman]

I liked what I saw despite poor defensive play and goal kicking.(that can be fixed) and we had a few missing.. I reckon we'll make the 8.

[Teflon]

Lol Melbourne came to play - THIS was the game they pencilled in as their prime serious hit out before Rd 1
They’ve already said next week they’ll rest players??
Saints rotated players on set times
Played key defenders in forward roles (“practice match??”)
And as mentioned previously missed a lot
Look at the kids and see if you saw anything that excites - you will need to do that a lot this year…
Phillipou - tick
NWM - tick
Caminini (?) - tick
Windy on Brayshaw - tick
We may struggle to kick scores early this year but I also think you’ll see us defensively tighten up considerably…
In a praccy game don’t think that was the entire purpose
I do think you’ll see a few turned over who won’t make it end year….

[happy feet]

Billings injury a bad loss.

But apart from that let’s not get too bent out of shape about a practice match.

[Vortex]

RL may have a bigger mountain climb than he thought.

I'm obviously and firmly in this camp of thought.

He starts his 2nd coaching stint at the club with EXACTLY the same issues our two previous coaches were constantly challenged with, and that is working with a poor list that is exacerbated by injury.

Arguably he starts 2023 with bigger selection challenges than Ratts and Richo ever did, probably not as much as Richo as he was handed a much bigger basket case, ironically partly due to the last Lyon era.

It's going to be a tough year for wins, things should start to look a little better or take shape from about the mid season point if we have some luck with injury management however I'm open to, even expecting the word rebuild to work into the narrative as the season unfolds.

[axcellence]

Better off by bottoming out now. This team's done. Last season was diabolical and with the injuries, this year's done before the season has begun.

In the end, Clark and Coffield should have been the backbone of a rise. Neither is looking better than a GOP. Outside of Steele and Sinclair, nobody would be within a cooee of an AA spot in the mids.

Best off to trade out Clark and Billings at the end of the year. Maybe a few others as well. Hope they draft better this time around. And please no GOP fillers. Saints missed out on good players the last few years due to a tight salary cap. Only AA quality players please. The team has enough plodders.

[axcellence]

Double post…

[saynta]

Once was more than enough.