Match SIM squad & Match Thread v Melbourne 24/02/23

[B.M]

Bit different opposition in the first game to what the kids played against.

May Lever and Petty are a different proposition


As is Gawn Oliver Petracca Viney Grundy Brayshaw Pickett!

[Devilhead]

Dees have the best defence in the League and quite possibly the best midfield

[bigcarl]

Not disappointed with the hitout. Good to see some kids trying to make a name for themselves.

Phillipou looks a great prospect with a lot of class.

Impressed with Caminiti’s presence and attack on the ball. Looks a natural big forward in he way he presents and could become a good foil for Max King quite soon.

We were touched up by the usual Melbourne suspects early on - Gawn, Petracca and Pickett. Didn’t take advantage a strong wind in the first quarter.

Overall, lots to look forward to. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

[happy feet]

Not disappointed with the hitout. Good to see some kids trying to make a name for themselves.

Phillipou looks a great prospect with a lot of class.

Impressed with Caminiti’s presence and attack on the ball. Looks a natural big forward in he way he presents and could become a good foil for Max King quite soon.

We were touched up by the usual Melbourne suspects early on - Gawn, Petracca and Pickett. Didn’t take advantage a strong wind in the first quarter.

Overall, lots to look forward to. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

First sensible post on this

[shanegrambeau]

What was the verdict on here on Higgo and Butler?

SaintsTV’s Jake muttered something like, ‘a lot to be desired’, and he’s usually super optimist/ Sunnyside Up.

Oh.. and Bytel?

[Teflon]

What exactly were people expecting to see today?
Melbourne is now a Premiership hardened team coming off an embarrassing year.
St Kilda, a team needing to shake off 9 years of a vanilla dunked list and pair of coaches.
2023 is the beginning of our improvement, not the exclamation mark.
I doubt anyone thought we were going to be Top 4. Some, god bless them, hoped for Top 8.
An honest appraisal always had us in the bottom 10, likely 12th but may finish lower.
Games into our kids is the goal, improvement by our 20 to 25 year olds is needed. Our older players are the ones who need to play their best football every game, if they cannot, then I do not wish to see them playing in the tri-colours in the 2nd half of the season. They are our leaders, if they cannot be consistent then they are not leading.

A great post
Correct
It’s not about 23

[Crossy66]

Hard to take too much from the result. Some were going at 3/4 pace, probably under instruction to limit injury. Zero pressure in first few qtrs. No forward line, lots of positional experimenting . No real surprises with the senior players, they just do what they have done. I spent more time looking at the next crop to see who can improve the team.
Byrnes very good, but just can't kick, Hunter same old, need to lower expectations for Mitch, Cordy ain't a forward, Sharman probably rd1 FF, cominiti can't kick, infact overall teams goal kicking is still my biggest concern.
Heath a fair way off, naz has improved, hill big improvement, pou looked comfortable at the level, Oscar surprised, Van Es looks good. Helicopter kicks out of the middle still in vogue.
So I assume the coaches got something out of a night of experimentation. Not much for supporters to take away

[terry smith rules]

What was the verdict on here on Higgo and Butler?

SaintsTV’s Jake muttered something like, ‘a lot to be desired’, and he’s usually super optimist/ Sunnyside Up.

Oh.. and Bytel?

The most disappointing aspect to 16 and 22 is their lack of defensive pressure.

The amount of times that Bowey was allowed to drift up to the back of the square to provide link up play was ridiculous

I think we can only afford to play one of them in our best 22 (not sure who that is though)

[B.M]

We do realise quarters 5-6-7 was reserves footy?

[saynta]

How f***ed is that. Windy kicks a long goal and the clueless female commentating the match says
'the dees put through another one. Thankfully her male mate corrected her.

I thought you had the mute button on

In fact neither of them knew until the replay as they were watching the Heath injury

But hey any chance to show your misogyny

[1971]

Byrnes very good, but just can't kick,
No disrespect intended at all but this seems almost like an oxymoron.

[lloyd21]

It's the inability of players forward of the ball to work into space quickly. There have been very few clean possessions, as well. Our mids have been non existent.

I'm not concerned about the scoreboard. I'm concerned about the apparent lack of understanding between the players. It's like a washing machine versus a Ferrari

Still mystified why Windhager / Bytel combination wasn’t there at start yesterday, given they’ve both had great preseasons,
Steele by comparison has looked awful , lost lot of weight appears lethargic..& slow at training all preseason.

[Crossy66]

Byrnes very good, but just can't kick,
No disrespect intended at all but this seems almost like an oxymoron.

It does a bit. But it's quicker than saying he played well ran to go spots, got plenty of it, but his career will stop because when he disposed of it, he coughs it or helicopter bombs it

[Vortex]

We do realise quarters 5-6-7 was reserves footy?

yep, and it showed, but a hitout none the less.

[1971]

Byrnes very good, but just can't kick,
No disrespect intended at all but this seems almost like an oxymoron.

It does a bit. But it's quicker than saying he played well ran to go spots, got plenty of it, but his career will stop because when he disposed of it, he coughs it or helicopter bombs it

Cheers Crossy66

[Sanctorum]

Practice match or not, I never enjoy watching my footy team get smashed like they were by Melbourne yesterday afternoon. Would have liked to have seen signs of improvement in skill levels and game plan but the latter remains below AFL standard. There was bugger all indication that the players appeared to have any real idea of how to prevent the opposition from having so many free men with so much open space to easily move the ball end to end.

All of these things have been a major concern in the past two seasons and Ross Lyon & Co have a massive job to try and turn things around.

Nonetheless I thought there were some good things that came out of this game, especially the crop of young fellas Wanganeen Milera, Windhager, Owens, Phillipou, Caminiti, Vas Es - and Max Heath looked to me like he is ready to debut in the not too distant future and is destined to become #1 ruckman.

Looking forward to the next hitout on Friday against Essendon, which will give an indication of the likely lineup for Round 1 against Fremantle.

Incidentally, I was delighted to see prospective father/son recruit #49 Tyson Milne play yesterday, bet he enjoyed playing in front of Saints fans at Linton Street!

[Saints58]

Do we play Battle with Sharman and Carminati, forward they all bring something Battle is very strong and has played forward before Carminati is a great mark as is Sharman and have smalls all around them to get crumbs.
Down back KPP cordy and Dougal with van es in the back pocket instead of webster this would give him some much needed experience around some good players.

[Crossy66]

Do we play Battle with Sharman and Carminati, forward they all bring something Battle is very strong and has played forward before Carminati is a great mark as is Sharman and have smalls all around them to get crumbs.
Down back KPP cordy and Dougal with van es in the back pocket instead of webster this would give him some much needed experience around some good players.

Battle our number one defender - stays put. Van Es can't play on smalls. Comminiti can play but jury out on his ability to convert. Think Cordy can only play as a lock down defender.
Goals will need to come from medium and small fwds at the start of the season.

[spert]

The hit-out was a big mess for the Saints, injuries, new recruits, lazy efforts from senior players. Looks like RL just threw everyone in the pot to see what happened. Next hit-out needs to show a bit more structure and effort.

[Beno88]

It's worth remembering, between 2019-2022, St Kilda won 7 of 8 practice matches.

In 2009 we won 2 of 4.

The results mean nothing.

[mr six o'clock]

It's worth remembering, between 2019-2022, St Kilda won 7 of 8 practice matches.

In 2009 we won 2 of 4.

The results mean nothing.

Yes
Whilst I hate seeing us lose , I've never taken to much notice since the early 80s.
I was young and went to a practice match down the peninsula against the Hawks . We played well and smashed em , a month or so later, we played them early in the season at Moorabbin. They slaughtered us , as a kid I didn't fully comprehend what practice matches were . I believed you tried to win every game . So all I'm really interested in is how we attack Freo in the first game of the season . I don't care if we get beaten, just as long as we give it a red hot go .

[Templar]

I remember a big intra club game during GT era. Foot passing was atrocious. I had been excited but after a few quarters was scratching my head. Skills looked terrible. As if they were kicking a balloon around.

A few weeks later Rd1 at the Dome. Bang. Was like a different team. Sharp as. Was hard to believe the turnaround in skills.

So yeah Rd1 for me also.

[saynta]

8 quarters and we would have outscored the Dees.