Post-match analysis

[SaintPav]

For 60,000 sainters at the G, the crowd noise was pretty poor.

The noise was great when we got on a roll. Problem was that they couldn’t sustain it.

I think there were more neutral supporters there than there were GWS fans. The crowd size of 0ver 68K was exceptional considering GWS’ level of support. I doubt there was even 1,000 GWS supporters there and most of them were behind their goals and in their cheer squad. Hard to tell exactly but the noise on TV was definitely fake. Either that or they had a mic in the cheer squad.

[magnifisaint]

The noise for St Kilda was definitely not fake. There was nearly 70,000 there. They must have been supporting one team.

[SaintPav]

I meant to write noise for GWS on the tv was fake. Very real for us.

[Sainternist]

We were smashed in the middle and a bit lost when it came forward. Our backs didn’t look themselves, either. Sinclair and Wilkie were well under their usual output.

Battle, Nas, Steele, Marshall, Sharman, Hill were our best. Windhager once on ball looked better and Owens had his moments. Stocker should've been playing from the start.
But yeah, the midfield needs a serious work through.

[Teflon]

We were beaten with quick movement from stoppages and precise field kicking by GWS. Once they got a break of a couple of metres they were off. Our slow mids couldn't run them down. That gave them time and space to deliver to their forwards. A lot of little things went their way where seeming innocuous situations suddenly turned into a goal, like the Brad Crouch out on the full in the first

We fumbled a lot in the first half and our young forwards got in each other's way. Compounding that was our delivery inside 50. Predominantly, that was because the GWS players had the leg speed to chase down our ball carriers.

We had a young forward half. One of the youngest you'll see in a final. That was a factor.

Marshall, Steele, and Hill were huge, but no other player had significant influence. When we broke even or won clearances we kicked some goals and had GWS under pressure. Just not enough goals. However, the GWS midfield had periods
where they totally dominated us and they piled on goals.

I've been saying it since preseason. We need two quick classy midfielders and a tall gorilla fullback

If we'd had those today we could have knocked off GWS

Was at the game that’s exactly how I saw it too
Midfield and spread cooked us
But like Carlton loss….they won the footy in contest…got it outside….were gone
We desperately need a couple, quick classy mids

[Scollop]

Wilkie had the the job on Toby Greene and Toby hurt us with 9 score involvements. Wilkie was caught ball chasing instead of keeping a close tag on Toby.

I shouldn't say ball chasing, because I suppose he backs himself and often he's the guy starting our offense from the backline. He goes for his marks.

Today however, only 4 intercept marks for the day. Probably his lowest tally for the year.

Might be a lesson to learn when you're on such a dangerous forward like Toby

Wilkie was good in patches and tried his best. He wasn't our worst defender 1-1. That title belongs to Cordster

[desertsaint]

yes felt that our two coaching mistakes were cordy over howard and wilkie on green.

[Yorkeys]

For sale:
Higgins
Clark
Ross
Crouch

[Scollop]

I meant to write noise for GWS on the tv was fake. Very real for us.

We looked around us at the huge crowd walking from Richmond station to the G.

My son said that he couldn't even see 1 Orange hat or Orange hoody or GWS scarf anywhere along the whole walk....and he's a tall bugger

[Scollop]

For sale:
Higgins
Crouch

There's no market for these guys

You can't discard other club's discards

[SaintPav]

I meant to write noise for GWS on the tv was fake. Very real for us.

We looked around us at the huge crowd walking from Richmond station to the G.

My son said that he couldn't even see 1 Orange hat or Orange hoody or GWS scarf anywhere along the whole walk....and he's a tall bugger

We were looking too. My kid and I saw 10 or less walking to the G and to gate 5 from the Hilton.

[skeptic]

Let me preface this by saying that whilst historically, I have not been RTB’s biggest fan… generally speaking I have been blown away by his/the coaching team’s performance this season. 100% happy 1 season into the reign.

That said…. I don’t know if it’s a case of the coaches horribly out coached or the team just couldn’t get close to executing, hence made everyone look bad to a degree (or more likely somewhere in the middle). But, smart money says that if they had the opportunity… the club as a whole would just love the opportunity for a do over today.

I think we just misfired on a lot of levels.

Membrey was a huge out. Caminati was a terrible choice to come in. Too tall for the conditions, too green for the occasion.
Pbly should have had Stocker start and Byrnes as sub for the run
Wilkie to Greene was a huge mistake that a) didn’t result in Toby being negated but actually resulted in Wilkie’s output dropping.
Might have actually considered dropping Pou too and having a guy like Paton available for Greene instead
Crouch couldn’t get in to the game and they had no solutions as to what to do with him
The structure failed miserably with us bombing the ball forward to the smalls against the talls
Butler marking and snapping outside his range (for a snap at least)
GWS setting up a wall outside their F50… a strategy we learned to counter in U11s
Though I would have picked Cordy over Howard… that was proven to be a poor choice

And on that line… worst of all, our backline which has been our starring line all year was just out of sorts and beaten. Seldom happens but it looked dysfunctional and their midfield dominance really added salt to the wound.

Am not specifically saying the coaching was primarily to blame… but IMO, if you could walk it back I reckon they might have chosen a different tact.

[Jacks Back]

yes felt that our two coaching mistakes were cordy over howard and wilkie on green.

I was going to write the same. Wilkie on Green was a waste. Wilkie is your third man up/intercept marker but tagging Toby should not have been on Wilkie. It severely dented our rebound ability. At one stage Toby is roving around a boundary thow in and Wilkie trying to chase him. Wilkie is not a rover - he should have been back near the goal line. Bad move.

Cordy also looked all at see on Hogan.

A real wasted opportunity against this mob who we had beat the last 4 times we played them.

[skeptic]

I meant to write noise for GWS on the tv was fake. Very real for us.

We looked around us at the huge crowd walking from Richmond station to the G.

My son said that he couldn't even see 1 Orange hat or Orange hoody or GWS scarf anywhere along the whole walk....and he's a tall bugger

We were looking too. My kid and I saw 10 or less walking to the G and to gate 5 from the Hilton.

We had 1 GWS fan in our section who copped the wrath of the crowd because he kept standing up in general play in the first quarter.

Went to get a beer at 1/4time and never came back. Then the security told his friends in the second that he had been evicted. It was all very strange

[SaintPav]

Good!

[The G Train Legacy]

We were beaten with quick movement from stoppages and precise field kicking by GWS. Once they got a break of a couple of metres they were off. Our slow mids couldn't run them down. That gave them time and space to deliver to their forwards. A lot of little things went their way where seeming innocuous situations suddenly turned into a goal, like the Brad Crouch out on the full in the first

We fumbled a lot in the first half and our young forwards got in each other's way. Compounding that was our delivery inside 50. Predominantly, that was because the GWS players had the leg speed to chase down our ball carriers.

We had a young forward half. One of the youngest you'll see in a final. That was a factor.

Marshall, Steele, and Hill were huge, but no other player had significant influence. When we broke even or won clearances we kicked some goals and had GWS under pressure. Just not enough goals. However, the GWS midfield had periods
where they totally dominated us and they piled on goals.

I've been saying it since preseason. We need two quick classy midfielders and a tall gorilla fullback

If we'd had those today we could have knocked off GWS

Was at the game that’s exactly how I saw it too
Midfield and spread cooked us
But like Carlton loss….they won the footy in contest…got it outside….were gone
We desperately need a couple, quick classy mids

Good news is Liam Henry has announced he wants to come to us.

[SaintPav]

No one apart from the AFL compromised media gives two f**** about GWS.

[SaintPav]

Observation:

Unless we get some fantastic offer or we recruit a replacement, we need to keep Howard.

[Brunswicksainter]

For sale:
Higgins
Clark
Ross
Crouch

I wouldn’t sell Higgins and Crouch. Both poor today but had pretty decent seasons

[meher baba]

As I have posted before, Higgins has been poor since he came back from his mid-season injury. Might get back to his best next year: if not, he’s walking a thin line IMO.

Crouch has had a good season. Was poor today, but a keeper for sure. As is Ross for another season or two.

[B.M]

We had some absolute passengers today, spectators even

Unfortunately it was the young players - especially in the first half

Mattaus was uncompetitive, Caminiti woeful, Windhager unsighted first half - clearly played out of position, Owens poor first half - better second

Steele and Marshall superb

Battle and NWM very good

Sinclair and Crouch down - but obviously had super seasons

Thought Sharman was OK and Hill good

Cordy fkn terrible

[groupie1]

One further point: what exactly was the strategy with Phillipou? What was his position? Wouldn't it have been much better for a young player's development to give him a specific position to play rather than a sort of general roving role? He seemed to get totally lost today.

I didn’t hear you criticise prior to the match when we’ve played in mid rotation all year??
Expect a flood of “harry hindsight “ posts from you now as it’s par for course
Saints weren’t going further after today IF we won anyway
Great exposure for Pou he’ll learn

Completely agree.
Let's be honest, we've carried Philipou the entire second half of the year, just like we carried NWM, Owens, and Windhager last year, barring Windhager in the last third of the year.
To get games into them.
Dropping Philipou for this game would have been a monumental error.
He was woeful. But he now knows what it takes, has 24 games including a final under his belt, and his development will be faster-paced because of it.

[groupie1]

One further point: what exactly was the strategy with Phillipou? What was his position? Wouldn't it have been much better for a young player's development to give him a specific position to play rather than a sort of general roving role? He seemed to get totally lost today.

I didn’t hear you criticise prior to the match when we’ve played in mid rotation all year??
Expect a flood of “harry hindsight “ posts from you now as it’s par for course
Saints weren’t going further after today IF we won anyway
Great exposure for Pou he’ll learn

Completely agree.
Let's be honest, we've carried Philipou the entire second half of the year, just like we carried NWM, Owens, and Windhager last year, barring Windhager in the last third of the year.
To get games into them.
Dropping Philipou for this game would have been a monumental error.
He was woeful. But he now knows what it takes, has 24 games including a final under his belt, and his development will be faster-paced because of it.

[groupie1]

We had some absolute passengers today, spectators even

Unfortunately it was the young players - especially in the first half

Mattaus was uncompetitive, Caminiti woeful, Windhager unsighted first half - clearly played out of position, Owens poor first half - better second

Steele and Marshall superb

Battle and NWM very good

Sinclair and Crouch down - but obviously had super seasons

Thought Sharman was OK and Hill good

Cordy fkn terrible

Cordy did nothing much wrong.
Our entire game plan was decimated by a combo of:
a/ Wilke having to worry about Greene
b/ getting smashed in the midfield.

Had the mids at least halved clearances, we'd have been closer. And Wilke is the guy all year who has made a contesrt deficiencies not matter as much due to intercept marking (Wilke-NWM-Sinclar-Hill/Wood-into forward 50 is basically our run and gun game, in a nutshell, and we removed Wilke and Sinclair from that today - worst game Sincs has had in yrs)

Sharman fantastic, Hill fantastic, Crouch and Sincs worst games of the year, agree with Steele, Battle, NWM... thought Marshall got beaten in the ruck, but marked well around the ground.

Caminiti has had zero time to work on his craft. He'll improve.
Windhager has had two building years and will be a jet very soon.

[Scollop]

Cordy did nothing

There

That's better