Saints Team -

Bowey Boy · Post: # 545553Post **Bowey Boy** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 8:23pm

borderbarry wrote:I dont understand these selections. From what I can see neither Dempster nor Maguire are in form. If we wanted to bring in a defender why not Ferguson, who is in form? Crap selections if you ask me. Weak as water.

Certainly seems that Dempster is a selection made on hope not on form. Then again, he really is an unknown quantity to most Saints fans. An out of form Matty is not great but if he is fit - let's give it a shot. At least he has the runs on the board.

Re Ferguson - you heard it here first - he is the defender's version of Barry Brooks and will be delisted (again) at the end of the year. If I am wrong I will be glad!!!!!!

Gilbert=Legend · Thu 10 Apr 2008 8:41pm

SENsaintsational wrote:Disappointed to see M Gardiner not back.

Disappointed also to see Geary out. He's been good. Very good.

Geary hasn't been that good and his lack of AFL level football showed last week.

Great to see Goose back as well as Dempster into the team. I thought they would have added more pace into the squad, with jones and armitage ready to play. However, great to see raph dropped for the second time this year, and hopefully last, its about time really, after two hopeless performances in a row.

To all who blame his lack of performance on his match practice, he has played 7 games already and should be in full swing, look at goddard, one game and back in it

Huzzad · Post: # 545567Post **Huzzad** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 8:45pm

Amazing how carried away people get when they include players against the wishes of SS.

I bet Saturday afternoon everyone will be raving about how good it was having Goose and Dempster in the side.

Look who is coaching us. It is not the villiage hick. He knows what he is doing and so do the match committee. It was only a matter of time for Geary, he is young and has plenty of footy ahead. We always knew hed be dropped for players who have earned their spot over the years. He will eventually, but I think its great to see these guys back in the side. I too am dubious as to their fitness, but I do not go to training or talk to them or am on any match committee. I am pretty sure our match committee are not made of morons. But hey, this is SS right? A chance for us all to show why we are better coaches than RL right? Can you imagine some of the moronic inclusions there would be if SS was the match committee? We'd prob still have Mark McGough still playing...

Bring on the cats I say.

GeorgeYoung27 · Thu 10 Apr 2008 9:07pm

From what I can see so far this year, the side is selected based on who we are playing, not necessarily on form. Geelong is not as quick as the Bulldogs and Geelong even dropped one of their quicker players. We needed to shore up our defence based on last week. No doubt Jones, Gardiner and Geary will come into consideration next week when we play the quicker Bombers.

maverick · Post: # 545585Post **maverick** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 9:18pm

Strange team for mine.
Midfield gets spanked last week and bring the slowest bloke on our list back in...amazing...Who the hell will he play on?

markinUSA · Post: # 545586Post **markinUSA** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 9:22pm

I (wrongly) thought CJ was a shoe-in after last week's performance where the midfield was criticized for being too slow. Wow.

Having said that, I have never seen Sean Dempster play. I hope he goes well for us!

And .. good luck to Goose - welcome back mate! We've missed you! Good luck!

saintspremiers · Thu 10 Apr 2008 9:26pm

Weird selections.

I really hope Goose doesn't play, as it appears he's not ready yet.....but then again, he does know how to play footy (if he turns the clock back 2 years!) and may surprise us, so I'll wait and see....

Also surprised Fiora got another gig ahead for either CJ or Armo - would've prefered their youthful enthusiasm and speed to Fi's experience and slightly lesser speed.

Seeing the Birss is on the emergency bench and Dumpster was selected in the 22, suggests Rossy wants a bit more hardness and stoppages....if we slow down Geelong we may be in with a show.

Expect a dour slog IMO......

kaos theory · Thu 10 Apr 2008 9:44pm

Can I suggest to people here that our main issue last week was with the midfield. They know what they didn't do right - i.e. win contested footy, and they are the ones that want to be given the opportunity to redeem themselves.

We can't drop any of our key mids, we need to strenghten our backs a little (though the selection of goose was a surprise), so what else could work?

THE main probelm was our mids.....they feeel last week's effiort was uncharacteristic of the way we play, and they want to address it.

...So the ball is in their court...

vacuous space · Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:04pm

My worry isn't so much the number of talls, but the number of defender/taggers we've selected. We've got Leigh Fisher, Blake and Dempster that can all play tagging roles or drop into defence if needed, then we've got Max, Goose, Gilbo and Chips as tall defenders. Then there's Gram and Goddard who regularly play a rebounding role.

Hopefully that means we will see more of our onballers in the centre and forward of centre. It would be nice to see the likes of Hayes, Dal, Ball, Joey, X, Harves and Fizz spending some time helping out with the forward 50 groundballs, which we see a lot of.

I worry though that Ross will try and shut down the game with his dynamic tagging trio and flood back with his tall defence. I hope not. I don't think that will work against this Geelong outfit.

st.byron · Post: # 545675Post **st.byron** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:10pm

Disappointed to see M.Gardiner absent again.
My confidence that he is going to consistently deliver, which has always been shaky, takes a dive. Two weeks of the real thing and he has another leg injury that's keeping him off the park.

HarveysDeciple · Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:13pm

why not back Ross's judgement on Dempster?

people bring up the sydney factor as if its a bad thing, and perhaps sometimes it is, but probably not this time, maybe he knows dempster better then all of us? and who would argue.

PS, If goose is fit he must play, he's in our best 22 for sure, and he is fit now so must be picked.

Bowey Boy · Post: # 545689Post **Bowey Boy** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:22pm

HarveysDeciple wrote: PS, If goose is fit he must play, he's in our best 22 for sure, and he is fit now so must be picked.

Absolutely correct...end of story!!

maverick · Post: # 545696Post **maverick** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:28pm

HarveysDeciple wrote:why not back Ross's judgement on Dempster?

people bring up the sydney factor as if its a bad thing, and perhaps sometimes it is, but probably not this time, maybe he knows dempster better then all of us? and who would argue.

PS, If goose is fit he must play, he's in our best 22 for sure, and he is fit now so must be picked.

SO no form required just fitness?

joffaboy · Post: # 545700Post **joffaboy** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:33pm

maverick wrote:
HarveysDeciple wrote:why not back Ross's judgement on Dempster?

people bring up the sydney factor as if its a bad thing, and perhaps sometimes it is, but probably not this time, maybe he knows dempster better then all of us? and who would argue.

PS, If goose is fit he must play, he's in our best 22 for sure, and he is fit now so must be picked.
SO no form required just fitness?

I saw him two weeks ago against Sandy and his form was too bad.

Has had another game since then (which the Scorps won) so mabye his form is OK.

Couldn't be worse than Raph who really needs to harness his undoubted talent before it goes to waste.

bigcarl · Post: # 545701Post **bigcarl** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:34pm

maverick wrote:
HarveysDeciple wrote:why not back Ross's judgement on Dempster?

people bring up the sydney factor as if its a bad thing, and perhaps sometimes it is, but probably not this time, maybe he knows dempster better then all of us? and who would argue.

PS, If goose is fit he must play, he's in our best 22 for sure, and he is fit now so must be picked.
SO no form required just fitness?

i'd say they've got a specific role in mind for him, probably hawkins, because, as you say, he has reportedly shown no form for casey.

i'm glad to see him back and hope that this show of faith and the challenge of picking up hawkins can be the first step towards getting him back to full form and confidence.

Bernard Shakey · Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:34pm

Dempster is quick.

Ralphy · Post: # 545703Post **Ralphy** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:36pm

Bernard Shakey wrote:Dempster is quick.

never seen him play but got told he was like gram???

SaintBot · Post: # 545710Post **SaintBot** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:42pm

ralphysaints35 wrote:
Bernard Shakey wrote:Dempster is quick.
never seen him play but got told he was like gram???

nothing like Gram imo.

He's quick but isnt really a ball carrier. He has one of the best long kicks in the league (will be used for kick out duties at times id imagine). Can play as a small defender or tagger in the midfield. Would be interesting to see if he can win some more ball in pehaps a different role. He may also be groomed as a backup key defender. As he is quick and tall (194?), however body size marks him down.

iceman · Post: # 545728Post **iceman** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 11:25pm

wouldn't be suprised to see dempster follow ablett or corey etc.

saintsRrising · Thu 10 Apr 2008 11:31pm

192cm

The_Dud · Post: # 545731Post **The_Dud** » Thu 10 Apr 2008 11:34pm

what a people whinging about regarding pace?

Goose would be just as quick as raph, and according to the previous couple of posts, Dempster is quicker than Geary

so i'd say we've improved our speed (not that that was even our biggest problem)

Goose might have also been brought it for a bit of hardness in the team, maybe he'll take it to a few Cats players in their forward line (he is looking mighty big)

its not about speed, its about accountability

vacuous space · Thu 10 Apr 2008 11:41pm

I'd be surprised if many of you hadn't seen him play. He's played in two Grand Finals as well as a prelim against us in 05. You might not have noticed him, but it's easy to miss a tagger, especially one who doesn't get the ball. He's generally pretty good at negating a taller midfielder or mid-sized forward. If he plays back, I'd think Steve Johnson would be his man, if he's in the middle, you'd have to think it'd be Bartel or Corey.

Saints Premiers 2008 · Fri 11 Apr 2008 12:02am

we need more players backing back into the contests like goose does...

goddard was back for all of 10 minutes and he was back to his aggressive self...

saintsRrising · Fri 11 Apr 2008 12:13am

As I posted earlier..

Goose and Dempster are greater than Geary and Raph..

It is a net gain and improvement for the team.

Richter · Post: # 545763Post **Richter** » Fri 11 Apr 2008 12:51am

kaos theory wrote:Can I suggest to people here that our main issue last week was with the midfield. They know what they didn't do right - i.e. win contested footy, and they are the ones that want to be given the opportunity to redeem themselves.

This to me seems the closest to the money.

Here's a list of our mids as selected.....

Xavier Clarke, Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes, Luke Ball, Jason Blake, Leigh Fisher, Aaron Fiora

They are our first choice midfield. They were terrible last week. This is their chance to roll up their sleeves and show that they are up to the job. Let's be honest, everyone has marked this game down as a loss anyway - so what is there to lose?

If somehow these lads turn it around it gives them confidence and time together to show that last Friday was a one-off.

If we lose then there can be no more chances - CJ, Armo and Bakes are chomping at the bit to play and the last 3 names on the list above are in line for the chop.