Can we improve?

[borderbarry]

Can we improve on last Friday night?
I believe we have to to be successful on GF day. But how? Sure Bakes has to come in. But we need to introduce someone that will improve our conversion rate, but do we have anyone that can do this?

[#1GILL]

Can we improve on last Friday night?
I believe we have to to be successful on GF day. But how? Sure Bakes has to come in. But we need to introduce someone that will improve our conversion rate, but do we have anyone that can do this?

I don't think we have to. I doubt it will rain grandfinal day because the odds are it won't.

Before the rain on Friday, we were playing some of our best footy for two years. If the rain had stayed away, the trend of the game suggested we would win by 60+.

I'm confident of beating anyone in the wet or the dry, but Riewoldt in the dry is the cherry on top. Taylor historically has a good record on Roo compared to most, but on Friday nothing was going to stand in Roo's way-Except the rain.

If we get a dry prelim and a dry Granny expect Roo to rip both of them to shreds. You could see the determination in his eyes while the anthem was on. He was ready to go, and so were 21 of his best mates.

We can do this, and we WILL do this.

[busso mick]

We can certainly improve our goal kicking after missing some easy set shots in the second term. We dominated in the second quarter and were still only 3 goals up at half time. If we take our chances then we don't need to introduce a converter into the line-up. However if our forwards miss goals then it will be tough for us. The question mark for me is whether can we maintain our run we generated in the first half for a whole game.

[#1GILL]

We can certainly improve our goal kicking after missing some easy set shots in the second term. We dominated in the second quarter and were still only 3 goals up at half time. If we take our chances then we don't need to introduce a converter into the line-up. However if our forwards miss goals then it will be tough for us. The question mark for me is whether can we maintain our run we generated in the first half for a whole game.

Good point...Our goal kicking certainly can improve...Lucky for us, the Cats and the Pies both seem to be having even less luck infront of the big sticks.

If we can start to nail most of them, then we will have a big edge over these two sides, both of which are struggling atm, just like us.

[bigcarl]

Can we improve?

Yep, we can go up two notches. One for the preliminary and one for the grand final.

[villasaint]

Schneider was still not well after his corky last week. He can improve. Dawson was good and can improve. Kosi is getting better week after week lately. COnfidence will be up therefore we can definetely improve.

[Bernard Shakey]

Of course we can improve, Ross has said so.

Kicking for goal can, and will improve;

Tackling will improve;

General fitness will improve, with the benefit of the break.

Doubt that Kosi and Zac will improve.

[saint3d]

As mentioned if it doesn't rain we will improve out of sight.

An improvement I'd like to see (if required) is a faster switch to 'wet weather footy' when it starts raining. On Friday it seemed the thinking in the third quarter was 'we're doing well let's keep this going' which turned into 'they're catching up let's lock it down'. If that call had been made earlier perhaps the result could have been made certain a little earlier.

[Teflon]

Apart from goal kicking and taking your chances when ontop THE ONLY thing id like to see us improve IF we get to a GF against Cats......4qtrs.

The wet made a difference but it was wet most of the day GF and we had them on toast then in the last qtr we looked shot. This game had very similar trends to the GF......I was surprised to see us really struggle to get the ball out of Geelongs fwd 50 in the last.....it was like we went into siege mode, stopped really trying to score and started trying to save(Im not criticising - just an observation). So Id like to see us take em on in the last a bit more - we defended 1 goal for about 8 mins.....not sure if the Cats are entering their 50 18 times or so in the last we can continue to do that and win.

The good news IMO was watching the replay again, especially the last qtr, we werent that far off winning those close in tight balls, some Geelong skill (Bartels ability to just hack it fwd from congestion time and again) helped them. But the times we got through I noticed Scarlett was left alone to simpy re-set the Cats......he had little accountability in the last qtr.....Id like to see that change next time.

[CORDZ]

1 improvement not seen this year (that I remember)

4 Quarters of Saints Footy

[Wrote for Luck]

Gram and Ray with no possesions in the last quarter. That's gotta improve.

Kosi & Zack - were good.

[SainterK]

If it's wet again, selection wise I think so, could of done with an Armo in the middle in the last...

[skeptic]

There is something we need to improve and that's our skills with quick ball movement.

You tend to notice it especially when we're on the counter attack... the amount of slick handballs that miss the target, or get dropped etc or when we have 2 on 1s that somehow end uup with us breaking even.

Was a real hallmark of our game early last season that when the opposition made a mistake we made them pay... we're not nearly as good at that as we were

[sRaf]

Kicking two goals in one and a half quarter suggests we can improve a lot, but our second quarter was the level at what we should be aiming for. Was bloody brilliant.

[Unforgiven]

If it's wet again, selection wise I think so, could of done with an Armo in the middle in the last...

Not to sure about that. I see your point at Armo is a clearance player, but what we lacked in the 4th was the ability to run out a match. Armo has missed a lot of footy with two medial knee strains, no to sure on his fitness.

[SainterK]

If it's wet again, selection wise I think so, could of done with an Armo in the middle in the last...

Not to sure about that. I see your point at Armo is a clearance player, but what we lacked in the 4th was the ability to run out a match. Armo has missed a lot of footy with two medial knee strains, no to sure on his fitness.

True Unforgiven, I am thinking of a fully fit Armo which he may not quite be as yet?

Wasn't it something like 17 inside 50's to one in the last though though, they were coming.

Glad it wasn't a draw

[Teflon]

If it's wet again, selection wise I think so, could of done with an Armo in the middle in the last...

Not to sure about that. I see your point at Armo is a clearance player, but what we lacked in the 4th was the ability to run out a match. Armo has missed a lot of footy with two medial knee strains, no to sure on his fitness.

Agree. My query on Armo is simply his ability to cover enough ground. I know in/under he'd be great....as was Ball.....but when you need to spread or harrass....not sure he gets to the contest enough. Eddy does this well and can run all day BUT is not where near as good in tight/close as Armo........need a combination of the 2.....I was hopeful it was Jack Steven....wont be now.

[Unforgiven]

It's tough, part of the reason we couldn't get it out of the back was a stuggle in clearances (armo would have helped). They were smart though, setting up outside thier attacking 50 so if we bombed long they just snatched it up, and when we tried to run it through they tackled us. It's hard to play cute pin point tempo footy in slippery conditions.

Going to be an interesting match comitee meeting. I feel out team is a little to tall, and would definitly like to see Baker come in, potentially Geary too, but I can't tell you for who. Dempster potentially, but im a fan of him.

Though Ross will make the correct call

[SainterK]

If it's wet again, selection wise I think so, could of done with an Armo in the middle in the last...

Not to sure about that. I see your point at Armo is a clearance player, but what we lacked in the 4th was the ability to run out a match. Armo has missed a lot of footy with two medial knee strains, no to sure on his fitness.

Agree. My query on Armo is simply his ability to cover enough ground. I know in/under he'd be great....as was Ball.....but when you need to spread or harrass....not sure he gets to the contest enough. Eddy does this well and can run all day BUT is not where near as good in tight/close as Armo........need a combination of the 2.....I was hopeful it was Jack Steven....wont be now.

True, and it may be emphasised if he is lacking match fitness.

Does anyone know what happened with Steven, he hasn't even made the emergency lists the last couple of weeks...is he injured, or just not in form?

[Teflon]

It's tough, part of the reason we couldn't get it out of the back was a stuggle in clearances (armo would have helped). They were smart though, setting up outside thier attacking 50 so if we bombed long they just snatched it up, and when we tried to run it through they tackled us. It's hard to play cute pin point tempo footy in slippery conditions.

Going to be an interesting match comitee meeting. I feel out team is a little to tall, and would definitly like to see Baker come in, potentially Geary too, but I can't tell you for who. Dempster potentially, but im a fan of him.

Though Ross will make the correct call

Good call. Cats did set up smart in the last. Forced us to handle a greasy ball out of their congestion. They also got Goddard out of the action dragging him deep with the long set up.......would like to have gotten Goddard up the ground more in the last to help set it to advantage when we went fwd...(Milnes kick to Sneider was a ripper btw).

[Unforgiven]

Milne's kick was amazing. All we needed was a good 30-40m kick (out of defence) to a man who could mark it around centre wing (easier said than done). Then like we did late in the last, go long down the line to our 50, and set up for a stoppage or boundry throw in. It was simply a battle of meters for us, get the ball as FAAARR away as possible from their goal.

You watch a reply, and look at their forwards roll up the ground to the stoppage (when at their Half Forward Flank) and their defenders zone up around the middle of the MCG. We are at a really tough situation, but if we could've (and did) get the ball to centre wing, or our half forward flank (preferably deep inside our 50) then the stoppage becomes more 50/50 and they can't just zone off.

I know it may sounds silly that what im basically saying is the closer to our goal the stoppage is the better, but that's essentially how we won it in the last 4-5mins. Sometime in trying circumstances a long clearing kick to a throw in or hopefully a stoppage is worth it's weight in gold (you get my point, terrible analogy lol)

[Teflon]

agree unforgiven,

Milne later also kicked another beauty that cleared 2 cat defenders and made the boundary deeper in our fwd 50....thats the first time I felt we were home.

That clearing kick you mention is why we cant allow Goddard to be sucked deep - though he did take a saving mark.

BTW Gilberts 1 arm grab of Ablett was super stuff - saved a certain goal for mine.

[Con Gorozidis]

Can we improve on last Friday night?
I believe we have to to be successful on GF day. But how? Sure Bakes has to come in. But we need to introduce someone that will improve our conversion rate, but do we have anyone that can do this?

I don't think we have to. I doubt it will rain grandfinal day because the odds are it won't.

Before the rain on Friday, we were playing some of our best footy for two years. If the rain had stayed away, the trend of the game suggested we would win by 60+.

I'm confident of beating anyone in the wet or the dry, but Riewoldt in the dry is the cherry on top. Taylor historically has a good record on Roo compared to most, but on Friday nothing was going to stand in Roo's way-Except the rain.

If we get a dry prelim and a dry Granny expect Roo to rip both of them to shreds. You could see the determination in his eyes while the anthem was on. He was ready to go, and so were 21 of his best mates.

We can do this, and we WILL do this.

+ 1. Lets face it. Roo is a once in a generation player (ok he could kick a tad better some days) but apart from that hes a freak. Hes a bloke u build premierships around. Hes at the peak of his powers right now. If its dry for those 2 weeks we win Thats how good he is.

[saint3d]

Hes a bloke u build premierships around. Hes at the peak of his powers right now. If its dry for those 2 weeks we win Thats how good he is.

Post of the day.

[philtee]

Agree with Teflon and sraf - two goals in the last 40 minutes or play is not enough. A commentator said "the game is opening up for the Cats". It sure did - the Saints lost their defensiive sharpness and a metre of pace, while the Cats seized the initiative. IMHO the rain should have evened up the contest - instead the Cats almost clawed back a 33 point deficit and pinched it.