Poor skills killed us as much as umpires

[older saint]

Morning after the night before...

Crucial skill errors allowed Freo to stay in the game and then stopped us pinching it back.

2.6 in the second quarter really hurt .

Then the last quarter, Kosi ( who played well) has abrain fade and handballs to Cripps rather than a shot , and the killer Milne free kick , passes to Milerea 5 metres clear inside 50 and misses the target by 2-3 metres, score level i think and instead of a Saints shot ball is cleared and Freo kick a goal - 2 goal turnaround

Montagna, who has started poorly this season, runs to 50 off a handball under no immediate pressure rushes the kick off the boot and out of bounds.

3 killer umpiring decisions -

The hit by Dawson on Milne should have been down field ( goal square) as it was after he kicked it - Milne misses 5 pt difference.
Goddard marks inside 50 in 3rd with Milne by himself, the freo guy takes him to ground to stop the pass - no 50 . Goddard misses - 5 pt turn arpound

5 point game i think saints tackle freo guy in fiorward pocket ( Johnson i think) , he places the ball on the ground in the tackle - automatic incorrect disposal free kick - not given, ball cleared froe kick a point . 7 pt turnaround

The first 2 still involve skill errors from saints players but all 3 show the umpires last night had no feel for the game of football at all.

[Junction Oval]

A fair assessment. Skill errors, as usual, hurt us all night when attacking. Jack Steven in particular (pass to Kosi at CHF was the exception), but who otherwise played really well.

[chook23]

Morning after the night before...

Crucial skill errors allowed Freo to stay in the game and then stopped us pinching it back.

2.6 in the second quarter really hurt .

Then the last quarter, Kosi ( who played well) has abrain fade and handballs to Cripps rather than a shot , and the killer Milne free kick , passes to Milerea 5 metres clear inside 50 and misses the target by 2-3 metres, score level i think and instead of a Saints shot ball is cleared and Freo kick a goal - 2 goal turnaround

Montagna, who has started poorly this season, runs to 50 off a handball under no immediate pressure rushes the kick off the boot and out of bounds.

3 killer umpiring decisions -

The hit by Dawson on Milne should have been down field ( goal square) as it was after he kicked it - Milne misses 5 pt difference.Goddard marks inside 50 in 3rd with Milne by himself, the freo guy takes him to ground to stop the pass - no 50 . Goddard misses - 5 pt turn arpound

5 point game i think saints tackle freo guy in fiorward pocket ( Johnson i think) , he places the ball on the ground in the tackle - automatic incorrect disposal free kick - not given, ball cleared froe kick a point . 7 pt turnaround

The first 2 still involve skill errors from saints players but all 3 show the umpires last night had no feel for the game of football at all.

Skill did kill us..

In relation to Milne freekick correct decision by ump...

Kick went through points on full..................can not be down field .................back to player (option of player) to have kick again from original position.

[desertsaint]

Why are we so hard on our players? Yes we made many skill errors, so did they. A very even game, and given fair umpiring we would've won it. Given the rub of the green like Freo were, we would've won by a few goals.
The guys were out on their feet by game's end. They gave their all. And we fans berate them for it? We are not the 2009 saints, we are just a decent team and will have many tight games. I don't expect us to destroy teams enough to take bad umpiring out of the equation. It's not fair on the players to expect that.

[Thinline]

They turned it over heaps.

Our FINISHING skills were sloppy, but as to general play it was high pressure game. Turnovers and bad decisions occur in such circs.

[older saint]

Why are we so hard on our players? Yes we made many skill errors, so did they. A very even game, and given fair umpiring we would've won it. Given the rub of the green like Freo were, we would've won by a few goals.
The guys were out on their feet by game's end. They gave their all. And we fans berate them for it? We are not the 2009 saints, we are just a decent team and will have many tight games. I don't expect us to destroy teams enough to take bad umpiring out of the equation. It's not fair on the players to expect that.

Hard on players, well if we are not we accept mediocre, which to me is not good enough. Everyone must demand more. The effort was great, and if it was kids with the skill errors cut them some slack but these were experience players who possess the skills being critisised.

I think this is far from berating them. I am judging the players and the umpires the same, both exhausted at the end of a game and this is fair. If you excuse theplayers for being tired you must also then excuse the umpires. Doing this with either means an acceptance of near enough if good enough..... and we become the North Melbroune football clubof the noughties

[Saints Angel]

I think we we are so hard on our players at the moment because we are all so eager to get our second premiership. At the moment we are not sure just how far away that is but we will keep at it until the job is done.

[gringo]

I heard a Bullies supporter at the game laughing because we were getting our own back. Lyons style is ugly grinding footy, he had the insiders knowledge on how to shut us down and we missed a clean kick from defence. Can't wait for Gwilt to get back we haven't been the same since he went down. Schnides could reinvent himself as a running half back and set up play also. I'm happy with output not outcome big difference. If we had better umpiring we would have won anyway and we led the inside 50s. Loved the games of Gears again, Polo and Newnes had a real crack, Kosi had a great Cloke like game, Rooey had heaps of run and they shut down Fisher and Dal Santo. We would have beaten most teams on that performance and we were carrying a heap of kids.

[Saints Angel]

The kids will bring a new dimension to our game and I am ooking forward to seeing them play, particularly Seb Ross. Having Schneider and Gwilt back in the team will add such a lot of stability to the side. I think with time our team will be fine but maybe 2013 will be our year.

[Old Mate]

Ross has really put his mark on the Freo players. It was exactly like watching us a few years back. So much pressure and perceived pressure out there. It didn't help that we made poor decisions and have an abundance of poorly skilled players but we were under the pump all night when ball was in hand.

[fingers]

Why are we so hard on our players? Yes we made many skill errors, so did they. A very even game, and given fair umpiring we would've won it. Given the rub of the green like Freo were, we would've won by a few goals.
The guys were out on their feet by game's end. They gave their all. And we fans berate them for it? We are not the 2009 saints, we are just a decent team and will have many tight games. I don't expect us to destroy teams enough to take bad umpiring out of the equation. It's not fair on the players to expect that.

They hit WAY more targets than we did all night - including shots at goal. Their kicks to space and handballs were pretty good especially running out from defence - we missed targets by foot and hand all night.

That was the difference.

[Munga]

Mostly caused by the Freo pressure. You'll always see freo players pushing us to the boundary or on to a weeker foot. And always two players on the mark stopping us from kicking inboard.

Not so much out coached on the night, but in football education.

[PJ]

Poor skills

1/ Why does Blakey keep punching the ball when he's 5 metres clear of any opposition? Last night this was really bugging the crap out of me - His peripheral vision and awareness is poor. Has someone from the coaching staff insisted that he is not allowed to mark the ball?
2/ After watching Jack Steven last night I'm more of the opinion that he doesn't look or use his vision rather than having poor kicking skills - a couple of times he hit up targets well.
3/ Jack N has good skills but was rattled by the pressure - hope we persist with him as I don't think dropping him at this point will do his confidence any good. He just needs a little composure.
4/ Since returning Lenny has been inspirational but his skills are a little rusty - he's missed several very gettable goals this season that he would have swallowed up in previous years - just wondering whether or not he's doubting himself.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

I think I could fill up the page on the individual skill errors, sloppy disposal and poor choices we made last night. That cost us a comfortable win. With those things being the case though, I still thought we were good enough to win it, but were just killed by the umpiring at vital stages, as we were in round one.

I'm happy enough to cop a loss if both teams get a fair go, but when the result is so dependent on them it makes it frustrating as hell.

The umpiring in our 4 games has been some of the worst I've seen in years. It went against us badly in rounds one and last night and was strongly in our favour last week. Unfortunately, in the two weeks it went against us, it could so easily have cost us two games and pretty much any chance we had of finishing top 4 this year, if we happen to get the rest of our s*** together.

[Con Gorozidis]

our kicking goes to pieces under pressure.
sometimes even the perceived pressure.
anyone have the kicking efficiency stats from last night?