Preview Round 23, 2023: St.Kilda v Geelong - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 19th August, 7:25PM AEST *HIGGINS 100TH*

[The Punter]

I'll take Bont over Daicos for this years Brownlow every day of the week. The Brownlow is a tick the boxes award, and Daicos doesn't tick the one on contested possessions.

 

[Klaatu]

Really? I thought it was pretty low. Not like...sad or mopey, just not as up and about as I've seen previously.
And yeah, I'm sure it has no correlation, was just interesting to see.

It’s called keeping a lid on it,otherwise the young players end up playing the game before Saturday

Treat like any other game not over the top.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[George]

Bit of a training report:

Started with some basic tackle drills and ground ball gets under body pressure, nothing remarkable there.

Group split into two groups, both maybe 7v7 or so:
-Group A was in a roughly 40m circle, more open. Played effectively keepings off, practicing disposal by hand and foot. Surprisingly, the disposal here was actually quite good. Wood, Sinclair, Gresham, Crouch, Stocker, JB all slick.
-Group B was about the same size, more focused on the contest in tight. Dribbled ball into a contest, practicing ball movement by hand. Hunter Clark good here, Marshall strong in the contest.
-The teams swapped so no clear 1s or 2s.
-Coffield moving really well, Wilkie using it nicely.
-Odd to say for training but King looked good, was running well and seemed engaged.

Also nice to note DMAC trained with the main group for at least half of the total session, moved quite well, kept pace with everyone. Came off eventually as I suppose he had completed the load required for his body but good to see him out there.

Hammer, Hayes, and Paton came out maybe 20 minutes after all the others with the VFL boys.

Zak Jones came out very late to do some quiet laps, as did Dougal.

Then went into a 13v13 full field:
-Focus here was clearly on defensive to offensive transition (something I believe we are #1? at in the league).
-Short switch kick across the back quite deep, into long penetrative kicks to clear d50 and clear the zone into attack.
-Zlugger at Full Back, Wilkie using his disposal into the run of Webster, Sinclair, and NWM.
-No clear 1s or 2s team here, players changed bibs throughout to provide different match ups and balance.
-Coffield moving and kicking really well in this. Had great vision for a kick inside 50 lace out. Coach praised him. Really hope we don't lose him, there was chat on the Gettable podcast that he would probably not be on our list next year.
-Pure focus on getting cleanly out of d50 and into attack whilst under pressure.

Full team v team:
-Looked like the 1s maybe consisted of the team we put out against the Tigers last week, bar maybe Sharman and Battle who were on the other team (I reckon just for balance)
-Pou with the mids
-Some blind bombing inside 50, hate to see it.
-King leading quite well, had Highmore by metres multiples times.
-Butler with some poor decision kicking inside 50 for turnovers.
-Really noticed Marshall's dominance around the ground, was running TC ragged. Burnt him off.
-Ross Lyon stopping drills multiple times when something wasn't done exactly right - bring it back, do it again. And again.
-Wilkie commanding player movements in defense as always, Steele effectively silent, Crouch and Seb Ross directing players in the middle.
-1s team had some poor ball movement coming out of d50, ended in a Sinclair scrubber along the ground. Ross Lyon stopped them and asked the whole group "are you happy with that? Really?" and brought them all in for a group chat. Wasn't letting anything go today, ol' Ross.


They split off into a few different groups - Mids, Wingers and half-backs, and the fwds.
-Fwds had shots at goal, Mitchito was with this group. Kicking was decent today.
-Wings/HBs did ground ball gets with pressure on the body.
-Ross Lyon had a lengthy chat to Pou, who then went over with the mids. They were doing centre bounce contest work. Gresh in there, too.
-Fwds and HB's practicing kicking at a leading fwd. King dropped an absolute soda, but was good apart from that. Nice to see some leading at the kicker for a change.
-These drills were really low intensity.

Overall, seems like the energy was actually pretty low today compared to the last few times I'd been. Much quieter than usual, not much pumping each other up, didn't go as hard at it etc. Was quite chill. The VFL boys were working significantly harder, and were much more vocal/encouraging.
Interesting, don't know if it's just because the game against the Tigers they ran quite a lot so weren't going too hard on the legs today or what.
Hopefully we show up with significantly more energy on Saturday night lol because otherwise it's gonna be preeeeeetty flat.

Reckon we roll out the same team as last week.

Cheers.

Great stuff again mate

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

While we were becoming competitive, the cats were loading up with their F/S's Ablett, Hawkins, and others like Selwood, Bartel .
( an era when we only drafted Armitage ).
While on top of the ladder they drafted Harry Taylor. They found Mumford rucking for Bunyip.
2009 when we decided it wasn't worth bothering with the draft , they got Mitch Duncan.
They tended to top up when the draft was compromised, when StKilda were trying to rebuild from it.
By being competitive for so long, by keeping a lid on their salary cap ( Saints exploded theirs ) they were able to attract good trades.

They've been lucky too.
The Father/Sons, Ablett and Hawkins.
The longevity of their players, Hawkins , Selwood, Duncan, Guthrie ,"Stanley".
We lost players early from that era "Steven, Armitage (35 now) , Stevens, and moved on some like McEvoy and Stanley.

We did the big clever rebuild thing, got rid of all the old players, .....nothing to show for it.
Its getting the good players in makes you good, getting rid of the old ones ( Norfing i call it ), doesn't achieve a thing except lift spots suitable for anyone who can hold a piece of leather.

I still think that the Cats will take a bit of a plunge, despite their clever trading and topping up, they didn't draft enough either and they still seem to have a midfield hole on the Horizon.

We also had multiple changes in coaches, footy staff, admins and boards.

No continuity during that period as well as some truly incompetent people in critical roles.

Compare off field to Geelong & its more embarrassing than what happened on field.

 

[Premium]

Reckon Cordy down back under RTB and Enright might surprise a few if he gets a run at it. He was bloody good on the weekend.

I for one rated Howard far better than Cordy , knowing how Cordy has always been rated mediocre at best - However Cordy is still only 26 and we may not even of scratched the surface with how good he is knowing a lot of the bigger guys don't come good until they get to about that age .
He showed for the first time to me he was actually level headed and a steadying influence in the backline , time will tell if he can handle the tall forwards he will have to play on.

 

[Mavefromdelburn]

It’s called keeping a lid on it,otherwise the young players end up playing the game before Saturday

Treat like any other game not over the top.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Lol, I get what you're saying mate - but they've been much more lively than that in previous weeks training, that's all. Not blowing the lid off type stuff, but more vocal with each other etc.
I'm glad they're relaxed, bring the energy saturday night and really couldn't give a stuff what the energy is like at training lol

 

[Minga]

Bit of a training report:

Started with some basic tackle drills and ground ball gets under body pressure, nothing remarkable there.

Group split into two groups, both maybe 7v7 or so:
-Group A was in a roughly 40m circle, more open. Played effectively keepings off, practicing disposal by hand and foot. Surprisingly, the disposal here was actually quite good. Wood, Sinclair, Gresham, Crouch, Stocker, JB all slick.
-Group B was about the same size, more focused on the contest in tight. Dribbled ball into a contest, practicing ball movement by hand. Hunter Clark good here, Marshall strong in the contest.
-The teams swapped so no clear 1s or 2s.
-Coffield moving really well, Wilkie using it nicely.
-Odd to say for training but King looked good, was running well and seemed engaged.

Also nice to note DMAC trained with the main group for at least half of the total session, moved quite well, kept pace with everyone. Came off eventually as I suppose he had completed the load required for his body but good to see him out there.

Hammer, Hayes, and Paton came out maybe 20 minutes after all the others with the VFL boys.

Zak Jones came out very late to do some quiet laps, as did Dougal.

Then went into a 13v13 full field:
-Focus here was clearly on defensive to offensive transition (something I believe we are #1? at in the league).
-Short switch kick across the back quite deep, into long penetrative kicks to clear d50 and clear the zone into attack.
-Zlugger at Full Back, Wilkie using his disposal into the run of Webster, Sinclair, and NWM.
-No clear 1s or 2s team here, players changed bibs throughout to provide different match ups and balance.
-Coffield moving and kicking really well in this. Had great vision for a kick inside 50 lace out. Coach praised him. Really hope we don't lose him, there was chat on the Gettable podcast that he would probably not be on our list next year.
-Pure focus on getting cleanly out of d50 and into attack whilst under pressure.

Full team v team:
-Looked like the 1s maybe consisted of the team we put out against the Tigers last week, bar maybe Sharman and Battle who were on the other team (I reckon just for balance)
-Pou with the mids
-Some blind bombing inside 50, hate to see it.
-King leading quite well, had Highmore by metres multiples times.
-Butler with some poor decision kicking inside 50 for turnovers.
-Really noticed Marshall's dominance around the ground, was running TC ragged. Burnt him off.
-Ross Lyon stopping drills multiple times when something wasn't done exactly right - bring it back, do it again. And again.
-Wilkie commanding player movements in defense as always, Steele effectively silent, Crouch and Seb Ross directing players in the middle.
-1s team had some poor ball movement coming out of d50, ended in a Sinclair scrubber along the ground. Ross Lyon stopped them and asked the whole group "are you happy with that? Really?" and brought them all in for a group chat. Wasn't letting anything go today, ol' Ross.


They split off into a few different groups - Mids, Wingers and half-backs, and the fwds.
-Fwds had shots at goal, Mitchito was with this group. Kicking was decent today.
-Wings/HBs did ground ball gets with pressure on the body.
-Ross Lyon had a lengthy chat to Pou, who then went over with the mids. They were doing centre bounce contest work. Gresh in there, too.
-Fwds and HB's practicing kicking at a leading fwd. King dropped an absolute soda, but was good apart from that. Nice to see some leading at the kicker for a change.
-These drills were really low intensity.

Overall, seems like the energy was actually pretty low today compared to the last few times I'd been. Much quieter than usual, not much pumping each other up, didn't go as hard at it etc. Was quite chill. The VFL boys were working significantly harder, and were much more vocal/encouraging.
Interesting, don't know if it's just because the game against the Tigers they ran quite a lot so weren't going too hard on the legs today or what.
Hopefully we show up with significantly more energy on Saturday night lol because otherwise it's gonna be preeeeeetty flat.

Reckon we roll out the same team as last week.

Cheers.

Awesome effort on the report

 

[saintbill]

No surprise our turn of form coincided with Howard's omission

This is becoming the new Longer/Hickey debate

 

[Tommy Wigs]

Bit of a training report:

Started with some basic tackle drills and ground ball gets under body pressure, nothing remarkable there.

Group split into two groups, both maybe 7v7 or so:
-Group A was in a roughly 40m circle, more open. Played effectively keepings off, practicing disposal by hand and foot. Surprisingly, the disposal here was actually quite good. Wood, Sinclair, Gresham, Crouch, Stocker, JB all slick.
-Group B was about the same size, more focused on the contest in tight. Dribbled ball into a contest, practicing ball movement by hand. Hunter Clark good here, Marshall strong in the contest.
-The teams swapped so no clear 1s or 2s.
-Coffield moving really well, Wilkie using it nicely.
-Odd to say for training but King looked good, was running well and seemed engaged.

Also nice to note DMAC trained with the main group for at least half of the total session, moved quite well, kept pace with everyone. Came off eventually as I suppose he had completed the load required for his body but good to see him out there.

Hammer, Hayes, and Paton came out maybe 20 minutes after all the others with the VFL boys.

Zak Jones came out very late to do some quiet laps, as did Dougal.

Then went into a 13v13 full field:
-Focus here was clearly on defensive to offensive transition (something I believe we are #1? at in the league).
-Short switch kick across the back quite deep, into long penetrative kicks to clear d50 and clear the zone into attack.
-Zlugger at Full Back, Wilkie using his disposal into the run of Webster, Sinclair, and NWM.
-No clear 1s or 2s team here, players changed bibs throughout to provide different match ups and balance.
-Coffield moving and kicking really well in this. Had great vision for a kick inside 50 lace out. Coach praised him. Really hope we don't lose him, there was chat on the Gettable podcast that he would probably not be on our list next year.
-Pure focus on getting cleanly out of d50 and into attack whilst under pressure.

Full team v team:
-Looked like the 1s maybe consisted of the team we put out against the Tigers last week, bar maybe Sharman and Battle who were on the other team (I reckon just for balance)
-Pou with the mids
-Some blind bombing inside 50, hate to see it.
-King leading quite well, had Highmore by metres multiples times.
-Butler with some poor decision kicking inside 50 for turnovers.
-Really noticed Marshall's dominance around the ground, was running TC ragged. Burnt him off.
-Ross Lyon stopping drills multiple times when something wasn't done exactly right - bring it back, do it again. And again.
-Wilkie commanding player movements in defense as always, Steele effectively silent, Crouch and Seb Ross directing players in the middle.
-1s team had some poor ball movement coming out of d50, ended in a Sinclair scrubber along the ground. Ross Lyon stopped them and asked the whole group "are you happy with that? Really?" and brought them all in for a group chat. Wasn't letting anything go today, ol' Ross.


They split off into a few different groups - Mids, Wingers and half-backs, and the fwds.
-Fwds had shots at goal, Mitchito was with this group. Kicking was decent today.
-Wings/HBs did ground ball gets with pressure on the body.
-Ross Lyon had a lengthy chat to Pou, who then went over with the mids. They were doing centre bounce contest work. Gresh in there, too.
-Fwds and HB's practicing kicking at a leading fwd. King dropped an absolute soda, but was good apart from that. Nice to see some leading at the kicker for a change.
-These drills were really low intensity.

Overall, seems like the energy was actually pretty low today compared to the last few times I'd been. Much quieter than usual, not much pumping each other up, didn't go as hard at it etc. Was quite chill. The VFL boys were working significantly harder, and were much more vocal/encouraging.
Interesting, don't know if it's just because the game against the Tigers they ran quite a lot so weren't going too hard on the legs today or what.
Hopefully we show up with significantly more energy on Saturday night lol because otherwise it's gonna be preeeeeetty flat.

Reckon we roll out the same team as last week.

Cheers.

Have to say that the use of “strong in the contest” was elite.

 

[gringo2011]

Many years ago the WAFL actually had a good competition before the West Coast Eagles joined the AFL , well anyway a guy by the name of John Todd won the Sandover medal at 17 and many have said he was the best player they had seen and this was from the likes of Polly Farmer , Jack Sheedy and co , from that point on he was a target - they busted him up pretty bad just so he would not influence games and it basicaly ended his career - it is not as easy now to purposely hurt players as it was back in the day but it can still be done and I just hope it doesn't happen to him because it would be a huge loss to the game.

Diacos is a star and how much better he can get , Nas is very good however he is far taller , skinny and still maturing and I feel he has far more upside and in a couple years when he has developed he is going to be good to watch.
Just look at what he has done from his 1st to 2nd seasons is pretty good.

I'm not sure Nas will have the same career as Daicos but he's ripper regardless. He's the only kid we've had in 20 years that I can think of that has hit the ground running and made a consistent high impact at such a young age. Owens might have the higher ceiling but Nas is already a top player in our side and cemented in a spot.

 

[gringo2011]

I'll take Bont over Daicos for this years Brownlow every day of the week. The Brownlow is a tick the boxes award, and Daicos doesn't tick the one on contested possessions.

That's true but he's so obviously the best on ground in most of their games in a winning side. Bont probably wins it any other year but Daicos is insane how much he's contributed to that side. He's got the huge hype too. Not many look like a generational talent so early in their career. I can see them getting swept up in the momentum.

 

[George]

This is becoming the new Longer/Hickey debate

There's no debate, we're better off without him

 

[Mavefromdelburn]

Have to say that the use of “strong in the contest” was elite.

Haha sarcasm?
Marshall looked great today. Moving well the big fella.

 

[The Cobra]

I for one rated Howard far better than Cordy , knowing how Cordy has always been rated mediocre at best - However Cordy is still only 26 and we may not even of scratched the surface with how good he is knowing a lot of the bigger guys don't come good until they get to about that age .
He showed for the first time to me he was actually level headed and a steadying influence in the backline , time will tell if he can handle the tall forwards he will have to play on.

Cordy is sure no booming kick but one thing he does do well is hit targets over 40 metres or less.

(Hope that wasn’t a kiss of death for Saturday!).

 

[puntking]

Recon the bookies have this wrong, we definitely in better form, and don’t let their form fool u pies are average atm hawkes smashed them, think we win this and win well especially with lots of their players underdone

 

[Minga]

I'm not sure Nas will have the same career as Daicos but he's ripper regardless. He's the only kid we've had in 20 years that I can think of that has hit the ground running and made a consistent high impact at such a young age. Owens might have the higher ceiling but Nas is already a top player in our side and cemented in a spot.

Nasiah, Windy, Owens, Phillipou, King = IDGAF if it’s nuffie but imo they have very very high ceilings.

Loads of athleticism, height, evasiveness, power and ball skills between them. And got a few like Hotton and Keeler who are high ceiling prospects too.

I’d want another 2 first round draftees with this group come this off-season, fingers crossed.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

Haha sarcasm?
Marshall looked great today. Moving well the big fella.

Not at all bud. It’s the old Richo saying that we have had some fun in here with. Great report, loved it

 

[Saintos The ITK]

Nasiah, Windy, Owens, Phillipou, King = IDGAF if it’s nuffie but imo they have very very high ceilings.

Loads of athleticism, height, evasiveness, power and ball skills between them. And got a few like Hotton and Keeler who are high ceiling prospects too.

I’d want another 2 first round draftees with this group come this off-season, fingers crossed.

Wouldn’t it be nice to jag another couple.
Keeler and Hottie may already be there sitting right under our noses ready to burst out as well.
Not writing off Heath either. He could run to another team for opportunity at some stage or stay and have the shortest afl career ever.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I'll take Bont over Daicos for this years Brownlow every day of the week. The Brownlow is a tick the boxes award, and Daicos doesn't tick the one on contested possessions.

Unfortunately decided by the people who don't know which side of a white line you're standing when you mark the ball.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Absolute cracking training reports Mavefromdelburn

Very much appreciated

 

[XhazzafootyX]

that nervous already ffs

 

[Circus]

I've only seen Heath on the VFL streaming of Sandy games, but he seems to have every attribute you'd want a young ruckman to have. I'm interested in the thoughts of posters who know him and have watched his development. It looks like he plays a smart game too.

 

[gringo2011]

Cordy is sure no booming kick but one thing he does do well is hit targets over 40 metres or less.

(Hope that wasn’t a kiss of death for Saturday!).

Howard is actually a very solid kick. It's usually the selling himself into trouble that stuffs him up. When he'd kick out he'd struggle but he would have been instructed where to kick. I'm a Howard v Cordy agnostic. Until Cordy has a decent form line to compare to Howard's we don't really know who's better.

 

[Mavefromdelburn]

Same, same.

They get Hawkins back, but Stanley and Rohan out.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Ross Lyon stopped them and asked the whole group "are you happy with that? Really?" and brought them all in for a group chat. Wasn't letting anything go today, ol' Ross.

You love to see/hear it!

Thanks for the report. Always good to hear what’s going on.