Autopsy 2nd Elimination Final, 2023: St.Kilda v GWS *WEBSTER 150TH* *BATTLE 100TH*

[George]

A shame but overall we got to where I thought we would. Bottom half of the eight and a bonus if we won a final.

Missed the second half and no point watching the replay but clearly midfield depth is a massive priority next year. We got thumped in there either side of qtr time.

 

[gringo2011]

Watching it we got smashed in clearance (so many shrugged tackles and front of clearance clean ball) and spread (especially overlap and carry from defence).

Tactically we gave them 30m from every kick in and they took it everytime, was weird.

We don't like fast teams either, stops us setting up, they were also skilful so didn't turn over enough for us to reload. Then they were arseing goals on top of that.

We seemed to only want to set up tall forwards. They snapped and bombed and just took every half chance. Our small forwards are iffy. Probably need to look at replacing one or both at some point.

Cordy was struggling, I think Howard would have held up better. Cordy was all at sea. Got behind when he should have been in front, lost his man, got in front when he should have been behind. He had a mare. Webster really struggled too. Looked too slow and immobile.

A real first use bull and some outside run would be nice.

 

[gringo2011]

Won heaps more hitiouts but they had equal hitouts to advantage. So didn't given them first use more.

Looked good at the ground.

 

[George]

St Blunda rolls on.

And you’ll add Liam Henry. That’s the kind of footballer that will take your forward in finals…… NOT

Irrelevant since '95 and one finals win you're all up and about. Must be starved for some positivity in your life.

Anyway, have a week off, plonker extraordinaire.

 

[beside the seaside]

I found a part of my soul today that I'd thought was lost. I have been a much more subdued supporter since the kiddos came along a few years back (good example and all that), but a couple of dodgy ump decisions and the buzz of a big saints crowd bought it back, the yelling, screaming, one-eyed animal.....and I loved it.

Be proud boys, this Year of Exploration has been a raging success, and you gave everything today. 40 down before half time would have been easy to go down by 80. The young lads will learn plenty from today.

Really hope we can capitalise on this season and see some pumping nights at Marvel in 2024, be that team that no one wants to play once again.

Well said mate. We showed so much heart today, could have easily rolled over but we fought and fought.

Something has definitely awoken this season. Saints out in droves today. Can't wait for 2024.

 

[gringo2011]

Disappointed

But a hugely successful season. We had so many challenges and they still came today.

Our young kids probably had a long hard season catch up with them. Their “kids” further down the track then us.

Future is bright but it’s lacking a gun mid.

“A year of exploration” - we found a lot. We found some future stars. We found what the list demographic is for us and it’s probably another 2-3 years away from “contending”

Make some hard calls. Go to the draft and build.

We have the right coach. We have a top nucleus.

Disappointing we couldn’t do 120 minutes with the giants. But it was always the risk for us. It’s the where we are in our evolution. We need to match the effort as we won’t win on skill at the minute.

If you’re carrying on as a supporter like the world is ending after today. After this season. You need a lie down.

Be proud of where we came from. The growth. The identity. Now we need the hard calls and some luck our way.

Go Sainters!

3 years and we'll be rebuilding again. Sincs, Steele and Marshall types will be on the wane.

 

[gringo2011]

Few paid actors about today

On Pixel 7 using BigFooty.com mobile app

We sat next to them. They were actually a pretty solid and committed group of fans. Much bigger group than I imagined and spread further than just the Cheer Squad. I was actually surprised that any of them came. It's obviously getting some traction.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

We don't like fast teams either, stops us setting up, they were also skilful so didn't turn over enough for us to reload. Then they were arseing goals on top of that.

We seemed to only want to set up tall forwards. They snapped and bombed and just took every half chance. Our small forwards are iffy. Probably need to look at replacing one or both at some point.

Cordy was struggling, I think Howard would have held up better. Cordy was all at sea. Got behind when he should have been in front, lost his man, got in front when he should have been behind. He had a mare. Webster really struggled too. Looked too slow and immobile.

A real first use bull and some outside run would be nice.

I'm not convinced we will be in a position to draft a top level mid this year, and if we can't i'd rather try to get a very promising small forward ( because they don't normally go as early in the draft ) than some guy who's flaws we probably already know.
( History suggests we probably won't be able to fix that guy with the iffy undamaging disposal ).

 

[MUFASA12]

Bummer we lost, but bottom line I’m sending all my thoughts and best wishes to Tim membrey

28

Tim Membrey

Age

30

Ht

188cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

8.1

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.8

5star

T

1.5

3star

G

1.8

5star

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

2star

M

4.5

4star

T

1.3

2star

G

1.5

5star

D

9.6

3star

K

4.8

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.4

4star

G

0.6

3star

, life is bigger than football and I can probably speak for us all, we’re all right behind him

 

[DougalHoward]

Cordy fanclub very quiet tonight

 

[gringo2011]

We tried, but we’re outclassed across the field. The GWS midfield won it although Steele got lots of possessions and rest of the mids went missing, the GWS midfield did better and provided better support in their forward and back half. Clearly Pou will need to build up his body strength, as does Hammer and Sharman, but Sharman is probably our smartest ball user and will play a role like Gunston did at Hawthorn eventually. Really disappointed in our smalls who didn’t bust their gut anywhere near enough in a big game. Hill was very good and NAS played some good footy. Lyon was a bit slow in changing things early when GWS got a run on, but let’s hope next year sees a stronger Saints- we stayed in the top half of the ladder which is good.

Effort can't match talent when they equal the effort unfortunately. We tried but fell short. We lack high end still.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

A shame but overall we got to where I thought we would. Bottom half of the eight and a bonus if we won a final.

Missed the second half and no point watching the replay but clearly midfield depth is a massive priority next year. We got thumped in there either side of qtr time.

How the **** are you communicating?

I'm at Crown with the worst communication on earth.

You near the edge of space crystal clear?

HOW?

 

[Speck]

Beaten by the better team today.

Next year will be interesting - likely a harder draw and mostly the same team. I can see us going backwards as we prioritise development and look to peak in 2-3 years time, seeing as we'll be hitting the draft without improving the midfield much (Dow will help and hopefully Owens goes in much more, but I don't think that will be game changing).

I'm going to make an outlandish call here but I'm a bit worried that Max King

12

Max King

Age

24

Ht

202cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.3

2star

K

4.7

2star

HB

2.6

2star

M

2.7

3star

T

0.7

3star

G

1.4

5star

D

7.3

2star

K

4.7

2star

HB

2.6

2star

M

2.7

3star

T

0.7

1star

G

1.4

5star

D

8.0

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

2.8

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

0.6

3star

G

1.4

5star

will end up like Joe Daniher. He had 5 good minutes today but he really looks like he doesn't care out there. I'm concerned he's had it too easy as a junior being super tall and hasn't learnt to work super hard for it. All the talent in the world though so I hope he puts it together. I can just see him never hitting his full potential.

 

[beside the seaside]

Beaten by the better team today.

Next year will be interesting - likely a harder draw and mostly the same team. I can see us going backwards as we prioritise development and look to peak in 2-3 years time, seeing as we'll be hitting the draft without improving the midfield much (Dow will help and hopefully Owens goes in much more, but I don't think that will be game changing).

I'm going to make an outlandish call here but I'm a bit worried that Max King will end up like Joe Daniher. He had 5 good minutes today but he really looks like he doesn't care out there. I'm concerned he's had it too easy as a junior being super tall and hasn't learnt to work super hard for it. All the talent in the world though so I hope he puts it together. I can just see him never hitting his full potential.

Joe Daniher was in the AA squad this year. Can play.

 

[phantom13]

They had 14 center clearances, Saints had 11, but point taken about how clean they were.

Other Stats i thought were relevant:
Marks inside 50 , Saints 9, GWS 15. ( And kicks into the 50 were fairly even).
Efficiency inside 50, 41 vs 56%

Yeh I copped some shit for saying Briggs beat Marshall in the centre tap work but in reality he was a huge part of getting the ball in to his guys or our to his guys and making space. Same at around the ground stoppages too, we had one clean one to Mitch in the last quarter, they had a few.

 

[Mat Mann]

Yeah
But a better midfield would make our defence much stronger

how good would a May or a Moore be though! what a luxury to have a back who can stop the ball!


was awesome to see so many Sainters there today young and old
Marshall best on for us
has anyone checked on Cairnsman re:Cooper, best game yet

got smacked pretty well all day
plenty to like from the year but also plenty to still be concerned about

 

[gringo2011]

Beaten by the better team today.

Next year will be interesting - likely a harder draw and mostly the same team. I can see us going backwards as we prioritise development and look to peak in 2-3 years time, seeing as we'll be hitting the draft without improving the midfield much (Dow will help and hopefully Owens goes in much more, but I don't think that will be game changing).

I'm going to make an outlandish call here but I'm a bit worried that Max King will end up like Joe Daniher. He had 5 good minutes today but he really looks like he doesn't care out there. I'm concerned he's had it too easy as a junior being super tall and hasn't learnt to work super hard for it. All the talent in the world though so I hope he puts it together. I can just see him never hitting his full potential.

I agree, I think we go backwards next year. New coach bounce will wear off and some of the kids development is unlikely to be linear.

King is the type that will be a star in a better side. You can't find quality tall forwards easily so really just have to build the side up around him. He's in first gear and still our highest scoring player. We need to keep developing him.

 

[Plugger35]

Couldn't fault our effort today, we just lacked in skills and execution.

The only time I really get pissed off with a loss is when we don't bring the effort and just roll over but we fought hard all day today.

It was looking like it could have been an embarrassing blow out at stages but we fought back and at least kept the margin respectable.

We also got given a good lesson on what it takes to win finals so hopefully we can take the next step next year and start winning them.

We sat next to them. They were actually a pretty solid and committed group of fans. Much bigger group than I imagined and spread further than just the Cheer Squad. I was actually surprised that any of them came. It's obviously getting some traction.

Sounds like they have started to get some proper supporters now rather than just a bunch of AFL paid actors pretending to be supporters.

Or maybe their acting skills are just getting better.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Effort can't match talent when they equal the effort unfortunately. We tried but fell short. We lack high end still.

Something which should surprise nobody as we have discussed it constantly all year.
It won’t be a quick fix unfortunately, but here’s hoping the list management team can earn their pay packet now.
Henry is a good start.

 

[gringo2011]

Couldn't fault our effort today, we just lacked in skills and execution.

The only time I really get pissed off with a loss is when we don't bring the effort and just roll over but we fought hard all day.

It was looking like it could have been an embarrassing blow out at stages but we fought back and at least kept the margin respectable.

We also got given a good lesson on what it takes to win finals so hopefully we can take the next step next year and start winning them.




Sounds like they have started to get some proper supporters now rather than just a bunch of AFL paid actors pretending to be supporters.

Or maybe their acting skills are just getting better.

They have an incessant drum going and are loud and were winding up Saints fans. They were genuinely annoying which is pretty solid for a plastic club.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

My workplace Monday is going to full of pissed saints fans

 

[Saintbloke]

Just wrapping it up for me, I thought we were too defensive on too many occasions, especially in the first half and Kingsley woke up to this quickly. King needs to work a bit harder in owning his position although he is a skilled tall player, needs to impose himself. Go Saints

 

[Tyrian Lonestar]

I agree, I think we go backwards next year. New coach bounce will wear off and some of the kids development is unlikely to be linear.

King is the type that will be a star in a better side. You can't find quality tall forwards easily so really just have to build the side up around him. He's in first gear and still our highest scoring player. We need to keep developing him.

Agree King is in 1st gear.
A V8 in 1st gear!

 

[Mat Mann]

I agree, I think we go backwards next year. New coach bounce will wear off and some of the kids development is unlikely to be linear.

King is the type that will be a star in a better side. You can't find quality tall forwards easily so really just have to build the side up around him. He's in first gear and still our highest scoring player. We need to keep developing him.

he concerns me tho, from his complete lack of run, varying effort levels and the inability to mark with hands outstretched on leads

 

[beside the seaside]

Now that the dust has settled it's still so hard to get your head around losing Membrey the morning of the game. The players did well to keep their heads in the game.

Really hope whatever has happened that he is ok