Roast Cooked against the Saints - Rd 2, 2019

[mike14]

I was flabbergasted at the mere suggestion about 4 weeks ago, now I can’t see how it could make anything any worse?
My memory stretches back to the mid 80’s flags and I honestly cannot remember footy as poor as our last 2 games (last year V Hawks and Blues was very very close though).

It would show that we as a club have absolutely no clue going forward. Hird was nothing special during his time as coach, especially tactically, and reagrdless of how much blame he should carry, he was part of the bleakest period in the club's existence. If we are going to move forward we should be looking for innovation, not going back to well of past club greats, especially ones that have been out of the game for a few years.

 

[Gumby2Hurley]

yikes

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

It would show that we as a club have absolutely no clue going forward. Hird was nothing special during his time as coach, especially tactically, and reagrdless of how much blame he should carry, he was part of the bleakest period in the club's existence. If we are going to move forward we should be looking for innovation, not going back to well of past club greats, especially ones that have been out of the game for a few years.

I do agree with all of that. That being said, I don’t think we have a clue, I think that’s why we are where we are now.

 

[JayJ20]

**** it.....what is the worst that could happen? If we can’t compete we might as well be hated campaigners rather than just pitied and walked over. View attachment 644896

Haha we can’t even handle the pressure of a football game. Having the shit show we moved away from coming back to the club will destroy us more. If we do change coaches, I’d rather someone who has done time as an assistant coach like Ratten or Caracella

 

[fishardansin]

I just got ******* done for having my feet on the chair on the train

Just don't pay the fine. Nothing happens. Trust me. Parking fines and public transport fines mean nothing. Throw them in the bin. If you get driving fines that have points attached to them get a psychologist to write a letter, have the fine reduced greatly, points cut in half and Then make a deal to pay it off at $5 per month.

Unless they're means tested fines are a joke. Have you noticed pigs and gumbies only bother you when you have a hoodie on but don't when you have a suit on.

I'll be missed off at you if you pay it.

 

[Eleven 38]

bringing in shiel was good, but it doesnt fix players like myers zaharakis baguley, theyve been apart of a losing culture for 10 years and they just dont hate losing enough. And they are dragging younger players down with them.

Hurley hates losing you can tell, but until we have 22players hitting the field all hating losing as much as him we arent improving.

 

[TheBrightSide]

Could agree with all except Tipungwuti for now... only listened to the call. I'll shut up.

Tippa’s not right at the moment. His worst ever game today, by a long way too.

 

[CBombers17]

We are playing like the AFL had to bring the season forward by a month because of some emergency.

This is the type of game a side with some leadership finds a way to win despite playing like rubbish. Hurley showed that kind of leadership today but few others followed unfortunately. They are playing like a newly formed expansion team when they should be a well oiled machine by now.

There were some signs of improvement but the Club would be/should be gutted to come out and play like that in the first quarter then lose against this mob at home.

Get Hirdy in for the rest of the season and then start again with a full review of - everything - at the end of the year. As someone else mentioned, at least the rest of the Comp will hate us for it. I'd take that over this shit.

 

[Bombermania]

I think people are being bit unfair on Walla, the guy is a crumbing small forward yet tonight there were times when he was essentially the main leading forward and as such he was up against bigger defenders.

 

[JayJ20]

I think people are being bit unfair on Walla, the guy is a crumbing small forward yet tonight there were times when he was essentially the main leading forward and as such he was up against bigger defenders.

He wasn’t great outside of that either.

I’d like to see a stat detailing who we target most going forward. Walla has to be top 2

 

[MightyDon]

It would show that we as a club have absolutely no clue going forward. Hird was nothing special during his time as coach, especially tactically, and reagrdless of how much blame he should carry, he was part of the bleakest period in the club's existence. If we are going to move forward we should be looking for innovation, not going back to well of past club greats, especially ones that have been out of the game for a few years.

9-1 was a shit start to the season

 

[quotemokc]

I guess the good thing is that as a collective it's pretty evident that the club can't, or doesn't, give a shit, which makes it much easier for me not to. Not quite sure why I stuck it out for the whole game, it was a terrible spectacle by 2 very average teams, made worse by the fact that the Saints looked incredible by comparison to us.
With it looking incredibly unlikely that we'd mount a serious comeback in teh 2nd half it was interesting to focus more on what we were doing around the ground rather than on the football. Our forward line is dysfunctional/basically non-existent. The only player who actually moves in any manner that resembles a leading pattern is Tippa, which may explain why we are hell bent on kicking to him regardless of how out matched he is. We look to play on quickly from half-back but never have any overlap run or players working hard to create numbers at the next contest, because of this we then have to hold the ball up and end up kicking to contests down the line. Most of the time at the contest we get sucked in, leaving an easy out for the opposition behind the pack.
Defensively our backs work pretty well one on one and can get across to support each other (need to play in front from the restart a bit more for the quick kick in), but our midfield doesn't work back hard enough so they get out-numbered.
Our field kicking and goal kicking are both below standard, which is a huge worry as these are the fundamentals of the game. Likewise, our ability to pick out stationary targets and but the ball to their disadvantage is impressive, but probably not what you want from a team that should be pushing for finals.
You often hear commentators talk about 'midfield craft'; it's very evident that our midfielders don't understand this craft. They setup wrong, they approuch the contest wrong, they block when they should get the ball and vice versa, they don't know how to make space for each other. Couple all that with average skills, average pace and poor defensive running and you can see why we'll struggle to win games.

Hurley put his head over the ball all day and played hard for 4 qtrs
Francis was good but his disposal let him down, which is surprising because his kicking was beautiful at the end of last year
Stringer was good until he got in front of goal
McGrath could at least find the footy and kept going to try and get it, still has a touch of the fumbles. Looks better coming of half-back than through the middle
Saad was good but the opposition is being very smart in dragging him back to goal square
Shiel can find the footy and has pace and poise, but his decision making and foot skills were dreadful
Heppel at least lifted in the 2nd half after a disappointing 1st
Merrett ditto although he was still pretty damn average
TBC is either really lazy or has no idea where to run. Far too many times Smack and he were within 15m of each other and neither in a position to influence the next contest.
Call him the scapegoat is you want but Zaharakis shouldn't be playing senior footy for at least the next few weeks. His 'efforts' for a senior player on response to what was dished up last week were just pathetic. He was soft at the contest, could barely stick a tackle and was very poor with disposal and decision making. All players need to be made aware that performances like that are not acceptable.
I have no idea what Baguley is meant to do for this team
Same for Myers
Tippa and Fantasia are both seriously out of touch. If Fantasia isn't fit yet, don't play him
Guelfi is just kind of 'there'
Smith is being asked to carry the entire midfield and he just can't, even though he tries
Langford isn't a midfielder and the experiment needs to end
McKenna was dreadful.

As a footy club we're pretty good at running a business...

Criticism of kicking skills is fair play, but how often do we seem to have players in places to kick to that are not a contest?

 

[Mootsy]

Two goals and we win the game, that’s a fact.

 

[Blind Turn]

I was flabbergasted at the mere suggestion about 4 weeks ago, now I can’t see how it could make anything any worse?
My memory stretches back to the mid 80’s flags and I honestly cannot remember footy as poor as our last 2 games (last year V Hawks and Blues was very very close though).

I agree. When you put it into perspective, with the list talent we have, I’d say that these two games are the most insipid I’ve seen from supposed professional sportsmen. The only addition I’d make is that the Anzac Day game is my pick for worst of last year by some way.

We’ve had annihilation games like Sydney slaughtering us in ‘87 and the Hawks in ‘92 but those teams were either waning or young and learning. The fundamental dumb errors, fumbling, and lack of intensity from blokes that we know can perform at a very high level is quite simply astounding.

I’m sick of lame excuses from senior club officionados, including Woosha. I was happy to give them time to assemble a squad and regroup from the saga but I’ve reached the limit of my tolerance now. They are very close to losing my interest after 40 years of affection.

I promised a mate I’d bring a soapbox to this thread. I could go on but nobody would be bothered reading it. Which is fair enough. Blah blah blah Essington blah blah blah...

 

[mike14]

9-1 was a shit start to the season

Was it? Seemed pretty good to me. But 7-3 to finish off 2018 was pretty good, so I guess keep Woosha?

 

[calyam]

I think people are being bit unfair on Walla, the guy is a crumbing small forward yet tonight there were times when he was essentially the main leading forward and as such he was up against bigger defenders.

There are players who play well because their teammates are playing well. They are complementary players if you will. Small crumbling forwards often fall into that category.

I think the effort has been there but until the midfield begins to function well and our talk forwards provide an option it will be tough for Walla. Same thing happened early last year.

 

[mike14]

Two goals and we win the game, that’s a fact.

By the same token, if St Kilda were slightly more accurate early then this game was over at 1/4 time

 

[dougyboy]

Two goals and we win the game, that’s a fact.

and if they kicked straight in the 1st quarter?

 

[Macca18]

5 home and away games ago... we won this same fixture by 43 points with several key personnel missing plus other injuries on the night.

Have St Kilda really improved that much?

 

[TDay]

Two goals and we win the game, that’s a fact.

If we were serious we would've won this by ten goals

 

[TDay]

At least we are improving trade relations with GWS by getting them an awesome first round draft pick

 

[Mootsy]

and if they kicked straight in the 1st quarter?

Then they outsmarted us

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

With Melbourne getting pounded looks like another big clash next week. We could kickstart their season. Will never forget that goal they got right at the death a few years ago when Heath Hocking pretty much jumped out of the way off the Melbourne player and they ran it down the field and won the game.

 

[fishardansin]

Something is amiss with Tippa and Fanta. Coaches have stuffed up our forward line and our ability to have a target coming out of defence by getting Stewart to beef up 18 months ago. Keep him out of the gym ffs and get him running 10km every day for a month.

Merrett was pretty shit so was Heppell. Zaka was terrible, like really bad. McKernan can take a grab, but we need a CHF working up the ground and McKernan to stay home.

I love Adam Saad. What a third-quarter!!

Saints set up well across the ground in the first half. When someone stood the mark they had two guys at a diagonal 5m either side of them. It meant that we couldn't run and carry from a free kick or mark. We were lost when that happened. When we set up there was always a hole over the top of the man on the mark. Geary was huge for them.

Third quarter we had a very different structure and the players were given more freedom to hunt the opposition and ball, as well as take the game on with the ball in hand. Chalk and cheese.

We need to make huge changes this week. Brown, Guelfi and Baguely are spuds. Myers and Langford are mediocre. Zaka is playing like a spud. They all need to be dropped this week.

Having said all that, Lance Uppercut is 100% correct. It is only a game so let's not get too carried away. I suggest ya'll have a big cup of meh.

 

[dougyboy]

Tippa’s not right at the moment. His worst ever game today, by a long way too.

I cant throw it on him. He is being asked to be one our forward targets. Its not his roll. he's a crumber at the fall of the ball. just watch him, he will run forward of the pack,but with no one home, he has to compete. The coaches ought to be held accountable for this. Hurley is a beast of a competitor, but he is too slow with his defense to attack - re Rance