Autopsy Crows hammer Saints by 63 in round 1

[Fehring]

Some belated observations about the game that I've been ruminating on.

• Their D50 set up was elite. On a par with Hawthorn's. Even when we transitioned quickly, they'd often somehow have got six blokes back already.
• Riley Thilthorpe's defensive efforts in their F50 were elite. And not just that chase down on Nas, but little hands in to disrupt Saints defenders, dynamically guarding space, that sort of thing.
• If you're going to base your game on turnover, that's fine, but you can't totally suck at clearances and groundballs. Because of the cleanness of their exit from stoppages and contests, when we did turn it over, we were on our heels with enormous pressure coming at us. We don't necessarily need to win that many more clearances, but we need to make our opponents' clearances a lot dirtier.
• Nicks may actually be able to coach.

 

[gringo2011]

You're forgetting Carlton, Geelong, Brisbane, Sydney and GWS

Saints fielded 7th oldest 23

But as I mentioned in an earlier post, our distribution is unusual. Lots of old guys and lots of young guys and inexperienced guys. More than the competition average in those.

That was from Champion Data, you might need to contact them. The list for the week, not the year. Essendon were the youngest side this last round. They also won everywhere against the Hawks but on the score board.

 

[gringo2011]

A little fact to put things into perspective is that our best 5 players of the past decade weren't expected to be stars, and St Kilda got them all for a steal:

Wilkie - SANFL, rookie draft

Marshall- VFL, rookie draft

Steele - GWS, future draft pick (pick 27)

Sinclair - Rookie draft

Membrey- Technically a delisted free agent. Requested trade to St Kilda and couldn't agree on trade terms. Sydney agreed to delist him.

Meanwhile most top draft picks were flops, or not what we hoped. McCartin, Billings, Clark, Coffield.

Who knows who our next star will be? Could be Tauru or Travaglia. Could be Max Hall.

Could spend 5 years in bottom 2 like North. Could never drop into the bottom 2, then bounce back to premiership favouritism like Hawthorn.

Who knows!

Which is great but they didn't have them as the sugar on the cereal so are still in no man's land. We needed to have nailed the National Draft as the baseline of a list build. If we'd got both right we would have been a top side. Pretty sure Toce found Wilkie in SA when he was a talent spotter for us.

Your recruitment staff are more important than your coach when you aren't in challenge mode. We failed to address it for years. We were drafting at a lower rate of quality after the early 2000s.

By the time that Trout was in charge we were almost impossibly bad. We literally have had the least FAs, least 23 under 23s, the least finals appearances, the least player awards etc. The system is set up to make it easy for lower clubs to vault back up the ladder.

We at least have turned it around and employ a recruiter that has an impeccable record for list quality on the back of exceptional work from Toce. If we jump back up the ladder in this build a lot will be on the back of his work.

 

[PJays]

That was from Champion Data, you might need to contact them.

if so, they're incorrect

Where did you see their data?

anyone can look up the ages of each game on AFL Tables. This isn't rocket science

The list for the week, not the year.

and St Kilda was 7th oldest

St Kilda's average age was 25y 296d

AFL Tables - Adelaide v St Kilda - Sun, 16-Mar-2025 12:05 PM (11:35 AM) - Match Stats

Collingwood, Geelong, Brisbane, Carlton, GWS, Sydney fielded older teams on the weekend.

Look it up for yourself:

AFL Tables - 2025 Season Scores

And St Kilda will be younger this week without Boyd and Cordy, replacing them with young guys.

There was 9 players aged 22 or under last week. I don't think anyone else played more. Will have 10 this week.

 

[PoppedCorn]

so the data provider used by clubs for all the stats...is wrong?

 

[PJays]

so the data provider used by clubs for all the stats...is wrong?

Show me where Champion Data said St Kilda was the 2nd oldest team last week.

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Show me where Champion Data said St Kilda was the 2nd oldest team last week.

Only heard the 7th oldest as you’ve said

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Not perfect with a couple of 2 game teams but will be close

 

[gringo2011]

Show me where Champion Data said St Kilda was the 2nd oldest team last week.

SEN, it was Daniel Hoyne. You'd have to look it up.

 

[gringo2011]

Show me where Champion Data said St Kilda was the 2nd oldest team last week.

Maybe it was 7th and I misheard it if that's what others suggest.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Makes no difference if we were the oldest or the youngest, the demographic that matters is that we were pretty much the shittest.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

SEN, it was Daniel Hoyne. You'd have to look it up.

Someone described him as "the smartest man in footy" yet he can't figure out the use of his or he's.
Constantly banging on about "he's ability".
Serious john and betty stuff boomer prep school stuff.

See John run , he's good at running.
John has a ball , he likes his ball.

No-one commenting on women would say , "She's ability is very high".
And i really don't care what the transgenders want me to say, "their ability i'd guess at "

 

[Teflon]

One thing I noticed is we often got sucked in like bees to a honey pot. Swarming the guy with the ball. Only for it to get chained to the outside and off the other end. This is a structural issue.

Yep saw that too
When we are “off” aka lose structure we panic and do this
I don’t see it as instructions its execution
Last year last half season you didn’t see this as much
Watching Hawks tonight ….amazing tactics…soon as you’re tackled/wrapped up …they just drop the footy ….looks like it’s been knocked out but it hasn’t
Dogs do it too

 

[jimmytigs]

this loss not looking so bad

even better when gresham burns a couple team mates trying to kick one from 50,that helicopters miles off target

 

[Train12]

this loss not looking so bad

even better when gresham burns a couple team mates trying to kick one from 50,that helicopters miles off target

In Melbourne as well and severely undermanned.

 

[PJays]

I hope Saints fans feeling better about last week now

Adelaide will go top 8 and potentially top 4

They are a club with historical form in that space- 2004 to 2005 they jumped from 8 wins to 17. 2011 to 2012 7 wins to 17 wins.

You get that general crowd/home advantage they have with a raucous home crowd and plenty of South Australians living in Melbourne, combined with a soft fixture and a good run with injuries, and the comp is even enough that it isn't surprising that's happened a few times. This year potentially the next instalment

 

[Saints43]

I hope Saints fans feeling better about last week now

Nope.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Show me where Champion Data said St Kilda was the 2nd oldest team last week.

im saying that teams and clubs use it and even get access to stats we dont, or used to anyway

im asking you if you think theyd be wrong
i couldnt give a flying **** either way
im interested to know of the main data place is providing wrong info

 

[PJays]

im interested to know of the main data place is providing wrong info

Very unlikely

Probably Gringo just misheard something then posted it here.

 

[stfan]

I hope Saints fans feeling better about last week now

While you do have a valid point on us having so many more very young and inexperienced players, it does not excuse how extremely poor out team was, and especially a number of our older players.


Overall the the "Special Sauce" was almost completely lacking in our playing group.

We are meant to a fast and hard running team. We looked slow and lazy.

Connection. Lack of hardwork meant this was very lacking by most.

If we continue to roll out the above three, even when we get more players back, we will stay a rabble.

So tonight against the Cats whether we lose or not I want to see evidence that the players are good in all of those aspects.

 

[Diehard Saint]

I hope Saints fans feeling better about last week now

Adelaide will go top 8 and potentially top 4

They are a club with historical form in that space- 2004 to 2005 they jumped from 8 wins to 17. 2011 to 2012 7 wins to 17 wins.

You get that general crowd/home advantage they have with a raucous home crowd and plenty of South Australians living in Melbourne, combined with a soft fixture and a good run with injuries, and the comp is even enough that it isn't surprising that's happened a few times. This year potentially the next instalment

I don’t feel better just because another team is equally sh*t.

What Essendon does/ does not do means nothing to me.

 

[g_TRAIN]

Round 1.

1. Essendon - 24yr 7mth
2. Fremantle - 24yr 8mth
3. Richmond - 24yr 10mth
4. West Coast - 25yr 3mth
5. North Melbourne - 25yr 3mth
6. Western Bulldogs - 25yr 4mth
7. Hawthorn - 25yr 6mth
8. Gold Coast - 25yr 6mth
9. Melbourne - 25yr 6mth
10. Adelaide - 25yr 8mth
11. Port Adelaide - 25yr 9mth
12. St Kilda - 25yr 10mth
13. Geelong - 26yr 0mth
14. Carlton - 26yr 2mth
15. GWS - 26yr 2mth
16. Sydney - 26yr 3mth
17. Brisbane - 26yr 5mth
18. Collingwood - 28yr 4mth

Anyway anyone talking about just averages is in idiot, you need to look a lot deeper than that when assessing a list.

We had multiple guys debut, one of whom was 26.

This is different from our list as whole that is ranked 14th oldest.

 

[PJays]

Nope.

I don’t feel better just because another team is equally sh*t.

What Essendon does/ does not do means nothing to me.

You should care

Cos the team who piled 21 goals on us just kicked 25 on Essendon - the highest score by an interstate team at the G since 2013.

Getting smashed by a top 4/top 6 team is a very different thing to being smashed by a bottom 6 team. Especially when you are riddled with injuries and underdone players

 

[PJays]

While you do have a valid point on us having so many more very young and inexperienced players, it does not excuse how extremely poor out team was, and especially a number of our older players.

To my amateur eyes it was a combination of A. St Kilda looking sluggish, out of form and poorly skilled and B. Adelaide red hot, executing well in front of a home crowd and looking like a finals team

Both A and B were true- it's not either/or

It isn't surprising though when Saints are injury riddled and underdone.

What frustrates me is people irrationally jumping to pessimism.

That pessimism must be placed in context- that we were playing strong opposition, which is becoming clearer by the week.

 

[stfan]

To my amateur eyes it was a combination of A. St Kilda looking sluggish, out of form and poorly skilled and B. Adelaide red hot, executing well in front of a home crowd and looking like a finals team

Both A and B were true- it's not either/or

It isn't surprising though when Saints are injury riddled and underdone.

What frustrates me is people irrationally jumping to pessimism.

That pessimism must be placed in context- that we were playing strong opposition, which is becoming clearer by the week.

It is not pessimism on my part. I know that we are rebuilding.

I am in the Montagna Camp. Unlikely to make the 8 this year, but possible if all goes well and we have some youth step up.

Adelaide were the clear favourites Last week.

The problem was that mentally a lot of our players were subpar. That is not pessimism, it is the reality of what happened.

So it is not that we lost, it is how we lost.

Let's hope the team turns around those aspects tonight.