Autopsy Review v Swans

[hayes]

No surprise that teams are starting to work out our bomb it long gameplan. If we continue to struggle with that be interesting to see if we go back to downsizing that backline with Roberton as the third tall again to bring in an extra runner and kicker out of the back half. If you can't move the ball out of defense you are done in today's footy.

 

[Sir Skid]

Swans were spreading as we went into 50 anticipating our sloppy entry and turnovers.
They are a good side and well above their poor start to the year.

 

[The Jack]

You bloody campaigners, Paddy never had a chance, he is our deep forward. You want him to impact the game then put him where the ball is, or get off his back. He plays to structures ffs

To be fair, structures don't cause him to drop marks or miss tackles. He didn't get many opportunities, but when he did he didn't look great.

I want him to be a star by the way.

 

[70s sainter]

I want Paddy to be the next Plugger as much as anyone and today was a nightmare day to be a key forward for the Saints. But it's time to take of the rose coloured glasses where Paddy's concerned. The reality is he is yet to play one good 4 quarter game in the AFL. Sure we get plenty of cameos of what he can do but in my book until I see it on the big stage he is just a good VFL player. We are happy to use that label to describe Minchington and Wright but in fairness at least they have occasionally delivered in the big league. Not so Paddy.

This is not a knock on the guy or a comparison with Josh Bruce who no doubt would've struggled today also. I 'm just waiting for him to take a game by the scruff of the neck and so far he hasn't come close to doing it. Personally, I reckon the media got Paddy selected this week with unfounded suggestions that he was an unhappy camper. Sure he kicked 4 at Sandy last week but...meh. I remember many times TDL kicked 5 or 6 goals for Sandy but he never came close to translating it onto the AFL arena.

We will all live in hope that the next game will be Paddy's break out day but frankly I'm over it and will just applaud it when it happens. In the meantime we have to suffer and watch Petracca evolve into the great player every one with open eyes knew he would be.

I also think the timing of Paddy's selection this time around was crazy. We changed a lineup that had won 3 straight games and brought him in when we were facing the Swans, Dogs and Crows. You can almost see the writing on the wall from here. He'll play those games then get dropped back to Sandy with zero confidence. I wouldn't have cared if he had played another 6 games in the VFL. Let him build up a undeniable run of form and then bring him into the side when we have a run of winnable games.

Again, I'm not blaming him in anyway for the sh.it performance by the team today but the time has well and truly arrived when he stop creaming over his small highlight real and demand more.

Agree with this sentiment except for the part that paddys inclusion over Bruce wasn't justified at the time . We had 50 odd inside 50s last week and Bruce didn't get on the end of enough of them . Most people thought paddy couldn't be any worse do why not .
Our delivery inside 50 today was deplorable. The whole high speed thing didn't work at all .

 

[austinnn]

No shame in getting beaten by a faster better team. Very disappointed we couldn't smarten up though and pick our way through the scrums.

So many of our kicks were to static targets which were intercepted by Swans. We just needed to slow the game down and work harder to find space.

Its sad to see a few of us using the sledging brouhaha of the week or the open roof as mitigating circumstances. Hopefully our coaches and players don't.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Going early here will probably get howled down but in order for us to move for Riewoldt needs to go after this season followed by Montagna.

Roo chases the ball and the structures around him actually fall down. Teams allow him to lead up but then drop a player back thus prohibiting our fast ball movement.

Skill level is absolutely patethic from 80% of the side when the pressure is on.

Acres, Brown, Carlisle, Billings and Gilbert can hold there head up after this game.

Midfield got absolutely killed and it's time to try and give Marshall a game because unfortunately in todays game hitouts don't justify being selected (Jacob's v melbourne) if you can't do anything around the ground.

Bruce had to be dropped, Paddy should have stayed dropped, so we need to delist Roo.

 

[Saint Shags]

You bloody campaigners, Paddy never had a chance, he is our deep forward. You want him to impact the game then put him where the ball is, or get off his back. He plays to structures ffs

Nope. He can't fight.
He is there so the campaigners can bronx cheer.
But you know if he could win the hitouts and have 3 handballs for the day he would be a star.

In all seriousness. We were outplayed all day. Way too much left to too few.
Good:
Billings
Ross
Gilbert
Roo

Ok:
Gresham
Membrey
Brown
Carlisle
Paddy
Acres
Geary

Not good enough:
Unfortunately the rest.

Didn't work hard enough either way. And our disposal effectiveness and decision making was substandard and that just meant that we were always pushing the proverbial uphill.

 

[Plugger35]

Whole heartedly agree with the roof closed point.

It's a valid complaint.

All these idiots that say to leave the roof open on a sunny day have obviously never played footy there, players need to shield their eyes to see anything.

It's bloody ridiculous.

 

[my name was taken]

When they got the ball out of their back 50 quickly they usually had options galore ahead of them, generally in loads of space, whereas when we did it we had no-one to kick it to most of the time.

How the hell does that happen? There is something seriously wrong there.

Chalk it up to the fact that terrible kicking into f50 makes it extremely easy to rebound.

It's how we have done so well this year, mids forcing wild kicks forward and robbo, Webster, jake etc chop it off and next thing you know we were flying down the wing.

 

[Saint_Dos]

Lots to dislike about today. If only the bye was next weekend.

Sadly not but wouldn't be against a few people being given an extra week off next week. So they are real fresh after the bye

Gresham: looked slower than usual today and probably sore after the knee in the guts.
Weller: still not moving and impacting like he has in the past.
Riewoldt: appeared to move better today but does he need an extended rest?
Joey: not moving the best either
Longer: poor day. does he need an extended rest given Hickey still a while away and dogs play Boyd backed up by Cloke/Jong.

Excluding Roo, non of these guys are in great form either so could be a good opportunity. And we will need a hard and fit group against the dogs.

Changes this week IMO:
OUT: Newnes (inj), Weller, Gresham
IN: Savage, Rice, Lonie

Weighing in on the Longer debate. He needs to play better than he did today, no doubt. Has the runs on the board from previous weeks, but if we are going to have a ruckman get 5 handballs and 0 marks then may as well have Holmes dominating the centre bounce with his leap. Also looking fwd to watching a Gilbert/Jong centre bounce next week.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Just looked really slow today. Paddy for Bruce & Dunstan/Koby for Minch probably selection mistakes in the end.

No doubt about that. Still would have lost, those selection choices didn't help though.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Billings the only positive with another 30+ disp game.

Billings had 6 contested possessions by 1/4 time. If he can keep it up for a full game he's elite.

 

[Periphery]

The reality is he is yet to play one good 4 quarter game in the AFL.

It's almost like he's only played 19 games of AFL.

 

[Keg on legs]

Very disappointing

We came up against a team that applied the blowtorch back on us and we folded under the pressure. Their pressure was elite and we panicked far too often as a result.

If we are to be any good we have to expect that in the finals (if we make them). We simply must learn from today and get better.

Newnes out hurt and we really missed Jimmy but no excuses. Too many bad decisions and atrocious disposal. Carlton let us off the hook last week but good teams don't give you that luxury.

I thought billings was decent and got a fair bit of the ball. Gilbert continues to prove me wrong but not much after that.

 

[Crusty Undies]

That was a mess

We really miss webster. Dmac tried but our ability to kick through sydney's press was really really poor. It was poor from richo too to not change our game plan, seeing as we were winning clearance, we should have played down the line hoping for a contest/throw in, to at least reset and win the next clearance, but we just kept doing the same thing.

It was one of those games where every new person that ran into the shot was a swan, which wouldn't have been a problem if I wasn't so skint and could go to the game, but.. the swans just worked that much harder than us, it was a really poor effort.

our skills in general were really poor.


disappointed with:

Dunstan - slow, crap tank, no spread, plays like he doesn't give a shit

McKenzie - battled hard, second half was better, but when the game was there to be won he made way too many errors. Hasn't played much senior footy and first game back so would be pretty nervous, give him another run.

Weller - Got some easy touches late but other than that didn't have his head in the game. Been down a few weeks now. Not playing like someone worthy of the leadership group

Montagna - His loopy kicking is not ageing well given how well teams are pressing these days. Didn't go hard enough. No point of difference.

Gresham - Really needs to build his tank. I almost hopes he stops impacting on the scoreboard and gets dropped, because he needs a real kick up the bum, way too talented, needs to impact throughout the game rather than in spurts.

played ok:

Paddy - limited opportunity, hard to mark. Got it as many times as membrey and gresh and was playing deep. Gets another game

Koby - went in hard, back him in to play better next week

Steven - quiet but 27 touches, a bit of run

Brown - junk time goals for buddy

Sinclair - hard day for wingers

Membrey - 2 goals, did ok when we kicked it to him

Carlisle - some poor turnovers but was under siege

Longer - typical longer performance. Needs to work on his hands in close. Followed up well but it didn't come off.

Geary - Missing goals now means missing captains goals. Needed to kick them

Roberton - Got a lot of it but was rushed and wasn't disposing like he can. Down game.

Positives/tried hard all game:

Ross - 36 touches, quick hands

Billings - 32, didn't have a chance to impact the scoreboard due to the game being played in our back half

Acres - Gone from fringe player to consistent 20's. Improving each week

Steele - consistent, will be better for it

Roo - 19 touches and managed to get his 3 goals from limited opportunity, because he never stops working

The game plan frustrated me, especially because richo just didn't want to change it up, but I guess it mainly came down to us being purely out worked, it wouldn't have mattered what style we played, our heads weren't in it.

Have to say, I think this sledging thing really affected us. Or maybe we just felt like taking it easy this week. Whatever it is it would be nice if the club could let us know prior to the match because I would have preferred to do something less stressful this afternoon. Very frustrating watching.

Can't agree with McKenzie, definitely does not deserve another go after the amount of Sydney goals he had a hand in.

Gresham doing everything currently being asked of him as a small forward. The issue is that he's being played as a small forward....

Paddy back to the 2s before he loses all his confidence over the next 2 games. Didn't get as many opportunities as Bruce normally does but he took just as little advantage of them. Didn't put in anywhere near enough effort leading and running and as others have said his 2nd efforts were non-existent.

Everything else is pretty much spot on imo. Love seeing how rapidly Acres and Billings are improving this season. Ross is probably our best player now. Roo definitely doesn't need a run in the 2s anymore...

 

[VDS66]

Swans have their good players back in will end up top 4 this year, if not win the flag.

Just shows we still have a way to go, as our "weaker" players exposed.

We won't win a flag with Dunstan as best 22. Time for Joey to retire.

Said it the pregame thread that Paddy would struggle.

Forward structure still not working. Time for a new line coach.

 

[Crusty Undies]

You bloody campaigners, Paddy never had a chance, he is our deep forward. You want him to impact the game then put him where the ball is, or get off his back. He plays to structures ffs

Come on mate, time to take off the RWB glasses, he had a bad game, got called up to early and played worse than Bruce would've.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

"Lift that noble banner high"

Indeed.

Lift it.

Then lube it up.

And then insert said banner up your sphincter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[austinnn]

It's a valid complaint.

All these idiots that say to leave the roof open on a sunny day have obviously never played footy there, players need to shield their eyes to see anything.

It's bloody ridiculous.

Swans players had sunnies on? Missed that.

 

[DGontheQT]

McKenzie was ok , has plenty to work on , but with McCartin , should be kept in the side for next week. I am not a Dunstan knocker , but the guy needs to spend some time at Sandringham and bang the bloody door down. Savage would straighten us up and stop our key fwds from killing their space , unlike our mids who run in circles killing our fwds.

 

[Crusty Undies]

Swans have their good players back in will end up top 4 this year, if not win the flag.

Just shows we still have a way to go, as our "weaker" players exposed.

We won't win a flag with Dunstan as best 22. Time for Joey to retire.

Said it the pregame thread that Paddy would struggle.

Forward structure still not working. Time for a new line coach.

Couldn't agree more. Forwards look lost half the time, constantly cut each other off and don't lead into different areas. Poach the Crows forward coach, he seems to know what to do.

 

[Crusty Undies]

Swans players had sunnies on? Missed that.

To be fair, game was won and lost in the third which was when the sun was worst and unfortunately it was in our eyes. Not a great excuse but I do agree that it should be closed from now on.

 

[Plugger35]

One positive was Acres, one of the few of our players that tried to swing momentum our way, scored a goal himself and set up a couple of others.

We need to lock him in long term, he has the potential to be as good as Bontempelli and Pendlebury, he is a matchwinner.

 

[DGontheQT]

It's a valid complaint.

All these idiots that say to leave the roof open on a sunny day have obviously never played footy there, players need to shield their eyes to see anything.

It's bloody ridiculous.

Makes it hard to watch on tv too. Need to think of the time of day to schedule games , if they plan on leaving it open. Otherwise close the bloody roof !!

 

[my name was taken]

Come on mate, time to take off the RWB glasses, he had a bad game, got called up to early and played worse than Bruce would've.

Bruce sees less of the ball in winning sides that are on top all over the ground. Not sure what you are basing that on.