Autopsy Round 1, 2022: St.Kilda v Collingwood

[Enclosed_Animal]

Well I am extremely late to the party here, and guessing most of what I would contribute has already been covered in detail. But just saw the game F**K me that was frustrating. Need to vent!

Can see reading the thread that alot of people have now realised that we have pretty much no AFL ready depth. Every year since about 2017 some supporters talk up how good our depth is all pre-season, and every year it falls apart almost immediately. Guessing we are in for yet another year where Sandy hardly win a game against AFL aligned opposition. We remain extremely thin outside our best 22.

Watching the game I found myself having flashbacks to the headless chook, effort based gameplan from the Richo years. Being consistantly outnumbered at contests despite covering waaay more territory. Then fatigued players making basic skill errors because of the constant chasing. We need to trust the tackler more. Having two or even 3 tacklers hunting the ball just means easy handballs to free opposition players. Running more and working harder is NOT a good thing. In the end I lost count the amount of times we were beaten around the ball because Collingwood players were just in better positions. Is this personnel or gameplan? Likely both. Sigh

For me the problems came because we were murdered on the spread for most of the night. Marshall, Steele, Gresh and Crouch were okay at the coalface. The next layer out were slaughtered pretty much all night. Badly missed Jones, Billings, Clark, a match fit Gresh and Hanners to provide width and run. DMac, Wood and Ross were utterly terrible in that role. If we had anyone left to bring in I would be dropping all 3 on sight. Byrnes and Owens as the supporting cast didnt help. But they are young so I give them a mulligan for having zero impact. IMO its those 3 experienced heads (Ross, Dmac and Wood) that should be copping serious heat

Also WTF was with starting Steele, Crouch and Ross and center bounces together for most of the first half??? Waaaaay to much sameness, and of course that group was going to get killed. Moved Gresh and Sincs more into the middle in the second half and surprise surprise, we look a different side. Not rocket science. Yes we are short important personnel. But if Ratten keeps playing it 'safe', we are in for a long ass year. Steele and Crouch can handle the inside work. Bytel is a solid next developing option in that role. Need more of Gresh, Sincs, Clark etc getting time in the guts. Especially without Jones.

Speaking of sameness, I really do not like Battle and Wilkie in the same backline partnering Howard. With Coff out, for me Highmore simply needs to play. IMO the selection choice now is not Battle or Highmore. It is Battle or Wilkie. Highmore and Coff offer something very different, and something that we badly badly missed. I just do not understand the love for Battle on this forum.

Once again, it looks like we are in for a year of getting slaugtered by teams with good interceps defenders. I wrote a post a few years back about how players like Luke Ryan, Tom Stewart, Nick Haynes

19

Nick Haynes

Age

32

Ht

192cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.4

4star

K

11.4

4star

HB

4.9

4star

M

6.2

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

326.8

4star

D

17.4

4star

K

13.9

5star

HB

3.5

2star

M

8.0

5star

T

1.5

2star

MG

326.8

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.2

4star

, Jake Lever

8

Jake Lever

Age

28

Ht

194cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.6

4star

K

9.7

4star

HB

4.9

4star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.3

3star

MG

242.0

4star

D

9.6

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

3.1

2star

M

3.9

4star

T

1.3

2star

MG

145.4

3star

D

16.0

4star

K

11.0

4star

HB

5.0

4star

M

6.6

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

189.8

4star

, Jeremy Howe

38

Jeremy Howe

Age

34

Ht

190cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.0

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.7

4star

M

6.4

5star

T

2.1

4star

MG

318.1

4star

D

21.5

5star

K

16.5

5star

HB

5.0

3star

M

6.5

5star

T

2.0

3star

MG

433.3

5star

D

15.2

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

6.2

4star

M

6.8

5star

T

1.6

4star

etc consistantly win brownlow votes against us. Looks like absolutely nothing has changed in that department. Still waiting for a plan B that is not bomb it long on King / Marshalls head and / or or hope Butler / Higgins get out the back. Otherwise teams will just sit unaccountable marking defenders in our forward 50, and we will just keep kicking them the ball all bloody night. Increasingly convinced our gamestyle is at least partly responsible for how bad some of our kicks look

Again I am likely just repeating the thoughts of many others. I do genuinely still think our best 22 is good enough to play finals. Hayes is a find. IMO we are are not as bad as many are making out. Ryder back will instantly make us look a million dollars in the middle (but then what happens with Hayes?). We will beat some good teams when at full strength. We will lose some games to teams we should beat because our weaknesses can be badly exposed by the wrong matchups.

The real issue for me is that most of our problems seem to be exactly the same problems we had in 2021 and 2020, and many of the gamplan issues go back to 2019 and even 2018.

That is why I dont see this game as a round one anomoly result. I would like to belive that this was just one of those wierd reults that happens every year. But sadly I think Collingwood are still a bottom 6 team. The weekend just said a lot about us, not them. Hope I am wrong

 

[scaryness]

An outside rando's rankings after watching the replay for anyone who cares.
Everyone starts at 0 and only goes up (i.e. below 5 doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" game)

Hayes 10/10
-
Membrey 8/10
Gresham 8/10
-
Sinclair 7/10
Marshall 7/10
Wilkie 7/10
Wood 6/10
King 6/10
Crouch 6/10
Steele 6/10
-
Ross 5/10
Hill 5/10
Howard 5/10
Paton 4/10
-
McKenzie 3/10
Higgins 3/10
Butler 3/10
Battle 3/10
Kent 2/10
Webster 2/10
Byrnes 2/10
-
Owens 0/10

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

watching some of the game and gee King needs to start clunky those marks he dropped so many of them, that on top of missing some pretty standard set shots

Maybe if we didn’t kick it 3 feet over his head

 

[AirWinmar]

This one is easy. Game plan. Because we don’t trust our skills to hit the free man in the corridor or convert after that. Kicking it long and deep in a pack gains territory and makes it harder to stuff it up for a quick rebound.

This is the exact same ploy used by Richo, just blind long bomb into 50, so you can talk about it after the game how we got enough 50 entries, it’s because the forwards not working hard enough to lock it in.

Good sides keep it simple, as less long bombs to packs as possible, kick in front of leading players to give them a chance to mark. Even Collingwood can do it. In the last 10 years, we hardly do it. Something really wrong with the coaching/game plan if we manage to make ourselves look awful.

The other thing is, even if you want to kick it in deep, it helps if some forwards get some leads happening to create a bit of space

 

[MrFoster]

Well I am extremely late to the party here, and guessing most of what I would contribute has already been covered in detail. But just saw the game F**K me that was frustrating. Need to vent.

Can see reading the thread that alot of people have now realised that we have pretty much no AFL ready depth. Every year since about 2017 some supporters talk up how good our depth is all pre-season, and every year it falls apart almost immediately. Guessing we are in for yet another year where Sandy hardly win a game against AFL aligned opposition. We remain extremely thin outside our best 22

Watching the game I found myself having flashbacks to the headless chook, effort based gameplan from the Richo years. Being consistantly outnumbered at contests despite covering waaay more territory. Then fatigued players making basic skill errors because of the constant chasing. We need to trust the tackler more. Having two or even 3 tacklers hunting the ball just means easy handballs to free opposition players. Running more and working harder is NOT a good thing. In the end I lost count the amount of times we were beaten around the ball because Collingwood players were just in better positions. Sigh

For me the problems came because we were murdered on the spread for most of the night. Marshall, Steele, Gresh and Crouch were okay at the coalface. The next layer out were slaughtered pretty much all night. Badly missed Jones, Billings, Clark, a match fit Gresh and Hanners to provide width and run. DMac, Wood and Ross were utterly terrible in that role. If we had anyone left to bring in I would be dropping all 3 on sight. Byrnes and Owens as the supporting cast didnt help. But they are young so I give them a mulligan for having zero impact. IMO its those 3 experienced heads (Ross, Dmac and Wood) that should be copping serious heat

Also WTF was with starting Steele, Crouch and Ross and center bounces together for most of the first half??? Waaaaay to much sameness, and of course that group was going to get killed. Moved Gresh and Sincs go into the middle more consistantly in the second half and surprise surprise, we look a different side. Not rocket science. Yes we are short important personnel. But if Ratten keeps playing it 'safe', we are in for a long ass year. Steele and Crouch can handle the inside work. Bytel is a solid next developing option in that role. Need more of Gresh, Sincs, Clark etc getting time in the guts. Especially without Jones.

Speaking of sameness, I really do not like Battle and Wilkie in the same backline partnering Howard. With Coff out, for me Highmore simply needs to play. IMO the selection choice now is not Battle or Highmore. It is Battle or Wilkie. Highmore and Coff offer something very different, and something that we badly badly missed. I just do not understand the love for Battle on this forum.

Once again, it looks like we are in for a year of getting slaugtered by teams with good interceps defenders. I wrote a post a few years back about how players like Luke Ryan, Tom Stewart, Lever / May, Moore / Howe etc consistantly win brownlow votes against us. Looks like absolutely nothing has changed in that department. Still waiting for a plan B that is not bomb it long on King / Marshalls head and / or or hope Butler / Higgins get out the back. Otherwise teams will just sit unaccountable marking defenders in our forward 50, and we will just keep kicking them the ball al night. Increasingly convinced our gamestyle is at least partly responsible for how bad some of our kicks are

Again I am likely just repeating the thoughts of many others. I do genuinely still think our best 22 is good enough to play finals. Hayes is a find. IMO we are are not as bad as many are making out. Ryder back will instantly make us look a million dollars in the middle (but then what happens with Hayes?). We will beat some good teams when at full strength. We will lose games to teams we should beat because our weaknesses can be badly exposed by the wrong matchups. The real issue for me is that most of our problems seem to be exactly the same problems we had in 2021 and 2020, and many of the gamplan issues go back to 2019 and even 2018.

That is why I dont see this game as a round one anomoly result. I would like to belive that this was just one of those wierd reults that happens every year. But sadly I think Collingwood are still a bottom 6 team. The weekend just said a lot about us, not them. Hope I am wrong

Agree with pretty much what you said.

I will propose the following spine
FF: King
CHF: Hays (he is more of a forward than marshall)
Centre: Steele
CHB: Marshall
FB: Howard
Ruck: Ryder or Campbell if Ryder is not available.

We need to change it up. Would be great if Marshall can become a commanding CHB like Harris Andrews, leaves a legit ruckman to win the tap outs.

 

[True Blue Saint]

Ball movement was atrocious. There were no leads. The frustrating thing is it looks like a coaching initiative because form where I was sitting it seemed like instinctively the players wanted to move it on quick or move back in board before second guessing themselves and inevitably bombing long to a contest down the line. How boringly predictable. This changed for about 15-20 minutes and the rest of the game was that stagnant rubbish.

We need a lot of work defensively at stoppages. A LOT. How many times did Collingwood just waltz it through a stoppage with one handball and Lipinski or Adams would just stroll through and drive them forward? I lost count after the first 6 times. We had no set up on the defensive side of the stoppage at all. Hell, they even got a goal from a F50 stoppage where we didn't have a "goal keeper" on the line. Really, basic elementary stuff that we just don't do.

I'm not a fan of Ratten's reluctance to change from his 2020 strategy. We were worked out then and are still playing the same way. It's farcical. I don't believe a word of what Jon Ralph said about us not needing to make finals to have his contract renewed. When has he ever had any scoop on us? If we limp through our "easy block" of games 2-5 or something like that it will have to be bye bye Ratts.

 

[Leigh58]

Well I am extremely late to the party here, and guessing most of what I would contribute has already been covered in detail. But just saw the game F**K me that was frustrating. Need to vent!

Can see reading the thread that alot of people have now realised that we have pretty much no AFL ready depth. Every year since about 2017 some supporters talk up how good our depth is all pre-season, and every year it falls apart almost immediately. Guessing we are in for yet another year where Sandy hardly win a game against AFL aligned opposition. We remain extremely thin outside our best 22.

Watching the game I found myself having flashbacks to the headless chook, effort based gameplan from the Richo years. Being consistantly outnumbered at contests despite covering waaay more territory. Then fatigued players making basic skill errors because of the constant chasing. We need to trust the tackler more. Having two or even 3 tacklers hunting the ball just means easy handballs to free opposition players. Running more and working harder is NOT a good thing. In the end I lost count the amount of times we were beaten around the ball because Collingwood players were just in better positions. Is this personnel or gameplan? Likely both. Sigh

For me the problems came because we were murdered on the spread for most of the night. Marshall, Steele, Gresh and Crouch were okay at the coalface. The next layer out were slaughtered pretty much all night. Badly missed Jones, Billings, Clark, a match fit Gresh and Hanners to provide width and run. DMac, Wood and Ross were utterly terrible in that role. If we had anyone left to bring in I would be dropping all 3 on sight. Byrnes and Owens as the supporting cast didnt help. But they are young so I give them a mulligan for having zero impact. IMO its those 3 experienced heads (Ross, Dmac and Wood) that should be copping serious heat

Also WTF was with starting Steele, Crouch and Ross and center bounces together for most of the first half??? Waaaaay to much sameness, and of course that group was going to get killed. Moved Gresh and Sincs more into the middle in the second half and surprise surprise, we look a different side. Not rocket science. Yes we are short important personnel. But if Ratten keeps playing it 'safe', we are in for a long ass year. Steele and Crouch can handle the inside work. Bytel is a solid next developing option in that role. Need more of Gresh, Sincs, Clark etc getting time in the guts. Especially without Jones.

Speaking of sameness, I really do not like Battle and Wilkie in the same backline partnering Howard. With Coff out, for me Highmore simply needs to play. IMO the selection choice now is not Battle or Highmore. It is Battle or Wilkie. Highmore and Coff offer something very different, and something that we badly badly missed. I just do not understand the love for Battle on this forum.

Once again, it looks like we are in for a year of getting slaugtered by teams with good interceps defenders. I wrote a post a few years back about how players like Luke Ryan, Tom Stewart, Nick Haynes, Jake Lever, Jeremy Howe etc consistantly win brownlow votes against us. Looks like absolutely nothing has changed in that department. Still waiting for a plan B that is not bomb it long on King / Marshalls head and / or or hope Butler / Higgins get out the back. Otherwise teams will just sit unaccountable marking defenders in our forward 50, and we will just keep kicking them the ball all bloody night. Increasingly convinced our gamestyle is at least partly responsible for how bad some of our kicks look

Again I am likely just repeating the thoughts of many others. I do genuinely still think our best 22 is good enough to play finals. Hayes is a find. IMO we are are not as bad as many are making out. Ryder back will instantly make us look a million dollars in the middle (but then what happens with Hayes?). We will beat some good teams when at full strength. We will lose some games to teams we should beat because our weaknesses can be badly exposed by the wrong matchups.

The real issue for me is that most of our problems seem to be exactly the same problems we had in 2021 and 2020, and many of the gamplan issues go back to 2019 and even 2018.

That is why I dont see this game as a round one anomoly result. I would like to belive that this was just one of those wierd reults that happens every year. But sadly I think Collingwood are still a bottom 6 team. The weekend just said a lot about us, not them. Hope I am wrong

I agree with most of these sentiments.
For me I also view

Well I am extremely late to the party here, and guessing most of what I would contribute has already been covered in detail. But just saw the game F**K me that was frustrating. Need to vent!

Can see reading the thread that alot of people have now realised that we have pretty much no AFL ready depth. Every year since about 2017 some supporters talk up how good our depth is all pre-season, and every year it falls apart almost immediately. Guessing we are in for yet another year where Sandy hardly win a game against AFL aligned opposition. We remain extremely thin outside our best 22.

Watching the game I found myself having flashbacks to the headless chook, effort based gameplan from the Richo years. Being consistantly outnumbered at contests despite covering waaay more territory. Then fatigued players making basic skill errors because of the constant chasing. We need to trust the tackler more. Having two or even 3 tacklers hunting the ball just means easy handballs to free opposition players. Running more and working harder is NOT a good thing. In the end I lost count the amount of times we were beaten around the ball because Collingwood players were just in better positions. Is this personnel or gameplan? Likely both. Sigh

For me the problems came because we were murdered on the spread for most of the night. Marshall, Steele, Gresh and Crouch were okay at the coalface. The next layer out were slaughtered pretty much all night. Badly missed Jones, Billings, Clark, a match fit Gresh and Hanners to provide width and run. DMac, Wood and Ross were utterly terrible in that role. If we had anyone left to bring in I would be dropping all 3 on sight. Byrnes and Owens as the supporting cast didnt help. But they are young so I give them a mulligan for having zero impact. IMO its those 3 experienced heads (Ross, Dmac and Wood) that should be copping serious heat

Also WTF was with starting Steele, Crouch and Ross and center bounces together for most of the first half??? Waaaaay to much sameness, and of course that group was going to get killed. Moved Gresh and Sincs more into the middle in the second half and surprise surprise, we look a different side. Not rocket science. Yes we are short important personnel. But if Ratten keeps playing it 'safe', we are in for a long ass year. Steele and Crouch can handle the inside work. Bytel is a solid next developing option in that role. Need more of Gresh, Sincs, Clark etc getting time in the guts. Especially without Jones.

Speaking of sameness, I really do not like Battle and Wilkie in the same backline partnering Howard. With Coff out, for me Highmore simply needs to play. IMO the selection choice now is not Battle or Highmore. It is Battle or Wilkie. Highmore and Coff offer something very different, and something that we badly badly missed. I just do not understand the love for Battle on this forum.

Once again, it looks like we are in for a year of getting slaugtered by teams with good interceps defenders. I wrote a post a few years back about how players like Luke Ryan, Tom Stewart, Nick Haynes, Jake Lever, Jeremy Howe etc consistantly win brownlow votes against us. Looks like absolutely nothing has changed in that department. Still waiting for a plan B that is not bomb it long on King / Marshalls head and / or or hope Butler / Higgins get out the back. Otherwise teams will just sit unaccountable marking defenders in our forward 50, and we will just keep kicking them the ball all bloody night. Increasingly convinced our gamestyle is at least partly responsible for how bad some of our kicks look

Again I am likely just repeating the thoughts of many others. I do genuinely still think our best 22 is good enough to play finals. Hayes is a find. IMO we are are not as bad as many are making out. Ryder back will instantly make us look a million dollars in the middle (but then what happens with Hayes?). We will beat some good teams when at full strength. We will lose some games to teams we should beat because our weaknesses can be badly exposed by the wrong matchups.

The real issue for me is that most of our problems seem to be exactly the same problems we had in 2021 and 2020, and many of the gamplan issues go back to 2019 and even 2018.

That is why I dont see this game as a round one anomoly result. I would like to belive that this was just one of those wierd reults that happens every year. But sadly I think Collingwood are still a bottom 6 team. The weekend just said a lot about us, not them. Hope I am wrong

I agree with most of these sentiments.
Yes the result was perhaps to be expected.
It does relate to gameplan issues but the broader issue is that we rarely perform on a big stage, whether on a Friday night, in a marquee game or indeed any match of huge significance.
We freeze in the spotlight of a big occasion, and
are distracted or brittle.
Our failure to turn up on important occasions is sadly the norm.
Our exceptional 2020 related to the lack of crowds at the various venues, I sometimes think.

Both players & personnel need to be far more resilient or we will continue to tease and ultimately languish.

 

[ScrappyDo]

I'm only up to the first quarter and already seen this a few times. Why do we always kick it to 16 opposition players but not the centre for a straight shot from 45m? Or it's at least another chance to switch. Of course the Pies easily rebound out to the wing.


View attachment 1350168

No you weren't the only one to notice this. It means we are both predictable, and stupid.

 

[BrutThough]

Agree with pretty much what you said.

I will propose the following spine
FF: King
CHF: Hays (he is more of a forward than marshall)
Centre: Steele
CHB: Marshall
FB: Howard
Ruck: Ryder or Campbell if Ryder is not available.

We need to change it up. Would be great if Marshall can become a commanding CHB like Harris Andrews, leaves a legit ruckman to win the tap outs.

Marshall isn't going to play defence.

 

[gringo2011]

An outside rando's rankings after watching the replay for anyone who cares.
Everyone starts at 0 and only goes up (i.e. below 5 doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" game)

Hayes 10/10
-
Membrey 9/10
Gresham 8/10
Marshall 8/10
-
Sinclair 7/10
Wilkie 7/10
Howard 7/10
Wood 6/10
King 6/10
Steele 6/10
Crouch 6/10
Hill 6/10
-
Ross 5/10
Paton 5/10
McKenzie 4/10
-
Higgins 3/10
Butler 3/10
Battle 3/10
Webster 3/10
Kent 2/10
Byrnes 2/10
-
Owens 0/10

Howard probably a bit generous, he was poo.

 

[PostmanBish]

Clockwork Orange style?

I don't see that it could be any less effective than Ben Dixon was ...

 

[lewdogs]

The Higgins one was poor play as he should have taken more time to assess the situation. It was rushed. But don't get the implication that it was selfish.

The poorer play from Higgins was the one they showed on AFL 360 I think where he just let Noble run away and attack. Seems like some of our defensive running was very poor, needs to be a big focus next week as it's all well and good to be fit but you need to still run both ways.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

The Higgins one was poor play as he should have taken more time to assess the situation. It was rushed. But don't get the implication that it was selfish.

The poorer play from Higgins was the one they showed on AFL 360 I think where he just let Noble run away and attack. Seems like some of our defensive running was very poor, needs to be a big focus next week as it's all well and good to be fit but you need to still run both ways.

Geary would provide a good demonstration to the younger players about why Kent was dropped and how Higgins should do it.

 

[hangdog]

I swear to god.

My wife is a teacher and soon to be professor. Very switched on, unlike our Saints.

You swear to Jack Hayes?!

 

[hangdog]

An outside rando's rankings after watching the replay for anyone who cares.
Everyone starts at 0 and only goes up (i.e. below 5 doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" game)

Hayes 10/10
-
Membrey 9/10
Gresham 8/10
Marshall 8/10
-
Sinclair 7/10
Wilkie 7/10
Howard 7/10
Wood 6/10
King 6/10
Steele 6/10
Crouch 6/10
Hill 6/10
-
Ross 5/10
Paton 5/10
McKenzie 4/10
-
Higgins 3/10
Butler 3/10
Battle 3/10
Webster 3/10
Kent 2/10
Byrnes 2/10
-
Owens 0/10

Pretty damn close. I'd swap Ross for Howard. I'm a Ross knocker but he was actually very good. Howard had one of his worst games. Looked almost like he was sooking it up out there. Feel for Owens, what a shocking way to start your career. Chucked forward mostly, and most CBA's without much support around him (eg alongside Byrnes in one instance I think).

 

[hangdog]

An outside rando's rankings after watching the replay for anyone who cares.
Everyone starts at 0 and only goes up (i.e. below 5 doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" game)

Hayes 10/10
-
Membrey 9/10
Gresham 8/10
Marshall 8/10
-
Sinclair 7/10
Wilkie 7/10
Howard 7/10
Wood 6/10
King 6/10
Steele 6/10
Crouch 6/10
Hill 6/10
-
Ross 5/10
Paton 5/10
McKenzie 4/10
-
Higgins 3/10
Butler 3/10
Battle 3/10
Webster 3/10
Kent 2/10
Byrnes 2/10
-
Owens 0/10

Pretty damn close. I'd swap Ross for Howard. I'm a Ross knocker but he was actually very good. Howard had one of his worst games. Looked almost like he was sooking it up out there. Feel for Owens, what a shocking way to start your career. Chucked forward mostly, and most CBA's without much support around him (eg alongside Byrnes in one instance I think

 

[D2D3]

An outside rando's rankings after watching the replay for anyone who cares.
Everyone starts at 0 and only goes up (i.e. below 5 doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" game)

Hayes 10/10
-
Membrey 9/10
Gresham 8/10
Marshall 8/10
-
Sinclair 7/10
Wilkie 7/10
Howard 7/10
Wood 6/10
King 6/10
Steele 6/10
Crouch 6/10
Hill 6/10
-
Ross 5/10
Paton 5/10
McKenzie 4/10
-
Higgins 3/10
Butler 3/10
Battle 3/10
Webster 3/10
Kent 2/10
Byrnes 2/10
-
Owens 0/10

Interesting. Heard some other outsider conversations about us today and they observed they thought Marshall, Steele and Sinclair all looked good even though "Steele is better with Ryder playing". They also wondered why Owens even played, exact words were "You'd have thought Owens was the sub with how little he was on" and "just don't play kids unless they are ready"

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Pretty damn close. I'd swap Ross for Howard. I'm a Ross knocker but he was actually very good. Howard had one of his worst games. Looked almost like he was sooking it up out there. Feel for Owens, what a shocking way to start your career. Chucked forward mostly, and most CBA's without much support around him (eg alongside Byrnes in one instance I think

Owens had such little game time too I reckon I was in the line for food longer than he was in the midfield

 

[puppy_dog7]

My biggest gripe from being at the ground and watching on level 2 was our forward setup. Especially King’s positioning.

1. Numerous times I remember us having a stoppage on our half forward line about 70-80m out.
King was sitting about 30m from the stoppage which was way too close. He was in no man’s land.

2. Our forwards never seemed to lead at the ball carrier and always wanted it long and on their heads which wouldn’t be bad, if we actually moved the ball quickly and it was a 1 on 1 contest, and we actually had our crumbers arrive first.

3. If we’re going to kick long and deep inside 50m, then don’t put it 5-10m out from the goal line. Just an easy fist or rush through for the oppo defense. Needs to be 15-20m out so it actually puts pressure on their defenders when the ball comes in.

4. Lastly, Higgins spent the whole last quarter starting in the Goalsquare.
King, Membrey and Hayes all in a line 10-15m apart about 35-40m out from goal with Butler and Kent in front of them.
It seemed like an absolutely atrocious setup.
Like why would you have our biggest 1 on 1 threat sitting in no man’s land 35-40m out from goal instead of deepat a centre bounce stoppage? Doesn’t make sense. For one we never even hit up a short lead if we win the clearance anyway.
Whoever the forward coach is needs a ****ing rocket.

 

[Mowman]

Every year since about 2017 some supporters talk up how good our depth is all pre-season, and every year it falls apart almost immediately

The same supporters every year.
argue against it by saying our list is not that good and our recruiting hasn't fixed the problems we had last year.
And a couple of games in all we hear is but but but we have injuries
Where is all this depth you have been banging on about all pre season ?

 

[Mowman]

The Higgins one was poor play as he should have taken more time to assess the situation. It was rushed. But don't get the implication that it was selfish.

The poorer play from Higgins was the one they showed on AFL 360 I think where he just let Noble run away and attack. Seems like some of our defensive running was very poor, needs to be a big focus next week as it's all well and good to be fit but you need to still run both ways.

It wasn't great watching, what frustrates me is a lot these things are the same mistakes we made at the start of last year as well.
defensive running
Tackling ( friday night tackling efficiency was 49% )
Goal Kicking

 

[lewdogs]

It wasn't great watching, what frustrates me is a lot these things are the same mistakes we made at the start of last year as well.
defensive running
Tackling ( friday night tackling efficiency was 49% )
Goal Kicking

Yep, extremely frustrating.

The only potential positive is that they seemed to work out some of these issues last year, so hopefully we have a blueprint to do it and can respond quickly. To see King and Higgins with the yips again was so frustrating!

 

[gringo2011]

Yep, extremely frustrating.

The only potential positive is that they seemed to work out some of these issues last year, so hopefully we have a blueprint to do it and can respond quickly. To see King and Higgins with the yips again was so frustrating!

Last year we seemed to wait until we’d already snuffed hopes of finals before starting our season. We crumble under any increased pressure. Collingwood, Friday night on tv and you just know we won’t turn up.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Owens had such little game time too I reckon I was in the line for food longer than he was in the midfield

49%. I heard the lines were long.
Then there was Kent and Byrnes , both on 62%.

So were they crap because they were off the ground, or off the ground because they were crap?

 

[phantom13]

Last year we seemed to wait until we’d already snuffed hopes of finals before starting our season. We crumble under any increased pressure. Collingwood, Friday night on tv and you just know we won’t turn up.

Feels like we can just about lock in a Freo win.

In Perth, shit timeslot and expected to lose cause we were garbage against the Pies.

Legit, if were 0-3 after the Tigers game just tank the season altogether.