Discussion Round 1, Best 22

[aussierulesrules]

That sucks, those capable of playing on the "smalls" down back is one area we actually have very little ready-to-go depth in. Thankfully Gold Coast and GWS (in the first 3 weeks) don't have that many that we need to worry about in that area. Richmond and Essendon don't exactly have an Eddie Betts or Cyril Rioli either and nor do Sydney (with Jetta playing wing, generally). Sean is likely to need a couple of games in the VFL though.

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

That leaves us pretty thin for small defenders. Does Wright come into consideration? Geary is our only small defender unless Gilbert or Newnes go back which would open up a midfield spot.

Roberton will take the Small, But i'd like to see Wright play as well!

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Roberton will take the Small, But i'd like to see Wright play as well!

Gilbert can play small.

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

Gilbert can play small.

Going by the NAB Cup looks like we want to play him on the Wing more though.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Going by the NAB Cup looks like we want to play him on the Wing more though.

True, but an injury can change priorities.

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

My Round 1 Best 22:
FB: Roberton, Simpkin, Gwilt
HB: Siposs, Fisher, Geary
C: Schneider, Hayes, Gilbert
HF: TDL, Riewoldt, Milera
FF: Saad, Maister, Milne
R: McEvoy, Armitage, Dal Santo
INT: Ray, Hickey, Steven (Newnes)

(May have missed someone not sure)

Dempster + Stanley didn't name due to probably 50/50 calls.

 

[mysainters]

Newnes played on Jake King last year and did a ripper job.

 

[Sir Skid]

My Round 1 Best 22:
FB: Roberton, Simpkin, Gwilt
HB: Siposs, Fisher, Geary
C: Schneider, Hayes, Gilbert
HF: TDL, Riewoldt, Milera
FF: Saad, Maister, Milne
R: McEvoy, Armitage, Dal Santo
INT: Ray, Hickey, Steven (Newnes)

(May have missed someone not sure)

Dempster + Stanley didn't name due to probably 50/50 calls.

Like it, although I'd probably have Newnes on for someone like Milera.
Newnes is hard at it and looks like he has a tank.
Milera could come on once the sting goes out of the game and burn them off for a couple of quick goals.
Gilbert looks ok on a wing as his disposal can't directly turn into opposition goals away from the last line of defense. I'd be happy to see Hickey getting game time too.

 

[aussierulesrules]

One thing I've noticed with Gilbo lining up on the wing is just how fast he gets back into the hole in defence if the other team gets the clearance from the centre bounce. I've seen him get back into the hole in a flash from the wing under those circumstances, so he could be very handy at helping out back there if he keeps that up. He can also push hard forward when we win the ball and there won't be that many playing on him on the wing who will be able to go with him in the air when he pushes forward.

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

One thing I've noticed with Gilbo lining up on the wing is just how fast he gets back into the hole in defence if the other team gets the clearance from the centre bounce. I've seen him get back into the hole in a flash from the wing under those circumstances, so he could be very handy at helping out back there if he keeps that up. He can also push hard forward when we win the ball and there won't be that many playing on him on the wing who will be able to go with him in the air when he pushes forward.

I actually like Gilbo on the wing (Disposal Aside).

Watched the 09 Rnd 14 game against Geelong the other day and can't believe how good Gilbo's Disposal was back then to what it is now, Hitting players on the chest etc, Hopefully can get back to that this year.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Yeah I liked seeing Sam on the wing early last year and I think it was probably only Blake being needed in the ruck and then Fisher getting injured that meant he was moved back more permanently into defence (although once Gwilt came in and Fisher was back he played plenty more on the wing) and I'm liking it even more this year, and also seeing him moved into the guts as well.

It's going be handy having that big body and ferocious attack on the man or ball around the contest and I expect he'll get better at it as he gets more experience playing there. Having Roberton on the books this year is likely to mean that we can play Gilbo where we really want him for more of the year, instead of being dictated so much by injuries.

Having a new role to focus on could be just the thing that gets him really focused again and enables him to move on from all that shit that engulfed him a couple of years ago and to get back his kicking and marking confidence and be a real weapon for us again.

Was interesting that he started forward on the weekend, too. Started the game around CHF (although more on the front edge of the centre square, rather than playing the traditional CHF role) and also started the 2nd quarter there as well.

 

[SaintLex]

Dempster injured??

Put Gilbert back in defense. We can cover a spot in the midfield better than we can cover a spot in defense. It probably doesn't matter too much vs GC and GWS but I would prefer the bigger, more expereinced person for the games vs Richmond and Essendon.

Faz to the wing

 

[The Enemy Within]

My Round 1 Best 22:
FB: Roberton, Simpkin, Gwilt
HB: Siposs, Fisher, Geary
C: Schneider, Hayes, Gilbert
HF: TDL, Riewoldt, Milera
FF: Saad, Maister, Milne
R: McEvoy, Armitage, Dal Santo
INT: Ray, Hickey, Steven (Newnes)

(May have missed someone not sure)

Dempster + Stanley didn't name due to probably 50/50 calls.

Good side but i doubt Simpkin will get a gig without a decent hit out,dont be surprised to see Lee lign up there for round 1.

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

Good side but i doubt Simpkin will get a gig without a decent hit out,dont be surprised to see Lee lign up there for round 1.

He will play This week (AFL) then may play VFL next week to get Match fit, He'll be in our team Round 1.

 

[Persevering Saint]

I actually like Gilbo on the wing (Disposal Aside).

Watched the 09 Rnd 14 game against Geelong the other day and can't believe how good Gilbo's Disposal was back then to what it is now, Hitting players on the chest etc, Hopefully can get back to that this year.

I actually think we could see the rebirth of Gilbert. The Punter has long chastised me for my maligning of Gilbert, but I can see his value coming out this year, based on his versatility. There was an excellent article about him in the Age a few days ago (http://is.gd/kXVA1i). The fact is, his poor disposal into the forward line is less of a concern than his poor disposal from the back line. That is even more true if we go with the mosquito fleet approach - Beau and Roo are going to be there to take a grab when they can, but their other value will be about bringing the ball to ground for the mozzies to run in and swoop. As such, a wobbler or wayward ball from Gilbert is going to be much more forgiveable. Actually, it's a shame for Grammy, because this approach would have suited him too, come to think of it.

 

[Sheeza69]

My Round 1 Best 22:
FB: Roberton, Simpkin, Gwilt
HB: Siposs, Fisher, Geary
C: Schneider, Hayes, Gilbert
HF: TDL, Riewoldt, Milera
FF: Saad, Maister, Milne
R: McEvoy, Armitage, Dal Santo
INT: Ray, Hickey, Steven (Newnes)

(May have missed someone not sure)

Dempster + Stanley didn't name due to probably 50/50 calls.

Tom Lee will play Rd 1, Scott's keen on him & so am i.
Will be hard to match up Roo, Maister, Lee, Milne, Saad, Milera & possible TDL.
An excellent forward line that should average around 14-16 goals a game.
If we can tighten up our defence, & reduce the opposition by 2 goals less than last year, we just might see finals action.

 

[joop]

Can anyone who was there tell me how Lee went last week? I know he kicked 0.4 but besides that I'm interested to know how he played.
I'm pretty keen to see him round 1

 

[Sainttony]

My Round 1 Best 22:
FB: Roberton, Simpkin, Gwilt
HB: Siposs, Fisher, Geary
C: Schneider, Hayes, Gilbert
HF: TDL, Riewoldt, Milera
FF: Saad, Maister, Milne
R: McEvoy, Armitage, Dal Santo
INT: Ray, Hickey, Steven (Newnes)

(May have missed someone not sure)

Dempster + Stanley didn't name due to probably 50/50 calls.

Like this team. Think it is very close to our round 1team. Prefer to see Lee in there somewhere but I am not sure who goes out

 

[Sheeza69]

Like this team. Think it is very close to our round 1team. Prefer to see Lee in there somewhere but I am not sure who goes out

Schneider & Simpkin won't possibly play due to fitness & lack of match conditioning.
Which then enables Lee & Wright to make their debuts for the mighty Saints..!

 

[Strahany]

Tom Lee will play Rd 1, Scott's keen on him & so am i..

Have you inferred this from listening to interviews and reading articles, or do you know something that we don't?

 

[aussierulesrules]

Can anyone who was there tell me how Lee went last week? I know he kicked 0.4 but besides that I'm interested to know how he played.
I'm pretty keen to see him round 1

He started every quarter on the bench from memory and played about half of most quarters (ended up playing 63% of the game, or around 60 minutes of footy) and as soon as he came on he started taking marks pretty regularly. Most of them were on the lead, where he seemed to get good separation most of the time (he always seemed to be a good couple of metres at least ahead of whoever was on him). He seems to run well in both directions and probably enjoys the fact that we leave the forward 50 pretty open at times, as his pace enables him to run back into space well. Basically, he seemed to be giving whoever he was on the runaround, covering a lot of ground, by the look of it, running this way and that and all over the place.

He took 7 marks for the game, including 4 inside 50 (we took 8 inside 50 for the whole match) but his kicking for goal was pretty poor. He seemed to kick them the way Roo was early last season, where he would keep his head down really low until after he'd kicked the ball, almost kneeing himself in the head with the kick. He seemed to be trying to kick them really hard and low, possibly to keep the ball under the wind, but it wasn't very effective. As I said in another thread, I really hope Nick hasn't been taking him for goalkicking lessons, because we all know what Nick's kicking for goal is like, whereas Tom was exceptionally accurate last year.

He also did one really poor kick just in front of us, about 70m out from goal, after a mark on the lead. He was near the boundary and tried to do a pretty simple, 15m pass to Nick, but leant back on it and it consequently skewed off the side of the boot and went straight out on the full. He also was running onto a ball about 55m out at one stage and looked set to take possession and cross the 50m line with it, but fumbled it, which was pretty bad under the circumstances.

He took another mark on the lead near us outside the F50 a bit later on though and turned around and hit TDL with a very nice pass about 40m out near the boundary, from which he slotted the goal. It was a really good, pinpoint pass and with the couple of top notch passes he did to Kosi in the game against Port, it is pretty clear that he has a very, very good field kick on him, generally. He has a really nice looking technique on his field kicks and the ball comes off the foot and spins extremely well and travels very accurately, from the few I've seen him do so far. His skills were something that Matt Rendell gave him a wrap for when he was first drafted by Adelaide and it's pretty easy to see why so far.

As for R1, he would need to build on that game again this weekend and probably improve on it to be any chance for R1, IMO. He'd probably need to play more time and show that he can play to that level for more than the 60 mins he got to play last week and he'd probably need to tidy up the things that he stuffed up against Melbourne and ideally be more accurate if he has shots for goal. If he does all those things then I expect he'd be in the mix, but then you have to wonder how we'd fit him in, especially if the conditions are likely to be wet and/or greasy, which ought to really suit all of Milne, Saad, Milera and TDL. The thing in his favour though is that he is also quick and has shown an ability to read the ball off hands and wait out the back of the pack at times, which is the sort of thing that is needed in greasy conditions.

If we're picking all of Roo, Beau, Mac and Hickey, then you also have to wonder whether we are willing to play someone else tall as well (Lee) but if not now, when, because unless we are going to wait until Roo retires and/or Beau loses form, or one of them gets injured, then we've surely got to pick him sometime, as you don't want to have someone who is tall, quick and mobile and who takes plenty of marks, kicks well and kicks goals sitting on the sidelines for two or three years, so I guess we have a plan of how to squeeze him in, when we deem him to be ready and needed.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Have you inferred this from listening to interviews and reading articles, or do you know something that we don't?

I was wondering that too.

 

[joop]

Thanks Aussie that's more than I could've asked for.
I figure that using such a high draft pick on him makes me think the coaches would be pretty keen to get him playing ASAP, same with hickey.
I was thinking give him a crack round 1 against Gold Coast, I'm sure they will improve this year but we should win comfortably and see how he goes. Could be good for his confidence.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Thanks Aussie that's more than I could've asked for.
I figure that using such a high draft pick on him makes me think the coaches would be pretty keen to get him playing ASAP, same with hickey.
I was thinking give him a crack round 1 against Gold Coast, I'm sure they will improve this year but we should win comfortably and see how he goes. Could be good for his confidence.

Can you imagine if we went into R1 with Hickey, Lee and Wright in the side? Those trades would be off to an alright start. And that's with White still to come...

Guess we'll find out soon!

 

[Defacto]

bad news about dempster. heres my best 22 without stanley, dempster and monty:
B Wright Blake Gwilt
HB Gilbert Fisher Siposs
C Geary Hayes Steven
HF Milera Rewioldt Hyphen
F Saad Maister Milne
R McEvoy Dal Armitage
I/C Hickey Ray Newnes
SUB Ross

EMG Kozi Jones Schneider

i have left simpkin and schneider out as i doubt they'll be fit. I have left Jones out as we are playing GC and i think we need to get as many games into the kids as possible

Used the older boys as EMG so that were not taking players away from the VFL