Autopsy Round 10, 2020: Gold Coast v St.Kilda *RYDER 250TH*

[Ducky Tie]

He's is fantastic to watch when it's not against us. He does insane stuff and so ******* cocky he make Acker look like a good bloke but fu** he can do some freakish stuff. He's played a few games, he's never going to be a hard defensive player but he'll put on a show and win them games that they have no right to win.

yeah no doubt he is hugely talented. He is great to watch.

 

[Ephesus]

The Suns are a good side. We did well to beat them. Hind has been a great addition to the team. He takes on the game and adds a bit of x-factor. He could have had several goals but they just didn't come off on the night. Zac Jones was clearly tagged so didn't have much impact. Battle's goal in the last quarter was a match winner. It looked like Carlisle was trying to bring Hill into the game but Brad wasn't always in the best position - he was often too close to be the best option. Our back line is looking very settled. I would like to see Bytel get a game.

 

[Jade Buddha]

Or Ryder rested for Abbott. Been near our best in most of the scratchies.

Could be some nice motivation in that

 

[Ricmel]

He is looking like the best possible version of Jason Blake.

Good call. That is who he reminds me of. Probably got 10% more talent than Blakey but if he has a similar career be happy.

 

[NarklesHelmet]

Just on the midfield last night, yes we were well beaten in there but it happens from time-to-time: no team, even with star-studded midfields, wins in there every week.

I think the fact that, considering the above, we still were able to get out to handy leads twice in the game against a talented team that were “on”, showed we controlled the game to an extent with our ball movement.

A frustrating thing from last night for me is that twice, with 15 point leads and looking like we were about to break the game open, we shot ourselves in the foot with boneheaded unforced errors that let our opposition back in the game. Phillips was a big culprit and nearly cost us the game.

Sure, Phillips did a couple of decent defensive things but this team has moved beyond the idea that “hard work” (code for headless chook running and pressure), tackling etc. is the be-all-and-end all that it was under a Richo. Decision making, composure and skill mean you aren’t in a position where relentless tackling is needed. I’d expect Phillips will pay the price at selection next week and rightly so.

Overall, ecstatic to get the win when were beaten in the midfield contests by a talented team. We’ll learn so much from this and isn’t it great that we’ll be learning lessons with 4 points in the bag and sitting 2nd on the ladder compared to the alternative.

 

[gringo2011]

Post game they interviewed Dan Butler and they were asking him about GC and specifically Rankine. It's Cryil Rioli levels of fapping from the commentary team.

All 4 of Butler's goals were as good, if not better than Rankine's. But nah... let's all rave about the new 'magic' black kid of the comp.

"Smart" vs "Athletic": how AI reveals the unconscious racial bias in our language - Prospect Magazine

It's easy to imagine sports commentators have moved on from the sort of offensive comments that received widespread attention in the 1980s. But AI analysis shows how an old bias endures in language differences

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

This is exactly what happens in the AFL.

White players are 'smart, brilliant, genius, hard workers' etc
Indigenous players are 'magical, mercurial, naturally gifted, do what nobody can' etc

That's a rant for another time though...

Rankine will divide people a lot. He's the absolute definition of mercurial and he'll sell memberships on the GC. He's going to sell the game but I reckon every other supporter will hate him. He struts. He played senior SANFL and humiliated older players. He was so good in an exhibition match they had to swap him into the other side at half time for fairness. I'm with Bruce, I love his game. The racial stuff isn't it, he's not exactly a central desert indigenous kid. He's got heritage but the commentators wouldn't even notice if it wasn't common knowledge. Some of my European mates are darker skinned than him, he's just the kind of player that makes you stand up in your seat. Butler is a god and last night's goals were the reason we won but Rankine is a show man, he makes the easy look magical and the impossible look easy.

Butler as kicked a few magical ones this year as well to be honest.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Byrnes is a clearance player , Phillips is a VFL player and will never be anything else than outside running
player with no footskills pretty useless in turnover game .

Not calling for debutante 1 hour before the game .

Love Ratts ..think he is absolutely fantastic coach rapt we won a game we would normally lose.

Until Byrnes gets another game and proves it, he's no such thing.
He hasn't got a clearance to his name. He has 3 contested possessions in a game.
In Ed's first ever game he got 7 contested possessions and a clearance.

Yeah we could pick teams based on pre-draft hype, in which case Daniel McKenzie should be a real goer.

 

[NarklesHelmet]

Rankine will divide people a lot. He's the absolute definition of mercurial and he'll sell memberships on the GC. He's going to sell the game but I reckon every other supporter will hate him. He struts. He played senior SANFL and humiliated older players. He was so good in an exhibition match they had to swap him into the other side at half time for fairness. I'm with Bruce, I love his game. The racial stuff isn't it, he's not exactly a central desert indigenous kid. He's got heritage but the commentators wouldn't even notice if it wasn't common knowledge. Some of my European mates are darker skinned than him, he's just the kind of player that makes you stand up in your seat. Butler is a god and last night's goals were the reason we won but Rankine is a show man, he makes the easy look magical and the impossible look easy.

Butler as kicked a few magical ones this year as well to be honest.

Rankine moves and plays so much like Akermanis, it’s almost weird.

I doubt he’ll divide people like Aker
did but who knows.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Just taking a moment to watch the replay

 

[kosifantutti]

Hard to think of a more integral five minute patch of football for St Kilda than Hunter Clark's last night. Not since the 2010 Grand Final Draw.

Only twice has St Kilda won three consecutive interstate away games in a season: 2009 & 2010.

Butler is elite. Took it on himself to make absolutely sure of that last goal. This is why you go and get premiership players.

Decision against Howard in the 2nd quarter was one of the worst ever made. Junior umpire overruled two umpires with GF experience from 100 metres away because of no to minimal contact.

I thought the Howard decision was justifiable but it was made to look worse when Ben King hooked his arm so he had no chance of getting back to mark the ball. But if they’re paying that there was one where Gresham tried to kick long to Ryder. The ball is dropping short and Collins is blocking him with both arms out and the ball falls 3m short of them both. Then he pays a free to Collins for who knows what as they chase the ball to the boundary.

 

[gringo2011]

Rankine moves and plays so much like Akermanis, it’s almost weird.

I doubt he’ll divide people like Aker
did but who knows.

He rubs heads of older more experienced players (like he did in SANFL), the guy just exudes cockiness. He will get hit a lot and he'll do a lot of cruising around and then piling on goals and breaking hearts. No one likes an insanely talented player that decides when he'll do his magic...unless they are playing for you.

 

[SAINTsincebirth]

Ummmmmm Wilkie??? He’s arguably been better than all of them over the 10 games.

The last year and half.

 

[austinnn]

Hunter Clark is going to be our new Robert Harvey. Same humble demeanor, same ice cold class in the heat of battle, same evasiveness. Wait til we let him rip in the midfield properly and he starts getting more shots on goal.

We are watching a legend being formed.

That last 5 mins - we have watched the Saints play for years and seen our players always turn the ball over in congestion because we wanted fast movement. Not Hunter Clark. We have been crying out for someone like this since Lenny retired.

Remember his roles in these matches, you'll be describing them to people in the future.

 

[The_Steadier]

I hate it, you would be better of waiting for someone else to pick it up. You reward the player standing back. Fiora would have ben a champion in today's game.

Who dares wins- footy players and their coaches will always be incentivised to get the football first, because that's where the biggest rewards are to be had.

Laying the perfect tackle that instantly wraps a player up is too hard to do reliably to the point where you make it the centerpiece of your strategy. (Ie waiting for the opposition to go get the ball first)

Any strategy that any team cooked up to wait until the opposition got it would be slaughtered by a strategy of win the ball first.

 

[Hubnester]

Hope Kenty was there to give Rankine a friendly pat on the head after the siren went... flog

 

[bird_man]

Steele is a strong bodied tackling machine with good skills, he's not a contested pig though. Likewise Jones is a beast but seems like only when ball is in hands and he's on the burst. Someone who can consistently burrow into traffic and get a handball out would really help us out. An Oliver or Cripps type would help on days where the ruck isn't dominating. Alot of us are hoping that Bytel is that player, but we should be looking hard at trade targets.

Both of Steele and Jones have been very good at winning contested footy this year though and were well down yesterday.

Both were in the top 20 players in the comp for contested footy.

Agree an Oliver type would be ideal. Would love to see Bytel at some stage this year.

 

[L_W_P]

Rankine will divide people a lot. He's the absolute definition of mercurial and he'll sell memberships on the GC. He's going to sell the game but I reckon every other supporter will hate him. He struts. He played senior SANFL and humiliated older players. He was so good in an exhibition match they had to swap him into the other side at half time for fairness. I'm with Bruce, I love his game. The racial stuff isn't it, he's not exactly a central desert indigenous kid. He's got heritage but the commentators wouldn't even notice if it wasn't common knowledge. Some of my European mates are darker skinned than him, he's just the kind of player that makes you stand up in your seat. Butler is a god and last night's goals were the reason we won but Rankine is a show man, he makes the easy look magical and the impossible look easy.

Butler as kicked a few magical ones this year as well to be honest.

Don't get me wrong, I love him too.

Im just going to lose it with the endless gushing that every commentator is going to spew out every time he gets near the ball.

His old man would be proud though.

 

[Human Person]

Both of Steele and Jones have been very good at winning contested footy this year though and were well down yesterday.

Both were in the top 20 players in the comp for contested footy.

Agree an Oliver type would be ideal. Would love to see Bytel at some stage this year.

True, and take what I say with a grain of salt cause it's based on personal observation and opinion which as we all know is unreliable, but I think there's a big difference between one-on-one contested footy and the in-and-under contested footy when the ball is in dispute. Steele and Jones would have great numbers for beating their man one-on-one, particularly Steele, but it's not the same as say Cripps, Oliver, Greenwood and the Rockcliffe of old who win it in heavy traffic and shoot it out, Steele can do that now and then but, from vision at least, not all game. That's the kind of player who can even the contest when the clearances aren't going our way.

If we can get any A-grader in, then who cares if that's their thing or not, just bring in talent. but if we go the money ball route again, that's what I'd be looking for. That's what Bytel was known for as a junior, so it'd be great if he came good and could be serviceable in that role, but I don't wanna hedge our bets on that given our window may be open against expectations.

 

[Human Person]

More thoughts on last nights game, there was a clear plan B when the game shifted. How we scored in the first half was so different then how we did in the second. Ratts and Dew were like chess players last night, adapting, to each shift in control and planning when to stick to the plan and when to mix it up. If it was Richo I assume we would've stuck with the one plan all night. It's nice to see us be able to adapt this year, it's really been something that we've lacked for awhile.

 

[sammm]

Start rotating the players through to prep for finals.

Give Coffield a rest. Then Hill. Then Gresh...

Just one game off over the last few weeks to freshen up the body.

don't be surprised if we don't win on monday. hard to back up 2 games in 9 days

 

[Human Person]

Rankine will divide people a lot. He's the absolute definition of mercurial and he'll sell memberships on the GC. He's going to sell the game but I reckon every other supporter will hate him. He struts. He played senior SANFL and humiliated older players. He was so good in an exhibition match they had to swap him into the other side at half time for fairness. I'm with Bruce, I love his game. The racial stuff isn't it, he's not exactly a central desert indigenous kid. He's got heritage but the commentators wouldn't even notice if it wasn't common knowledge. Some of my European mates are darker skinned than him, he's just the kind of player that makes you stand up in your seat. Butler is a god and last night's goals were the reason we won but Rankine is a show man, he makes the easy look magical and the impossible look easy.

Butler as kicked a few magical ones this year as well to be honest.

definitely, he'll always be in the media for his career (hell this is out thread and he's on most of it). It'll be a career of being hyped up when he's firing and demonised when he's quiet. Wouldn't be surprised if he cops a hit or two to the head as well (not that I condone that at all).

 

[Yawkey way]

He didn't record a single tackle stat so it must have been someone else you saw tackling.

No idea how they record those tackle stats, Sinclair made two good tackles early but his quarter time tackle stat was zip.

 

[Ducky Tie]

He's playing good footy and it's not a big issue, but I'd love to know what's happened to Gresham's ability to kick long. A couple of years ago, he was nailing them from 50 with ease. Now he can't make the journey. The one yesterday when he was streaming into 50 and kicked from around the paint, he got absolutely no where near the journey. Seems like he's trying to kick it a bit hard.

 

[CarnTheSAINTERS]

He's playing good footy and it's not a big issue, but I'd love to know what's happened to Gresham's ability to kick long. A couple of years ago, he was nailing them from 50 with ease. Now he can't make the journey. The one yesterday when he was streaming into 50 and kicked from around the paint, he got absolutely no where near the journey. Seems like he's trying to kick it a bit hard.

I feel he’s lost a bit of confidence and direction. I would play him in a 60-40 midfield forward. He knows where the goals are. We don’t need him to be a contested beast. More of a Rankine. Give him a preseason to reset and practice drop punts. Let him do what he does best.

 

[12Chill]

He's playing good footy and it's not a big issue, but I'd love to know what's happened to Gresham's ability to kick long. A couple of years ago, he was nailing them from 50 with ease. Now he can't make the journey. The one yesterday when he was streaming into 50 and kicked from around the paint, he got absolutely no where near the journey. Seems like he's trying to kick it a bit hard.

I don’t know, when he gets the ball and bombs a centre clearance he seems to get it 50ish. I have wondered throughout the season if his knee is restricting him a bit though, since he did his PCL in R1 and has it pretty heavily strapped each game. Maybe he’s lost a bit of force or the strapping restricts his leg swing a bit.