Preview Round 10, 2023: GWS v St.Kilda - GIANTS Stadium, Sunday 21st May, 4:40PM AEST

[bird_man]

Needs to be said in his short 1 1/2 seasons at the club, every time Windhager has been asked to break the door down with peak performance at Sandringham, he has done exactly that. We get to see what sort of selection integrity we have now, because Windhager deserves to be recalled.

Averages 30 disposals and 1.3 goals a game in the VFL

That’s pretty extraordinary for a kid of his age. Deserves to be rewarded for his form.

 

[Saintbloke]

Averages 30 disposals and 1.3 goals a game in the VFL

That’s pretty extraordinary for a kid of his age. Deserves to be rewarded for his form.

Especially seeing the midfield was bloody ordinary against the Crows- need Windy's intensity.

 

[bird_man]

Reckon we have had at least 2 off weeks now and maybe 3 with the port game

We should win 3 out of the next 5 hopefully 4 out 5

I’d be pretty happy with 3 of the next 5.

 

[Sun Ra]

Reckon we have had at least 2 off weeks now and maybe 3 with the port game

We should win 3 out of the next 5 hopefully 4 out 5

It's a reality check and as you say how we have been going, an entirely predictable one.

 

[Mowman]

I’d be pretty happy with 3 of the next 5.

As would I

GWS - Hawks and should/hope win one of Swans / Tigers both is a bonus but unlikely going on the Crows game

 

[PoppedCorn]

Same
Would be happy with 3 of the 5

Windy has to play imo

 

[tomjoad]

He hasnt been 100% since coming back. Some players are too tough for their own detriment.

And the team's

 

[Minga]

We had an off week.
Will win these next 2 and sitting pretty at the bye.

Finals bound and we should have more firepower than we have had.
Kings good for at least 2 goals a game and with that we may have won against pies/port.

St Kilda 8-3 at the bye…

 

[Sully111]

I haven't liked the way we've been playing. Back to not really knowing what to expect pre game. I don't like it.

 

[Saint Shags]

Especially seeing the midfield was bloody ordinary against the Crows- need Windy's intensity.

Mids have been ordinary for the last month and each time we bring in someone from outside they are made sub.

And neither Windy nor Bytel are sub material. They need to be on the field from the beginning. IMO

 

[Saint Shags]

As would I

GWS - Hawks and should/hope win one of Swans / Tigers both is a bonus but unlikely going on the Crows game

At present I've got GWS as a potential 50/50 based on our last months form.

 

[gringo2011]

Mids have been ordinary for the last month and each time we bring in someone from outside they are made sub.

And neither Windy nor Bytel are sub material. They need to be on the field from the beginning. IMO

It's midfield depth that we really lack. Bytel is our only real VFL level mid that can come in if we lose a player. It really shows how poor past list management and drafting have been. Last season derailed when Steele and then Gresham went down. The same thing happened this year and at the moment it looks like a replay. 2021 was similar when Gresham went down and all we did in that time was delist Dunstan and not replace him and hope that the kids come on much quicker than most do.

Brnging in a guy like Parish and pushing Ross or Crouch out to pasture would be ideal but can't see anyone leaving of that quality. Probably leaves Matt Crouch, Rhys Mathieson as ready made or a guy like Deven Robertson who is behind heaps but not fully formed.

 

[joydivision22]

With time to calm down I don't think it's the midfield that cost us that game. We actually kept pace with the clearances and inside 50s. It was the outside runners that were more ineffective to me and our kick inside 50.

Port did it to us and North tried it. They set up around 40 meters out from goal as a zone. You either have to kick from outside 50 or inside 30. If you kick into that zone it gets mopped up and repelled. We do it to others.

They hit their outside shots and got it inside where their smalls are elite compared to ours. We kept doing the moronic kicks into their zone and got it taken off us and they took the risky kicks through the middle of the ground or hit targets tight up on the boundary in heaps of space. Both require good disposal which we don't have.

It was a bad day from Hill, Byrnes, Coops and even Wood wasn't great on the wings. These are the guys you want delivering inside 50.

To me the ideal player to get through that Crows counter game plan is to have elite smalls and have our tall forwards really organised to always have a deep and a high target and have the high target taking plenty of long range shots at training. Phillipou looks an elite long kick and he'd be a great one to play a a high half forward who falls back as a high target.

King helps somewhat because if we can try to drop it to him he can get a hand on the ball and spill it which is better than the opposition intercepting.

All valid points. I would suggest we got beaten up at the stoppage especially once they gained possession and hit a couple of clean handballs then cut us open from the inside. They’re outside players receiving obviously the beneficiary of their great inside work.

On the other hand, when we got our hands to it in the contest it looked extremely unsure and fumbly, invited pressure and put the last distributer in a horrible position to deliver the ball to the outside players you mentioned. I don’t think we can look at the outside players down games and say they didn’t hold up their end when it was so broken down in the contest.

That’s why I would like to see wholesale changes to our midfield group and frankly I don’t care about scrounging enough wins to keep our heads above water hoping to finish 5th and lose a semi with Ross crouch Jones again. I want to see some exploration. Windhager and especially Bytel are both very clean inside and I think that is what we need. We have great runners and distributors but we haven’t been buying them time or space with sloppy inside work.

 

[Saint Shags]

It's midfield depth that we really lack. Bytel is our only real VFL level mid that can come in if we lose a player. It really shows how poor past list management and drafting have been. Last season derailed when Steele and then Gresham went down. The same thing happened this year and at the moment it looks like a replay. 2021 was similar when Gresham went down and all we did in that time was delist Dunstan and not replace him and hope that the kids come on much quicker than most do.

Brnging in a guy like Parish and pushing Ross or Crouch out to pasture would be ideal but can't see anyone leaving of that quality. Probably leaves Matt Crouch, Rhys Mathieson as ready made or a guy like Deven Robertson who is behind heaps but not fully formed.

We take our picks to the draft and we get mids. Not half back flankers or half forwards. Mids.

No point aiming for TDK or Bing if our engine room is failing.

 

[gringo2011]

All valid points. I would suggest we got beaten up at the stoppage especially once they gained possession and hit a couple of clean handballs then cut us open from the inside. They’re outside players receiving obviously the beneficiary of their great inside work.

On the other hand, when we got our hands to it in the contest it looked extremely unsure and fumbly, invited pressure and put the last distributer in a horrible position to deliver the ball to the outside players you mentioned. I don’t think we can look at the outside players down games and say they didn’t hold up their end when it was so broken down in the contest.

That’s why I would like to see wholesale changes to our midfield group and frankly I don’t care about scrounging enough wins to keep our heads above water hoping to finish 5th and lose a semi with Ross crouch Jones again. I want to see some exploration. Windhager and especially Bytel are both very clean inside and I think that is what we need. We have great runners and distributors but we haven’t been buying them time or space with sloppy inside work.

I guess we wait and see where we are at in a few weeks. Reality might make wholesale changes necessary.

Their spread and then pressure back on us probably contributed as much as their clearance work IMO. They really left us few options ahead of the ball and did what we were doing to others back to us.

We have a pretty beige list still so we have to rely on hard work to compete. Lose hard work and we have very little brilliance to carry us.

 

[kyrgios]

St Kilda 8-3 at the bye…

wish we could go back to the 2014 draft and pick Petracca, and the 2016 draft, pick Shai Boltan instead of Longy... Premiership right there

 

[EddieMurphy]

wish we could go back to the 2014 draft and pick Petracca, and the 2016 draft, pick Shai Boltan instead of Longy... Premiership right there

Go back further and could have had Bont or Crippa.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

Who is in trouble

Everyone. Not even the cleaner undertaking the clean out is safe

 

[KingJim]

Out- long bombs
In- Owens to the midfield

Owens: To play wherever he wants as he will excel everywhere.
Owens: To be Captain within 5 years or be playing at another club.

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

Owens: To play wherever he wants as he will excel everywhere.
Owens: To be Captain within 5 years or be playing at another club.

Owens and Windy co captains sounds good to me

 

[Max the great]

Owens: To play wherever he wants as he will excel everywhere.
Owens: To be Captain within 5 years or be playing at another club.

Never ever say that.

Sent from my SM-S908E using Tapatalk

 

[SteeleSaints]

We take our picks to the draft and we get mids. Not half back flankers or half forwards. Mids.

No point aiming for TDK or Bing if our engine room is failing.

Having looked closely at the kids in recent weeks, unlike last year there appears to be a void of midfield talent this year. There will be elite kids in the top 10 but after that there are not a lot of genuine midfielders in the top 30 ratings. Having said that the Championships usually unfurl a couple of rippers so I will be watching them closely.

I would always prefer to go to the draft with out first 2 picks, but depending on where we finish on the ladder, it might not be such a bad year to trade out of?

 

[ScrappyDo]

Beat Essington, beat Carlscum. Wouldn't care if we finished 2 and 20 after that.

Windy, King and Bytel in. Billings to stay in vfl till he quits.

 

[DarkSaint]

Was at the game and my observations are as below

1. We played Sharman on the wing pretty much the whole game. He is not a winger and stop trying to turn him into one. He is a specialist leading forward ala Fritch so play him like one or not at all.

2. Structure around the ball, we seem to be drawn in way too often while other teams hold their width. The crows were amazing at always having players on the outside which made us look second rate.

3. Small forwards need to be actual crumbing forawds. We can't play Butler and Higgins together. I'd be playing Higgins as he is the complete player. I honestly can't remember the last time Butler roved a ball in the forward line off a pack as small usually do.

4. Douglas Howard needs to focus on the ball coming in and not the man. Absolutely terrible defending. Literally looking for the body of the forward for 80% of the time and the last 2 seconds turns around and tries to spoil the ball. Needs to focus on the flight coming in and not the man.

5. May not he popular but it feels Sinclair is being wasted in the midfield. Has 3 or 4 flashes of brilliance and can win a clearance but I personally believe him at half back has much more of an impact on our level of play than in the guts (still good).

6. Ownens needs to play on ball, stands up breaks tackles, has power and is the complete player. We should have enough forwards in King/Caminiti/Sharman/Membrey

7. Byrnes is either a winger or in the VFL. Not sure why he was used as a half forward for well over half a game. Has played his best position as a winger. Ross completely butchered him and Sharman over the weekend.

8. Ross need to clean up his disposal, right now every kick he does from a contest is a turn over and just bangs it onto the boot. Right now isn't offering much that windhager or Bytel could do.

9. Get Windhager into the guts. Steele, Windhager and Owen's the starting brigade. Crouch then to come in with Gresham/Sinclair rotating through and even Ross if in the side.

 

[XhazzafootyX]

Wouldn’t be suprised if they pick JB.