Autopsy Round 15, 2022: Sydney v St.Kilda

[seasonedsainter]

It's enough to send you to a padded room, the utter tragedy and absurdity of it all, old Will would be proud, feel like we all deserve medical cards to claim under condition of PTSD.

And to think this shit is voluntary. We're stark raving mad.

 

[Sunshine Sainter]

Pride game? Unfortunately nothing to be proud of with the performance in this game

 

[Grav]

Video

Senior Coach Brett Ratten spoke to STK Media after our Round 15 loss to Sydney

www.saints.com.au

Video

Cal Wilkie spoke to STK Media after our Round 15 loss to Sydney.

www.saints.com.au

Fellas, relax. Our ball use was bad and let us down but otherwise it was actually a pretty good performance.




I have some concerns...

I could see Ratts lips moving, but all I heard was blah, blah, blah.

 

[LuckyBounce!]

People will get upset but is there any danger we can just concentrate on winning football games at any stage? Every round is this or that theme and I’ve had a gut full of it. Until we make winning a premiership the priority rather than trying to save the world we will never win one. Cut the BS!

 

[Yabadoo22]

As sad as it is we need a full rebuild once again. Just bottom the f*** out nevt year and get as many young kids who aren’t broken and bring in a new coach. Players to rebuild around.
King
Owens
Windhager
NWM
Battle
Steele
Sinclair
Heath.

Players to hang around for a couple years to help the kids:
Ross(one player who gives effort)
Wilkie
Hayes
Membrey
Webster
McKenzie

Players I’d look to trade while they have some sort of currency

Gresham
Howard
Marshall
Clark
Coffield
Hill
Crouch

No currency/delist/retire:
Billings
Jones
Geary
Hannebery
Kent
Conolly
Leinert
Campbell
Highmore
Paton
Wood
Allison (sigh)
Bytel
Higgins
Long
Ryder
Butler
Byrnes

 

[Saints43]

Two goals from free kicks up to 3 quarter time. Ratts has a lot of explaining to do about how his systems and players are falling apart.

If we'd got a free every time we were in a making contest we'd have had eight goals at 3/4 time. They just about did.

 

[lewdogs]

It's hard to fathom what has happened to the team. We've gone from being a gutsy exciting young side to insipid and unwatchable.

The heart of the problem is the midfield which is very average. There's the basis of something there but to be a good mid you need to be consistent and unfortunately ours are not bar Steele. Jones has been shocking this season, Gresh up and down, Crouch fantastic for a while but gone back to just good. We lack another bull in there, here's hoping Owens can come through.

But if you look at our forward line it is also pretty bad. We are reliant on a 21 year old. Membrey is a good player but the others are all average. Long, Butler, Sharman either kids or very average players.

That was an unwatchable game from St Kilda. This season is beginning to remind me of 1999 when we started well but went to the dogs later on. The way we're playing right now we are in the bottom four teams in the comp.

 

[LJC05]

Each week we can clearly see at least one thing the opposition is doing to try to stop us.

Yesterday it was Sincs being tagged off half back and it was as clear as day to negate that tag you’d put Sincs on the ball ball, who’s more than capable, and then forces the Swans to adjust. At least try it for 5 mins.

Just feels like we go in with a game plan and roll with it for the whole game regardless of what happens during the game because it’s a “system” and “it’s worked 8 times already this season”.

Membrey down back and Willie gets the key forward if they get a hold of Doogs early are the only adjustments ever made.

 

[CaptainRisky]

Need to win 5 of our remaining 8 now, lol.

Could've been 4 of 8 but our percentage is rubbish (and percentage doesn't matter anyway)

Not going to happen I'm afraid

 

[Sully111]

Press conference showed a man who is clearly lost

We need a leader.

We don't need nice.

We need strong.

 

[cartwright]

People will get upset but is there any danger we can just concentrate on winning football games at any stage? Every round is this or that theme and I’ve had a gut full of it. Until we make winning a premiership the priority rather than trying to save the world we will never win one. Cut the BS!

Yeah… the themed rounds are the problem.

 

[stfan]

Yeah, the deep end is proving a little too deep.

Though Essendon was at the shallow end!


But yes our final 11 games was always a much tougher draw than our first 11.

The main concern for myself though at present is not just that we are losing, it is HOW we are losing.



Yes we are now more injury afflicted, but something has gone written at the club. We have gone from a club that had faith and was progressing to dare I say North/ WestCoast esque!

 

[pebblesofsand]

Good night last night - the band was great.

 

[stfan]

Shock horror, skinny teenage kid with a handful of games under his belt has lot to work on.

Jeepers.

The kid has shown more in his first handful of games than guys like montagna or gresham did.

Who cares if he has mare?

If he does, he goes back to the 2's and works on his game.

He's overachieving even earning a spot in the 22 at this point in a team that's supposed to be contending for finals and a flag (according to the president at least).

Give me a work in progress kid who's shown flashes of poise and brilliance in the big leagues as a teenager over a manchild like dunstan who hits their ceiling as a teen any day.

You missed my point entirely. NWM is being taught only how to play a useless role. Having him run up and down the ground playing unaccountable football is not going to benefit him or the club any.

He would be much better off in a role that has value in the modern game. But if you think it is great that he plays that way, well that is your view. I disagree. It smells of us ruining yet another potentially good player.

 

[CaptainRisky]

Highmore in next week please Ratts

I said he should have been in this week but some people thought that our backs were so good that there was no spot for him

 

[CaptainRisky]

Saints haven’t played West Coast yet. Danger game because they are playing better footy during the last two weeks.

Mate , Us playing Sandy would be a danger game

 

[BucketsandBanger]

Not sure where to begin with the issues. Surprising it took this long for a team to tag Sinclair. Him and Hill where just about the only good thing about our transition all year. Shut him down and we are completely lost. Hard to see from TV but the forward line seems to have no structure whatsoever. Is it the mids hacking it forward without looking or is it really a 1 on 3 every time? Mids got their hands on the ball, Marshall was better, Steele was good, Crouch ok, Ross tried hard. Jones and Billings need to be dropped, offer next to nothing. Backline held up for a while but eventually the damn wall broke. Not sure how a team can lose confidence so quickly. We were ok against Brisbane. So brittle, something really wrong there. Liked Windhager again, he is a bull. Need to play him, NWM and Owens for the rest of the year. They all have talent and should be prioritised. Also desperately need to get King back on track, he is the biggest asset we have as a club and we cannot ruin him like we have so many high draft picks. I really hope Ratts extension is not signed because it could get very ugly from here. Can see the next two weeks being thrashings.

 

[D2D3]

Each week we can clearly see at least one thing the opposition is doing to try to stop us.

Yesterday it was Sincs being tagged off half back and it was as clear as day to negate that tag you’d put Sincs on the ball ball, who’s more than capable, and then forces the Swans to adjust. At least try it for 5 mins.

Just feels like we go in with a game plan and roll with it for the whole game regardless of what happens during the game because it’s a “system” and “it’s worked 8 times already this season”.

Membrey down back and Willie gets the key forward if they get a hold of Doogs early are the only adjustments ever made.

Something I don’t get is we were happy to throw Sincs onto the ball earlier in the year and it never harmed him. Why have we now decided that’s a no go? I also don’t get why we never play either Byrnes or Windhager in the middle either. They are midfielders, play them there. If they’re going to play at half forward the whole game might as well of stuck with Higgins. Battle also did a much better job in the ruck against port than Sharman and Long did last night, why not use Battle as the relief ruck when Reid went in there? And frankly if we were thinking “Sharman in the ruck” we should have realised that was a dumb idea and just bloody played Campbell in the first place.

Of course these are all just symptoms when we were frankly uncompetitive and stagnant all over the ground. Our run and connection has dried up and until we get that back we aren’t winning anything. Hopefully DMac, Wood and Hill are all bought back and that makes a difference (very unlikely at this point) but it seems crazy we’ve gone from backing our ability to run out games to being flat from the get go and being lucky to pick up for 5 minutes here and there.

 

[D2D3]

People will get upset but is there any danger we can just concentrate on winning football games at any stage? Every round is this or that theme and I’ve had a gut full of it. Until we make winning a premiership the priority rather than trying to save the world we will never win one. Cut the BS!

Not much good trying to make up event games if we are uncompetitive in each of them. Exactly why so many of our experiments have failed.

 

[plugger69]

I see the same old usernames posting here, week after week, year after year. I think a lot of you guys are insane, no offence. Stop supporting this football club in any way and you might just see some change for the better.

 

[SaintSteele9]

Quite remarkable how Sydney made the ground so small and congested when we had the ball, then were able to pick the eyes out of our “defensive” set-up going forward themselves. We didn’t have a single answer for any of it.

 

[t_94]

Was Howard really good in 2020 and patches of 2021 or am I wearing rose colored glasses?

 

[Dr Spaceman]

I said he should have been in this week but some people thought that our backs were so good that there was no spot for him

Our backs have been going alright however it’s at the stage where he just has to come in.

A revelation in the second half last year and our best at Sandy week after week this year.

I don’t care if a backman has to be dropped to accommodate him, or we play him in the forward line or the middle. After the last 2 weeks he simply has to play.

Ratts or whoever’s in charge on Friday can work out the logistics!

 

[D2D3]

Not sure where to begin with the issues. Surprising it took this long for a team to tag Sinclair. Him and Hill where just about the only good thing about our transition all year. Shut him down and we are completely lost. Hard to see from TV but the forward line seems to have no structure whatsoever. Is it the mids hacking it forward without looking or is it really a 1 on 3 every time? Mids got their hands on the ball, Marshall was better, Steele was good, Crouch ok, Ross tried hard. Jones and Billings need to be dropped, offer next to nothing. Backline held up for a while but eventually the damn wall broke. Not sure how a team can lose confidence so quickly. We were ok against Brisbane. So brittle, something really wrong there. Liked Windhager again, he is a bull. Need to play him, NWM and Owens for the rest of the year. They all have talent and should be prioritised. Also desperately need to get King back on track, he is the biggest asset we have as a club and we cannot ruin him like we have so many high draft picks. I really hope Ratts extension is not signed because it could get very ugly from here. Can see the next two weeks being thrashings.

Watching the game live last week you could see we had no movement or structure once we got to the wings. Which lead to the inevitable high long bomb because he have no other options. I’d say it’s on both lines, the mids not running for each other to create movement and the forwards not presenting to create options. No third and fourth leads like Riewoldt used to make and no overlap run like we used to see from Gram, Dal Santo and Montagna that’s for sure.

 

[Saintbloke]

A good example last night again of our lack of defensive work off the ball. Sydney players attacked when needed and linked up, but as soon as their players didn't have the ball they manned up hard- in contrast, our players just trotted around with no system in the middle of the ground. Our midfield kicking was terrible -most kicks were as high as they were long. Webster did a few terrible kick-ins from full back which caused turnovers. Sydney's players kept the ball low when kicking into their forward half and their forwards also led hard to the same positions as they obviously have planned. Our forward line is a shambles of no particular system, and lazy players who don't commit hard enough in the contest.