Autopsy Round 4, 2023: St.Kilda v Gold Coast

[gringo2011]

I’ve said for a year now I see a Patty Cripps in this kid and dare I say it a more athletic one with better forward craft.
Last night has me thinking it might not be that crazy of a statement when all said and done

What makes him unique is his pace off one step. He's got very quick acceleration, hard as a cats head and can make decisions quicker than most can process. He's always about to take mark of the year and his ability to pick a ball up and have it on the boot in one movement is insane.

He's starting to show that he might end up being our proper superstar player in a few years. Paddy Cripps is a hard working packhorse. Owens looks like a a mercurial type with the ability to do the hardworking stuff as well. Cripps is like watching a concreter building a foundation, Owens is like dropping disco biscuits and watching monster trucks do back flips over jumps.

 

[gringo2011]

I missed the game last night, saw some replay, but curious how Clark and Pou went?

Clark is just a freak player. He was great at getting first use going for us. He's like trying to catch an eel when he has the ball. Phillipou was good without standing out heaps. Kicked a great long range goal and got plenty of little touches but not a real eye catching performance.

 

[BucketsandBanger]

If you had to delist 1 of them, which one would it be?

Don’t make me sad

 

[Desperate saint]

Loved Sinclair spending a bit more time in the midifeld.

Maybe it’s not required too often, but if we are in trouble, what an asset to inject into the mix!

was at the Game Sincs has some speed

 

[dudeintheswamp]

disco biscuits

Geez haven't heard that one for a while

 

[keithrichards]

Clark is just a freak player. He was great at getting first use going for us. He's like trying to catch an eel when he has the ball. Phillipou was good without standing out heaps. Kicked a great long range goal and got plenty of little touches but not a real eye catching performance.

Just chiming in cause I’m a big Philippou fan, but one handball that stuck out to me was the flick to Gresham, who then passed to Higgins who goaled from the square. Super clean, amazing decision making and executed the skill. Going to be a fun watch for the next decade for you guys!

 

[gringo2011]

Let’s play a fun game. Who has the highest upside, Owens, Philipou or King?

You'd be crazy to go past Owens right now, he's looking pretty special right at this moment, go output over potential every time. Pretty good problem to have though. King is incredible too but until we see him freed up under Ross Lyon we don't know how much to expect. Phillipou is going to be at least good, how good is hard to know.

 

[Mowman]

You'd be crazy to go past Owens right now, he's looking pretty special right at this moment, go output over potential every time. Pretty good problem to have though. King is incredible too but until we see him freed up under Ross Lyon we don't know how much to expect. Phillipou is going to be at least good, how good is hard to know.

How good is it to have players with some character again Owens - Caminiti - The Pou
Even Stocker is a St Kilda type player

 

[tim_saints]

Let’s play a fun game. Who has the highest upside, Owens, Philipou or King?

Not a bad problem to have

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Just chiming in cause I’m a big Philippou fan, but one handball that stuck out to me was the flick to Gresham, who then passed to Higgins who goaled from the square. Super clean, amazing decision making and executed the skill. Going to be a fun watch for the next decade for you guys!

Good eye. You’re spot on, he’s quick as and rarely makes a poor choice.

 

[gringo2011]

Probably an unpopular opinion here... Caminiti is giving me bigtime vibes, and he seems to have King covered in every aspect, except maybe maximum reach. More powerful over 20m, stronger body, stronger hands, better kick, better agility, better in traffic, better defence, better tank, and maybe better smarts.

I know King has kicked a few bags, I haven't forgotten, but we did kick it to him every time in the past. I'm not sure how King will cope with the new gamestyle. BUT, with how much our players have already improved under Lyon, King might improve out of sight as well! Still plenty of players remaining to see step up, and mostly the experienced ones. Good times.

He's brought his own cheer squad too. His family and friends turn up better than our rusted on fans. King is a potential superstar, don't think we'll know his ceiling until we get him in the side under Ross. He's had some great forwards in his systems.

 

[Joffaboy]

Calm down mate

He kicked over 50 goals in his 4th year of footy

The only other current key forwards to have done that are Jeremy Cameron, Jack Riewoldt and Buddy Franklin I believe

Caminiti has all the tools to be a very good prospect but King is a generational talent

Caminiti takes Membrey's spot if anybodies.

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[sammm]

You know it’s been a good month, but there’s more to come! We don’t know how serious we are until King plays if we are honest.

i think we will have a better idea in 3 weeks.

 

[hayes]

My absolute favourite moment: Mitch’s goal in the third quarter.

But not the goal itself. It’s the moment when the ball has left his boot and is hanging in the air, curling inevitably towards the goal. The crowd on the outer side goes first. They know. Before the commentators, before the players. They know. Thousands of people letting out a collective “……..AWWWWWWW”, building like a wave before the ball even reaches the goal line.

An involuntary reaction to seeing something special unfold right in front of you. And not just the goal. The player. The moment. The team.

Perfectly described and not to brag or anything but…..oh screw it yes I am I had the absolute perfect view of that goal from where I was. If Owens does go on to be what we think he’ll be we’ll all remember that night.

 

[Jesuswasacarpenter]

The Easter Bunny is absolutely SHREDDING “Killing In The Name Of” at the foot of the Spencer St footbridge steps right now…

View attachment 1654072

Have seen Darth Vader playing Enter Sandman there before, his sign said playing for beer money

 

[Tommy Wigs]

Owens could have easily ended up with 6 goals last night if he'd kicked the 2 early ones and kept the one he gave Cordy. Crazy.

Seb "dusty" Ross, what a goal from him, I don't think I've seen Seb play like he is ATM before. He looks hungry!

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Was right behind the bench last night and Seb did nothing but support the kids when he was there

 

[Ads734]

Another thing on Owens. Half forward is probably the hardest position on the ground to play. He’s just competing every single time

 

[Desperate saint]

an

Probably an unpopular opinion here... Caminiti is giving me bigtime vibes, and he seems to have King covered in every aspect, except maybe maximum reach. More powerful over 20m, stronger body, stronger hands, better kick, better agility, better in traffic, better defence, better tank, and maybe better smarts.

I know King has kicked a few bags, I haven't forgotten, but we did kick it to him every time in the past. I'm not sure how King will cope with the new gamestyle. BUT, with how much our players have already improved under Lyon, King might improve out of sight as well! Still plenty of players remaining to see step up, and mostly the experienced ones. Good times.

and very agressive much higher energy player

 

[Joffaboy]

I was actually pretty impressed with their first quarter. They aren't far off now. I reckon they'll play finals for a few years. Anderson is frighteningly good these days. So unlucky that he didn't get to us as as FS, we loved cutting players back in the day. Should chuck his dad off the board if he can't get his son to come to us on the cheap.

Took them to the deep end 5 minutes into the second and they went under without even treading water.

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[gringo2011]

If there's one negative to the impact of Owens, Caminiti and Philipou are having its that I'm starting to take Windhager for granted.

I didn't notice him too much last night, did he have a run with role on anyone?

He was running with Miller at centre bounce when I took notice a few times. Looks like Miller got the better of him but the Suns struggled to get much clean clearance work going so perhaps it was a sacrificial role that the coaches loved but was hard to see what he was doing.

 

[stfan]

I was talking to an insider after the game last night, he said the theory is that there are a lot of “smart” game plans around at the moment. Things where the players have to know all this nuance about “if it’s situation A then do action X, if it’s situation B then do action Y, etc etc etc”.

Whereas RTB’s plan is about making it simple for the players and predictable to their teammates. And they make it super clear to the players as well that they’ll be judged purely on effort and workrate, and that’s really refreshing for a lot of our players.

If this is true then no, it’s not revolutionary, it’s just making it easy for the players to play the game and then motivating them to want to do that.

I am no insider. Just an observer.

MY TAKE

The "different part" is that RTB knew from Day 1 that our key competitive advantage was our ability to run.

He has then over the pre-season sharpened this up with training to make us even better runners, and has added discipline and workrate to that natural running talent.

The "clever" part is then devising gameplan to maximise all of the above.

The nub of the gameplan is that it exploits our sheer running power so that we outnumber our opponents most of the time. In football if everything else is roughly equal, if you have the numerical advantage you will triumph.

So with our running power it is not just our "wings" who flood back and forward to support like Wood and Dmac were doing last year. It is also our HF's and HBs.

This ability to create "outnumbers" forward and back means that if we lose the midfield battle, like we have been, that we can still win the ball back and then rebound well.

HOW TO COUNTER US?

The problem for other teams is that they cannot simply just copy our gameplan, as they do not have our running power, unless they also already have it. Maybe the Pies might, but then again maybe not. The other clubs it is not.

The Dogs tried to run to counter us, but just could not run hard enough and for long enough.

So other teams are going to just have to try and do other things better. ie To dominate the midfield AND to no then turn the ball over.


THE FUTURE

No we still have a lot of young players, and so whatever happens this season, from 2023 we should be better.
For example in Caminiti we seem to have found our Key Forward to pair with Max King. Membrey being our "third tall". So who needs Ben King now? Caminiti is a good contrast to Max. Caminiti plays aggressive and contested football whilst also being a true marking key forward. He is quick as well. He is however only 19 yrs 3m, and has not even hada full pre-son. Just imagine what he could be like with a couple of preseasons when he is fitter and stronger. At only 19 he may well still grow a cm or two as well.

Owens, Poo, Windy....and I have great hope for Ottons, Keeler as well. Heath could become handy as our ruck/forward from next year. If not it will be Keeler.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

I loved this.

 

[gringo2011]

Saw the same, thought he will be lucky to get listed, just saw nothing, with you there, we are just mug punters.
Zaine Cordy was the same, so unfit in comparison to the group. He must think he is a genius though, comes for his super at the Saints, contributing team football in a team atop of the ladder.

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Cordy still look a bit like he's a place holder. Stocker looks a genuinely good player. Not that far behind our absolute cream in output.

 

[gringo2011]

He was so good last night
It was elite running all night

In all but one game he's had a great season.

 

[Yawkey way]

I don't know what it looked like on TV but his end to end running is incredible. He's a proper athlete, sprints at a ridiculous speed and still has enough in the tank to make second and third efforts. He's not flashy but he's a little battler. Like a rocket powered Geary.

He looked really good and drilled a couple of passes as well. What really stood out on tv last night was just how much in and under work clark did. Last night was exactly what I wanted to see, everyone played their part, everyone went when it was there turn, the whole team working hard for each other.