Preview Round 7, 2023: St.Kilda v Port Adelaide - Marvel Stadium, Friday 28th April, 7:50PM AEST *WOOD 100TH*

[Tommy Wigs]

By the way, the injury list is updated with no updates (at least I think). Would be good to see some of those weeks inch down, get on it Stkfc

 

[SaintersUnite]

It’s completely irrelevant when there is no credit in the bank under Ross.

Whatever you think Billings has achieved under Richo & Ratten means * all.

Which is how it should be.

Now that shouldn’t be too hard to fathom.

And just to make something clear.
Billings hasn’t achieved anything. Never placed in our BnF, Never been an A/A.

Infact his best bnf finish was our laughable 2019 season and he finished 4th in the BnF.

Not even his coaches have rated his career to date.

To play devils advocate, does all of this apply to King as well or does your opinion of him outweigh it all? Because he hasn’t won anything of note, hasn’t placed in a BnF and hasn’t played a senior game for RTB either.


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[Cam Shenton]

To add to this, go look at the TOG% throughout the year and then compare it to Sunday afternoon.

Butler 70%
Clark 77%
Crouch 76%
Paton 75%
Philppou 68%
Ross 69%
Steele 75%

We eased the mids through the game given we have to back it up in 5 days.

Lets put this silly assumption that we aren't managing players to bed.

Loving these numbers. Could you imagine before the season us winning a game with the skipper, crouchy and seb all having tog’s in the 70% range. Big tick to our midfield depth.

 

[Browny2Carlisle]

To play devils advocate, does all of this apply to King as well or does your opinion of him outweigh it all? Because he hasn’t won anything of note, hasn’t placed in a BnF and hasn’t played a senior game for RTB either.


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I’d say leading goalkicker, top 3 in the league for contested marks and marks inside 50 probably covers that

 

[bird_man]

Billings will make his way into the side eventually, not sure about this week though

I think that will just come down to how everyone pulls up. He'd be a handy sub

 

[Xxxx66]

Jones could be turned into a lock down small defender like paton

Both sit behind a fit jweb imho

 

[Cam Shenton]

Carlton have three small forwards. Motlop, Durdin and Honey. They had one scoring shot and 23 possessions between them. Paton, Stocker and Nas annihilated them.

Pato is going alright.

Also that would leave us short a small defender.

Patto also backed back into packs to help effect a spoil on Curnow and McKay numerous times, was pretty impressive team first play. One to his own detriment as he spoilt McKay and it spilt out to his man who kicked a goal.

 

[Joffaboy]

To play devils advocate, does all of this apply to King as well or does your opinion of him outweigh it all? Because he hasn’t won anything of note, hasn’t placed in a BnF and hasn’t played a senior game for RTB either.


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Of course not, there are some stars who come straight back in, King, Wilkie, Sinclair, Steele, Wood (WTF would think someone would ever type that?).
It is no longer the case at the STKFC if you are a mid range player with a name like Jones or Billings, you come straight back into the team. Those easy carefree days of comfortable no competition for your spot is gone.

I have felt for a couple of seasons we could virtually swap out ten in our team for the others on the list for no difference in performance. I feel we have a lot of depth in midrange players. Now with the RTB system, the complete club buy in and the huge injury toll at the beginning of the season where we were playing blokes like Cordy, Stocker, second yearers Owens, Wind and Nas, first gamers in Phillipou and Caminiti just to make up the numbers, showed our great depth and proved my suspicions correct.

5-1 from these ragtag 'nobodies'. So the lesson learnt. You want to play seniors, 1) you earn it, 2) you play the way the TEAM requires or you will be out.

Seriously cant name one player not doing the team thing. People hate on Gres, but he is still doing the team thing otherwise he would be out. Lyon is not sentimental.

 

[70s sainter]

Friday night game.

Hope we come out in force and fill Marvel with Saints supporters. Show the boys how proud we are of them, then put Port to the sword.

35K+ a distinct possibility which we be a great bonus for our ever growing coffers.

We all demanded we get this game back in Melbourne so it will be very disappointing if we don’t get 30+ at the game . ESP sitting on top , finally getting port at home and Fri night as well .

 

[The Punter]

I'd be very happy with 25k.

 

[Xxxx66]

To play devils advocate, does all of this apply to King as well or does your opinion of him outweigh it all? Because he hasn’t won anything of note, hasn’t placed in a BnF and hasn’t played a senior game for RTB either.


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I reckon king solves one of two holes. We are missing a gun key marking forward. Only other area we could get better at is centre clearances. Maybe a fitter Steele solves this

 

[Saintbloke]

Some of our established players might have walked straight back in under Ratts, but I don't think it's a guarantee under Lyon- he is about the team game and the system working..which is working beautifully..even though our midfield barely got hands on the ball against Carlton! One of our current senior team would either have to be injured, or just playing plain bad to get dropped.

 

[MordySaint]

I'd be very happy with 25k.

Are we on a better deal from the AFL yet?

We used to lose money on 20K games.

 

[stavro#4]

To play devils advocate, does all of this apply to King as well or does your opinion of him outweigh it all? Because he hasn’t won anything of note, hasn’t placed in a BnF and hasn’t played a senior game for RTB either.


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Already posted my thoughts on King.

He would be in the same bracket as Steele.

Straight in.

You don’t let your unicorns run around with park footballers. Last time Ratten did that and the kid was on a good run of form we all thought he did another acl as someone tried to murder the kid

 

[CaptainRisky]

Friday night game.

Hope we come out in force and fill Marvel with Saints supporters. Show the boys how proud we are of them, then put Port to the sword.

35K+ a distinct possibility which we be a great bonus for our ever growing coffers.

Not a hope in hell we get 35 k , we only had 33k for the dogs game , two melb teams , will be closer to 25k

 

[sammm]

I think that he is hard to push out though. He's probably the only guy on the list that could do what he does. Depends how much Ross rates a role over talent I guess. What is allowing us to be a consistent formidable side is that everyone is playing a role. Does taking that Byrnes role out make us worse more than Billings extra talent improve us?

I think that ross has always been role over talent, thats probably why Eddy stayed in for the 2nd grand final. I now hope that the assistant coaches would never let that occur again.

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Why aren’t people attending games? Cost?

 

[Saints TV]

My match preview for the big one on Friday!

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Good idea, why is 13 years ago being prosecuted again? Hasn't it been done to death? Robert Eddy, for goodness sake.

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I agree. What terrifies me is that 2010 is now the same distance away from us as it was from 1997.

Also seems we come good every 13 years lol.

 

[bird_man]

Why aren’t people attending games? Cost?

We just had the 2nd highest home and away crowd ever yesterday and a massive crowd the night before so I don't think we can blame cost

We just don't have a massive fan base so when we play interstate sides lime port it's never going to be a big crowd

Friday night though with the best footy we've played since 2010 we should be getting 30k

 

[SaintBilly]

Just because someone on the internet gets it in their head that they need to build a straw man and say because Steele was rusty and a bit off the pace, he is obviously underdone, sore and should be dropped, doesn't make it true.

Was asked to do a job in the second half and did it very well.

Sorry if it’s been mentioned already but this is spot on.

At the game I only really noticed a few touches and didn’t see much of Steele but he finished with 19 and played a role in restricting not only Cripps’ gathering of the ball but also his influence on the game which frankly helped turn it in our favour.

He also was clearly just trying to get match fitness without wasting time in the twos which is a good call. No point him playing there and potentially getting injured when he can have some influence on the seniors’ results.

So when I got home and watched the replay I noticed him more and his efforts couldn’t be questioned. He was clearly testing himself out which is great to see. He is such a selfless player, reminds me of Harvey in his team first mentality.

 

[Dard Ball Get]

We just had the 2nd highest home and away crowd ever yesterday and a massive crowd the night before so I don't think we can blame cost

We just don't have a massive fan base so when we play interstate sides lime port it's never going to be a big crowd

Friday night though with the best footy we've played since 2010 we should be getting 30k

We certainly don’t have the largest fan base, but surely we need to start showing up for the team. 25k is piss poor considering how long we’ve waited for a decent performing team!

If we’re setting membership records we need to follow suit with attendance.


What I’m trying to say is, why aren’t you campaigners getting there?!

 

[Joffaboy]

We certainly don’t have the largest fan base, but surely we need to start showing up for the team. 25k is piss poor considering how long we’ve waited for a decent performing team!

If we’re setting membership records we need to follow suit with attendance.


What I’m trying to say is, why aren’t you campaigners getting there?!

Sorry we live in a metropolis that has more to do than football or banging your sister as is the go in WA.

 

[bird_man]

We certainly don’t have the largest fan base, but surely we need to start showing up for the team. 25k is piss poor considering how long we’ve waited for a decent performing team!

If we’re setting membership records we need to follow suit with attendance.


What I’m trying to say is, why aren’t you campaigners getting there?!

Personally I can only make a couple of games a year but I'm not in Melbourne and I wish this was one I could get to

We've had some pretty good crowds this year includingover 60k and 45k on the weekend

I'll be surprised if we don't get close to 30k on Friday though. We had close to 25k round one against the Dockers. That was a Sunday game and we are flying now

 

[bergholt]

Not a hope in hell we get 35 k , we only had 33k for the dogs game , two melb teams , will be closer to 25k

There's a reason we've played this fixture in Cairns and China and Tassie. If we had 25k that would be a record attendance for a Saints game against Port in Melbourne.

Saints vs Port in Melbourne

2021 R18: 0 (lockdown)
2013 R17: 14,878
2010 R19: 22,467
2008 R18: 22,878
2002 R3: 17,641
2001 R19: 14,018
2000 R11: 17,509
1999 R9: 22,232 (Waverley)
1998 R8: 20,063 (Waverley)
1997 R7: 17,752 (Waverley)

So when we were going well in 08 and 10 we still only had 22k there. Late in both seasons though and crowds always drop off second half of the year before finals.

I think the club would be pretty happy with 25k tbh.