Round 9: St Kilda vs Sydney

[rufus t firefly]

You support Sydney. That act in itself is virtually a hate crime against this sport.

This sport? Any sport. Any Melburnian who follows this disgusting soulless franchise (and nobody did pre-2005) is a disgrace.

They are the MK Dons of Aussie Rules.

 

[BM123]

For all the St Kilda supporters in this thread what exactly has your club done that allows you to call The Swans a disgrace? Your club leads the wooden spoon race by far and has only won a single premiership. Doubt St Kilda wouldn't have moved or folded if they were in South Melbourne's situation.

 

[1873 United]

I was there, from my take, when the Saints played a faster running game it simply exposed Sydney for being a bit slow.

Sydney couldn't come to terms with the speedy outside players, especially once Dal, Armo and Lenny dominated the inside ball.

Kosi and Snowy attracted to many defenders allowing the smalls a paddock of room, which also ultimately led to the swans demise.

 

[dan warna]

What stupid commentary! The commentator just said Sydney's injuries (Goodes and Mumford) are no worse than the Saints (Nobody #1 and Nobody #2). Absurd.

fisher is a gun.

 

[dan warna]

Goodes v Fisher
Mumford v McEvoy

You tell me who the better two players are. To equate the injuries as equal is disrespectful.

goodes is a 9.5/10 player and fisher is a 8.5/10 player.

mumford who? both are respectable ruckmen.

 

[.Shotties.]

Haha, LordJimmy's a bit of a strange cat, isn't he?

 

[dan warna]

Haha, LordJimmy's a bit of a strange cat, isn't he?

<shrug> every club needs supporters with faith.

I hate goodes, and think he's the golden child of the umpires, that said, he's an outstanding player if he had some black in his red and white (as a saints player) i'm sure he'd be amongst my favourites.

I appreciate him as an enemy worthy of accolades and a sydney great.

 

[.Shotties.]

Yeah, a few from each side have turned up in this thread. A quick and painful rewatch actually makes me think (purely in terms of what we were lacking, rather than overall impact) the team missed Rohan more than Goodes last night. Last night was all about pressure. The Saints absolutely crushed Sydney and by the middle of the third there were Swans players flapping their arms and skirting contests like nothing else meaning the Saints could break away easily. It happened from the Swans half forward again and again.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I was really impressed with Sydney's super-fast handballing in the first quarter.

Pretty much every time someone got the ball in a pack for them, they would handball it immediately to whoever was closest to them, even if one of ours was a foot away from him and yet he'd still be quick enough to then get his own immediate handball off to someone else, before we had the chance to tackle them. And so on and so on, until it was out of the pack and then they'd be away. We were basically just reacting and chasing tail, instead of being able to predict where the ball would go and cut them off at the pass.

I was thinking at quarter time though that if we just realised this is how they were going to play it and almost let whoever got the ball go, as we knew he was just going to handball it to someone else immediately, we could pressure them into mistakes and that is the exact sort of thing that happened for the next two quarters (before our intensity dropped right off in the last and Sydney were able to get clear, concise possessions again).

We basically just monstered them in the packs in those middle two quarters and those handballs that were all hitting their targets in the first quarter started hitting the ground and going all over the place and then we'd swoop on the loose ball and be off like a rocket.

We tend to really love teams that are handball-happy.