Preview Saints vs Suns - Sat 1:40pm Metricon

[Tommy Wigs]

Could we look to bring in a newbie for their debut this week? OKearney is a ripper. Coughlin could be handy too...
Between the new recruits and Eli, Dmac, Leonie, Pierce, Murdoch... there are not enough spots for all the guys I wanna see getting a run.

That's it.

Good to hear Sincs was heavily tagged and scrapped and scraped. Had 12 contesteds, so still a good effort in close. Still think he has a high ceiling himself.

Some of these kids are on the shy side. They need some belief. Some might drop away and others might be slower burns with heaps of upside: D Mac, Acres, Billings, perhaps Sincs to a degree. All not boisterous young guys.

 

[ozish]

Eli deserves a shit been dominating VFL for the past month

What's Dunstan's nickname?

Lukey

Oh, bad luck. I was thinking it might have been Dunny and then he could help Eli with his shit.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

Maybe the medicos worked out you run faster if you're holding one in. So they've been holding him back for a few weeks, and now he's ready to be unleashed all over Metricon Stadium.

Yeah but you can't stretch out properly. Kind of got the straight legged thing going in case one slips out. Then it becomes very hard to run. Back to the old days of a sticky wicket.

 

[Saint_Dos]

Wright and Webster out for Lee and Templeton I reckon. If no Lee would love to c Coghlan come in.

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

 

[StKing11]

Amazing that the bookies have Gold Coast as favorites when they've lost 10 in a row and we've won 4 out of our last 5 and are coming off a huge win against the top of the ladder team. I'm not 100% confident of a win but I couldn't resist jumping on us at $2.05, those odds are tasty.

 

[Choomah]

membrey to kick 8

 

[aussierulesrules]

Yeah, last I saw Gold Coast were about $2.15 in the betting and we were about $1.70, so it looks like there's been a bunch of money on GC. I'm actually glad about that, as Gold Coast could probably do without having favouritism and it could give us a tiny bit of extra motivation, going in underdogs against a team that haven't won for 10 weeks and who we beat very very comfortably up there last year (when they were pretty close to full strength and before their wheels fell off).

 

[aussierulesrules]

If we're picking players on VFL form it will be Murdoch and Templeton for Webster and Wright. Personally I'd rather see McKenzie and Lee in for structural reasons and because we'd probably get a combined total of 18 possessions from Murdoch and Templeton.

D-Mac generally gets as few possessions as the likes of Murdoch and Templeton himself though! Murdoch averages 10.5 per game from his two games this year and Eli 9.5 from his two, while Dan averages just 11.5 from his 2. Problem for him though is that he generally plays on the wing when he plays and you really need to be averaging at least 20 to be paying your way there, so he was miles off that, whereas Murdoch played his two in defence, where his first job is to defend and Eli played most of his two up forward, where it's a lot harder to accumulate and where he's probably playing a defensive role to a degree. So you could argue that relatively speaking, Murdoch and Eii got closer to the number of disposals they need to be getting to be paying their way than Dan did.

Like everyone else, I love what D-Mac does when he has the ball and the way he cracks in and all that, but he needs to get his disposal numbers WAY up if he's going to be taking up a wing at AFL level and as such, I want to see him having some 30 disposal games at VFL level. If he's only having about 20 while playing on a wing at VFL level he's going to struggle to get many more than 10 in the same role at AFL level and that's just not close to enough.

If we were picking him to play in defence in place of Jimmy I'd be more OK with it (as that's where I see his best chance of making it, unless he improves his midfield ball-winning dramatically), but if he hasn't been playing down back in the VFL I doubt we'll pick him to play there at AFL level.

 

[Big Carl]

membrey to kick 8

Membrey has been great & kicked 2 bags of 5, & about 20 goals for the year.
For me the most impressive thing he has done all year was to jump over Enright & take a mark on the weekend.
Seemed to be out of position & pantsed multiple All Australian Defender.
Has footy smarts, good on the ground, taller than he looks & a fantastic vertical leap.
May be a much, much better player than I (and a lot of others) thought...and has only played 20 odd games!!

 

[nitewalker13]

I hope we break our interstate losing streak and win this game against gold coast.

We got momentum from last week.

 

[Murraj1966]

Membrey is a real surprise packet this year, kicking well getting into the right spots its been a joy to watch.

I'm so hype about this forward line after they've played 100 games together. It'll be chaos where the 3 distinct styles of Paddy Membrey and Bruce cause nightmare matchups.

Just need some quality mids to deliver well and we're off running

 

[TheBalls]

When was the last time we won 3 games in a row?

IF we win this game it sets us up really nicely for 4 wins in a row......
When did that last happen?

 

[joop]

More than half the experts in the Sun have tipped Gold Coast.

 

[TheBalls]

When was the last time we won 3 games in a row?

IF we win this game it sets us up really nicely for 4 wins in a row......
When did that last happen?

2011 - we won 5 in a row.

You're welcome.

 

[Rickee]

Das mah birfday!
First time in my memory we are actually playing a game on the day, pity it is interstate.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I hope we break our interstate losing streak and win this game against gold coast.

We got momentum from last week.

Worth remembering that we won both our games up in Qld last year, including being over 50 points up about half way through our game v Gold Coast, when they still had most of their team out on the park, in round 2 (even Swallow played that game!) and were very heavily favoured to win (about $1.17 in the betting, IIRC).

Gold Coast do look like they match up well against us though, with May and Thompson down back for Bruce and Paddy and McKenzie (if he plays) for Members and then up front they're very tall, with Lynch, Wright and Day and then in their midfield they have Ablett and Hall, so we're going to need to bring our game if we want to get the choccies.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

D-Mac generally gets as few possessions as the likes of Murdoch and Templeton himself though! Murdoch averages 10.5 per game from his two games this year and Eli 9.5 from his two, while Dan averages just 11.5 from his 2. Problem for him though is that he generally plays on the wing when he plays and you really need to be averaging at least 20 to be paying your way there, so he was miles off that, whereas Murdoch played his two in defence, where his first job is to defend and Eli played most of his two up forward, where it's a lot harder to accumulate and where he's probably playing a defensive role to a degree. So you could argue that relatively speaking, Murdoch and Eii got closer to the number of disposals they need to be getting to be paying their way than Dan did.

Like everyone else, I love what D-Mac does when he has the ball and the way he cracks in and all that, but he needs to get his disposal numbers WAY up if he's going to be taking up a wing at AFL level and as such, I want to see him having some 30 disposal games at VFL level. If he's only having about 20 while playing on a wing at VFL level he's going to struggle to get many more than 10 in the same role at AFL level and that's just not close to enough.

If we were picking him to play in defence in place of Jimmy I'd be more OK with it (as that's where I see his best chance of making it, unless he improves his midfield ball-winning dramatically), but if he hasn't been playing down back in the VFL I doubt we'll pick him to play there at AFL level.

I think McKenzie should be played in defence for now - I'd be bringing him in to replace Webster. Agree that he doesn't win enough of the footy to play on the wing at the moment but his toughness, pace and clean skills would be useful in defence. Roo, Newnes, Acres, Joey and Gresham can control the wings.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I think Murdoch has definitely earned a game in place of Webster ahead of D-Mac if we don't bring in Lee though. Other guys have had to go back to the VFL and have smashed it back there, yet haven't been able to get back in and Murdoch just had a BOG game there last week, so I don't think it would be right to bring D-Mac back in now, when he's the one who I don't think has had a single dominant performance back there since he was dropped, unlike the others. There's also no rush at all with him, whereas Murdoch is now in his 4th year and we need to really see if we can get the best out of him and playing him in the ones when he deserves a game is likely to give us the best chance of that happening. Would be good to see how he goes next week against a weak team like Essendon in particular. Could have a good game that would give him a bit of confidence and help him to take that next step.

 

[pebblesofsand]

More than half the experts in the Sun have tipped Gold Coast.

"experts in the Sun"

Now there's a classic oxymoronic statement

 

[Saintbloke]

"experts in the Sun"

Now there's a classic oxymoronic statement

Ha ha.. what a hopeless rag is the Herald Sun, and seems tone getting worse...enough ranting.. it looks like a lot of media tipsters are putting the Suns ahead of us, so obviously form is not a factor.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

"experts in the Sun"

Now there's a classic oxymoronic statement

Herald Sun expert Susie O'Brien decided to tip no one after she discovered both teams were full of men

 

[mysainters]

Suns are due.

Reckon Gablett will play a lot forward.

 

[doings]

Thinking Eli may get a run

 

[joop]

"experts in the Sun"

Now there's a classic oxymoronic statement

Who's an expert in your opinion then?

 

[Cornish]

Still think its Eli and bull and maybe Lewie