Roast St Kilda in no mans land

[dazzledavey36]

Said at the start of the year that they are a bottom 4 side.

After watching yesterday that hasn't changed one bit. They look very uninspiring. Watched the Adelaide game and they looked far more impressive.

They need to off Phillipou a 10 year deal.

 

[Billy the Lid]

Said at the start of the year that they are a bottom 4 side.

After watching yesterday that hasn't changed one bit. They look very uninspiring. Watched the Adelaide game and they looked far more impressive.

They need to off Phillipou a 10 year deal.

Disagree. Their crop of 18/19 year olds is as good as anyone’s. Wang-Mil, Owens, Windhager and Phillipou are potential superstars and King (while a few years older) is already on the cusp of greatness. Will be mid table in 2023 but if Lyons can extract a bit more from the middle crop they can be top 4 in a year or 2. Plenty of clubs worse off then St.Kilda.

 

[master bate]

Disagree. Their crop of 18/19 year olds is as good as anyone’s. Wang-Mil, Owens, Windhager and Phillipou are potential superstars and King (while a few years older) is already on the cusp of greatness. Will be mid table in 2023 but if Lyons can extract a bit more from the middle crop they can be top 4 in a year or 2. Plenty of clubs worse off then St.Kilda.

Phillipou is and Windhager I'm a huge fan of, not convinced the other 2 project as real A graders. I like the use of Wanganeen-Milera across half back to best maximise his dual sided kicking.

A couple of really strong drafts has probably prevented them tailing off entirely for now and given them more to build around, but it will be interesting to see if Sos and Ross attempt to incorporate those kids in to the side and bigger rolls, or with so many of the Saints better players aged 27-29 if Sos is eying off tearing it down and going full scorched earth rebuild.

 

[PrinceCharles]

Phillipou is and Windhager I'm a huge fan of, not convinced the other 2 project as real A graders. I like the use of Wanganeen-Milera across half back to best maximise his dual sided kicking.

A couple of really strong drafts has probably prevented them tailing off entirely for now and given them more to build around, but it will be interesting to see if Sos and Ross attempt to incorporate those kids in to the side and bigger rolls, or with so many of the Saints better players aged 27-29 if Sos is eying off tearing it down and going full scorched earth rebuild.

SOS is currently eyeing off every club's injury list looking for his next batch of recruits.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Went along yesterday as ground close by.

Good to see a good sized crowd enjoying a Friday afternoon game and the ground (especially the surface) was immaculate.

Was scrappy with the wind but Melb looked a class above with their ball movement. Saints midfield seems weak link. Marshall and Steele are A Grade then it falls away. Gresham has ability and may take next step but they have some journeyman there filling other spots.

I thought Hunter Clark

11

Hunter Clark

Age

25

Ht

186cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.5

4star

K

9.5

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.3

3star

D

16.0

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.9

4star

D

13.2

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.0

1star

didn't really show much and Coffield seemed to be sheltered by playing the second part of the game. Windhagerndid one or two nice things and Phillipou is clearly talented.

If they are behind the 8 ball fitness wise with some players sidelined, could be out of contention by winter

 

[Plugger35]

Went along yesterday as ground close by.

Good to see a good sized crowd enjoying a Friday afternoon game and the ground (especially the surface) was immaculate.

Was scrappy with the wind but Melb looked a class above with their ball movement. Saints midfield seems weak link. Marshall and Steele are A Grade then it falls away. Gresham has ability and may take next step but they have some journeyman there filling other spots.

I thought Hunter Clark didn't really show much and Coffield seemed to be sheltered by playing the second part of the game. Windhagerndid one or two nice things and Phillipou is clearly talented.

If they are behind the 8 ball fitness wise with some players sidelined, could be out of contention by winter

Not surprising that Melbourne looked a class above us, Melbourne will make a lot of teams look second rate this year as they have one of the best midfield on the comp and have the best ruck duo going around with Grundy joining Gawn. I doubt any team will be able to cope with that ruck duo including Geelong.

While Melbourne beat us comfortably on the scoreboard it wasn't all doom and gloom for us with some of our young players like Owens, Windhager, NWM and Phillpou all showing good signs. We also had a number of important players missing including 3 of our first choice key forwards in King, Membrey and Hayes which made it tough for our forward line up against the likes of May and Lever who controlled the air when we got the ball inside 50

 

[Kapow!!!]

Honestly, outside the years where we had nothing left in the tank (2016, 2018) and were hoping for a fast start to paper over some cracks (and failing miserably because the cracks were too big) I've never known Ross to really take the pre-season too seriously. He's a bit of a poker player: Bluffs when he doesn't have a hand, limps in when he has Aces. He especially wouldn't be concerned with a scratchy effort against a contender and potential rival he can learn off.

I still think the Saints will have a big year. It's also nice to see he has refreshed his style effectively as well, he became a bit stagnant with us but with a fresh list, fresh assistants I expect he'll be relishing this chance. Will probably take half a season to click but will come home strong IMO.

 

[Plugger35]

Honestly, outside the years where we had nothing left in the tank (2016, 2018) and were hoping for a fast start to paper over some cracks (and failing miserably because the cracks were too big) I've never known Ross to really take the pre-season too seriously. He's a bit of a poker player: Bluffs when he doesn't have a hand, limps in when he has Aces. He especially wouldn't be concerned with a scratchy effort against a contender and potential rival he can learn off.

I still think the Saints will have a big year. It's also nice to see he has refreshed his style effectively as well, he became a bit stagnant with us but with a fresh list, fresh assistants I expect he'll be relishing this chance. Will probably take half a season to click but will come home strong IMO.

Yeah Ross never took preseason games too seriously when he last coached St Kilda, we got belted in a preseason game back in 2009 and then we looked completely different once the season started and went undefeated for the first 20 rounds so I'm not too concerned with what happened yesterday

 

[lewdogs]

Said at the start of the year that they are a bottom 4 side.

After watching yesterday that hasn't changed one bit. They look very uninspiring. Watched the Adelaide game and they looked far more impressive.

They need to off Phillipou a 10 year deal.

Fairly hasty conclusion to draw off the back of a match sim game.

 

[Jeremias]

Impressive group of young kids coming through. Phillopou will be elite along with NWM. Windhager is a jet and Owens exciting.

And yet despite this, you remain embarrassed to list them as your supported club.

Maybe they're not so impressive after all.

 

[WillHayward]

A huge part of the reason for us not being as optimistic as we otherwise might would be how hard we’ve been hit with injury yet again this preseason.

We had hopes that Max at least might be back early, but now they’re talking about around R7, and the same for Hayes, so that’s a big blow (especially as we don’t necessarily have any “easy” games in the first 7), as those two would have been the height component of our forward line, and Hayes presumably would have been the one doing the backup rucking, and we’re light-on for depth there.

We’ve also had a concerning lack of numbers on the track for a big chunk of the preseason, which has meant that while other teams were able to do full-team match sims, we’ve been doing 13 v 13 type stuff, and half ground drills.

We didn’t even have a proper intra-club game last week, so it seems as though we’re way behind, and going into the season with one hand tied behind our back, and likely to be up against it early.

If it wasn’t for all that I for one would be super-hopeful of us getting back to the sort of footy that got us to 8-3 last year, but now the odds are now looking pretty heavily against it.

It’s reminding me of our 2021 preseason, when we lost about 8 of our best 22 in the month or so leading up to R1.

Ur very verbose.

I see yet another season of Saints on big footy:

1. Blaming the fixture
2. Blaming umps
3. Blamiing injury

Taking zero responsibility for the horrendous drafting

1. McCartin pick 1 bust
2. Billings pick 3 bust
3. H Clark pick 6 bust

 

[Freomaniac]

Disagree. Their crop of 18/19 year olds is as good as anyone’s. Wang-Mil, Owens, Windhager and Phillipou are potential superstars and King (while a few years older) is already on the cusp of greatness. Will be mid table in 2023 but if Lyons can extract a bit more from the middle crop they can be top 4 in a year or 2. Plenty of clubs worse off then St.Kilda.

My thoughts exactly. They have a strong core of players in Max King , Jack Steele and Sinclair.

It's the bottom 6 or bottom 8 players in their best 23 that need to lift their load a d be consistent

 

[Freomaniac]

Wilkie is bloody good at what he does, hence making the AA squad last season.

It is definitely a very solid defence we have, and Coffield looked set to absolutely explode this time last year, before doing his ACL.

We conceded the 7th-lowest amount of scores against last year (and just one more point than Carlton in 6th, off a much harder draw) and that’s despite the fact we on average played a team who finished in the top 8 every second week of the season. Melbourne with 10 the only other team to play double-figure games against eventual finalists.

Talk is that Ross will push a 7th back this year, so we could be very hard to score against.

Ross Lyon sides are usually hard to score against when those teams are good.

This is nothing new to me lol

 

[Blackas87]

Ur very verbose.

I see yet another season of Saints on big footy:

1. Blaming the fixture
2. Blaming umps
3. Blamiing injury

Taking zero responsibility for the horrendous drafting

1. McCartin pick 1 bust
2. Billings pick 3 bust
3. H Clark pick 6 bust

You can’t keep bringing up drafts from 9-10 years ago.
Saints played finals in 2020 and were top 4 halfway through last season. They’ve put competitive periods together recently despite missing those picks (every club misses picks), you need to look a bit more recently to why a team that can be competitive isn’t performing at their best.

 

[Freomaniac]

You didn’t play any of the top 3 twice, compared to us playing the two grand finalists twice, you played two of the top 6 twice, compared to 4 for us.

You got to play a whopping 16 of your 22 games on your home grounds! We played just 12 at our home ground.

You played just 6 games interstate/Geelong, while we played 8.

You played just two of the top 6 teams interstate, or in Geelong, whereas we played 4 of the top 6 there.

We didn’t play any of the bottom 5 twice, while you played two of them twice.

So effectively you swapped two of our games against top 3 or 6 teams with two extra games against bottom 5 teams, while playing 4 extra games on your home grounds, 2 less games interstate or in Geelong, and two less games against top 6 teams interstate or in Geelong!

However it was rated in the preseason it was a MUCH easier draw than ours. Our one was brutal, especially for a team that missed the finals the previous year.

Fair enough.

Your saints made finals in 2020 and beat the dogs in an Elim final. Then lost to tigers in a semi final.

Saints reward? Facing both 2020 grand final sides twice in the 2021 season.

Freos 2022 season is similar to saints 2020 season: made finals for the 1st time after a long period of rebuilding (saints spent 2012-19 outside of the top 8, Freo spent 2016-21 outside of the top 8).

Freo finished 5th, beat the dogs in an Elim final. Lost to magpies in a semi final.

Freos reward? Face both 2022 grand final sides twice in 2023.

 

[Dazb86]

The midfield is a worry

 

[Verdun]

The midfield is a worry

Yep to be honest has been for a long time.

Hoping for Windhager, Owens, Phillipou, Wanganeen Milera, Bytel develop quickly to help out Steele, Crouch and Gresham

 

[t_94]

Ur very verbose.

I see yet another season of Saints on big footy:

1. Blaming the fixture
2. Blaming umps
3. Blamiing injury

Taking zero responsibility for the horrendous drafting

1. McCartin pick 1 bust
2. Billings pick 3 bust
3. H Clark pick 6 bust

And yet the Saints still appear to live rent free in your head.

 

[ChristianBoy]

King
Membury
Billings
Ross
Jones
Coffield
McKenzie
Hayes

Fair list of outs.

 

[Dazb86]

King
Membury
Billings
Ross
Jones
Coffield
McKenzie
Hayes

Fair list of spuds.

They've been pretty unlucky so far on the injury front.

 

[Purple Suit]

They've been pretty unlucky so far on the injury front.

I use to think we were unlucky with injury too and then Freo had a huge clean out of the S&C team. Has been amazing since then, maybe the Saints should try it.

 

[WillHayward]

And yet the Saints still appear to live rent free in your head.

Aussie rules has moved in and set up hydroponics in the attic.

 

[ChristianBoy]

Ur very verbose.

I see yet another season of Saints on big footy:

1. Blaming the fixture
2. Blaming umps
3. Blamiing injury

Taking zero responsibility for the horrendous drafting

1. McCartin pick 1 bust
2. Billings pick 3 bust
3. H Clark pick 6 bust

They really needed to predict McCartin and Clark’s injuries pre draft.

 

[Kreuuuzeurns]

King
Membury
Billings
Ross
Jones
Coffield
McKenzie
Hayes

Fair list of outs.

And their easiest run of games is the first 6,

 

[ChristianBoy]

And their easiest run of games is the first 6,

Yep their season all but over. No club can cover that.