Review St Kilda v Carlton Rd 8 2017 post match discussion

[The Punter]

Totally meritorious win against a well coached team who imposed their game style on the game.

Billings arrived against GWS - this was the benefits of that arrival.

Ross keeps adding more strings to his bow.

Thought that was Sam Gilbert's best game in quite some time.

How would you ever drop Jade Gresham. He can be unsighted for three quarters, and then bobs up and wins you the game.

 

[Saintleigh]

6 th after round 8.

Most time in front % in the league

Could easily have had another 1-2 wins and been top.

Are we fulfilling our potential or soft run?

Wowee now that's a good stat, I think we've had a good enough run to not call it soft.

 

[Barrels]

There was a fair bit of talk in response to a lot of us projecting finals this season, where some of the usual suspects had us missing the eight on the back of the harder draw.

We've played an up and coming Melbourne, the Eagles in Perth, a pedestrian Brisbane, a bipolar Collingwood, a genuine top side in Geelong, the Hawks in their Tassie 'fortress', a loaded GWS and a raw but talented Carlscum.

Before the start of the season, I'd have thought wins over Brisbane and Carlton, maybe a win over Melbourne and Collingwood, and losses in the others, including a probable Perth spanking; 2-6 at worst, 4-4 at best, but not 5-3.

I think we're going ok.

 

[StCicatriz]

There was a fair bit of talk in response to a lot of us projecting finals this season, where some of the usual suspects had us missing the eight on the back of the harder draw.

We've played an up and coming Melbourne, the Eagles in Perth, a pedestrian Brisbane, a bipolar Collingwood, a genuine top side in Geelong, the Hawks in their Tassie 'fortress', a loaded GWS and a raw but talented Carlscum.

Before the start of the season, I'd have thought wins over Brisbane and Carlton, maybe a win over Melbourne and Collingwood, and losses in the others, including a probable Perth spanking; 2-6 at worst, 4-4 at best, but not 5-3.

I think we're going ok.

I still have us missing the 8

I think this year of it being so even is gonna **** us hard

 

[Armoooo]

Not sure if many people have picked up on it but one of the key reasons billings has hit some good form is that they have stopped persisting with him on a wing. Where they have tried to play him the last year and first rounds of this. He's a natural forward and has been put back on that half forward roaming around kicking goals again like we saw in his first and second season that saw him have games like the Bulldogs comeback 4 and 20 odd and the west coast game in his first year 3 goals and 25 at 100% eff. All at high roaming half forward. We are realising he's going to be our James Hird and we are playing him in his natural position and he will continue to flourish I have no doubt.

Great call, Billings is a forward and always will be IMO, don't think it's worth trying to turn a match winning half forward to an industrial, but very outside midfielder... loses his edge entirely. I used to think the same thing about Gresham but have since changed my mind, think he is a full time mid eventually, but haven't changed my opinion on Billings.

Also great to see Gilbert doing so well. He is a very versatile, hard working player. He has his limitations but this new role could extend his career by another couple of years. If we can keep getting as much value out of Riewoldt, Montagna and Gilbert as possible it stretches out our window IMO.

 

[The Enemy Within]

I still have us missing the 8

I think this year of it being so even is gonna **** us hard

I think the evenness of the comp gives us more of a chance it makes it unpredictable without a break away top 8.

 

[StCicatriz]

I think the evenness of the comp gives us more of a chance it makes it unpredictable without a break away top 8.

I think the problem is the top 4 teams of the bottom 10 are gonna somehow manage to win games they shouldn't then with the easier draw bank a bunch of games... we go through a tough 3 games until the half way mark then have tougher games in the back end

If we can win 1 of the next 3. Then beat richmond twice and take the melb game back. We are well on our way. Beating freo at their home might be a deciding game.

 

[Glen Buterol]

6 th after round 8.

Most time in front % in the league

Could easily have had another 1-2 wins and been top.

Are we fulfilling our potential or soft run?

It's the type of year anyone in the top 8 could win it....imagine winning this year for Roo. FMD goosebumps

 

[The Punter]

On the Billings thing, plenty of players get played away from their best position during their developmental stage.

 

[aussierulesrules]

On the Billings thing, plenty of players get played away from their best position during their developmental stage.

Like Acres is! Imagine how well he could be going if he was playing much more in the midfield, like he was for the last 5 games last year. He's averaging 20 despite playing mostly forward!

This time last year he was having regular 12 disposal games forward, so he's improved a bunch.

 

[bird_man]

I still have us missing the 8

I think this year of it being so even is gonna **** us hard

It's going to be tough, but if we can win one of the next three we are a decent chance with the run home we have.

 

[StCicatriz]

It's going to be tough, but if we can win one of the next three we are a decent chance with the run home we have.

this is what i had:
WIN: SYD(H), NM(A), GC(H), ESS(H), NM(H)
LOSE: WB(A), ADE(A), FREO(A), RICH(H), SYD(A), PORT(A), WCE(H), MELB(A), RICH(A)

 

[aussierulesrules]

There was an interesting article in the HS a couple of days ago which ranked the difficulty of every teams draw to this point and the difficulty of their remaining matches and CD ranked our draw to this point the 15th hardest, but our draw from now on the 6th hardest.

Brisbane they ranked 5th hardest to this point and 3rd hardest from now on (or the other way around)! So the hardest draw in the comp for clearly the worst team!

North had had the hardest to that point, but have the easiest from now on.

 

[luca77]

Totally meritorious win against a well coached team who imposed their game style on the game.

Billings arrived against GWS - this was the benefits of that arrival.

Ross keeps adding more strings to his bow.

Thought that was Sam Gilbert's best game in quite some time.

How would you ever drop Jade Gresham. He can be unsighted for three quarters, and then bobs up and wins you the game.

Yeah Gresh got caught a few times, don't think time in 2s will help with that. Needs to play 1s to improve awareness in high paced environment. Will win us a game in near future.

 

[The Punter]

BTW, this is the H&A ladder from the last 22 H&A games. Don't know where else to put this, so here goes.

 

[George]

I had us 5-4 after 9 rounds and had us finishing the year 16-6/17-5. We're tracking well.

 

[VDS66]

It's the type of year anyone in the top 8 could win it....imagine winning this year for Roo. FMD goosebumps

Just our luck, he'd be out with a knee.

 

[sverik25]

this is what i had:
WIN: SYD(H), NM(A), GC(H), ESS(H), NM(H)
LOSE: WB(A), ADE(A), FREO(A), RICH(H), SYD(A), PORT(A), WCE(H), MELB(A), RICH(A)

I reckon we should start favourites against West Coast at home. I'd put us down for one win against Richmond too. As you've said the match against Freo in Perth may be the most crucial.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Our 6 games v Sydney, Richmond and North will be crucial. Play each of them twice from this point.

 

[my name was taken]

Had a look at some season stats.

Turns out blues have scored the least in the league and 57 less than the lions who are the next worst. That is a horrific stat but they have done well to win games. they are winning with a Lyon-seque defensive game. Stop the dam walls from breaking in defense and a close game is always winnable.

To score 88 when we were again quite inaccurate shows we are still heading in the right direction, small winning margin or not. (Quite inaccurate is an understatement if you exclude billings, the rest of the team went 7.13)

 

[Schulzenfest]

Don't really know where else to put this, but just wanted to say;

When Jarryn Geary was appointed captain of your club I was skeptical, as he was a player I'd never really seen much in. But after watching him on the weekend, first saving a goal with that ridiculous diving tackle on Cripps and then getting right into that typical Carlton grub Murphy the millisecond that he thought it would be a tough idea to abuse an injured player lying on the ground, I see what they saw in him. I'd be more than happy to have him leading my club into battle.

 

[Quixote]

Don't really know where else to put this, but just wanted to say;

When Jarryn Geary was appointed captain of your club I was skeptical, as he was a player I'd never really seen much in. But after watching him on the weekend, first saving a goal with that ridiculous diving tackle on Cripps and then getting right into that typical Carlton grub Murphy the millisecond that he thought it would be a tough idea to abuse an injured player lying on the ground, I see what they saw in him. I'd be more than happy to have him leading my club into battle.

Thanks fella.

That was it too -- it was the millisecond after the event, IE no hesitations whatsoever, straight fckn onto him. Loved it.

 

[Saint Watto]

Had a look at some season stats.

Very interesting stats there.........and yes...it was hard to break thru their "dam wall" at times on Sat.

Was incredibly frustrating to watch.

 

[saintsman24]

6 th after round 8.

Most time in front % in the league

Could easily have had another 1-2 wins and been top.

Are we fulfilling our potential or soft run?

Considering our draw was rated one of the toughest I would say it's not because of a soft run!

Also, does anyone on here have the CD player rating points for the game??
Interested to see Billings numbers and disposal map thingy!

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Jack Steele

Our Best bargin since Dempster and Schnider