Review vs Bulldogs (5th best comeback by margin for any club, and equal best for StK)

[SK_MD_#7]

Love this picture.

 

[Grav]

LAR is looking pretty bloody good at the moment, reckon it`s time to leave Roo running around the ground like a 2yo colt preparing for the Blue Diamond (all class & does the right thing wherever needed). Bruce & Hickey in the fwd line, Membrey more than likely will play more games than not this year. Paddy still learning/honing his craft against bigger bodied players in the VFL, but will get more chances this year, Lonie, Billings Sinclair,Templeton, Minchington all fighting to be our crumbing forwards. Yep, starting to look real healthy indeed.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Highlights (not sure if posted): http://www.saints.com.au/video/2015-05-09/highlights-western-bulldogs-v-st-kilda

You'll probably want to skip to 3:13

 

[Fruity Boots]

After sitting there thinking about it for about 5 or 20 minutes I realised its Life After Roo.

IMHO roo will play for more seasons than many predict. He's basically a once in a generation athlete (that's my opinion anyway)

 

[Sheeza69]

What if Bruce is being well beaten? Or needs assistance?

Imo it's a needs basis

If you look at Hawthorn... They don't even have a set fwd line...

Roo can get 20 easy touches on the wing and take 10 marks outside of 50
But it would be far outweighed by 15 touches, 3 marks i50 and 5 outside 50

I would also like to see Josh push high on occasion also... He has a massive engine, and it's important for cold fwds to get up and get their hands on the ball at times.

Same with Hickey... Thought he could have played a few more minutes on ball yesterday... Particularly first half when he barely touched it.

Rigid positions are easy to coach against...

Excellent point, horses for courses..

 

[SK_MD_#7]

Instead of Roo kicking the snags and screwing the dogs in prelims it'll now be Billings.

 

[Sheeza69]

LAR is looking pretty bloody good at the moment, reckon it`s time to leave Roo running around the ground like a 2yo colt preparing for the Blue Diamond (all class & does the right thing wherever needed). Bruce & Hickey in the fwd line, Membrey more than likely will play more games than not this year. Paddy still learning/honing his craft against bigger bodied players in the VFL, but will get more chances this year, Lonie, Billings Sinclair,Templeton, Minchington all fighting to be our crumbing forwards. Yep, starting to look real healthy indeed.

We're gradually building a list capable of a tilt at the 8 in 2017..
I still see us requiring a KD & an A grade mid to add to our young list, but with ...... interested in coming to the Saints next year the future is very promising..

 

[Tommy Wigs]

Has Jack Sinclair ever turned the ball over???

I've never seen a 19yo be as clear in his thinking and neat with the footy?!
His calmness under pressure, and ability to pick the right target is something you cannot teach.

He plays the game very differently to a Jack Steven or Josh Saunders... 100 mile an hour footy.. Which is great for ball winning and carry... But not great for efficiency

Jack is more NDS, Pendles and Sam Mitch... He stops and sums up and delivers with balance and poise... I rate him

Perfectly said. Something about the boy. How about the pass to him on the 50, the quick prop to the left and delivery to Bruce. Most would have just taken the mark and gone back over the mark.

I love the 3 first years all with great movement, great skills but all 3 are absolute demons.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I prefer Nick R forward... As would most opposition coaches... I think he can move up the ground when required.

But when you have a CHF who has been the best player in that position since Carey... I'd like to see him fwd of the ball.
It's just a luxury that he can push up the ground.

I think it's a catch cry "do what Richo did"
For such a successful venture, is there many other examples of Champion Key Fwds moving into the middle?? On a permanent basis.

Who cares whether there are many other examples of anyone else who has done it? The role suits Nick down to the ground because he has a tank that very few if any have had before him and not only that, he has a past history of having played the role successfully.

I've been calling for him to play this role more for years (including in the 2010 GF replay, when it was clear that Collingwood knew how to keep him quiet by putting Maxwell in front of him) and one of the reasons why is that he could probably kick just about as many goals from the wing pushing forward as he will if he's playing permanently forward, yet him being out of the forward line leaves more chances for the likes of Bruce/Hickey/Membrey to kick goals and Nick would of course be kicking many more goals from a wing than whoever else we'd have playing wing if it wasn't him. So overall, I just see us being able to kick more goals with him playing wing and I also see us having a much better target when kicking out of the back 50 and of course he'd also be able to push deep into defence to help out back there when needed. I just see so many positives with him playing that role and of course it also lets the likes of Membrey get more senior AFL experience, rather than spending more time in the VFL.

Yesterday Nick R had 21 and 9M... It was the least influential game I've seen him play with those sort of numbers? In fact I think he was pretty average...

He was having little to no influence forward yesterday either though, so it's not like he suddenly became less influential once he was moved to the wing in the 2nd half. He was moved to the wing because he wasn't having much influence forward and because the forward line was less effective overall with him there, as crazy as that may sound. He actually had 8 possies in the first half up forward and 13 in the 2nd on the wing.

As I said prior to the game I think we should have just stuck with what had worked so well for us the week before and left Bruce, Hickey and Membrey forward and played Roo on the wing from the start. Was better late than never though to make the move and kudos to Richo for doing it when he did.

 

[Persevering Saint]

I'm actually more confident of that one that I was for this one. Roo and Joey are likely to be a lot better for the run and if we keep most of our best team together in the meantime there's much more of a chance that we'll have clicked by then and believe in ourselves more than we do now and have more momentum up. We only played half a good game today. We barely took the field for the 2nd quarter. Roo and Bruce were both off their tucker and kicked just the two goals between them and by next time we may have Ross back in the midfield and Gilbo back in the backline, if there's room for him!

And the best part? We're not even playing with our best team yet!

 

[rodney86]

Watched the replay of the second half twice now and still can't believe it. And TV really did no justice to the roar when Billings drilled that last goal.

 

[Periphery]

The worst thing about this game is that I didn't go when I probably could have. What a horrible decision.

 

[FlyingSledghamer]

Longer 31games 22yo
McKenzie 1.5g 19yo
Billings 21g 19yo
Lonie 6g 18yo
Sinclair 6g 20yo
Webster 24g 21yo
Bruce 30g 23yo
Weller 53g 23yo
Hickey 30g 24yo
Newnes 53g 22yo
Dunstan 22g 20yo
Ross 27g 22yo

And to think we still have Acres, Murdoch, Minch, Wright, Saunders, Holmes, Goddard, McCartin. Ross. Are all so very inexperienced and could become very good players.
All of a sudden... Its starting to become clearer and clearer what theyve been doing for the last few years..
Usually you dont see players really arrive till they get 50-70 games.. Have a look at that list above and what their doing with most under 30 games experience... Things are looking up fellas. GO SAINTS!

 

[Persevering Saint]

And we proved to David King that he was wrong again will do this after every win

Actually, he turned out to be right . We haven't won A game this year!

 

[the dog's kennel]

Have recovered enough after a filthy night to front up today, and send you guys congrats.

Glad if we were going to get done over like that it was by you guys. I'm no Saints expert but every time I've seen the Saints over the last few years they've been a lot better than results would suggest. So it's great to see your boys getting some return for effort. You've got some great young talent and a great coach, and I like the way you're building your list.

I'm also impressed the way your team weathered the storm in the 1st half and then had the spirit to prise our foot off your throat and then jujitsu us in the 2nd half. Some great self-belief there.

Seeya hopefully at the pointy end in a few years (hopefully on different sides of the PF fixturing!)

 

[Growlin woof]

I don't think too many sides outside top 4 could have made that comeback, it was very impressive to watch, I didn't mind it to be honest,I enjoy going to games that are close and exciting, at half time I thought it was a tad boring as it seemed like it would continue, didn't see that coming!.

It's good to sense in a couple years we will be climbing the ladder together and hopefully be the Victorian challengers to gws and gc. I just really hope I don't need to sit through anothe prelim loss to stkilda, 2 is enough!

 

[Metal]

Congrats. Great win. Great come from behind win that will stay in the memory banks. Well done guys. Billings a star. Midfield role?

 

[Big Mart]

I believe KF suits nick down to the ground.

He has a big tank for a KF and regularly blows up Key Defs
But compared to a regular rotating mid... His engine is no better, most likely not as good... Ground level he is a real problem imo

 

[joop]

Congrats. Great win. Great come from behind win that will stay in the memory banks. Well done guys. Billings a star. Midfield role?

Eventually yes. High half forward at the moment as you can see how damaging he can be on the scoreboard

 

[Big Mart]

Just my opinion, but I think people get carried away when something appears to come off...

I remember when B. Voss kicked a few at HF one game... And people were convince he was our version of ROK... He never touched it the following few weeks and was moved back as such.

Point is
What works one week, doesn't necessarily work the next

Flexibility is more important than predictability

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

Congrats. Great win. Great come from behind win that will stay in the memory banks. Well done guys. Billings a star. Midfield role?

Props to you and the other Doggies supporters for the congrats - classy!

JB will play more and more in the midfield as his body gets used to the rigors of AFL. Personally can't wait to see what he can do in 2 years time....

 

[bird_man]

Just my opinion, but I think people get carried away when something appears to come off...

I remember when B. Voss kicked a few at HF one game... And people were convince he was our version of ROK... He never touched it the following few weeks and was moved back as such.

Point is
What works one week, doesn't necessarily work the next

Flexibility is more important than predictability

Are you talking about something in particular Martin?

 

[aussierulesrules]

I believe KF suits nick down to the ground.

He has a big tank for a KF and regularly blows up Key Defs
But compared to a regular rotating mid... His engine is no better, most likely not as good... Ground level he is a real problem imo

What about in the air? Who is going to go with him in the air if he plays on the wing? That's where he would do the most damage, surely that's obvious? Richo is the obvious recent example and when he played wing in his 2nd last year he took a career high 222 marks (previous best 197, from 2 more games), kicked 48 goals and received 22 Brownlow votes, at the age of 33.

Like Richo, it's in the air and on the scoreboard that Roo on the wing would do the most damage.

Just for one, imagine having him to kick to every time we're having trouble getting it out of our back 50, like we were early yesterday. If he then marks that kick he turns around and has the likes of Bruce, Hickey and/or Membrey to kick to.

Just my opinion, but I think people get carried away when something appears to come off...

I remember when B. Voss kicked a few at HF one game... And people were convince he was our version of ROK... He never touched it the following few weeks and was moved back as such.

Point is
What works one week, doesn't necessarily work the next

Flexibility is more important than predictability

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the talent difference between Brett Voss and ROK and Nick Riewoldt and Matthew Richardson is not the same.

 

[Defacto]

Watched the replay of the second half twice now and still can't believe it. And TV really did no justice to the roar when Billings drilled that last goal.

Had it on headphones last night. Sounded amazing

 

[goodie23]

Did anyone else see this?