I watched Neeld today addressing the team and he looked about as frustrated and bewildered as we were.

Sellar is an absolute spud. Good endeavour, but poor decision maker, concrete hands and terrible below his knees - send him packing back to SA

Jordie McKenzie struggles to take contested marks - which is annoying considering he seemed to be the option from our backhalf in the third quarter.

Jeremy Howe, Spencil, Jetta and, of course, Blease looked good today but otherwise another frustrating game to watch.

As for Dunn he is just too slow like many of our players. And Bail gave me the sh!ts today.

I thought Sellar was OK, played forward, back and in ruck.

Moloney was ineffectual prior to being subbed off.

Sylvia looks disinterested despite his stats.

Trengove kick for goal was woeful, yet his field kicking later was sublime.

Sellar is an absolute spud. Good endeavour, but poor decision maker, concrete hands and terrible below his knees - send him packing back to SA

Not fairly unfair but still fair enough.

I thought Sellar was OK, played forward, back and in ruck.

Moloney was ineffectual prior to being subbed off.

Sylvia looks disinterested despite his stats.

Trengove kick for goal was woeful, yet his field kicking later was sublime.

I don't understand JT's kicking for goal. As you say his field kicking is spot on and then a 30 meter kick is too much for him.

I thought Tapscott's kick after the siren was another sign that some of the players seem to have lost something off their kicks at the moment. Perhaps there has been a trade off for building their tanks i.e. more run = less punch, for the moment. Some of the Saints mids don't have penetrating kicks as well.

a very dissapointing 3rd qtr, but as said above earlier in the year we would've just throw in the towel and let them walk all over us. a credit to the boys to hang in their and put in a super last qtr. Can't wait to see blease next year with another preseason under his belt

Agree Dunn has proven he can stay

Jordie McKenzie struggles to take contested marks - which is annoying considering he seemed to be the option from our backhalf in the third quarter.

Jeremy Howe, Spencil, Jetta and ofcourse Blease looked good today but otherwise another frustrating game to watch.

I thought it was a poor game from Howe today. Needs to impact the game more.

2nd year players are allowed to have poor games.... Green and Moloney however.

Focus on the positives, as I saw quite a few:

Blease - outstanding game. You can't ask more than that effort from a small forward with no big blokes around him.

Big Jake - love his endeavour. At least you know he's trying hard. I reckon he's going to make it.

Grimes - good first half.

Tom Mac - he learnt not to blaze across goal. He won't be doing that in our premiership year

We kicked 12 goals with no forward line at all and an ordinary midfield.

Go easy on Sylvia. I think he really hurt his back (again) early in the first quarter and I think the saints went after it at every opportunity from that point on.

Agree Dunn has proven he can stay

Stay where?

Last week the pundits slammed Melbourne because, after leading by a big margin at ¼ time, it failed to smash the Suns and hardly outscored them over the last three quarters.

This week the same thing happened in this game with Melbourne. Both teams kicked 12 goals after ¼ time.

No doubt the critics will bag the Saints for letting a big percentage booster slip out of their grasp.

Left out Nev Jetta too. Saw some real signs from him today.

Jonesey on AW after the game said that after the brain fade out of 3rd quarter at the beginning of the year it would have blown out to 10 goals so the resilience shown in the 4th quarter was a positive sign. Loved Jetta's effort in the forward line and loved the way all the players went up to him after the goal. Jetta is not someone we expect to put his body on the line so I took that as a positive as well. I agree the perception with Sam Blease is that he does not seem to enjoy being out there (remember Sculdog with the same look). He needs to sometimes temper his thought process but he certainly has regained his confidence and belief in himself and backs this up with consistent chases. All in all I just look at the team with Watt's back, Jamar and Clarke in, Chip back to name just a few there may have been a different result. Carlton and Essendon both get performances excused because of injuries however no one in the media ever (except for Schwarta) brings up the fact that there is only one team with more injuries than us and that is Suns after last weeks game. Like others even though we lost I was somewhat happier with the performance than last week.

I thought we showed improvement today. With the side we had it would have been no shock to lose by 10 goals or more. The Saints ran the Pies to a goal last week with some poor umpiring that cost them. We are improving and will be much better with new players , more experience and better fitness next year, I hope.

I have not got an answer to this question I raised earlier in the year. If anyone knows the answer please let me know. Can GWS take another player off us in the PSD if he is unsigned? In other words could they get into a player's ear and tell him not to sign with us and then take him in the PSD, even though they have already taken one uncontracted player.

PS. It would be another disgrace if they could.

Edited August 11, 201212 yr by Redleg

I have not got an answer to this question I raised earlier in the year. If anyone knows the answer please let me know. Can GWS take another player off us in the PSD if he is unsigned? In other words could they get into a player's ear and tell him not to sign with us and then take him in the PSD, even though they have already taken one uncontracted player.

PS. It would be another disgrace if they could.

We have to let them and we will be compensated.

The most horrible mis-match of the year in the 3rd quarter was left in place for at least 20 minutes.

Matthew Bate on Jack Steven.

My god, watch the replay. Steven was involved in lots of entries and scoring sequernces based on not much more than pace. Bate was left in his wake on a number of occassions.

Who left that little match up go?

Not great but the doom from some is unwarranted, it's obvious our big problem today was up forward. We are missing Clark, Watts, Jamar, Davey, Frawley, Martin, BARTRAM and Jurrah. In addition to that there is about 8 fringe players unavailable so we are picking blokes who are our 40th best option. Good luck anyone beating anyone with that level of importance dragged out of their side. As usual the odd clanger is the thing that costs us.

-inside 50s: 50-50

-after 12:22 minutes in to the match it was 4.1 to 0.1, after that we lost 12.10 to 12.9

Edited August 11, 201212 yr by Curry & Beer

Same old. Get blown away at the start, go ages without looking like scoring, work our arses off to get back in it & blow it conceding countless soft goals during a collective 15 minute brain fart.

The endeavour is good, the decision making & execution still appalling. How many times did we ignore an overlap runner in the corridor to switch backwards across the face of goal? How many unnecessary 1 metre handballs to a 50/50 contest? How many unforced errors in the backline resulting in goals? Grrr.

The scoreboard at the end was pretty flattering & we were lucky Riewoldt necked himself, he was looking good.

There are some cracks of light at the end of the tunnel. Was rapt to see Blease finish well. The overall competitive effort was good considering the gulf in class & experience. It's just so damn frustrating that we bust our nuts to even score & then hand it back so easily.

We have to let them and we will be compensated.

If true that is very worrying.

Go easy on Sylvia. I think he really hurt his back (again) early in the first quarter and I think the saints went after it at every opportunity from that point on.

I'd like to hear more about that

He played like he was carrying something, rarely ran at full tilt.

Edited August 11, 201212 yr by PaulRB