Why does Terlich get a game ?

Uhh...maybe because he's been just about our best player this year?

Lots of Garland love again from me. What a game. Back to the wall the entire game, but I'd love to know how many spoils he affected. He took the game on as well. There were good and bad signs from both Watts and Toumpas too.

I live well north of the Brisbane line so watched game via foxtel. Watching footy on the tele is inferior to live but I can faithfully report that Gerard Healy is a certified,100% anti-Melbourne [censored]-head.

Continues to defy logic wearing the clash jumper against St.Kilda. It is an even greater clash than if we wore our traditional jumper.

And I don't care what the stats say, but I agree with the poster who said Terlich is a turnover machine. My god. He does the occasional good thing, but the amount of times he turns it over that result directly in goals is staggering. Matt Jones' disposal today as well - atrocious. I understand these guys are inexperienced, but their turn overs killed us.

Oh, one of the major negatives today was our tackle count.

47 versus our usual average of 59. Then again both team's tackle count was way down on their usual average.

Effective disposals, IMHO one of the KEY stats was a major improvement on our usual average. 275 vs our usual 220 average. That's 55 effective disposal improvement over the course of the match or nearly 14 per quarter.

Although countering this is the fact that our opponents also had 50 more than their usual average. So this may well have been a neutral outcome given the quality of the sides on the field. Best not to get overly excited at this point, especially after only 1 match.

i did like this

Watts: On his contract "I do want to stay, definitely." #aflsaintsdees

Uhh...maybe because he's been just about our best player this year?

You have to be joking ? The man turns the ball over worse than any one in the side. Every time he should kick it he will hand ball it to someone about to be tackled.

Loved Spencer today. Best big man effort I've seen at Melbourne for about 3 years.

I live well north of the Brisbane line so watched game via foxtel. Watching footy on the tele is inferior to live but I can faithfully report that Gerard Healy is a certified,100% anti-Melbourne [censored]-head.

Think it was Dwayne Russell wasnt it?

But yes you are right. Will slate us off no end and then give us a slight pat on the back to make it look like he is not biased. He has very little respect for us. But we haven't earned any.

Loved Spencer today. Best big man effort I've seen at Melbourne for about 3 years.

Pitty he can't kick but that fits in well at the Dees

Lots of Garland love again from me. What a game. Back to the wall the entire game, but I'd love to know how many spoils he effected. He took the game on as well. There were good and bad signs from both Watts and Toumpas too.

In the game against the Hawks he had the most effective defensive acts, which includes spoils/smothers etc. In total he had 11 for that match. The next best were Terlich with 7 and Pederson with 6.

Don't understand the anti Terlich people on here, the man's been one of our best this season, and I'd be keen to see any stats that suggest he turns the ball over any more then anyother of our defensive 6.

As for today I was as happy as you can be with a 35 point loss. Take out the first 4 minutes (3 goals conceeded) and Riewoldts two charity goals from the umpires and you've got a game. Players ran it out and showed a bit of fight after being 40 down mid way through the 2nd term. Under Neeld we may have gone on to loose by 80. And St Kilda although not great aren't as bad as people are making out, they're a pretty capable side.

Garland was sensational and Tommy Mac killed Riewoldt. Watts played with aggresion and N. Jones, Rodan & Sylvia battled it out in the middle. Spencer & Clisby both really showed something today also. Best game I've seen from Spencil ever and I think we've found something in Clisby. Also was happy to see Matt Jones show he's got potential to play as a tagger helping slow Jack Steven down after quarter time. Could spell trouble for McKenzie

With a bit more composure and less turnovers we would have won today, make no mistake. Add in Clark, Frawley, Viney, Grimes, Evans, Jamar & a fully fit Dawes and we'd of had their measure comfortably.

You have to be joking ? The man turns the ball over worse than any one in the side. Every time he should kick it he will hand ball it to someone about to be tackled.

He did today dl4. McDonald not far behind. But no surprises there.

Doesn't always do so though. He's a very raw player at this level under a stack of pressure given how much ball comes in. Needs more time to develop his decision making etc.

In the game against the Hawks he was pretty good and they're a darn sight better than the Saints.

Against the Hawks he had 7 effective defensive acts (eg., spoils/smothers) 9 effective kicks, 5 effective handballs. 1 clanger by foot and 1 by hand. He had 1 effective kick in but 2 "lack of awareness acts".

Compared to Garland (who has 80 more matches under his belt) in the same match: 11 defensive acts, 8 effective kicks (no effective handballs), 2 clangers by foot, 7 effective kick ins and 1 turnover from a kick in.

Sounds like I missed the best game of the season thus far... Typical...

Oh, one of the major negatives today was our tackle count.

47 versus our usual average of 59. Then again both team's tackle count was way down on their usual average.

Effective disposals, IMHO one of the KEY stats was a major improvement on our usual average. 275 vs our usual 220 average. That's 55 effective disposal improvement over the course of the match or nearly 14 per quarter.

Although countering this is the fact that our opponents also had 50 more than their usual average. So this may well have been a neutral outcome given the quality of the sides on the field. Best not to get overly excited at this point, especially after only 1 match.

Well we actually had the ball a bit more today. Less need to chase as much tail. I was looking more at the possession differential today. We ended up finishing only about 40 possessions behind.

In the game against the Hawks he had the most effective defensive acts, which includes spoils/smothers etc. In total he had 11 for that match. The next best were Terlich with 7 and Pederson with 6.

Thanks Rusty. And that should have been "affected".

Think it was Dwayne Russell wasnt it?

But yes you are right. Will slate us off no end and then give us a slight pat on the back to make it look like he is not biased. He has very little respect for us. But we haven't earned any.

Dwayne is a third rate media personality with so little to offer except AFL sycophantism that its not funny...

Nothing has changed. This is where the team is at. Predicting how much we will lose by is actually a pretty easy gig which says to me that effort is not an issue. We're a 6 goal worse team than St.Kilda.

Some were furious after the Gold Coast game but the reality is we are a 10 goal worse side than GC who were 5 goals worse than Hawthorn - to whom we lost by 15 goals.

A new coach might be able to find a way of limiting the bleeding short term but personally I don't think there's a motivation problem at all. They're trying, but they simply aren't good enough at this stage.

Certainly a lot more love for Spencer now than there was before the game.

He does some things that make you cringe, but he also gives 100% and has a bit of aggro and speed that we seem to lack.

Good game today Spence.

Certainly a lot more love for Spencer now than there was before the game.

He does some things that make you cringe, but he also gives 100% and has a bit of aggro and speed that we seem to lack.

Good game today Spence.

The aggro is good, It's ugly and sometimes doesn't work, but if it's channeled it could be a big plus.

He just needs to learn how to direct those taps a little better.

i did like this

Watts: On his contract "I do want to stay, definitely." #aflsaintsdees

I agree that it's good to hear but he's not going to come out and say that he's going to leave at the end of the year.

We had far more of the ball, we had more uncontested possessions, the disposal differential was 34 which is much better than the past few weeks. We even went inside 50 more times than St Kilda did.

However, we were appalling in the clearances, we still don't spread hard enough. But our skills are the single biggest thing that is killing us right now. We have so many players who are liabilities with the ball in hand.

Unfortunately, Terlich is one of them. I love him just as much as everyone else here, he reads the play well, he gets involved, he can defend and attack, he's tough, I love it. But he can't kick. Too many of our players can't make simple passes, or fumble the ball, or drop marks, or don't hold tackles, or miss handpasses, or over/under-run the ball when attempting to mark.

They kicked the first 3 goals in about 5 minutes. After that, it was relatively level, especially given it was a 6 goal final margin. I'm sick of us being behind from the first moments. If we are eventually able to get the first goal (we've done that twice this year), and maybe get a lead going, it might just help our boys with confidence.

Thought Watts was good. Made a few mistakes (the missed goals in the second quarter when we had the momentum hurt), but showed a lot. Thought Garland was outstanding. Toumpas is showing why he went at 4 - loved his game, backed up QBD with another good showing. Thought Kent and Clisby also showed promise.

On the flipside, Howe was nowhere to be seen for most of the game, Davey had a shocker, Fitzpatrick didn't make any improvement, Dunn is still crap, Spencer refuses to kick. And the umpiring was disgraceful and killed us at critical moments.

There was enough there today. Viney and Grimes back in the middle, Clark and Hogan (and a fit Dawes) up forward, another few good runners/mids, and things will come together.

Trengove. Where is his career going? Is painfully slow and can't kick more than 30 metres.

If he's injured then for his own pride and the sake of the supporters we need to know. If he's not then he's got to be nervous about a new coach. If he loses the captaincy and we get 2-3 experienced mids he will struggle to get a game.