I must have had too many at the ground, because when I logged on here I expected to see a wave of appreciation for Watts as a key forward. He only kicked 2, but it could have easily been 5. Put big mitch up there with him and a bit of extra performance from the midfield and JW is a complete weapon

CB... too many, JW is not a complete weapon and sure he ever will be. I still get frustrated by his "attitude/effort levels" across passages of play, qtrs, the whole game. He has moments indeed but he is a liabilty in any high ball situation going into our fwd 50 and his defensive work rate is second rate. Improvement required but he had a few shots on goal tonight, good.

I know not many here have much time for Rodan, and this is probably an indication of how 1 dimensional our midfield is, but he is possibly the only player we have that has the power/strength to get an inside ball and the quickness/agility to run it out into space. He did that quite a bit today.

Also, our tackle count was down because we had much more of the ball than usual.

Lastly, clearance stats are useless for us as 90% of them are undirected disposals. Our opponents always have a target with their clearances but ours are generally a kick or handpass in the direction of our goals. Absolutely no targets at all. So frustrating.

Maybe I'm jaded but I thought Rodan was poor today, I thought that is the last time I would like to see him in our jumper. Magner should play ahead of him every week for the next 10 weeks as DRod has no ability to put any pressure on his direct opponent. As in second rate ineffectual in that area.

If he could add a boot to his quiver he'd be dangerous. He does have a go, a go that is above and beyond our current no1 ruckman.

Will Minson & Todd Goldstein are Free Agents at the end of 2014, may need to put some attention towards them next year!

Maybe I'm jaded but I thought Rodan was poor today, I thought that is the last time I would like to see him in our jumper. Magner should play ahead of him every week for the next 10 weeks as DRod has no ability to put any pressure on his direct opponent. As in second rate ineffectual in that area.

Agreed that he certainly has his weaknesses and would also rather Magner in his place. It was more an observation that it was refreshing to see someone with the ability to turn an inside ball into an outside ball with a bit if foot speed. I couldn't name anybody else on our list that is able to do it effectively.

CB... too many, JW is not a complete weapon and sure he ever will be. I still get frustrated by his "attitude/effort levels" across passages of play, qtrs, the whole game. He has moments indeed but he is a liabilty in any high ball situation going into our fwd 50 and his defensive work rate is second rate. Improvement required but he had a few shots on goal tonight, good.

I think Watts is probably 2 years from his best, he will come good in time but at the moment he really doesn't know how to play forward and he's not a natural back line player. In time he will learn the forward line caper and a good coach will improve him 100% he's still very young and with our delivery he gets set up every time.

The way the players delivered the ball into the forward line today was abysmal, he leads to the left they kick it to the right, they kick it high when they should kick it low and vice versa.

He is not a pack crasher and never will be, that's Clark and Dawes job.

the fox commentary was woeful.

at one stage midway through the first term, eddie, alistair lynch and gerard healy were calling for dawes to go into the ruck. this for a bloke barely about to work up to a jog.

then, their next brilliant thought was for him to go to full back!

Does anyone else think Howe has appeared a bit deflated the past couple of games? It's not in anyway surprising however I gave some thought to it during today's game. While I'm on the subject of players have I mentioned Garland is a gun and is hugely underrated??

CB... too many, JW is not a complete weapon and sure he ever will be. I still get frustrated by his "attitude/effort levels" across passages of play, qtrs, the whole game. He has moments indeed but he is a liabilty in any high ball situation going into our fwd 50 and his defensive work rate is second rate. Improvement required but he had a few shots on goal tonight, good.

you must be kidding, 2 goals witja couple of misses, and a couple of very didgy frees that didn'yt go his way.. in a side that battled all night.. what do you want from a key forward? he has size, pace, fantastic ability to read the play, brilliant when the ball goes to ground, immaculate skills.. i just feel like tarring and feathering both Bailey and Neeld for taking a kid away from his natural position for 4.5 years

Does anyone else think Howe has appeared a bit deflated the past couple of games? It's not in anyway surprising however I gave some thought to it during today's game. While I'm on the subject of players have I mentioned Garland is a gun and is hugely underrated??

i was fairly scathing of Garlo early in the year, but the last few weeks he has been absolutely superb, you can really see the years of development/maturityy how they have informed the way he goes about gaurding that defensive inside 50. I've also gained a lot of respect for him in the way he has handled being thrown into the media spotlight of late. absolute gun

I've only been able to watch some of the highlights and the most encouraging passage I am saw was the first blease goal..and it wasn't because of the goal, it was the fantastic bump watts applied on the st kinda player after giving the ball off to blease. It was exactly what we need from him.

I thought today was a noticeable improvement. But I just don't get how we conisistently dominate certain periods of play and can't turn it into anything, yet the opposition just break away and kick cheapies. We should have won that second quarter by at least three goals yet I'm not even sure we broke even.

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.

Its taken you this long.

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

Loved his run and the one kick he had was OK. He certainly is better than he was two years ago when he couldn't even drop the ball properly on to his foot.

I thought today was a noticeable improvement. But I just don't get how we conisistently dominate certain periods of play and can't turn it into anything, yet the opposition just break away and kick cheapies. We should have won that second quarter by at least three goals yet I'm not even sure we broke even.

Well that's precisely our problem. All year we have played good footy for 1 or 2 quarters, a couple of times, like tonight, we played 3-4 good quarters. I honestly feel that we arent far away from it all clicking together, if we get roos hopefully that will be the missing ingredientI know it's an easy response, but tonight there's no Frawley, Clark or Jamar, plus pickles, jorde, grimesy and viney, throw some PATHETIC decisions that went against us, i left the ground with my chin up. Garland and Watts were brilliant

I thought today was a noticeable improvement. But I just don't get how we conisistently dominate certain periods of play and can't turn it into anything, yet the opposition just break away and kick cheapies. We should have won that second quarter by at least three goals yet I'm not even sure we broke even.

Craig alluded to this in his press conference. He said once we get into space by ourselves, we need to get better at finishing these passages off. He's right of course. One of the journos asked him how we intended to fix and then improve this. He was coy on this point. He essentially said they'll work on it at training. The pleasing thing was he never insinuated it wasn't possible to fix this over the remaining rounds. He keeps making all the right sounds. He's not making excuses for the player's to fall back into.

Our initiative is back!

Watts especially looked like he would develop out of the game. He was trying things out. Looked a little weak at times, did some good things at times. Will look at the vids and learn for next week. That's how you develop, play with some instinct and see what works.

We dominated for periods.

We played with some daring.

We were almost fun to watch.

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

I wrote to 3aw four years ago saying I wouldn't listen to them while DR was on it. Haven't. Life is better.

Whatever one might say about the game and the opposition, according to my Footy Live app, this was only the second time this year that we won the Inside 50 count (46-45). Does this reflect poorly on St. Kilda or us for our inability to convert in front of goal or both?

the fox commentary was woeful.

at one stage midway through the first term, eddie, alistair lynch and gerard healy were calling for dawes to go into the ruck. this for a bloke barely about to work up to a jog.

then, their next brilliant thought was for him to go to full back!

And don't forget DA when Dawes was subed Healy said"Dawes has put his hand up and said I have had enough its time for someone else to do a job" or words to that effect. Yeah I assure he would have said that.

What a doosh bag and just quietly David King doesn't think much of himself does he!

Actually I will change that to TEAM DOOSBAG.

Craig alluded to this in his press conference. He said once we get into space by ourselves, we need to get better at finishing these passages off. He's right of course. One of the journos asked him how we intended to fix and then improve this. He was coy on this point. He essentially said they'll work on it at training. The pleasing thing was he never insinuated it wasn't possible to fix this over the remaining rounds. He keeps making all the right sounds. He's not making excuses for the player's to fall back into.

And another thing is that we didn't here the following in the presser:

It is what it is

Our injuries are our injuries

We are training really well

I didn't see that coming

Geez what a breath of fresh air this weekend was.

And another thing is that we didn't here the following in the presser:

We are training really well

.

What I will refer most about the Neeld era

I must have had too many at the ground, because when I logged on here I expected to see a wave of appreciation for Watts as a key forward. He only kicked 2, but it could have easily been 5. Put big mitch up there with him and a bit of extra performance from the midfield and JW is a complete weapon

Thought he was great CB. Really presented and competed well and gave off a few goals to go with his 2. His poise and decision making to set up Fitzy's goal in the final term was top notch. Was burnt by Howe twice in the final term also when he was on his own in the goal square.

Really happy with his progress over the last 3 matches. Just think of what he may produce next year when he'll be our 4th tall forward and the best defenders going to Clark, Dawes & Hogan?

I rekon Trenners is playing with OP

Then stop playing him Its not helping him or the team

He was borderline pathetic last night couldnt run with the ball to the ball or to the contest an absoulute waste now

let him recover and give someone else a go

The Triple M commentary was pretty interesting. Every time Pedersen went near the ball, Garry Lyon went 'oh jeez' etc, and James Brayshaw commented on how good it was 'to see Jack Watts sit someone on their arse'.

Thought he was great CB. Really presented and competed well and gave off a few goals to go with his 2. His poise and decision making to set up Fitzy's goal in the final term was top notch. Was burnt by Howe twice in the final term also when he was on his own in the goal square.

Really happy with his progress over the last 3 matches. Just think of what he may produce next year when he'll be our 4th tall forward and the best defenders going to Clark, Dawes & Hogan?

I agree TD. He played with some real vim i thought. he's a team player and looks to create goals for his team-mates. I wish Howe was the same. The two examples you note were terrible by Howe. Both times he turned his back on the play which is unforgivable in modern footy. The other thing against Watts is as others have pointed out the delivery to him was woeful, particularly long kicks which often put in on the wrong side and not to his advantage. He got dirty on that (and himself a couple of times when he missed shots) which is great sign.