Turns out Riewoldt’s injury isn’t as bad as first thought. It may only be a few weeks.

28 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Goodwin had a plan B... Roos would have stuck with plan A until it was too late 

Plan B? More like executing Plan A properly.

"As I said to the boys at quarter-time, it was just about getting back to what we trained for all summer and getting back to the style of play that we know has been really successful for us."

48 minutes ago, ProDee said:

A huge shout out to Neal-Bullen.  I've been a critic, but he was very good and important today.

Agree, very good game from ANB. Ran hard all day, good disposals, etc. very solid 23 disposals, 1 goal, 110 AF points. Really pleased for him, and great for the team.

In fact, he's guaranteed a game next week. Won't be easy for some of our VFL guys to crack the team!  Love it!

Just back at the Manor after a wonderful day at the footy as a guest of a premium Saints member. Must say they have a nice set up at Darklands.

Anyway, contained myself quite well and did not get chucked out. However, I went close in the last few moments.

I started chanting "Rooey's done an ACL, haha ha!!" Distasteful - yes but [censored] enjoyable!!

Gawn was dominant for the whole game - especially in the first quarter.

However, our midfield set-ups in the first quarter and a bit was all over the place.  We were going to the wrong spots and the Saints were allowed to rove to Gawn on some occasions unimpeded.

Exactly the same thing happened in a few games last year (against Essendon & St Kilda?) and whilst it might look like it's Gawn's fault, it isn't.  He was winning the tap and hitting it to a designated spot and we were nowhere to be seen (for a time)

As soon as our midfield started doing their job properly we ran away with the game.

 

 

 

46 minutes ago, old dee said:

Where is "Joe Boy"?

Probably out searching for the lid you threw away several weeks ago, in order to chuck it several more kilometres in the same direction ...

ANB surprised me. He always came across as one of those poor players too good for VFL, not good enough fofr AFL. His game today was very impressive. He added some real grunt and his disposal was clean. Could not drop him on that form. 

And I know Weideman is young, but once he starts clunking a few he will be something special. 

And to see Watts flying for marks was excellent. His marking is not great, but his attempts caused 2 goals and it means his player has to fly with him.

What do people think about the "8 behind the ball at the bounce (or throw up)" setup? This seemed a refinement of the diamond defence, when there were two back flankers running into the square. Now it seems we have the half-forwards starting on the half-back line as well, and all four running forward. Didn't do much good in the first quarter, but later it came into its own.

From the Gameday thread I present Exhibit A...

I rest my case!

"No negativity here... Just the anxious feeling I get as a player and a passionate member at an all time high... 

I vomited 5 mins ago and 100% on task now!

This could be epic people... Let's do this!"

1 minute ago, Red and Bluebeard said:

What do people think about the "8 behind the ball at the bounce (or throw up)" setup? This seemed a refinement of the diamond defence, when there were two back flankers running into the square. Now it seems we have the half-forwards starting on the half-back line as well, and all four running forward. Didn't do much good in the first quarter, but later it came into its own.

Shhh.

This is great!

We have a huge victory but the media will almost forget about us because of Roo's injury and Essendrug winning!

We just go about our business now, demolish Carlscum by 10+ goals and give the media a second opportunity next week!

Loved the Wied today. 

Just now, Pipefitter said:

Loved the Wied today. 

Love the weed everyday 

9 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Just back at the Manor after a wonderful day at the footy as a guest of a premium Saints member. Must say they have a nice set up at Darklands.

Anyway, contained myself quite well and did not get chucked out. However, I went close in the last few moments.

I started chanting "Rooey's done an ACL, haha ha!!" Distasteful - yes but [censored] enjoyable!!

Yes Uncle I too watched the game with two Saints friends but in the cheap seats as that is all they can afford. Good timing for me as the last time we watched a match together was the 2006 semifinal. I had been far too busy between 2007 until now to catch up with the boys but they are dear friends. After the match I said we must catch up for the rematch at the Gee. Great win but I hate Etihad, today it was a sauna I don't remember ever sweating so much at a footy match. 

thats what i wanted  kill the hoohoo  great job lads    your away now go for it  

 

1 hour ago, Danelska said:

I want to flag Weidemans attack on the ball in the air - quite frankly he isn't delivering on the outcomes consistently as yet , my word though, he will. He glides, yet attacks with oomph - the sure hands will develop.

Did a couple of beautiful blind turns today too on the wing

Also Hogan on the wing is good. But puhlease, he is the forward god made when he was making forwards. 

Ok, so just finished replay (a 4.40 start is not condusive to having 2 year old twins and watching live). It's taken amazing self control to not look at Demon land all evening, thought I'd post first, then read the thread.

YOU [censored] BEAUTY!!!!

some observations- apologies if already covered: 

- We OUTCOACHED St. Kilda. They had that spare man thing going in the 1st q, but was nullified thereafter. Our defensive structures were tailored to the ground and team. We adjusted ball movement to be a bit more lateral to account for the spare defender. It worked! Tick to Goody. 

- Dwayne Russel is still a dick. He needs to learn the Dees players names at last and clearly barracks for Saints. 

- Bernie Vince BOG and narrowly dodged a serious eye injury from the goal umpire. 

- we probably should have won by a lot more. 

- Salem is a smart, silky player. So good having him firing; everything he did tonight was mint. 

- Oscar was....well, Oscar. Redeemed himself somewhat late in the game but a real worry. 

- Lewis is just all class. 

- No one likes to see a serious injury, but a telling moment when Riewoldt went down. You could see the Saints realise what may happen when the oldies drop off. And Riewoldt down / Petracca goal just said it all to me. 

- I could go on, but I'd better read the thread!

So there it is, a couple of monkeys off the back. Round 1 weirdness mostly out of the way (just seeing all the upset results now) now lets knuckle down and get stuck into 2017!! 

Go you good things.

Edited March 25, 20178 yr by Deemented Are Go!

Just goes to show that Jetta is incredibly important to our structure. While Tommy is running up the wing stinking up his disposal (and I love Tom as a defender- so please don't get me wrong), Jetta is down back holding the place down.... defending! 

Superb game from him. Is he the most consistent player we have, maybe aside from Jones? I can't remember the last time he had a shocker. 100% reliability. 

It's funny how you see a game live and don't check stats, no way I would have thought clary had 35 touches I actually thought he barely touched it and I thought jones was brilliant and got us back into the game I'm looking forward to watching replay to get a better idea on it 

A couple of other things I noticed that I hadn't seen from us before.

1) How organised we were right across the ground. For example, we had guys front and centre at almost every contest. We swarmed in numbers, but it was the long kicks to 2 on 1s, where a tall MFC player would either mark or have a Hunt or Salem or Jetta at the foot of the contest to whisk it away if it wasn't marked.

2) Our ability to change tempo mid game. This is the big one and shows the greatest sign of maturity IMO. We seemed to know where and when to slow the tempo. And unlike previous games and seasons, where if we weren't moving the ball quickly our game plan would disintegrate, we moved the ball precisely and methodically from one side of the ground to the other. We also used the wings better than I've seen us do. Short little hit ups until we could get it inside 50.

3) Our spread. Our spread after quarter time was the best I've seen from a Melbourne team. We seem to have finally got it. If we play like this for four quarters the Bulldogs', the GWS' and even the Essendon's won't trouble us anymore. It'll come down to whoever wins the stoppages and with Oliver, Jones, Viney and Lewis bringing even and dominant contributions, we've seemingly learnt how to kill a team on the spread. Importantly, this means we can also stop teams on the spread. Maybe Misson is deserved of a bit of praise here too?

1 hour ago, Pates said:

That is incredibly disrespectful to a guy that has laid the foundation for us having success. By Goodwin's own words he reinforced the message that has been drilled into them all summer, it's not like he pulled out a clipboard labeled "plan B".

What we did after quarter time was lower the eyes and spot up shorter kicks because it was St Kilda's game plan to have a loose man behind the ball, too often in the first quarter we blazed away and kicked it long which played into St Kilda's hands. 

I get the feeling that match day for a coach isn't so much about pulling good ideas out of your butt, it's about drilling into the players the structures and plans they've worked on and tweeking them through the game with certain players. 

spot on. Roos was stating similar things in the commentary. 

1 hour ago, Pates said:

Could see a pretty decent rise in membership numbers this week, both from bought at the game to a few signing on following the win.

If we don't get 800 new members this week on the back of that effort, I'll go he. 

anyone else notice Clarrie the Clout only had 75% game time. Just wait till he plays a whole game

3 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

anyone else notice Clarrie the Clout only had 75% game time. Just wait till he plays a whole game

I noticed - TOG% is my favourite stat :-)

He won't ever play the whole game though - 85% is what first string midfielders see usually, so that is the target.  75% is big compared to what he did in the past, so his tank is obviously vastly improved.  

That's not to detract from the effort though.  Today the only players to have spent less time on the ground were Smith and Melksham.

Turned around our 1st games of the season haven't we, that's the third 1st rd win in a row now and our best to date. Absolutely thrilled to see us largely curtail the Saints spread and run especially after qtr time and then to monster them was seriously satisfying.