2 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Yeah Ding, just like last season when we met  them at the MCG.

My glass is half full.

 

1 minute ago, ding said:

My glass is half full.

 

That's admirable..

Mine's empty...drank it to steel myself against the inevitable tide..

Going to be an interesting game.

3 hours ago, willmoy said:

What the hell is wrong with Scully, slow and indecisive.

Mr MoneyBags? Weighed down by his bank balance.

Hawks kept bombing it to the hot spot, and St Kilda kept defending it out from there.  Hawks were undermanned and were pretty poor around the contest as the game wore on.  We win by:

Max connecting to our mids for clearances.

Better lead up options and connections into 50. Strong i50 defensive mindset.

Not being predictable by bombing down the line, or always kicking out to the members back pocket

Strong man on pressure through the midfield, two way defensive running.

Pruess man mountain  with Jeffy at his feet.

saints are quick, and are playing winning football; given our below average form you'd be a fool NOT to be worried

one thing that they're definitely not doing is scoring - high of 86, low of 66, two other scores in the 70s

they're obviously not getting it inside 50 as much as us (average of 52.8 to our 59.8), but they are going at nearly 50% efficiency once they do get it in (we're at a paltry 38.9% by comparison)

their defensive 50 work has been fairly mid-level (avg 9.3 to our 13.8 tackles i50)

they rebound from 50 better than us by a fairly big margin, but their desire to play on and run with it will really test us (9.5 bounces per game compared to our 3)

their game plan is not entirely dissimilar to the peptides in that it's all about fast ball movement and getting players out the back to help facilitate that

if they pull it off it looks terrific, but if they don't hit the targets under increased pressure that you'd hope we'll bring, then there's a good chance they will themselves be susceptible to turnover themselves as they'll be out of the position and they don't track back that well

we can win, but honestly...who knows in this nutzoid season

Will certainly be our first scalp of the year if we can get over St Kilda.

Saw them live today and they’re a quality footy side. Anyone who disagrees is stuck in 2018.

13 hours ago, ProDee said:

St Kilda are hopeless.

Except for the stat that says they're 3-1.

15 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

The level of intensity and application Essendon showed against us was at least double what they showed against St Kilda.

That was little to do with St Kilda being better than us (which was also true), it was more about how Essendon attacked the contest or generally cared about the game. In the first half of their game, Essendon was non-existent. St Kilda were playing a below-VFL level side. 

They've beaten a developing young side in GC by 1 point, an Essendon side which played the worst half of footy anyone will play this year whilst struggling to hold them off, and they beat Hawthorn by a kick despite the Hawks having at least 6 injuries and only 2 on the bench for a half. 

If we're talking their 3-1 record alone, I'm not worried in the slightest.

It's not their W-L record which is the thing we should be worried about. St Kilda play a style of game which, when they're on, is our achilles heel. They'll use the space on the G, they'll bring pace, and if we leave too much space behind our press then they'll find it easier to score than they have in the opening four rounds.

This is not going to be easy for us, but St Kilda is not a good side.

This sounds like every break up speech I ever made:

It's not you, it's me.

30 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Except for the stat that says they're 3-1.

Are you new to football ?

If so, I understand why you'd point that out.

You must also think Gold Coast are the bomb. ?

I think we will smack them this week...

It will be hard to win this game. Only 4 quarters of hard pressure will get it done and we are not playing at that stage. 

32 minutes ago, rjay said:

I think we will smack them this week...

Careful who you smack....they might whack you back

Scully had a great game ..26 possessions. His first quarter especially was very good. He was named among Hawthorn's best in several reports. The bias here is as usual overdone. He would walk into our team and any other list for that matter

TBH both teams were sub par and lacked forward cohesion. We should have the Saints measure next week if we can maintain pressure. If we lose the contested ball and/or give them space they will waltz around us and make us look slow. I hope the coaching staff take a good look at the Hawthorn style.

Should be a regulation win if we are in any way a decent team.

20 hours ago, one_demon said:

I don't think we can beat St Kilda's fast, hard running

Smart supporters should be worried.  St Kilda are up and about, and we wont have the small confines of the SCG restricting a keepings-off or helter-skelter game slicing us up.

Preuss debuted well, but gee I am concerned the other way.  We are slow to begin with, and many of our forwards have question-marks about defensive pressure.

Weed - definitely

Spargo - not physical nor fast enough.  The sum aint there.

Preuss - can easily be run off on turnover.

Melksham - usually concerned about why he didn't get the free or kick a goal instead of applying instant defense on turnover.

 

We are so easy to exploit by leg speed and ball movement.  Interesting game coming up.  Only the 3 day extra may save us, and/or blitzing contested possession and clearances.

Gresham, Billings and Bruce are the ones to watch. Keep them all quiet and we may have a chance.

Demons playing Saints on Good Saturday. What could possibly go wrong?

19 hours ago, ding said:

My glass is half full.

 

Omens abound.

Given Saturday will be the first day of Passover, when four glasses, half full (or completely full), are drunk during the service on the Friday night (repeated on the Saturday for those who are willing), the above comment seems appropriate.

Also, as the game is being played on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I think it's a line ball between the Demons, who should have an affiliation with the events which Good Friday commemorates and the Saints who for 2000 or so years have clearly associated with Easter Sunday. 

Happy Easter and/or Passover, if that's your thing.

 

 

Saints are playing the old Ross Lyon game plan.....strangle the game and keep in touch, hoping for a couple of errors to score.  They will never win finals with that type of football as we have seen, but it gets them barely across the line enough times to keep the supporters at bay.

The solution is simple: hit them hard on the scoreboard early. 

22 hours ago, sisso said:

Hard to judge St Kilda on that Hawthorn went in without a single contested ball midfielder and lost both their key defenders during the match.

Hawks had Gunston forced into defence in the 2nd 1/4 and no inside mids and the saints beat them by a lousy 5 points.

I'll be very disappointed without a win this round against them.

20 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

Hawks kept bombing it to the hot spot, and St Kilda kept defending it out from there.  Hawks were undermanned and were pretty poor around the contest as the game wore on.  We win by:

Max connecting to our mids for clearances.

Better lead up options and connections into 50. Strong i50 defensive mindset.

Not being predictable by bombing down the line, or always kicking out to the members back pocket

Strong man on pressure through the midfield, two way defensive running.

Pruess man mountain  with Jeffy at his feet.

...and OMac replaced with someone hungry...

Have a look at the teams that St. Kilda have beaten (and lost) this year. Not great credentials. I think the ladder will right itself in a few weeks time.

On 4/14/2019 at 6:34 PM, dazzledavey36 said:

They are not rubbish.

I too am worried about the saints outside run and dash. On a big ground at the MCG they will expose us if we do not defend carefully and restrict their space.

Need to maintain possession and work hard on the switch till we find an outnumber.  Out marking them with our talls will also be crucial.

They like to play a +1 on the ball when match is in the balance vs a loose man in defence.  If they do so we need to match them, use it well on the outside and, assuming we start getting on top in the middle and clearances around stoppages, make as much from our i50 entries as possible.  We should be able to win the clearance battle but we need to win it big IMO to overwhelm their less experienced mid field and win the day over all.

Their key play makers from last week who we will need to pressure and close down are....

Acres, Lonie , Ross*, Newnes*, Billings*, Marshall and Savage.  Jack Steele also in pretty good form.

Their most in form intercept defender will also need close attention.... Callum Wilkie.

*Also turnover kings at times if enough pressure's applied.

Bring the intensity and pressure plus some decent possession and ball control / movement on the outside (including solid marking and contested marks) we probably win.  Kicking straight always helps of course.  Bring anything less we probably don't.  Very even comp so far.

Edited April 15, 20195 yr by Rusty Nails

I'm rethinking 'not worried' of a few days ago.  This game may be won or lost in the coaches box. 

Saints have some decent new Assistant Coaches:  Brett Ratten - a Clarkson protege, ex Senior Coach and premiership captain, Brendon Lade - premiership ruckman.  They seem to have their players up and about each week with fairly consistent, albeit not great performances.

I think our comparatively inexperienced coaches are up to the challenge but it is shaping up to be quite a different game to last year.

This game should tell us a lot more about the gameplan. If it can't despatch the Saints it demonstrates that while the gameplan may be okay now and then it does not provide consistency. Centre and forward we have a vastly superior line up compared to the Saints. If the Saints are allowed to clog our forward line and then run it out for scoring opportunities at the other end one really has to question this game plan.

Our Gameplan is to make the game contested that is our biggest advantage. We are the best at contested footy and have no plan B as the first 3 rounds proved.