Think I will work my way through the season looking at games through the prism of a Premiership and our quality of play in the final series. Posted in the Post grand final thread my round 1 observations.

I remember that there was a lot of pumping up of the Saints early in the season and I was not confident prior to the game and I have to say that watching the replay of this game and knowing the outcome did not mean that the frustration levels were any less than watching it live. 12 goals 19 behinds with us scoring 3.6 in each of the last two quarters. 9 different goal scorers and 9 different behind kickers. not sure how many we missed completely. Frustrating and it highlighted what would become a theme in the first half of the season with us winning games with a dysfunctional forward line.

My observations:

- Viney in for Harmes who was injured jack kicks a goal with his first touch.... 

- Players in the team that did not play in the GF Jetta, Tomlinson, Hunt, Jones and Baker.

- Commentators talking up Saints every opportunity.

- Umps pulled the trigger on play on calls very quickly.... I seem to remember that this happen a few weeks before it settled down.

- Oliver was a clearance machine and his connection with max was obvious. Also started to see the Oliver/Petracca combo being built. 

- Langdon smooth mover and his disposal quality was better than the 2020 season.

- Support in both defence and attack was something I saw a lot of off the back of some excellent pressure. This was a developing theme for me during the season. 

- Salem crazy good with his positional play and support efforts.

- Forwards all over the place like a mad person's breakfast except for the Kossie/Spargo combination. They work well together.

- Petracca's strength. He really stepped up and continued to develop during the season.

- I also saw the team's turnover reaction as a big plus. Their reaction to adjusting their structure to switch from defence to attack or from attack to defence was fast and well drilled.

- There was a growing awareness of the potential of the quality of our defence. Second game that the defence dominated with intercept marking.

As I said, a frustrating game to watch live and a no less frustrating game to watch on replay.

 

The Oliver / Petracca combo is a great point.

It's obvious because they both spend so much time in the midfield and centre bounces together but the chemistry between the two coming into their prime is why we won a premiership and why we are favourites again next year.

We've all watched the GF replay plenty of times but the number of times Oliver gets it to Petracca or vice versa and the recipient does damage is incredible.

The abiding memory form this game for me was Kozzies goal. Phenomenal evasion in heavy traffic. 

I had a feeling it was going to be a good year after that game. We were seriously challenged early and then put them away. 
had we kicked straight….

One thing i remember from being at this game was the patch in the second quarter when the Saints got on top and were up by about 3 goals or so in the first half of that quarter.  
 

When we rebounded forward we literally had no one to kick to for about ten minutes and I noticed a lot of finger pointing going on by some of our defenders, which at the time I thought the blame game was on but in fact it was a show of leadership to remain calm and restructure.
Once we did that the Saints lead was cut very short rapidly. Post GF, one poster on here (sorry, can’t remember the name) made mention this was the game where they thought there was something different about our team and I tend to agree from watching the game live. 
We should’ve blown out them of the water in the second half but just banking points early in the season was vital.

55 minutes ago, BDA said:

The abiding memory form this game for me was Kozzies goal. Phenomenal evasion in heavy traffic. 

Seriously brilliant skills and evasion; perfectly screened/protected at the kick point; courageous decision-making on his part. We may be likely to see similar from Bowey in the coming season? That kicking accuracy - destined for goal opportunities or forward passes.

 

Edited December 12, 20213 yr by Deemania since 56

@CHF you left out all the Saints defender wanted to play on TMc (cranky) to exploit his lack of pace and their 'boom' recruit Hill? continuously kicking it to his mates in the crowd.

Chf your the same as me at the moment watching games from the year.

Really cant wait for the next season.

I even wish there were some kind of Nab cup.

2 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

 

I even wish there were some kind of Nab cup.

There’s AFLW for that

This gave me a fix

 

 

I watched this game a week or so ago and was amazed at both teams poor skills. Clearly, our improved during the season and the Aints did not so much. 

On 12/12/2021 at 1:18 AM, Jontee said:

@CHF you left out all the Saints defender wanted to play on TMc (cranky) to exploit his lack of pace and their 'boom' recruit Hill? continuously kicking it to his mates in the crowd.

Yep Jontee, left out the observation on the Saints...... And Angry man Jones. Was watching the performance of the Dees very closely.

 

On 12/12/2021 at 9:36 PM, leave it to deever said:

This gave me a fix

 

 

Deserves own thread

brings back memories of players and games

The magic of Robbie , The freakish skills of The wiz , liam , aaron  , sean ,allen jacovich, yze

The wiz goal at waverly .the woewodin goal , the leoncelli goal in the Adelaide rain

The hip and shoulder by Neitz on the Hawks player and the goal

The torp goals  by lyon and Bennett which is hardly kicked nowadays (except Hunt in nt)

On 12/12/2021 at 9:53 PM, Salems Lot said:

I watched this game a week or so ago and was amazed at both teams poor skills. Clearly, our improved during the season and the Aints did not so much. 

The first two games if not more were a trainwreck skills wise. It's about round 5 where things start to gel. Oliver was superb from the word go though.

Now at Round 11 and you can see the system working well. Forward line still not at 100%.

On 12/12/2021 at 9:30 PM, Allus Monk said:

There’s AFLW for that

I'm looking forward to it.
Reckon the girls can get us another flag.
Success breeds success 🏆

Edited December 14, 20213 yr by Fork 'em