1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

AFL WEBSITE - 

St Kilda's second half against Melbourne was the real deal

“the Saints should be heartened by their effort against the reigning premiers. After trailing by nine goals to one, the Saints restricted the Dees to just five more goals for the game, while adding seven of their own.”

Wow. We know we’re a top team when we beat up the opposition by 6 goals and they get all the praise. 

They can have the praise, we settle for  the four points.

Edited May 9, 20222 yr by John Crow Batty

4 hours ago, sisso said:

Ross was driving me spare was listing to MMM while I was at the match he kept referring to us being 19 points down in the GF and being "gettable"....um dont mention the fact we won the flag by 12 goals and no one has "got" us since!

You missed the classic Ross Lyon in last year's GF preview.

" I think the Dogs will win and Goodwin coaching from the bench will cost them..."

Yesterday's man IMO.

How tough is Sparrow! Does plenty of the unsung inside work. He is what we had hoped Tapscott to be

1 hour ago, Longsufferingnomore said:

Does "kicking in danger" exist anymore? Sainters did this a number of times.

That's been a gripe of mine for a while.  However over the weekend a few were actually paid, including one to us I think.

5 hours ago, jnrmac said:

We play to defend leads, not to put our feet down and win by 80.

In the last we knew they would come, that they would take more risks and try to attack the corridor. Our set up was all about negating that and taking the heat out of the game.

We have been doing it for a while. I suspect it will come back to bite us one day but I can see why they are doing it

One of the interviews after the GF with Petracca he was saying that when he kicked his dribbler in the 3rd the word come from the bench to ice the rest of the qtr.
The mids looked at each other, decided "Fork that we're hot, let's get another one."
Then blasted another 2 in 30seconds and made freakin' legends out of themselves.

But your definitely right.
The plan seems be to get the lead and then defend it rather than keep attacking.

 

Edited May 9, 20222 yr by Fork 'em

54 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

You missed the classic Ross Lyon in last year's GF preview.

" I think the Dogs will win and Goodwin coaching from the bench will cost them..."

Yesterday's man IMO.

Lyon, gets it right as often as Malthouse. 

5 hours ago, sisso said:

Ross was driving me spare was listing to MMM while I was at the match he kept referring to us being 19 points down in the GF and being "gettable"....um dont mention the fact we won the flag by 12 goals and no one has "got" us since!

Lyon was atrocious. he started off incredibly biased having admitted he hasnt watched the Dees a lot this year and you could literally hear the cogs in his brain whirring as he grudgingly (at first) started to admit the Dees were a cut above all other teams. He was fully on board by late in the game.

34 minutes ago, Stevienic23 said:

How tough is Sparrow! Does plenty of the unsung inside work. He is what we had hoped Tapscott to be

Shows how far our development and coaching programme has come Players are given time and confidence to attain their potential and of course the team is the winner. 
Not very many players can be like Clarry on the go from his first AFL game. 

6 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Lyon was atrocious. he started off incredibly biased having admitted he hasnt watched the Dees a lot this year and you could literally hear the cogs in his brain whirring as he grudgingly (at first) started to admit the Dees were a cut above all other teams. He was fully on board by late in the game.

I was thinking about this, he would find Melbourne very hard to watch, we expose the shortcomings in his gameplans. We do the defense that he was credited for but have the dare and trust his teams didn't.

5 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

The Mongrel Review.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/05/08/melbourne-v-st-kilda-just-the-big-questions/

 

Hmmmm, is Clarry percevied as a diver??

Yes. He has at times applied a lot of mayonnaise to the contact he receives. He stopped doing it last year and this is the first time he has done it this year from memory.

I think he got lost in the moment this time. He wanted to remonstrate but was probably in two minds as he would likely reverse the free kick. He almost froze for a split second and when Jones hit him he took the opportunity to exaggerate contact.

The article you linked summed it up. He simply doesn't need to do it.

So if we include Brayshaw we've got 11 bona-fide AFL standard backmen on the list ... T-Mac being reserve to the tall back-ups (as Mitch Brown is to the KPF's)

Langdon is another who regularly picks up possessions on 1 half back flank

May, Lever, Salem, Rivers, Petty, Smith, Tomlinson, Bowey, Hunt, Hibberd & Brayshaw make up the 11

4 years ago we didn't even have 4 defenders who were AFL standard (and ongoing)

What a remarkable turnaround!

 

And which player might put the biggest dent in our premiership chances if they were somehow unavailable?

Gawn? Oliver? May? Petracca? Langdon?

Salem is a star but we haven't looked like losing a game without him

I'd say it's Gawn but it might be May?  But Oliver & Petracca are absolute gun players

I don't like our players playing for frees.  I don't like any player playing for frees.

But when there are other teams who have made it an art form (Geelong/Bulldogs etc) and a player proclaims it to be a special 'skill' I am happy for our guys to try one on every now and then.

Until umpires universally and consistently punish it then it won't go away. 

22 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Not sure about the last 35 games but it has been very obvious this year.

Yeah, there's been a few posts lamenting that we aren't kicking big scores or by big margins against the weaker teams with the % boost other contenders get. 

The reality is if we keep ops to about 60 pts and we kick around 90pts we keep our % around 150 so no need to worry about big scores or big % games.  We are consistent week to week with a steady %.

Shutting down teams in the last quarter is part of that.  As Goodwin said post GCS game about our defensive 4th quarter:  we didn't need to score.

High scores is not what we are about; strangling the opposition and putting the game to sleep, are!!

Agree, the demon machine just keeps on rolling along for now.  Come closer to the finals is when I expect us to well and truly put the pedal to the metal. Can’t wait 😜 

8 hours ago, David-Demon said:

So where does Salem fit into the mould.

What a beautiful problem that the selectors have to consider in coming weeks.  We have so much depth. 
I was feeling very nervous about us having to face up to Freo, Sydney, Collingwood and Brisbane in the not too distant future.  Now I am nervously excited! Bring it on.

19 hours ago, CYB said:

I reckon there has to be something in our approach to our loads and how we play in the H and A. It seems  we have no interest in burying teams because it’s not worth the potential injury / exhaustion for a couple of %. If we get the Ws with 4-6 goal margins the overall % takes care of itself. 

It allows us to switch on the nitrous oxide in the finals without cracking the head gasket. 

 

That's one part of the equation i reckon.

The other is that going into control mode from say half way through the 3rd when havw a 3-4 goal buffer actually increases our chance of winning.

The only way realistic way an opposition team can peg back a 3 plus goal deficit latish in a game is for there to be speed on the game.

If we get aggressive and look to bury opponents then we are giving them what they need - a fast flowing game.

And if we try to pile on the goals we inevitably will take risks. Risk create turnover opportunities and therefore opposition goals.

If an opponent gets a couple of quick goals they can get some momentum. And maybe get back into the game and sneak a win

Playing slow to protect a winning margin is a key strategy in the NBA and in assuming the EPL and other eite soccer leagues.

The reward of going for a big win is percentage - which is not much reward for a team that us likely to win 18 plus games.

The risk is losing a game we would otherwise win.

1 hour ago, BAMF said:

Yes. He has at times applied a lot of mayonnaise to the contact he receives. He stopped doing it last year and this is the first time he has done it this year from memory.

I think he got lost in the moment this time. He wanted to remonstrate but was probably in two minds as he would likely reverse the free kick. He almost froze for a split second and when Jones hit him he took the opportunity to exaggerate contact.

The article you linked summed it up. He simply doesn't need to do it.

Yep, I hate it. Jones was stupid for getting sucked in but it's a bad look. I thought he was actually going to properly remonstrate and then oh, down he goes.

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I don't like our players playing for frees.  I don't like any player playing for frees.

But when there are other teams who have made it an art form (Geelong/Bulldogs etc) and a player proclaims it to be a special 'skill' I am happy for our guys to try one on every now and then.

Until umpires universally and consistently punish it then it won't go away. 

I have a historical hatred of Essendon, Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond, but I currently hate the Bulldogs and Cats the most for the reasons above.

I can't condone Oliver's blatant flop, and he deserves to be called out for it. It's a blight on the game, and sports like basketball and soccer penalise the floppers with either tech fouls or yellow cards.

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

One of the interviews after the GF with Petracca he was saying that when he kicked his dribbler in the 3rd the word come from the bench to ice the rest of the qtr.
The mids looked at each other, decided "Fork that we're hot, let's get another one."
Then blasted another 2 in 30seconds and made freakin' legends out of themselves.

But your definitely right.
The plan seems be to get the lead and then defend it rather than keep attacking.

 

That's not true. It was May who said that they should ice the rest of the qtr. It came out in the recent docos.

7 hours ago, Demon17 said:

You missed the classic Ross Lyon in last year's GF preview.

" I think the Dogs will win and Goodwin coaching from the bench will cost them..."

Yesterday's man IMO.

‘Yesterday’: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a second, he is as my bloke?! Clarkson, Simpson, will see if I can claim Hardwick, and… look I will even cop Malthouse but Ross Lyon? We had one date and he couldn’t consummate. Even had this weird draw thing where we all came back the next week to try again and it didn’t happen. He’s more of a ‘Never Was’!

’Never Was’: Here we go again?! Always shuffling me these people. Can I just be left alone? I am taking Voss until he does something. Yes, of course as a coach. Jeez.

13 hours ago, forever demons said:

Max playing sore,wonder if they will rest him this week and perhaps the week after as well

Just a hunch. Maybe that is why Daw was pulled from the Casey game so that he did not get injured. Ready for next week ? I see Gawny is going for scans on Monday.

On 5/8/2022 at 8:56 PM, dazzledavey36 said:

May and Petty: Stopped everything that came their way. Petty particular gave away some questionable free kicks but he's seriously becoming a serious defender of the competition.  His intercept marking and poise with the ball is impressive. Just needs good continuity now.

 

This is the thing i am finding really interesting this season, last season teams would go a bit taller and try and make the 3 intercept kings (i include Petty now) accountable to take away their game, but the resurgent form of Hunt, and Brayshaws toughness down back has meant we just back ourselves even if we get caught 1v1 to win it. 

and generally we don't anyway because Lever and May lead it so well they know where the ball is going before the forwards do. 

It's close to a flawless defensive system when Hunt is in good form, our one weakness last season was the electric small forward with leg speed getting goal side, but now Hunt can match them we're pretty covered

18 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

AFL WEBSITE - 

St Kilda's second half against Melbourne was the real deal

“the Saints should be heartened by their effort against the reigning premiers. After trailing by nine goals to one, the Saints restricted the Dees to just five more goals for the game, while adding seven of their own.”

Wow. We know we’re a top team when we beat up the opposition by 6 goals and they get all the praise. 

YEAH WHOOP WHOOP!

22 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

The Mongrel Review.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/05/08/melbourne-v-st-kilda-just-the-big-questions/

 

Hmmmm, is Clarry percevied as a diver??

He is certainly is, imo it wasn't a good look and he's had similar incidents in the past 

23 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

 

Hmmmm, is Clarry percevied as a diver??

It’s not perceived it’s a fact, he has a history of doing so.

But, in saying that. Jones shouldn’t have thrown the arm at him.

 

IF, and it’s a big if, the AFL want this out of the game, two things should happen. Any striking act like Jones did is a automatic week, add more for any damage done. 
Any exaggeration like Clarry did is a 10k fine first offence, 20k second suspension third.

If the first act by Jones never occurs then Clarry never flops.