8 minutes ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

Viney played didn't he? Have barely seen his name mentioned....can anyone enlighten?

Viney was in and under everything, taking and breaking tackles, and making some of his own.

Had less game time in the second.

1 minute ago, kev martin said:

Viney was in and under everything, taking and breaking tackles, and making some of his own.

Had less game time in the second.

Agree, Viney was right in amongst it as usual. In the best IMO.

9 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Never said he was knocked aside, but I did say that many players were holding back from full physical contact due to preseason. Agree he is finely skilled, likes his evasive movements, and his kicking was great. I stand by my uncertainty about how he would go 1 on 1 against biger bodied forwards and mids. 

He is looking much stronger (more muscle) and a little bigger than last season. Must have worked hard over the off season.

I didn't recognise him when I saw him at the first preseason training session.

Edited February 25, 20232 yr by kev martin

4 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Also missing our best goal kicker in Fritsch. 
 
In saying that, the Saints defense is hot garbage so this win means about as much as our demolition of Norf in the corresponding game last pre season. 

I don't think that's right. The Saints are miles ahead of where North, who finished clear last behind tanking WC, were last year.

19 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Watching McVee reminded me of Ricky Petterd, his movement was similar.

Yeah him & Pendles

1 minute ago, old55 said:

I don't think that's right. The Saints are miles ahead of where North, who finished clear last behind tanking WC, were last year.

That’s true. But they’re still not a great measure of who we will be competing against in finals. 
I am much more interested to see how we go against Richmond next weekend. 

31 minutes ago, Macca said:

Yeah ok but what about 2021?  I'm counting that year in as well as last year.  It seems you're only talking about last year

Appraise both years so with regards to most of 2021 and a reasonable amount of 2022 and you'll find that we have attacked hard from half back and through the corridor

If it's recency bias, then you make good points.  But you have to count the sum of all parts (both years)

So why is 2021 important to this discussion?  Because if we don't attack hard and through the corridor as we did in 2021, then I don't hold out much hope of saluting again.  If we counted 2020 as well, then our movement was often stagnant that year (missed finals with a decent list)

I still don’t think we were a quick handball play on or corridor team in 2021. 

Outside of using Langdon we were still keen on our defenders finding a mark. And going back to the narrow side rather than sprinting out the fat side. 

The big thing we did in 2021 was quicker long kicks from half back to Tommy Mc or Gawn at half forward - and targeting the channel just outside the centre square, not the boundary. Then swoop forwards and mids through. A couple of Oliver or Tracc handballs and then hit an inside 50 forward. But it still started with a kick/mark game from Half back.

Faster ball movement whilst bullying teams up and down the same channel of the ground was our plan. Creating a contest outside 50 that allowed Fritsch or BBB space inside 50. How much we sustain that style compared to go for a more full ground run and spread is the question for this year.

2020 we were too focussed on short kicks and trying to crack teams open. It worked great against the bottom 9 sides, couldn’t beat the top 8. Couldn’t beat Cairns weather.
 

We upped our risk in 2021 with longer kicks to CHF, whilst drastically upping our defending by not risking anything corridor off half back or taking many inside 50 risks - hence the pocked bombs. Last year our risk dropped away by refusing targeted fast long kicks once the key forwards went down and then settling for slow long bombs in to packed 50’s.

Just now, DeeSpencer said:

I still don’t think we were a quick handball play on or corridor team in 2021. 

Outside of using Langdon we were still keen on our defenders finding a mark. And going back to the narrow side rather than sprinting out the fat side. 

The big thing we did in 2021 was quicker long kicks from half back to Tommy Mc or Gawn at half forward - and targeting the channel just outside the centre square, not the boundary. Then swoop forwards and mids through. A couple of Oliver or Tracc handballs and then hit an inside 50 forward. But it still started with a kick/mark game from Half back.

Faster ball movement whilst bullying teams up and down the same channel of the ground was our plan. Creating a contest outside 50 that allowed Fritsch or BBB space inside 50. How much we sustain that style compared to go for a more full ground run and spread is the question for this year.

2020 we were too focussed on short kicks and trying to crack teams open. It worked great against the bottom 9 sides, couldn’t beat the top 8. Couldn’t beat Cairns weather.
 

We upped our risk in 2021 with longer kicks to CHF, whilst drastically upping our defending by not risking anything corridor off half back or taking many inside 50 risks - hence the pocked bombs. Last year our risk dropped away by refusing targeted fast long kicks once the key forwards went down and then settling for slow long bombs in to packed 50’s.

We are largely on the same page anyway, DS

What really matters is looking ahead and yesterday didn't answer too many questions nor was it ever going to.  Saints didn't offer much

As Jaded said in a post above, the Tigers clash will tell us more but really, the answer lies in the season proper

We aren't going to declare our hand until then and rightly so

Still, it's nice to win by 10 goals in the 4 periods allotted to the Seniors.  We've got a good list so we'll be contending if augers well

My one concern is our forward line functionality and our delivery into the forward line (as stated earlier, there are more than a few areas pertaining to that functionality)

7 hours ago, old55 said:

 

Whatever it was I doubt it involved 16 goals against.

If you want a chuckle Plugger35 from BigFooty said

”Sharman and the Hammer are dominating.

The Dees have rested all their best defenders now but they are still dominating against their second best defenders.”

Lol

So let’s hope we are dominated like that all year and it will be a fantastic season. 

A Fit Lachie Hunter changes the dynamic of how we attack the Forwardline. 
Teams won’t be able to negate both Langdon and Hunter simultaneously. 
I just hope Lachie has the same running ability as Mr Ed to repeatedly run both ways. 
Trent Rivers looked to have built his calves right up when i went to training last week. I look forward to his progress very much. Same with T Sparrow, he has filled out. 
Number 14 this year…

Good first half, bbb kicked first goal..where r the haters, liked the shaved heads of the wings as someone mentioned earlier, that'll confuse them. All the bs over jvr, underwhelming 

16 minutes ago, MoeSyzlak said:

If you want a chuckle Plugger35 from BigFooty said

”Sharman and the Hammer are dominating.

The Dees have rested all their best defenders now but they are still dominating against their second best defenders.”

Lol

So let’s hope we are dominated like that all year and it will be a fantastic season. 

If Tomlinson plays seniors again you won’t be hoping we get dominated.

They are 2 good young key forwards. Better than the Schache and our young guys for now.

Similarly the saints young key backs in Adams and Van Es looked good too.

Whether Ross actually plays any of them or if he keeps going with Cordy and Doug at FF time will tell 

I have a question… why is “SIM” always spelled in capital letters on this site?

8 hours ago, pitmaster said:

In that brief period of the 3rd where they pinched a couple of goals back they were borrowing from the slingshot from halfback style Clarkson used to slice us up a couple of years back, and actually looked like they were playing to a template for beating us, but it was not sustained and the Dees reasserted control. Other than that, I agree.

It’s actually how teams would beat us last year as well. Flood back line, create a turnover and run & handball through our defensive zone, whilst making sure our ‘goal keeper has a man in them’. 
 

I get that it’ll happen once or twice in a game,  but it was being performed well by a bottom 4 team. Teams like Pies and Cats will eat us for breakfast if we don’t have a plan to quash it.

2 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Defensive flood and bore the opposition to death.

Exactly. Lyon, Malthouse, to a lesser extent Buckley, and arguably Roos,  had an identifiable game plan - variation on an ultra defence first, bugger all offence and boring opposition and neutral fans to death.

Can Lyon develop a modern system? Even if he can, it will take st least a season. And the list is got holes everywhere, not to mention some injury concerns.

38 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

making sure our ‘goal keeper has a man in them’. 

That would be guaranteed to distract the goal keeper.

Watching quarter 5 for the first time and the Saints still have most of the ones out there. Ross obviously not happy.

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

That’s true. But they’re still not a great measure of who we will be competing against in finals. 
I am much more interested to see how we go against Richmond next weekend. 

I am, but also I am not. 

We all put too much stock into pre-season games. Remember the reaction to our pre-season loss to Carlton last year? Or the pre-season loss to the Dogs in 2021?

23 hours ago, Demon Jack said:

Wasn't huge on Grundy today. Thought most of his taps went to the opposition and his disposal was simply meh.

Still thrilled we got him, hopefully he works into some form before the start of the season.

I’m playing catchup 

 

is he bang for buck do you think?
 

24 minutes ago, Crompton's the man said:

I’m playing catchup 

 

is he bang for buck do you think?
 

He will be. Will take a few games, maybe half the Season. But it will click 

1 hour ago, homsar said:

I have a question… why is “SIM” always spelled in capital letters on this site?

NOT SURE.

1 hour ago, homsar said:

I have a question… why is “SIM” always spelled in capital letters on this site?

Related to SIM card

We are creatures of habit 🍺🙂

10 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I'll also add that I thought Jake Bowey was superb off half back. Didn't realise he was so strong overhead and took a couple of good intercept marks.

Bit scratchy at the start but as the game wore on he got better and his ball use and drive off half back was excellent.

He's best 22 now. 3rd year now and I expect him to make big strides in his game.

Watching Riv go through the midfield is salivating.

Powerful 188cm 88kg type with speed and and a booming kick who could really change the dynamic of our midfield set up. Looks fit and ready to go.

yes like the Rivers move but geez his field kicking was terrible today. kicked a great long goal though. 

Just finished watching the first 4 periods. These are my takes. Overall very positive.

- We seemed to keep our width well. Happy to kick mark and look to corridor if there. 
- Thought our ball movement was good. Kicking sharp mostly as it was very windy. Patient movement in the backline but as soon as we get to the wings we went fast but no hero switches into corridor. Happy to take territory or to go down the line as we have great tall options with Grundy and Gawn. 
- Loved McVee. Looks a player. Looks a nice kick. 

- Bowey was great. Great kick 

- Like Bowey, McVee and Rivers in the backline. All great movers and ball uses. 

- Good to see a few others pop up in the midfield rotations. Kozzie, Rivers ect. Oliver the mainstay but Viney and Trac rotated through forward line. Trac could kick 40+ this year 
- Hunter very good. Langdon actually changed to the near side in the 2nd and 4th.

- We look super fit. Half forwards get right up and back. 
- Shame TMac has to play a half in the backline to cover Lever 

- Grundy and Gawn seemed to work well. We looked strong in the air especially kicking out of defence. 
- Always a lot of direction between players on the field. Pointing to structures/positions ect

- Seems like a lot of love between our players out there also

 

8 hours ago, old dee said:

Thanks Andy. I am struggling with the decision on whether to get Kayo via the club membership this year. Could not go yesterday due to  having a cataract removed but after studying the fixture there are quite a few games that will be tv events for me this season. May have take a subscription. 

Do we need a separate discussion about what we collectively do about pay TV and what the best options are?
we dropped any Murdoch subscriptions last year on principle but we might need to swallow our consciences ?