4 hours ago, DubDee said:

Nick Daicos is unbelievably good

His awareness and skills are unmatched

A good thought project is will the Pies trade Daicos to start the impending rebuild that’s due in the next 1-2 years?

Pendles, Sidebottom, Howe, Blondi, Elliot will not go on for much longer…

2 hours ago, Rooooooooooo said:

I completely agree

But my main criticism of him is he struggles to win the ball. But if and when he does do that the league is [censored]

The transition stuff is the new winning the ball stuff … Players that can do both as well as each other can only be found in fairy tales and folk lore.

Saints ceo president talking too much about their trades, keep trap shut until you win something l

5 hours ago, Rooooooooooo said:

After listening to everyone’s opinions I think I just hate Collingwood

I hope you all can forgive 🙏

Not as much as me. My hatred is off the charts.

5 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

A good thought project is will the Pies trade Daicos to start the impending rebuild that’s due in the next 1-2 years?

Pendles, Sidebottom, Howe, Blondi, Elliot will not go on for much longer…

They’d be mad to, he’s only 23 and is the son of a club legend. But they are in trouble in the coming years. Yes they’ll have a lot of cap space free, will they throw ridiculous money at Butters and Bailey? Interesting to see how this plays out.

10 hours ago, adonski said:

Best Houston game for 12-18 months

N Daicos been otherworldly

Flanders with one of the worst 23 touch games (3 qtrs) you'll see. Tom Mitchell lite.

Agree on the first two, but Flanders: 28 possessions, 500+ metres gained? If Steele manages that we'll hail it as the trade of the century.

3 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Agree on the first two, but Flanders: 28 possessions, 500+ metres gained? If Steele manages that we'll hail it as the trade of the century.

Personally thought he was awful

Crumbled under pressure and butchered the ball

9 hours ago, Alex No Fancy-name said:

It felt like the Saint came out "breathing fire" with a plan to keep the ball moving forward.

Was it too much adrenalin (noting the number of times they got in their own way), which is something that might easily be addressed in a week, or do they not have the skills to deliver this game plan (which cannot be fixed so quickly)?

The black and white team did well to stand back and wait for the poor/panicked ball to come to them.

I very quickly turned off the noise of the broadcast... was there much salivating around the "chaos ball", or has that been binned for the time being?

Quite well nuanced.

First game I've watched any of to comment...and only from mud 2nd on.

Tbh I wasn't particularly impressed with anything save Collingwoods known ability to persevere. That wasn't a great game of skills , more endurance. I tend to agree the Pies did better at revisiting tge gearbox and clutch until they occasionally got traction. Neither team will go very far playing at that level of effectiveness.

The umpiring was a bit naff but I don't think it made any difference other than confusing a few. Bang for $$$ I'd say the Aints are getting unders but it was only their first outting . Hopefully no better next week.

Pies infuriatingly still found a way to win. They were much better at capitalising on opportunities against the play. I wonder what notes our brains trust were taking.

The Saints seemed very haphazard with no discernible craft to goal. It reminded me of watching us in past years...a lot of hope and pray just trying to will the ball to goal.

On the back of what I've seen at training and the limited hit outs so far I think we've already come a long way from that.

I hope Ryan persists with the rubbish hook kick when he could just slot it. I hope Kozzie and Co keep theirs for when genuinely the best option.

Memo to Dees ...put minder on NWM .

I wouldn't disrespect the Saints by not being diligent but I thought they were pretty meh !!

All that $$$ ... hmmm 🙄 🤔

Steele yourself Melb for a win

7 hours ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Liked Perryman's game tonight and stats did no justice to his niggle. Good old fashioned little smart ars.

I hope whoever plays on NWM next week rewatches Perryman's game.

NWM was fine, but way below his usual standards. Perryman did a great job on him.

8 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

A good thought project is will the Pies trade Daicos to start the impending rebuild that’s due in the next 1-2 years?

Pendles, Sidebottom, Howe, Blondi, Elliot will not go on for much longer…

They may not get the chance. He'll be offered ridiculous money to go to Tassie

Didn’t the Saints ceo or president say the competition is upset as they on a pathway to success with big signings etc … keep your mouth shut as you haven’t won anything yet, as we trying to grab headlines to sound relevant vs successful clubs who let their footy do the talking

4 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

They’d be mad to, he’s only 23 and is the son of a club legend. But they are in trouble in the coming years. Yes they’ll have a lot of cap space free, will they throw ridiculous money at Butters and Bailey? Interesting to see how this plays out.

can't remember who posted this originally on here, but i always think of this screed published in 2025 when people talk about clubs tumbling into trouble...

It’s over. At some point the analytics told the AFL that 85% of its audience aren’t going anywhere - regardless of results.

Huge, monumental spectacle is what the AFL wants its brand to be. Why spend decades building up half the competition when the other half already provides everything you need?

The smart big clubs woke up to this a while back. Collingwood’s list strategy is diabolical on paper, but they know they’ll just top up on talent because the system is built to sustain them. 3 of Geelong’s 4 best players came from other clubs.

This year was the least competitive season of AFL ever. The top 9 teams were decided by mid April. Thats 5.5 months of meaningless footy for half the clubs. The Age report on how poor this season was because they aren’t feeding directly from the AFL trough. Everyone else just happily follows the talking points, or else they might not get a good free suite at next years Gather Round.

It annoys me enormously that 2025 will be a huge financial success for the AFL because its overall product has stunk this year, and the guy leading the organisation never really wanted the job, and clearly has no vision for the future of the game.

This is all part of the problem. It continues to succeed in spite of itself, because we love the game too much.

Dont you just love it.

The Saints asked for an opening round home game at the MCG against a big club. Members turned up in record numbers wearing silly hats.

And they lost....

Faicos 32 thats right 32 UNCONTESTED POSSESIONS

EASY GAME when you play extreme outside ball!

3 hours ago, Mickey said:

They may not get the chance. He'll be offered ridiculous money to go to Tassie

I reckon he's potentially in the burn out category

If half the comp are now playing on OR how long before everyone else is as well and it just becomes another round?

11 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

If half the comp are now playing on OR how long before everyone else is as well and it just becomes another round?

This is what I don’t get. What is the downside of the other teams playing their day games? How is 4 extra day games changing anything?

17 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

If half the comp are now playing on OR how long before everyone else is as well and it just becomes another round?

Can genuinely see 6 games next year in OR next year with the 6th game on the Labor day public holiday.

7 hours ago, BoBo said:

I feel a bit crazy, but I really struggle to believe that’s how many people were at that ground. It’s a tiny venue and there were a lot of empty seats.

Capacity is 27,500 and 19,859 is essentially 3/4 full.

That did not look 3/4 full to me at all 😂 maybe I’m just really bad at judging crowd number though.

13 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Can genuinely see 6 games next year in OR next year with the 6th game on the Labor day public holiday.

South Aust have their gather round, so surely WCE and Freo will be pushing pretty hard for a piece of the opening round pie. That'd be 7 games 🤣

Why is there no game today?

11 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Why is there no game today?

Why indeed. There could have been an afternoon game at the G and a night game at Docklands and North could have played one of their home WA games.

13 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

A good thought project is will the Pies trade Daicos to start the impending rebuild that’s due in the next 1-2 years?

Pendles, Sidebottom, Howe, Blondi, Elliot will not go on for much longer…

No. They will not.