2 minutes ago, stinga said:

A great win

Not negatives but some things to consider

Tholstrup staying with W/M when he went forward unbalanced the defence. Lever had to play deep instead of high and found himself many times on small forwards.

Lindsay is a much better player when he is up the ground, and is not suited to a more defensive role.

Would have liked to see Langford swap roles with Culley forward in play, as it would cause opposition defence problems with trying to choose who to pick up.

Sparrow had 72% TOG but I couldn't work out what role he was playing. He wasn't deep forward, wasn't used at centre bounces and wasn't close checking anyone. Wasn't playing a linking player role. Maybe it was just one of those days, but I hope he gets a specific job to do.

I think we may be stuck with Lindsay in the backline until Bowey's fit, or AMW is ready for senior football.

Sparrow went to a few centre bounces but agree, still don't really feel like he's a true midfielder.

3 hours ago, AB10 said:

Very underrated game from Tholstrup today, went everywhere with Nas and really curbed his influence on the game. Yes he still kicked 3 but sometimes you just have to tip your hat to talent!

Richo gave Kolt 5th best player on ground for the job he did today.

Gave Gawny BOG.

Focusing on the backline, I was really impressed by Petty, he for once stood up and seemed to have a really good game. Hope he continues it. Turner and Howes also really solid.

I also thought CJ was fantastic, great run and gun and for the most part great ball use.

Edited March 15Mar 15 by GawnOfTheDead

Watched the last the last 5 minutes on the replay. Loved kings reaction when they showed him in the box after fritta sealed the game

Besides from our cohesion in defence as an issue, one other negative was probably Langford. I'd like to see what his GPS numbers were because it looked like he was just jogging for most of the day.

Only 9 disposals, 9 pressure acts, 1 tackle for 94 mins of game time.

2 hours ago, Nasher said:

Not just Petty relief rucking - Petty relief rucking from a key defensive post. Conventional wisdom said that’s impossible and the second ruck must be a forward.

I’ve always wondered why nobody ever did that, but as a footy fan I’m pretty good at gaslighting myself in to believing that if it were possible, coaches who live, eat and breathe footy would give it a crack.

I'd always thought there was logic behind having a key defender follow an opponent's key forward up into the ruck.

It's clearly an option for us now with Petty.

1 hour ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Didn’t realise until watching the kayo mini but Latrelle’s goal came from the Kolt running off the $2m forward pocket, one of his 8 score involvements and probably about 45 of his 359m gained.. cracking game.

The members didn't miss this.

Great atmosphere today in the members, actually. Loud, vocal, got stuck into NWM and TDK when they stuffed up. Good stuff.

Honestly, I'd rather pay Clarry $700k to play for someone else than pay TDK $1.8M to drop chest marks for my club...

2 hours ago, Tarax Club said:

Steven spoke very well at the press conference. Described the game as 'less than perfect' but praised the team resilience and desire to win. After the sales pitch since taking the reins he was obviously gratified with the team performance.

Interestingly he mentioned the AFL hoodoo word 'equity' and the potential advantages, teams may have playing the opening round or coming of fresh off byes. Hallelujah 'learnings' was not spoken of, even as a a rapidly, receding faintest of echoes.

When he was talking about the unfairness of playing a side coming off Opening Round, he also noted that in the next few weeks we have consecutive games against sides coming off a bye (Round 3 vs Carlton, then Round 4 vs Gold Coast).

This sort of stuff is fixable - the easiest way of course is to remove the byes by removing Opening Round altogether and having everyone start on the same weekend, in Round 1. Just have the four northern clubs get home games in prime time slots.

Just now, titan_uranus said:

When he was talking about the unfairness of playing a side coming off Opening Round, he also noted that in the next few weeks we have consecutive games against sides coming off a bye (Round 3 vs Carlton, then Round 4 vs Gold Coast).

This sort of stuff is fixable - the easiest way of course is to remove the byes by removing Opening Round altogether and having everyone start on the same weekend, in Round 1. Just have the four northern clubs get home games in prime time slots.

Agreed. An idea my son and daughter were discussing on the way to the game today was to have all "derbies" in Round 1, ie West Coast & Freo, Adelaide & Port, Swans & GWS and Brisbane & Gold Coast. That way nobody travels interstate, and all crowds (more or less) get a chance to see their team locally in Round 1.

If you get a chance, have a look at the first segment of the first crack tonight.

David King was full of praise & love for Max's game in particular his final quarter & how he outran tdk & how tdk had to spend time on the bench & max just had 4 minutes off in the 2nd half.

Said Steven king should mention to the group, look at what your leader is willing to do to win.

10 minutes ago, Red and Bluebeard said:

Agreed. An idea my son and daughter were discussing on the way to the game today was to have all "derbies" in Round 1, ie West Coast & Freo, Adelaide & Port, Swans & GWS and Brisbane & Gold Coast. That way nobody travels interstate, and all crowds (more or less) get a chance to see their team locally in Round 1.

AFL will never go for that.
Far too logical.

2 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

We saw something really heartwarming today, Roo took a mark (one of many), and Checkers did a double fist-pump. It was clearly a knee-[censored] reaction and he reined it in immediately. But we saw it. He was like a proud dad

Mihocek was also constantly in for the posr-goal celebrations. I haven't seen that level of consistent investment in other's goals since Nibbler, who should have a season hug tally trophy named after him.

Mihocek and Steele are looking like big wins for character and culture whole also so far proving more than handy in actual play.

Went to the MCG today, was a beautiful sunny arvo for footy and the new look Dees under King put on a great performance. Sure there are a few kinks to iron out but we saw fun, attacking football and hope for the future.

The Dees made the right call with 2025 clear out 👏

Stoked that the Dees beat the Sainters, they are already 0-2 ... take that TDK and JSOS! 😁

You beauty. Keen for next week. Sitting behind the goals against the dockers and then endulging in a Kozzy/Riv event on the Sunday morning. Carn you bloody Dees

2 hours ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

That’s a standard piece of Furniture at The Saints going back many years

The pressure is right on them now

Well done Demons. We have created Tomorrow’s Agenda on SEN!!😎

This amused me.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/766546082917676

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AFL WEBSITE

Cal Twomey

“King's influence on game style showed the Demons kicked more and were more direct, with the numbers seeing their kick to handball ratio on Sunday lift to 1.64 – up from a competition-low 1.23 last season. Their ball movement from defensive transition was also up significantly on last year”.

Agreed. I didn’t see much of the overhandball that existed across the Goodwin years. Nothing more frustrating when we saw slow ineffective static handballs

👆Paging Dr @binman for the Stats Files on the Podcast.

We still kicked long a little bit today but they were often rapid, low trajectory kicks to 1 on 1's or to space for our players to run on to (not to packs)

The rushed kick forward was nowhere to be seen

Overall, we were very efficient as compared to the opposition, who had 60 extra possessions

It was refreshing to see our players sprinting to position to receive the ball by hand or foot

Our teamwork was as good as we've seen it for quite some time

We didn't have too many non-contributors. A few had off-days but that's going to happen

2 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

My highlight was Sharpie - played above and beyond. Trelly well I have seen him at training and did what was expected. For his first game, fantastic.

Yeah, I'm with you there on Sharpie as well. Loved how he worked his way into the game, stood up in some big moments in the last quarter. Hope he can keep it going over the next few weeks and really make a spot for himself in the side.

6 hours ago, DiscoStu17 said:

Some interesting team stats I was just looking at.

It looks like the Saints had more of everything, except 2 crucial stats – we had more bounces, and more tackles.

Either we are being very efficient, or they are squandering the ball.

They had a lot of cheap possessions behind the footy.

Their defenders and half backs use a lot of dinky little possessions that have very little incisiveness.

2 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

XL isn't a defender. He tried, and his disposal was solid, but his poor defensive

2 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

Tried to be nice but the boy will be exposed against stronger forward lines.

Missing Bowser and potentially AMW but he needs some games and confidence in the twos first and foremost.

3 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

XL isn't a defender. He tried, and his disposal was solid, but his poor defensive skills hurt.

Agree, he would want to evolve!