I'm not a CJ hater, but didn't think kicking out to him short in the pocket from kick-ins was a winning strategy. Most times, he just bombed down the line to the back flank/boundary and/or turned it over.

JVR career goal efficiency:

General play 63.3 %

Set shots 71.8 %

Total 69.6%

Sample size 115 shots at goal

🤯🤯

27 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

JVR career goal efficiency:

General play 63.3 %

Set shots 71.8 %

Total 69.6%

Sample size 115 shots at goal

🤯🤯

Couple he kicked went 60 metres Post High.
The conditions helped him, but they were beautiful Kicks

I was reading McClures article & he mentioned after each song we'd play Robbie Williams entertain you then the players song, which didn't happen.

I still don't like coming out of the other rooms. I don't care if they're bigger.

8 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

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

He was ball watching & not involved in the first half...turned it around in the 2nd half.

Good sign.

5 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

JVR career goal efficiency:

General play 63.3 %

Set shots 71.8 %

Total 69.6%

Sample size 115 shots at goal

🤯🤯

He was amazing Van Neita

WTF was with the Umpiring, 3 x HtB for Melbourne not given... One was paid holding the man

30 minutes ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

WTF was with the Umpiring, 3 x HtB for Melbourne not given... One was paid holding the man

Not to mention the coverage showing clear deviation on balls hitting the goal post and not being called.

10 hours ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

Pros:

• Winning a close one for a change

• ball movement

• Best game I have seen Petty play in years

• Max being max

• Roo producing after such a sold preseason

• The enjoyment watching the Picketts.

Concerns:

• lever, appears to be more suited to a zone defence, he looked lost, slow indecisive when guarding + ball in hand

• Watching it from TV was hard but we looked second to the ball a lot, don’t know if that is by design?

PS - it’s hard to laugh at the saints for over paying when we’re paying a bloke $3.5 mill to run around for another team…

What team would pay huge amounts for a star play for another club. Come on get real ,

I agree with the other comments mostly.

Before the game , I expected to be run over in the last. Comments on game day almost got me over but very very pleased we made the coach look so happy.

Not sure what anyone else thought of the umps but bloody hell they were atrocious.

Felt like they had a Saints jersey on and was very annoying and frustrating.

Hopefully they improve but I won’t hold my breath.

What a ballsy move by a new coach to send the 20 game much maligned Kolt to Nas in your first game as coach. He doesn’t want us to play safe and he lived the mantra himself. Loved the press conference during the week where he copped it for saying we would back our system against Nas when he had Kolt planned for him for nearly a month. Nas may have kicked 3 but they really missed his connection and carry up field and Kolt hurt him with getting involved in scores back the other way.

Highlights for me. Trelly goal obviously. JVRs clean marks and accurate kicks. Gawn playing Immortal. Sharps hard nosed touches in the last.

Concerns to address. What to do with Lever. Sparrow inability to find the pill. Langford’s lack of chase. How easily we were carved through the middle at times.

Tough task next, 6 day break, travel, talent and taller structure but cant wait to see how we approach it.

Edited March 15Mar 15 by Lil_red_fire_engine

I thought our team selection was good.

The decision to play with Petty as the second ruck gave us an extra runner and Max's amazing effort in the last quarter won us the game.

Apart from JVR, I thought our better players had mixed games. Kossie was great in the centre bounce but fairly well held around the ground. Max fumbled a bit early on. Lever made poor decisions.

I am still not sold on Rivers in the midfield long term. He is a weapon off half back and just average in the midfield.

Lindsay is not a great defender but Bowey is still months off returning, so we will need to persever.

I thought CJ was pretty good. Not sure why he is geeting criticism.

JVR looked fantastic being 4kg lighter. He is a fantastic set shot and just needs to keep holding his marks.

Culley playing as a forward was a good move.

Good start for Latrelle. I think he is going to be in and out of the side this year and he is probably not in our best side, but he showed enough signs and kicked a great goal. Good effort to go from SANFL seconds to the AFL.

Langford had a quiet day. We need to feed his left foot more.

Mihocek looks the same as he did at the Pies.

1 hour ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

WTF was with the Umpiring, 3 x HtB for Melbourne not given... One was paid holding the man

1 hour ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

WTF was with the Umpiring, 3 x HtB for Melbourne not given... One was paid holding the man

30 minutes ago, SPC said:

Not to mention the coverage showing clear deviation on balls hitting the goal post and not being called.

I don't know if it's only me but I also felt that St Kilda were throwing the ball as much as they were hand balling.

15 minutes ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

What a ballsy move by a new coach to send the 20 game much maligned Kolt to Nas in your first game as coach. He doesn’t want us to play safe and he lived the mantra himself. Loved the press conference during the week where he copped it for saying we would back our system against Nas when he had Kolt planned for him for nearly a month. Nas may have kicked 3 but they really missed his connection and carry up field and Kolt hurt him with getting involved in scores back the other way.

Highlights for me. Trelly goal obviously. JVRs clean marks and accurate kicks. Gawn playing Immortal. Sharps hard nosed touches in the last.

Concerns to address. What to do with Lever. Sparrow inability to find the pill. Langford’s lack of chase. How easily we were carved through the middle at time.

Tough task next, 6 day break, travel, talent and taller structure but cant wait to see how we approach it.

Salem disposals very poor as well. He gave two goals to St Kilda.

12 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I can remember saying we should have done exactly that against GWS game 1 last year and copping some blowback that you always back yourself for the shot etc. We were 3 points up and AJ had taken a contested 40m out on an angle with 2 minutes on the clock. AJ took the shot and missed and GWS ran the ball down the other end for a goal. I didnt blame AJ I blamed our system. So great to see that tactic today.

Totally different tactic up 13 compared with up 3, I can see the argument either way but though AJ was right to have the shot, especially as he would’ve had to have gone backwards with the ball. One errant kick and the giants would’ve had the footy at half way.

We mucked up plenty late yesterday especially in the period after the Sharp goal with about 7 minutes left. Refused to take short kicks across half back when they were available. Lever had a horrendous turnover. Gawn and JVR bombed nothing entries awful spots.

But the last few minutes after the Fritsch goal we found some short wide kicks, put Mihocek back, forced repeat stoppages and iced clock at the end.

We nailed the end of game procedure, just need to work on tempo footy for the periods where it’s required

9 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Salem disposals very poor as well. He gave two goals to St Kilda.

Both I believe came from miscommunications/reads with Langford.

One had Langford peel his lead for the kick over the top when Salem was under pressure and would’ve taken a lot of leg to get it to where Harvey wanted it.

The other was the kick back into the corridor after the wide option was shut down. Harvey led flat across the ground. The saints player from the fat side came forward and intercepted.

I’m not sure the coaches would put either on Salem as much as you’d expect.

Also, how was Lyon's patronising and arrogant press conference. "They played off side a lot, and we knew they would, but we let them do it too often".

You mean we managed to move the ball quickly and efficiently, getting the ball out into space.

It was not like we had a bunch of Joe the Gooses.

He's a dill.

Best comment I've heard about yesterday...

" Saint's credit card just got Maxxed out !! "

can't say i missed seeing clarry, trac and viney hacking the ball into our forward line

14 hours ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

No Trac

No Oliver

No May

No Umpires

No worries!!!!

God Save Our King

We should sing this after a win. Imagine the members heaving in a rousing rendition.

Tear in my eye…

12 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

How good was it to not see our midfield be so sloppy and messy around the contests.

This was probably the best thing for me. Someone on here mentioned we got thrashed in the midfield. If we did, I didn't notice, because we were so much cleaner than I remember us being.

Also found this fascinating:

Is that King working out the best centre bounce attendance mix or is "rotation" the new black?

47 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

Not sure what anyone else thought of the umps but bloody hell they were atrocious.

Felt like they had a Saints jersey on and was very annoying and frustrating.

Hopefully they improve but I won’t hold my breath.

When LSP got caught my Mason Wood 10 meters out and they didn’t call HTB… that was a laugh. Off to OPSM.

25 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Salem disposals very poor as well. He gave two goals to St Kilda.

He also speared a bullet to JVR for one of his.

What was Langfords role yesterday? Barely sighted, seen jogging from contest to contest.. Saw he only had 9 touches. Granted one was a beautiful pass, but I remember early last year he was dropped for lacking intensity, and it appeared to be similar yesterday.

8 minutes ago, Grr-owl said:

We should sing this after a win. Imagine the members heaving in a rousing rendition.

Tear in my eye…

Wouldn’t be against bringing the trumpeter back playing God Save The King. Would be very Melbourne.