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I would imagine the replay will be put up on the MFC website in due course but I thought I'd give a quick run down and my impressions of the game for those that are interested. The Conditions They were awful. The condition of the ground was good apart from the centre square which was a bit boggy but the rest of the oval was in first class condition. There was a very strong wind blowing pretty much straight down the ground and this made any sort of possession chain footy almost impossible to play. It was not a day to judge game plan or see players roles in any meaningful way as it was a crowded game with numerous stoppages ( I reckon there would have been in excess of 100) and it was just a slog. It was one of those games where there were 30 players within 15 metres of all the stoppages and looked like the school playground type game. I spent the first half of the game in the grandstand which was as far away from where the majority of the play was but in the second half I went to that pocket to get a closer look. Accordingly my impressions are mainly from the second half because it was very difficult to see much from the stand in the first half. Oscar McDonald - Didn't see him in the first half but in the second half and particularly in the last quarter when we were defending he was very good. He read the ball pretty well in the air and kicked and handled it with confidence. A solid without being outstanding performance. Clayton Oliver: I thought he was very good. Found the ball easily, has an uncanny knack of being able to keep his arms free in a tackle and regularly finds a very good option. His found some space when others couldn't and was one of the more effective players for Casey. He's too good for VFL footy and I'd be very surprised if he plays for Casey next week. Max King: Shared the ruck work with Pencil but didn't do much against Jamar. He competed well but it really wasn't a day for big men and he struggled to have an impact beyond competing in the ruck. Jack Trengove: Solid and unspectacular performance where he accumulated possessions in close and took good options as you'd expect. Was run down in space in the first quarter which worried me a little but the game was such that it is impossible to judge his pace. Took a few nice marks and judged the conditions better than most but it wasn't a game where he banged the door down. Liam Hulett: I've seen him 3 times now and he is getting better and better. He took some good contested marks and he kicks the ball very well. He is getting more and more involved in the play and appears to be getting more confidence. Having said that he is only now becoming a consistent performer at VFL level and IMO is nowhere near AFL standard. I be surprised if he played senior footy this year but he is certainly making good headway and is a chance for the future. Mitch White: I'm a big Mitch White fan but confess to be a little surprised at his numbers because he didn't seem to be that involved in the play. With what I did see he was good by foot where others struggled and clean by hand. He also is tough. Jake Spencer: Quiet and struggled a bit early but started to do better as the game went on. Jamar is still a good opponent and Jake contested well in the ruck but probably lowered his colours there a bit but did well around the ground. He took some good contested marks and kicked a good goal after marking in the goal square at the beginning of the third. Billy Stretch: Was a bit of a surprise packet for me as I've always thought of Billy as an outside mid but he excelled in close with clean hands and fast feet. He found the ball consistently and used it very well in both tight and open situations. Provided our best bit of line breaking run in the third where he took the ball at half back and ended up just missing the goal after a few bounces. I thought he was our best but I'm a big fan so my view might be bias. But he did find the ball inside which I haven't seen all that much before and it was not a day for outside runners so his performance was great. Dean Terlich: Got it, spent it, does a lot of good things until he kicks it. He's a very good VFL player who turns it over a bit. Viv Michie: Lots of the ball and used it well. Played off half back. It was his sort of day with lots of stoppages and his strong body stood him in good stead. He's a very good VFL player but needs show he can do it at AFL level. I don't know where he fits on our list with clearly a few mids in front of him and as a HBF he's competing with Hunt and Wagner who seem to be flavour of the month. Hope he gets a chance because his form has been consistently good and it's hard to see how he could do much more. Angus Brayshaw: Concussed early and was very very wonky walking off the ground. You almost feel he needs a month of training and should just reboot for the second half of the year. Ben Newton: Solid contributor mainly on the outside and a beautiful kick. A solid game in conditions that don't really suit him. Like Viv it's just hard to see where he fits. ANB: Workhorse type game. Strong at the ball but doesn't have the pace or lateral movement to find space and make the most of his opportunities in a crowded scrap. Jack Grimes: Didn't notice Jack much but the stats say he got it a bit. Wouldn't have thought he pushed his case for a call up all that much but I may have misjudged his game. Colin Garland: I thought he was good. Defended well, took some good marks, clearly is trying to take the game on more and his kicking was good. It was a good Garland game.

Don't post here a lot - long time reader. Reading some of the reactions to the game yesterday both on here and in particular the club's Facebook feed, I feel compelled to post as I'm just so sick of this club's supporters. And yes, I've been through it all so don't say I haven't done the hard time. Today was an entirely predictable result and the sky is not falling in. We came off a 4.5 day break and errors were made at the selection table for not refreshing the squad. Young teams struggle with short turnarounds. It was clear to all watching that from mid-way through the first quarter after the adrenaline had worn off that we were not covering the ground either in offence or defence. Lots of hands on hips/heads at the breaks. Our new game style is high risk, high reward, and extremely taxing. We played a team that had the speed to exploit this on their fast home track. Our short turnaround resulted in us looking sluggish and disinterested (I don't think this was actually the case and the effort was there). Our fortunes rise and fall with Max Gawn and he has often struggled against Hickey in the past. Mobile, tall tap ruckmen are his weakness, and Hickey is very much in this mould. Max is far more effective against the brutes/undersized rucks like Maric and Grundy (coincidentally when he starred). He's played 40 games and if he continues with his rate of improvement, it wont be long before he has no weaknesses at all. Our team is extremely young and one of the youngest in the league. Our half back line relied on two players who have played less than 5 games and they look to a 30-gamer (Salem) for leadership. We played 3 players with less than 5 games each which is a lot to carry when our 'experienced' players are 50 gamers. Petracca was overawed - hard for a first gamer to play in a team that was evidently tired. We don't match up well on the Saints in the same way we always match up very well against Richmond. Their midfield is quick (ours is not), their forwards are mobile and their backmen are experienced. To those who say that we should be able to play the same way against any team - an extremely simplistic view that fails to consider the variation of players/teams across the league. Anyone who has played any sport knows that there are always certain types of players/teams that you struggle against. Not to say we should just accept defeat - but needs to be understood. The saints only really scored on the counter/over the back - it isn't as if we were soundly beaten in every single area of the ground. We had one key deficiency they exploited, but we still kicked 100 odd points with about 10 passengers. This is progress and a simple fix. Until we have 100+ games into Trac, Brayshaw, Kent, Harmes, Viney, Tyson, Gawn, Kennedy, Oliver, ANB, VDB, Hunt, Wags, Frost, Salem etc. - we can expect to see this type of inconsistency. We will continue to have good weeks and bad weeks. The competition is very even and we saw today that a few passengers makes it hard to win. Our experienced players were poor, yes, and this is the most disappointing part. Don't forget that TMac and Lumumba were a big part of our good footy the last two weeks. The overreactions on here, and particularly Facebook are not warranted. We did NOT lose because the players spoke of confidence and finals. What do you expect? If we are ever going to improve, we will need to learn to deal with increased expectation and positive media. It is part of the journey and to those saying that we should never say these things again - you are effectively wishing for another 10 years of misery at the bottom. The reactions by our supporter base are a significant part of the problem with this club and believe it or not we do have an impact on each other and on the perception of the club. For us to be successful we need long periods of coaching stability and low player turnover, and the worst thing we can do as a supporter base is cry foul and force changes in this regard. There will be good weeks, there will be bad weeks, and we know there will be good media and a fair amount of bad media. I would think after 15 years of pain most would be pleased we are finally playing a reasonable brand and scoring. Apparently not. People need to understand that the majority of good sides never win a flag, and in all likelihood this side won't either. My hope is we become good enough for perhaps a 5 year period where we are top 4 and respected and I will enjoy this time if it comes. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the ups and the downs and regardless of our performance, the moments and incidents that make the game and being an AFL supporter great (like Hogan's 7 today). We are improving. Shut out the noise, stay the course and keep calm.

Hulett is learning the trade at Casey and is just beginning to become useful there. He's miles from AFL footy but he's a good prospect.

I don't think anyone heard you the first 7,563 times you said that..

Clayton oliver 131 dream points and 16 tackles yet not named in the best... Stiff..

We were the second youngest team on the weekend and bottom 3 or 4 in games experience. We'll have other days like Saturday. There were only 7 players that played in the round 1 loss to St.Kilda in 2014. I'm treating the current group and list as quite separate to the team of even just 3 years ago. We've turned the list over and this rebuild has to be treated as (virtually) a separate entity. So I don't see the "trends and inherent problems" quite the same way you do. I see a 2 win/54% team that 50 games later is a 3/3 102% team. Brereton made the comment this afternoon that we're heading in the right direction, but any time we're looking at 3 in a row between now and round 22 2017 tip against us, because we're young, inexperienced and still learning our craft. It takes games and time. Hogan is smart and has a better handle on the list and its direction than you, me or anyone posting here. He's also been told by Goodwin that perseverance and endurance = satisfaction. He'll get much more satisfaction doing the hard yards than bailing to an already strong team. Goodwin's point being, "who cherished the flag last year more, Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell or James Frawley ? It's an obvious answer. Think about what that flag meant to the players that have been on the long journey compared to the fly in. We have to hope that Hogan wants to be part of the journey. I'm confident he will be. He loves the club and especially his mates at the club.

Watching Jetta and Salem competing against Roo and Bruce in marking contests time after time was incredibly frustrating to watch.

Then you would have seen me and heard me screaming at the box, from about 5 minutes into the game, to get someone onto Nick. Clearly no one in the box did.

Never forget that it could always be worse. You could support the Tigers. Football manager Dan Richardson has admitted on SEN that the latest rebuild was done in the knowledge that it likely wouldn't achieve the ultimate success, and was to appease the fans who they believed wouldn't cop a longer rebuild. "We didn't think Richmond fans would accept an eight-year rebuild. We turned it around in four, which I think was a terrific achievement. "We're paying a price in the sense that we knew that that mature-age talent would get us to a point but not take us to the next level, which was always going to be the hardest part. "While it's been disappointing somewhat to not win a final, it's been a good achievement to play finals for three years in a row for the first time for 20 years for the club." Simply amazing. Surely this would tip some supporters over the edge. Article here: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-05-02/richmond-paying-the-price-for-recruiting-strategy-says-football-manager

Some of the comments on here are typical 'demonland' ''The Next Toumpas'' ''Little kid with big head and ego'' ''Shouldn't have played'' ''Stats are similar to Toumpas'' ''Oliver had more disposals'' Spare me seriously...

Yeh mate and Gysberts' first three games were each over the 25 disposal mark and how's that fella going? Not that I'm comparing Oliver to Gysberts. But disposals. Fark me, who cares at this stage of their careers. As long as they compete and show glimpses then all will be well.

I hope he didn't get that scoop from Mission!

That's a stark admission and a pretty damming one at that. Not only to the members but the senior players on your list. To come out and say the last few years were spent building just to play finals with no real belief to challenging is nothing more then a waste of everyone's time. I mean blame the compromised drafts all you want, but you can still get creative. Melbourne's Pick 2 &20 (i think it was) for Tyson & Pick 9 as an example. I'd be filthy as a Richmond supporter. Sure we stuffed 2008 - 2013 up, but the intentions were to build a list to contend, it was just done poorly. The fact Richmond have just been setting their sights to be middle of the road for an extended period to keep fans happy is an indictment on the club IMO.

He wasn't used to the pace of the game. He'll pick it up quickly.

Simon....?

Well... a team that's list management stratergy wasn't to give them the best chance of winning a premiership, sounds like everyone involved should be sacked, i'd be fuming if i contributed money to a club with that attitude and lack of respect for it's members.

Dunn was horrible. Gave a stupid free kick away only to drop the bloke after he kicked it resulting into a downfield free kick inside their forward fifty. I thought he has been good the last couple of weeks but on Saturday he was simply horrible. Im backing him to put in a good performance against GC this week.

Whoever set the defensive structures for this weeks game should put their hand up, come out and explain why it went horribly wrong

Mark Stevens ‏@Stevo7AFL 44m44 minutes ago Nothing to worry about at all with Jesse Hogan's finger. He's a lock for this week

ever hird heard of the stockholm syndrome?

Unbelievable admission....here comes the manure and the microwaves.

IN: Michie Oliver ANB Stretch OUT: Salem (concussion) Frost Harmes Hunt Michie comes in for Salem and play his role. Was a clear BOG at Casey playing at half back all day with 35 disposals. We missed Olivers clearence and grunt work. Viney and Jones needed a chop out and they had no support. Alex Neal Bullen needs to be rewarded for his form the previous 4 weeks. Not only we know he can kick a goal up forward but he can go into the midfield and win a bit of the ball unlike Harmes. Another support act for Jones and Viney. Stretch for bit of outside run and dash. We know he has a high endurance and high work rate maybe give him the job on Aaron hall and back him in.

I found out why Nick was so good against us, he grew more arms!

16 possessions 6 inside 50's - 3rd most for Melbourne 3 goal assists - 1st for Melbourne 5 tackles - 3rd most for Melbourne Underrated debut. I guess when theres a lot of hype a first gamer doesn't get credit unless they have a day out.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/collingwood-magpies/collingwood-jumper-like-youve-never-seen-it-before-20160430-goiw5m.html Pies wanting to launch the Women's Comp with a blockbuster game between Collingwood and Richmond. Just take your 11th hour bid and eff orf.

Or, if we have to play a home game there, can it be at least against an interstate club, not a side that call Etihad home

Playing 2 inexperienced kids with less than 5 games between them in defence is fraught with danger. Worked against the Tiges but they only have one real threat up forward, the Saints cut them up. We need a cool head back there, either Trengove, Vince or Jones for mine. Bring back Oliver and time for Trenners to come back, forget the idea of a stage managed return at the 'G'. We can't afford that rubbish we need our best on the park and he will be invaluable as an on field leader.

Red, both Roos and Rawlings would've heard me as they were walking off at half time... Didn't realise I had to "win" my own opinion, whether others agree or not. Was Dunn not rushed back in to the side on the back of a restricted preseason, after the Essendon debacle?

What are you implying saying "apparently" I was there? I'll tell you where I sat Stuie, Melbourne cheersquad end, between point post and our race. Yobbo and Daisy did their "run on the spot" promo, and gave a bloke sitting in the front row a voucher for a new pair of New Balance shoes. I was about 6 rows behind him, and in the next bay around, although was quite close to him. The lady in front of me got a scratch ticket from the 4'n'20 bloke - she won a pie, providing a goal was kicked between the 20-25 minute mark of the 1st and 2nd quarter, although he came down at half time handing out more scratch cards. So, now that we have cleared up any confusion, yes, I was fcuking there, and I thought Dunn played a reasonable game. My original post was to question those on this thread that wanted him dropped as I would've had him easily in my top 10 better players, and the fact he played mostly on Bruce, and kept him to 1 goal and a handful of possessions in 3 quarters confirms my view.

Would love to know what the FD thinks of McDonald's development at the moment. He's a bloke who's played 88 games now. At the top of last year he looked to be in terrific form. He'd cut down his errors and appeared to be sticking to his limitations. His season then ran off the tracks a bit, as did our whole team's. What does that say about the importance of him to our team, but also the importance of those players in front of him bringing the required work rate to make his job easier? I suspect they'd say he's still only young, not necessarily in a games sense, but in footballing terms. 23 years old for KPD is still very young. It will also take him time to adjust to the new defensive zone - when should he fill space/take an opponent and when should he attack. His decision making wouldn't have been improved by our more risk-taking game style, as he often finds himself in a situation where he feels he needs to bite off more than he can chew. So the question will eventually be asked. Does McDonald fit into this system? The other element of all this is the players around him. If you look at Hawthorn's defensive unit, none of them are brilliant one-on-one, but their understanding of each other and the roles they each play cannot be questioned. At Melbourne this season, there have been times where McDonald's kicking has looked really, really solid. But is this because his team mates have been working hard enough to give him a clear option, that minimises the potential of a turn over and makes that kick or handball a lot easier to manage? Or is McDonald simply too inconsistent with his disposal and no matter how hard his team mates work, he'll always have the propensity to turn it over and cost us goals? If the latter is true, I can't see him holding down a KD position in the future. But I suspect the FD feels the former is true and that with time, Tommy Mac will grow into this system, make solid decisions, know where his team mates are and become a defensive lynchpin. McDonald's turn overs have always frustrated me, but throughout Roos' tenure, I've had Tommy marked down as a certainty in a future best 22. However, his form at the back end of last year and already in 2016 is far too inconsistent and if it continues this way, I wouldn't be adversed to the club floating him for trade at the end of 2017. This therefore opens up another fascinating subplot to watch unfold this year. Injury-permitting, he'll play his 100th this year. But can Tommy iron out the flaws in his game and become a consistent player? If he does, we'll play finals. I have no doubt. If he doesn't, there will be a number of question marks floating above our preferred back 6 for 2017.

I cant understand why but on several occasions during the game TMac would sprint towards the ball like an under 11's player and St Nick would sprint the other way, so that he would be in perfect position with no opponent. TMac would get caught in no-mans land and watch as the ball got delivered over his head or around him to St Nick who either kicked a score or passed it on to another saints running player. Dumb, Dumb football that you start to coach out of players while they are still in the under age comp's. I try to understand the "zoning" and "the press" etc.. BUT at some stage in a game when you are getting your pants pulled down shouldn't a senior player like TMac say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, I am going to stay on my man??

And this: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-2016-richmond-tigers-concede-they-are-paying-the-price-for-list-strategy-20160501-gojnyn.html What Richardson fails to admit is that Maric, Houli, Rance, Grigg, Hampson and Chaplin were all traded in to the club and it was successful. It got them into successive finals. Then they changed tack and haven't brought anyone in except for Yarran in the past 2 years. They thought that pick 12 in the draft would get them into final 4 contention. They only have themselves to blame.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-04-28/richmond-list-good-enough-to-win-a-flag-says-brett-deledio http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond/richmond-insist-it-doesnt-need-to-rebuild-despite-15-start-to-the-season/news-story/d921e58e881169eaca12eef36da6059e I just love this. The longer they keep thinking like this, the longer they stay in mediocrity!

Actually this happens time and time again. Not just with Reiwoldt but players who cut us up every time we play them. It's a different pilosophy were we in the outer say 'let's make sure Reiwoldt and Montagna don't kill us like they always do' but the coaching staff say 'let's stock with the game plan we are trying to implement for the longer term'. Reiwoldt is too good a player to leave running free against our inexperienced backline. It was cringeworthy to see Jetta, Wagner and even Hunt have to race in to do a one-on-one with Reiwoldt. Well at some point when it's not working there needs to be a readjustment if we want to win the game. If we are working on a plan for the longer term and are happy to forego winning the game then that's one thing. But we have been doing this for a decade now and 2016 is when we have aimed to make finals according to PJ.

Would absolutely be throwing a lot at this fella. Clearly we need a FB who can perform consistently well. Dunn and Garland are the last of the 'problem players' who are seemingly incapable of change. Hurley and T-Mac, ([censored]-together provided) will mean we have a consistent FB and CHB for years to come. It's the positions around those two that are also extremely important and at present are a shambles.

An article in the HS this morning indicated that Jack Trengove is building towards an AFL return, following another strong and composed (27 possession) performance for Casey on the weekend, The article, which confirmed that Jack was tagged for the entire game, included the following comments from Justin Plapp: "Trengove was influential in the Scorpions win. He was winning the inside (midfield) battle quite a bit and he was clean with his disposal. The last two weeks in a row he's nearly been our best player."

Hard to watch when it doesnt work isnt it! 18 uncontested and only 1 contested mark inside saints 50 is just embarassing

Just found the news about Tassie. He was my next door neighbour for 20 years in Heathmont from the age of 2. I remember him as a quiet, private, humble, giant of a man. Until now, I hadn't appreciated just how great a footballer he was. Vale Tassie.

Beating GWS looks wonderful

I was looking at this earlier today. Meanwhile, Viney is 1st in the league for contested possessions, 2nd for clearances, 12th for overall disposals, 16th for tackles and 26th for score involvements (Hogan is 29th). Suffice to say he's having a bloody good season.

Anyone who thinks the loss was because of a lack of effort needs to watch the replay. The players were playing to instruction and trying their guts out. The game was won and lost in the coaches box. Clearly changes were needed early in the second quarter. The amount of easy goals the Saints got throughout the whole game was ludicrous. Watch the footage of the coaches box. They didn't know if they were punched, drilled or bored.

I may be stating the obvious, but there are 8 teams in the competition who have the same or worse win/loss record as us at the moment. If we reckon this loss to St Kilda was any worse than most of the losses that have occurred to any team this season, then I think we're getting carried away with the emotion/disappointment of losing a bit too much. The Essendon one I accept was definitely a bad one.

BIG FONT AND CAPITALS DOESN'T MAKE AN OPINION RIGHT (or maybe it does...what the hell do I know)

They interviewed Plapp after the match on Casey Radio. He said that he was surprised that Trengove was tagged all day. He said that tagging doesn't happen very often in the VFL. I would think that this makes Trengove's stats look a bit better.

Assuming Oliver is trying to read the words. It's ok buddy, you wont need them again...

They should reappoint Cameron Schwab and Chris Connolly to complete the transition.

Interesting sidenote to this game - Gold Coast own our 1st round pick this season and we play them later in the year as well

That sign in the background must be a few years out of date. Honor and Essendon should not appear in the same screen.

Thanks for calling my thoughts complete rubbish. If you look at the goals we conceded against the Pies and Tigers, many of them were similar to yesterday, where of course more were scored, in the same manner. Call that complete rubbish if you like, but winning a game doesn't mean you haven't bled goals. I am talking about the simple, unopposed, uncontested, over the top, to the loose man type of goals. If you watched yesterday you would see how most of the Saints goals were scored, it was the same in the last two games, but we happened to score more and win. It is not simply being on, structure plays a big part in it as well. We had none yesterday. Skill errors also killed us yesterday.

Sound and smart post. Loss was very disappointing, but far from end of the world. I think with supporters it's more the opportunity lost then the loss itself. To move into the 8 and finally beat St Kilda would have been great, but we'll get another crack at them later in the year. Confident we'll bounce back next week to keep the pressure on the Suns.