SaberFang

Not what we needed after the [censored] news on Thursday. Can't see this doing much for team morale.

Well, the scoreboard doesn't paint a good sign. Especially when we're playing to the wind this quarter yet the Hawks are scoring comfortably

Any word on JKH playing today? Byrnes is on Twitter warming up in the change rooms.

Really torn about tomorrow. Important to get confidence into the team by being competitive against the Premiers, but we can't risk any injuries now or it really throws us into dangerous territory. Howe's body seems to be amazingly resilient given some of the ridiculous hangers he's taken over the years. Great kick too so I'd guess we'll see him forward for the first half of the season at least. And to think there was a chorus of people saying they wouldn't mind if we used him as trade bait because he's a one trick pony! Now here we are a few weeks from round one, and he's our most crucial player.

I know we're blessed with bad luck, but let's show some optimism here guys. Negativity is toxic, and if we're hanging the future of the entire club on one 19 year old kid, there are deep rooted problems with our club. Let's refresh the last two games' highest goal scorers shall we? Mitch Clark - 0 Chris Dawes - 0 Jesse Hogan - 1 Meanwhile.... Howe - 6 JKH - 3 N Jones - 3 Bail - 3 Michie - 2 Trenners - 2 Vince, Cross and Toump scored a goal each, meaning Roosy has instructed our midfielders to move up the ground and attempt goals as well. He'll be on top of this. I fully expect Tyson and Watts will be on that list within one round.

Exactly. Stupid comparison because no player has wanted to come to Melbourne for years, and if we don't show form this year it'll be the same story.

I think we all need to take a step back and keep our expectations realistic. Hogan Clark Dawes is a 2015 proposition at best. Let's just get everything else right for now.

I can't picture the Saints playing as well as Richmond were a few weeks back, and we beat them without a forward line. Howe makes a great forward anyway, and JKH will be champing at the bit to prove himself on AFL debut. Roosy would have a fall back plan well in place for this situation.

In positive news, JKH just secured his round 1 spot!

May just be bruising. Not worried yet.

Don't forget guys, we've already won a game this year with no Dawes, no Clark, and NO HOGAN.

This doesn't even make sense. When??

Give him a few months into the season and he'll realize he needs that third year. Either to see the team he's rescued from the depths make out into finals, or (worst case scenario) make us as competitive as the other teams in the bottom 8. I think that'll happen this year though.

Give him a few months into the season and he'll realize he needs that third year. Either to see the team he's rescued from the depths make out into finals, or (worst case scenario) make us as competitive as the other teams in the bottom 8. I think that'll happen this year though.

I don't know what else you're suggesting he could've done regarding his holiday. He had it booked long before he signed on the dotted line and the club were doing everything in their power to get him onside. What alternative was there? Start making demands about his personal life? Sure it wasn't ideal, but it's a one off compromise we made for the long-term benefit of signing him as our coach. And every assistant coach at the club knows his coaching style anyway.

Because Roos would otherwise be working at the club 8pm on a Monday night, after starting at 7am all season? Just how hard do you expect the man to work? Should he be running handball drills until the very prints wear off his fingers? Maybe you can start timing how much the man sleeps and inform the club how better to delegate the time spent by their multi-million dollar investment? Give me a break. He'd be doing this in the very limited free time he has, as a representative of the MFC, and with the MFC's full blessing. The exposure he brings to the club is invaluable here, and is a huge part of the reason we signed him up -- he has a strong media profile with Fox viewers. And I thought the idiotic complaints about his pre-booked African holiday were bad. Sheesh!

Will help the coaching staff determine how much progress has been made, and who is fit enough to play AFL footy each week. This match will separate the players from the pretenders. The loss or victory will be meaningless, what they'll be looking at is the players that perform under pressure. Don't see anything wrong with it. We'll learn far less playing against and beating a middle tier team.

There will literally not be a perfect storm like this again. We are being handed a first round victory on a silver platter here and I won't be the only devastated supporter if we don't win. They're a rabble, they're missing their best players, they've had awful form thus far, and their coach has never coached a game of AFL before.

Wonder how long Riley will be kept on the LTI list if Georgiou consistently performs after his rookie elevation?

How could I forget!

I'm glad our praccy games were against top 8 teams. Gives us proper experimentation with our game plan against proven teams, rather than lower-tiered teams without the same class. Will help in the long term.

Their culture has been irrepairably terrible for years. They couldn't have handled all the awful player indiscretions much worse if they tried. And the entire St Kilda schoolgirl incident... And that ridiculous music video they did last year. Truly bizarre stuff. Not sure what's in the water down bayside way...

Agreed, can't stand the flogs. Will gladly watch any other team in the league suffer miserably without direction for years, just as we have been the laughing stock of other teams for the best part of 5 years.

I know the NAB cup is rarely an indication of the season proper, but almost every sign points to St Kilda being in a lot of trouble this year. They lost a lot of senior players over the break, they've lost more to injury, and they're just at the start of a re-build with an untested senior coach at the helm. Getting flogged by the Giants wouldn't be doing much for confidence in the playing group either, and Dees fans have seen first-hand how poisonous this can be for team morale. It's going to be a long few years for the Saints. I would be shocked if they won more than a handful of games this year.

Crossy is spot on. I think the players are (rightly so) adjusting to the game plan and having a bit of problem separating what Roos has drilled into them, and instinctual footy-smart decisions that might seem counteractive to Roosy's teachings. Geelong are so effective at applying pressure that I can understand why these mistakes were continually made. Far, far too many times did players have loose targets in the midfield (usually on the second kick out of defense), only to then a) kick it backwards then b) turnover with a poor kick or get in trouble with messy handballs which led to a turnover, then c) Geelong goal. Must have happened 4 times at least. I understand the gameplan involves kicking backwards to move around the field and find loose players through the wing, but there were clear and obvious loose targets available in the midfield straight away (constantly saw Jones screaming for the ball), but the option chosen was to kick backwards. Geelong punished us here because our kicking accuracy is still atrocious with some players. Fortunately, I think once players get used to the gameplan, we'll see a lot less of this. It's really just common sense. When faced with the option of kicking backwards to Geelong's goal which is flooded with players, or kicking to a congested midfield 50m closer to our goal, they should be taking the latter option. The risk of turnover from both is high, but at least we aren't gifting them set shot goals. We're also far more likely to clean up a dropped mark in the midfield than inside our defensive 50.