Great to wake up on a Sunday morning with a win. Though I'm fairly sore as we finally got round 1 underway up here in local footy. How good!!
Said it last night that under the circumstances of the night with big occasion, many past Saint greats attending, and crowd noise that win will be pivotal. To not get flustered and rise to to the challange when the saints were 16 points up was simply brilliant by the boys. I think Goodwin deserves a lot of credit for this performance and this could be the making of our team.
I'll mention a few individual performance.
Rivers - I'm surprised there's been barely any mention of this kid, but he was super! His run and dash really got us going in that first half and combine that with his kicking with is an absolute weapon. His ability to break the game open with some of his kicks were really important throughout the game. He also for the 2nd year in a row completely shut Dan Butler out of the game.
Alex Neal Bullen - I'm putting my hand up as high as I can and apologising to nibbler. I've been his harshest critic in the past but his past two games has shown that he's a vastly different player to what he's dished up over the years. He's important cog now with his gut running, but also has improved his disposal efficiency. I noticed he doesn't fumble anymore which is a huge improvement. Thanks for proving me wrong nibs and keep up the good work.
Pickett- yeah look he's going to be a star.. if he's dishing out that kind of performance at 16 games, I'm bloody excited what he can produce when he's around the 70 - 100 game mark.
Salem - Best game I think I've seen him play. Not only was his defending first class but he's just ridiculously clean below his knees and really gave us some drive down back. Don't be surprised if GWS put a hard tag on him next week. That was some performance.
Langdon - I seriously love this guy. Runs all day and just gets the job done. Have I missed something with his kicking? Because right now I'm seeing him hit more targets then misses and yet we had freo fans say that this would frustrate us supporters. What a fantastic inclusion he's been in our side.
Jetta and Jones - Both played well I thought. Jones had some really important touches and the fact he just ragdolled Butler out of the way to set up the goal was great to watch. Jetta completely shut out Higgins who's been really dangerous the past few weeks. Legit didn't realise he was playing until he kicked that goal. Keeps it simple and I'd rather him having 5 touches a game if he's shutting their best small forwards out of the game. Well done to the old dogs.
Sparrow - Right now he's keeping Melksham and Vandenberg out of the side. This is due to his pressure and tackling that he provides when around the contests. Compared to Melksham who is lazy in this area of his game. Loved his composure kicking that goal. Pretty much playing a sacrifice role for the team and the coaches would be enjoying his work so far.
To finish off, Spargo pressure is elite. Haters need to GTFO with the hate. He doesn't stop chasing and continues to scrap and harass at every opportunity. Coaching staff would be highling his defensive game during review.
Tmac slowly starting to get that 2018 form back. Good to see some reward for effort because his gut running is really important for not only us as a team but for his own performance.
Petracca, Oliver, Gawn May all played great games as well.