Pates

Fact of the matter EVERY GAME is a danger game, teams know they need to be switched on against us and of course they all want to knock us off our perch. West Coast away while east on paper (I mean the tigers slaughtered them by 100+ the other week) has the potential for us to get into lazy Hollywood style habits. The Eagles weren’t great against the Lions but did put in a competitive effort. They also have players that while in their twilight, still have the potential to hurt you. The simple answer is if we play our way and our best they won’t get close. If we go in with poor attitudes it could be Adelaide 2021 all over again. Hopefully lessons have been learned from that night.

I thought we maybe got a bit of the rub of the green from the men in yellow but did anybody else think that the saints were incredibly undisciplined and attempting to “rough us” at times? The Zac Jones is an obvious one but there felt like there were several examples of them taking players out after they got rid of the ball and tried to tackle “hard”. All for a team playing hard but I felt like they were overstepping it in an attempt to rattle us. Obviously didn’t work.

Just my 2c on the whole Zac Jones/Langdon/Clarry incident. Firstly Jones should be reported for tunnelling, it’s an incredibly dangerous action as the victim has no control over himself so he could’ve landed on his neck/shoulder/or anything and done real damaged. The umpire should have got in straight away and awarded 50 as well. The Clarry side of things, I love the bloke and I’ve defended him in the past for “flopping” but it’s becoming way to ingrained in the way he plays. Jones got him below the neck, stay up and fly the flag, don’t go down. As for Jones, as I said he should be suspended for his tunnelling. Dangerous and stupid.

After the first quarter they never got within three goals, we cruised it for most of and broke their backs in the second quarter (bit unusual for us of late). They were a sniff in the third quarter and perhaps that’s the only slight downer is that our usual best quarter was actually our flattest. I think it was Membry who had a shot from outside 50 on a slight angle to bring it back to under 3 goals and felt that was their chance, he kicks that and game on. But he missed and we never really looked all that uncomfortable afterwards. Brayshaw was absolutely incredible. His game has gone to another level, I don’t think the umpires will agree but personally I think he’s having a better season than 2018 when he finishes third in the Brownlow. Likewise Langdon was awesome and given total freedom as opposed to last week. I thought our entire defensive unit were on their game today, no easy avenues to goal. For me our biggest issue is still forward connection with the midfield. It was better today and in the 2nd quarter so much of what we did turned to gold but all too often today the forward 50 seemed congested and our forwards weren’t able to get clear runs at marks.

I was thinking that looking at their results this season, even their win comes with a huge asterisk as they were basically playing against a WAFL team and really WC had chance after chance they butchered. I don’t he’s Neeld v2, but he could be his own monster that sends an entire supporter base to therapy.

Hopefully first shot on goal, directly in front it gets shanked and the rest follow suit! That said, beating a team when they’ve had more scoring shots is a tiny bit less satisfying for me (even if it is funny), I like us winning when on the day we are the best team in all areas, not because we were lucky.

Hard to argue with this decision, thoroughly deserved from Goody and look forward to more years of the Goodwin system! 😁

I’ve been looking forward to this game since they started playing some good footy, don’t ask me why but I love the idea of a genuine rivalry building between us. Saints vs Demons, heaven & hell and all that. I also think the Saints when they’ve played their best have a really good “brand” of footy. King is a star in the making, so it will be interesting to see who we play in him. The obvious choice is May but I think it’ll end up being Petty. We’ve had a few frustrating weeks of poor connectivity in the HF/Forward part of the ground. We’ve got more than a few capable players who can kick bags, and while I love that Brown got himself 4 last week he got a couple of soft free kicks and he didn’t seem to attack the contest to mark the ball as much as he has in the past. Fritta is always capable of breaking a game open but just seems to be travelling along at the moment. Then comes the conundrum of Weid vs TMac, who gets the spot and will be see the best of them? I’m happy with the way we’re going at 7-0 but I just wait for that day that the players don’t go at their full potential and expect the game to go their way. I think the Saints will go as hard as they can early on and potentially tire at the end, so if we’re in from the 3qtr time I could see us cantering away. But totally respect them and their best is capable of knocking anyone off.

Typically I wouldn’t bother responding to such a silly comment but his stats from the Grand Final, the most highly pressured game of the year, were: 22 kicks, 5 handballs at 96% disposal efficiency. I’m not sure who you think you’re watching that isn’t a good kick, but it ain’t Salem.

Love the idea of Salem up forward but as someone said earlier to shift him mid year could be a tricky proposition. He’s not quick but his tackling is excellent, when he tackles someone they go down hard! Hypothetically if he was to return during a time where we lack some class up forward it could be worth a crack.

Yep end of the day we can shift to a ground that’s smaller than the G. We’d have the exact same problem as them. Unless we’d have a better plan of shifting the stand without demolishing it and still being able to create it as our own training facility it’s not the solution to our home base problems. Would love to get an update on our facility though, feels like this has been dragging forever.

I’ll start with the kick after the siren, why the hell wouldn’t he take the kick? It rubbed salt into the wound of the Dogs and that extra goal is in the books to show how dominant we were. I say good on him for nailing it while ever fibre of him probably wanted to hug his teammates. As for the mark on the weekend, at the end of the day the result is what matters, ie the goal. If we’re all about the team then Harmes should be recognising that at the end of the day he did his role which was to get the ball out into a goal scoring opportunity. Tom did his role as a forward in finishing the work. I don’t care who gets the goal, as long as it’s to the mighty Narrm FC.

I think keeping it simple in saying the player misses the following week if they are subbed out is the way to go. It means that players who cop a corky/cramp/or a light niggle aren’t utilised, it should be there for players who have zero chance of returning to the field and are extremely unlikely for the following week. It’s also there to ensure if a player gets a head knock they are taken off the ground immediately without impact on the club (at least in the rotations). Clubs should be deducted future cap space for misuse of the sub, fines won’t suffice as to win the game clubs might take the hit. Cap space threatens the ability to retain or recruit future players.

It wasn’t Tom’s finest moment but to be fair him marking it made it a certain goal at an important time, for all he knew there could’ve been someone coming from behind to spoil it. It’s in the book for Tom, but I’m sure everyone recognises it as Harmes’s goal.

Hoping that the Saints coming from the humidity of Cairns will mean their speed will be heavily affected, plus us getting back quite a few H&S affected rested players may just give us an extra boost of energy. I would really like Bedford to keep his spot, I just don’t know who misses or who doesn’t come back. We sorely missed Kozzie and Nibblers forward pressure to slow the Hawks out of defence. Hate to say it for Weid but I think TMac did enough to stay in. I swear Tom isn’t doing a lot but he just seems to do “enough”.

I was watching this match while at work so wasn’t able to to fully concentrate on it but these were my thoughts. I think we hit our straps for about a 20min period in the third and that was enough to do the job, the rest we were fumbly, scrappy, and particularly in the first quarter dropped marks we would usually swallow. I will tip my cap to the Hawks on this that they put good pressure on us almost constantly which meant we had the perceived pressure even when we were out. Our forward connection is my biggest concern at the moment, we are too often doing no look kicks and putting it in the defenders advantage. Happened at least 4 times to Brown but I also noticed Weid had occasions where it was put on the head of the defender. Fritta showed the mids how it was done with kicking to space for Bedfords goal. I was really happy for Bedford in that he not only got a full game but contributed positively, he’s lively and I think if Kozzie wasn’t Kozzie he would have a decent crack at being in our 22. Currently he’s in our 23 and he just needs to keep taking his chance when they come. Speaking of taking chances, sadly Melks didn’t take his. While he had some good moments, that kick at the end was such a butch for someone who used to be a dead eye. He kicks that and there was zero chance the Hawks come back, he missed and it kept them in the game. I thought Weid fought hard as the second ruckman, it’s tough on him though as I thought TMac did his job as second forward but Weid was going to be given a body of games to prove himself. So Jacko comes back next week, who goes out? We got scored against the heaviest in a while, but it was still 4 goals less than 100. Our defensive unit won’t be happy with that but was that also down to the structure up the line? It’s never all down to the defence. Finally, credit to the Hawks for playing their style. Slow playing against us is playing into our hands, but the Hawks we’re quick and daring. I don’t they’ll last the season but it was one of the few times I really felt we didn’t have the game on our string as usual.

With Kozzie and Nibbler out that is a big hole in our forward pressure department. Hopefully Bedford comes in like a man possessed, and Melksham has great memories of games vs the Hawks so fingers crossed he can turn back the clock. Thankfully our COVID H&S changes are all of players that while valuable aren’t the core key players of our team. Will make this a tougher assignment though.

Considering the outs the inclusions are pretty handy, Kozzie will be hard to replace as I don’t think people understand how important his 2nd/3rd/4th efforts are. LJ out sucks as well but he’s been a little off touch lately so TMac gets a chance to reclaim his spot. Question will be does Weid slot into being second ruck or will in be shared equally between him and Tom (with a bit of Brown in the forward half)?

Damn this is really going to test our depth, was going to happen eventually though so bring on the challenge. Bedford for Kozzie Majak for LJ maybe? Or does TMac come in and Weid second rucks? Viney back for Sparrow Lever back and Smith makes way

I hope the crowd gets massively behind Adem and when he walks out onto the ground there’s a big “oooooooze” from the MCC. Get well soon Goody, hope he can kinda take this as a bit of a break. If anyone deserves it it’s him!

I get that all the team we have beaten are outside the top 8, but it’s so funny hearing people STILL use the almost exact same language of “we won’t know they’re a good team until…” I mean FFS we’re the reigning premiers and I think I’ve seen us get into 4th gear once this year, against GWS and we blew them out of the water. I feel like had we kicked straight on Sunday night, and beaten them by the margin it should’ve been (ie 50+ points) suddenly then people would be quaking in their boots. Oppo fans are saying this week we get tested, nah it’s the other way around. Every week someone plays us it’s the other team’s test. That said, I’m looking forward to us playing the Hawks.

It’s not an effort for Langdon, I’ve barely seen him break a sweat!

I’d be very surprised if JJ was dropped, he’s barely put a foot wrong as stand in def winger. Really like Rivers but he would be my pick right now.

I think that one handball mistake was a mixture of the pressure from the tigers and a bit of colour blind. I know it happened to a couple of others through the night. In any case he will be the most likely to make way for Lever.

Yep the Brownlow is becoming less and less the medal to win. Bet you if you asked which Trac preferred Norm Smith or Brownlow he’d take Norm Smith every time (and then hide it behind his premiership medal!).