Maldonboy38

When Curnow kicked that goal and the Blues fans thought they were in the finals made me puke. Knowing now they are grimacing and weeping makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Some players continue to struggle, but our team effort in those last 2 minutes has at the least given us our belief back.

Confession time. 3 minutes to go I got up and said "we're done, we can't do it from here. We've lost all our close ones this year". Well, bugger me. That was as close to a final as you will get. Not a great spectacle, but as tough as hell. Both sides will be very sore over the next 2 days. Delighted, shocked, annoyed, Exhiirated.

Gap between our best and worst is too far. We look brilliant one moment and then nuff-nuffs the next. Apart from Melksham, our F50 play still lacks class.

Wow. Just wow. Blues goals from frees, 50m penalties, and our stupidity.

That miss by Brayshaw are the ones that kill me. Pretty much a free shot. No score at all. Really frustrating.

Fritsch and Melk need to start leading. With no movement, the only option for our midfield is to aim long for BBB who is surrounded by 3 defenders. And one of Spargo and Kozzie needs to rove the back of the pack where Saad is floating unattended.

Commentators gloating over a "great tight contest". I reckon it has been horrible to watch. Tacklefest, followed by Dees bombing it into the forward line with BBB attempting to mark with 1 hand, followed by more tackling, Blues kick a horrible blind ball to half forward, Dees intercept... rinse and repeat. Well done Melksham. Pittonet is a dill. We are a better team but need to CAPITALISE.

Two teams who have shown real weakness in the 2nd half. The last quarter of the game will be either a fierce battle or a skills-and-intensity fade out. Our best is far better than theirs, but they are good enough if we don't bring our best. I hate Carlton but I honestly don't know who will win.

I rate Ratten highly as a coach, and believe both St Kilda's system and their basic personnel is fine. They lack a dominant gorilla back man and have too many B grade midfielders with the same skill set. They have been monstered by injuries in 2022, and by appalling trade decisions over a 4 year period. As for goal kicking - every AFL team is having the same problem: i.e. losing games by doing everything right to win but missing goals. The 18-players-all-playing-midfield mindset of modern footy, where a network of players moves all over the ground in a defensive grid, is destroying the glorious art of goal kicking. But it is fixable. Look at Fritsch. Max King is a gun with a fixable problem.

And another miss...

Wow - you'd want to skin King alive right now as a Saints supporter.

No way will Goodwin take him back. He has a track record of knowing which players he wants to keep and has been forthright in jettisoning the rest. As soon as Goodwin was able to get it done, Watts was told to look elsewhere. As soon as Freo came knocking for Jesse, Goodwin showed basically no interest in keeping him. He likes defensive workers. Jesse would be a good fit for our forward 50, but his lack of defensive effort puts him outside Goodwin's target group.

I am as filthy as anyone after our loss last night, but I refuse to jump off the Dee train and re-join Neeld's "reality bus". We are the reigning premiers, 3rd on the ladder, with the best midfield and best defence in the league. Yes, we have a massive forward coordination issue including a single-idea game plan, no real power forward, and our kicking skills can be atrocious. But we are losing games through inefficiency and being beaten in big moments - both fixable things. I waited almost 6 decades for this. I'm not jumping off this until its over. I am expecting our premiership window to be open for 3 more years at least and I'm going to ride every bump, even if I get filthy mad it hurts sometimes.

Just watched Goody's press conference. Although he looked calm, focused and composed, it felt like he was barely holding his rage in check. I reckon he is filthy about that game, even if he is the master designer of the game plan. He was also VERY clear on his belief that our personnel and method are doing lots right and he has full faith. I might not always agree with him, but I love his positive team belief and doggedness.

My 2 bobs worth. Last night, we had the ball so much in our half of the ground, and kept it there for long periods or repeat entries means 2 possible things: pressure acts aren't required (we have the ball) or we are messing up the Pies as they move through the middle, taking possession and driving it back inside our F50. So, in this context I can understand why the pressure acts would be so low. What I cannot fathom is this: we took so few F50 marks (did we take any?) which means the ball hits the ground and this is where the pressure is required. And yet we didn't lay one F50 tackle for the night? Appalling! But more than this I see so few dynamic leads by forwards. Fritsch and Brown try but we need a better plan to make space for them to lead into. we don't have a single "clunker" on our list (you could HEAR Neitz mark the ball, and Carey. Curnow and Naughton do it now) Our small forwards rarely crumb properly. When they do it looks amazing because we see it so rarely. a gameplan of kicking to the left forward pocket. I know this is a defensive mechanism because it is a lot harder for the opposition to clear the ball out, but we do it EVERY time. Our midfield kicking inside F50 can be elite one minute and totally inefficient the next.

6. Oliver 5. Brayshaw 4. Gawn 3. Viney 2. Brown 1. Lever

No way do we drop Hunt or Melksham - neither are the reason we lost tonight. Carlton are very tall, and have very big bodies in the midfield. Can't drop Hibberd because his size and strength will be needed. We need a marking tall forward and simply don't have one. I can't see JVR debuting now and we have no one else. I wish Jackson would show some forward form but he is really off the boil at the moment. One of ANB or Kozzie must go, preferably both. Their form line is really bad and their decision making tonight was suffocating. Like Goody, I don't like lots of dropping and changing, but enough is enough. OUT: ANB, Kozzie IN: Harmes, Chandler.

I am struggling to think because the fog of rage will not disperse. Our game plan has been figured out. When beaten this year it is in the same style - fast with accurate kicking. I'm not sure what we can do about our forward play. BBB is taking some marks (and dropping lots) and presenting well but we have no aerial authority at all. Our midfield got trounced in the 2nd half. How is that possible with our personnel? How many marks did they take inside 50. We only lost by a goal, feels like a 5 goal loss. and that habit of receiving the ball, stopping, turning around to fend of the tackler (the Pies tackled in pairs tonight) then handballing blind is so rage-inducing. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Furious, absolutely furious with that loss. We have too much class to be kicking and handballing like that. Atrocious games from Kozzie, ANB, Spargo, Hibberd, and Jackson. Kozzie in particular fumbled, ran over the ball, flew when he should have stayed down and played an all round shocker. The old Dees habit of handballing under pressure to a team mate who is under more pressure. That one from Hibberd to Viney in the Pies forward line - unforgiveable. It happened all night. We canNOT keep kicking our forward 50 entries into the pocket. EVERY time, even when we have short options. My rage hasn't settled yet. Really grumpy right now.

I'm getting really sick of our players stopping, trying to take on 2 tacklers, then handballing over their heads. Collingwood's pressure is too good for this and we are turning it over to their runners too many times. ANB in particular is driving me nuts. Also Max, and BBB should be allowing midfielders to pick it up off the ground. And if I see the Pies get 1 more mark within 20 metres of goal I will freak out. Having said all that I still reckon we are the better side at this point.

Gawn and Brayshaw - outstanding.

Goodwin was furious a few times on the bench, not happy with manning up or corridor footy. And rightly so. Also, we have 2 goals from 50m penalties (which I hate when they are borderline). The reason they are so efficient is they are getting a lot of shots from pretty-much directly in front, except for a couple of flukes off packs. We have to push their F50 entries much wider to change their goal efficiency.

We are so much better than them in every aspect of play but they are kicking them out of their %$&es. Petty, Spargo and Hibberd playing as bad as possible. But our defensive transition is being exposed time and time again. But boy our best footy is outstanding. Great game of footy.

Surely this is rubbish. Cannot see a winner in this scenario.

I've never been the biggest fan or the biggest detractor of Joel, but he has never given me confidence s a back man. I would love to see him across half forward, but never thought it would happen. Athletic and quick. Can't see it happening in 2022