Beyond Freo

[damienc]

I guess it's good to have a forum where we can rant and rave about our football team especially when we lose.

God knows over the years the Saints have given us much to be disappointed in. So we go down to Freo by 13 does it mean our season is over? I don't think so and neither should you.

We have a new coach and a new game plan. It is to be expected that there will be speed bumps on the journey. It is to be expected that some players are taking longer than others to get and apply what Watters is telling them. Montagna comes to mind. We need to have faith and patience.

Despite what many people think on this forum, Ross Lyon is a good AFL coach. He has taken Fremantle, a team of pretty much also rans apart from Pavlich and Sandilands and vastly improved their on field performance.

Secondly he was coaching against a team he knows like the back of his hand. Plus, there was a lot of residual emotion both ways but in the end Lyon and Freo simply handled it better. Fremantle were better than we were at handling the pressure and doing what Lyon asked of them.

Having said that, Fremantle won but really they shouldn't have if you look at the stats.

The saints dominated inside 50s. Not by a little but by a long, long way. Secondly, we dominated clearances. Again by a considerable margin.

So why didn't we win? Very simply we kicked appallingly when it really mattered. We had four easy shots at goal in the last quarter and we missed them all. If you kick badly you lose footy matches. Pretty basic.

I am sure other people will have sage like observations that will cut to the chase about how and why we didn't beat Fremantle. But I am simply not ready to write off this team. We are a long way from perfect. But there are some good signs that I am seeing.

I still think we are going about it better than we did last season and that has got to be a good thing.

And as much as Ross Lyon is a good AFL coach he was not the right fit for St Kilda moving forward. Watters IMO is. This is a real topsy, turvy season. You only have to look at the starts by Collingwood, Hawthorn, Carlton and Geelong.

They've all dropped games they should have won in a cake walk based on past history.

So let's all take a deep breath and look forward to the Dees.

[bobmurray]

I'll look forward to your summation if we lose to Melbourne....

[stevie]

Indian Ocean?

[saintsRrising]

So why didn't we win? Very simply we kicked appallingly when it really mattered. We had four easy shots at goal in the last quarter and we missed them all. If you kick badly you lose footy matches. Pretty basic.

I am sure other people will have sage like observations that will cut to the chase about how and why we didn't beat Fremantle. But I am simply not ready to write off this team. We are a long way from perfect. But there are some good signs that I am seeing.

.

No...I think pretty much the the consensus post game once emotions had come down that key to the loss was poor kicking.


Good OP though.

[onlooker]

A couple of points from the original post. Agree with your disposal comment but wasn't just shooting for goal. Our ability to hit targets particularly when presses were on I rated as average. We lost the ball too often at critical stages through poor disposal and I am not just referring to the young players that have been introduced to the team. The balance of having to continue to develop young players and the effect on the side's overall performance has been canvassed enough but I thought we were a bit brittle around the edges with the number of young players we had Fri night when the pressure was really applied. Because our top liners were not all up and going it exposed the younger players.

[gringo]

I'll look forward to your summation if we lose to Melbourne....

I'm looking forward to your report on the sky falling Bob.

[thejiggingsaint]

My feelings after the game were: gutted at a loss of four premiership points, but glad that the whole hype about THIS match is now officially over and we can get on with the season of 2012! I'm still pretty excited about the future with Scott Watters, and look forward to each game now with that same level of excitement and anticipation!