Dal & Monty...

[True Blue Sainter]

These guys both got tagged by Kornes and Cassisi respectively last week. Kornes is an elite tagger (top 3-4 in the AFL with Kirk, Cross & Ling), whilst Cassisi is also a very good stopper in his own right.

Now, Dal & Monty did not have brilliant games on Friday night, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they were both pretty well held. But the one thing that impressed me was their work rates. Never did they falter. They kept on running, and supporting their team mates, and contributing with 1%ers. This is a side of both their games that weren't so evident last season - both were tagged out of the game too easily in the past.

It's really heartening to see that when these guys are tagged, they still keep putting in 100% and don't give up. They also both racked up just under 20 touches, so were able to find the ball even under heavy tagging! These blokes seemed happy to sacrifice their games, in order to free up space for the likes of Lenny (who ran riot), and Bally, BJ & Grammy...Good stuff Dal & Joey, keep it going boys!

[Armoooo]

Great post, completely agree, I actually gave Dal a vote this week.

In the past we would have been two players down but IMO we came out equal in those two battles and it really showed what the likes of Hayes and Ball are still capable of producing...

[True Blue Sainter]

Great post, completely agree, I actually gave Dal a vote this week.

In the past we would have been two players down but IMO we came out equal in those two battles and it really showed what the likes of Hayes and Ball are still capable of producing...

I guess that's the ultimate point of what I'm trying to say - teams can only try to shut down 2 midfielders at a time, or else they risk sacrificing too much going forward. Having a variety of different options to rotate through the midfield makes this task difficult, and allows the players who aren't being tagged to run amuck!

[bigcarl]

I guess that's the ultimate point of what I'm trying to say - teams can only try to shut down 2 midfielders at a time, or else they risk sacrificing too much going forward. Having a variety of different options to rotate through the midfield makes this task difficult, and allows the players who aren't being tagged to run amuck!

this has been one of the big reasons for our improvement.

freeing up guys like gram and bj to be able to go through the midfield means the opposition runs out of options to shut them all down.

if dal santo or montagna don't get you then lenny or ball or bj or gram or someone else will.

the same principal applies to the forward line. if the opposition concentrates all their resources on riewoldt then hopefully kosi or bj or milne or schneider will do the damage instead.

[kingy0701]

Reminds me of Geelong in a lot of ways. Tag an Ablett or Bartel out of the game and there are still players like Selwood, Corey, Chapman plus others to fill the void. I think this is the main reason behind their success as they play selflessly, much like the mighty Saints at the moment.

[bob__71]

i think they effectily dragged two of ports in and under/harder midfielders out of the thick of the action....giving us a distinct hardness edge around the ball.

[True Blue Sainter]

i think they effectily dragged two of ports in and under/harder midfielders out of the thick of the action....giving us a distinct hardness edge around the ball.

Really encouraging to see! Selfless, team play. That's what we're all about this year. Kane Cornes barely touched the ball, he usually racks up about 30 disposals! Dal played a very intelligent game against Port I thought....

[Bernard Shakey]

St Kilda is finally a team playing as a team.

The fact that Dal and Joey were hard at it while being tagged shows that the team has moved to the next level. No-one is playing for themselves, they are all playing for the team.

[Devilhead]

Against Port Monty had 6 inside 50's and 5 goal assists - great stats considering the hard tag