In the light of day

[terry smith rules]

How I wanted us to win and spoil the Cotchin party, was looking forward to this game all week

Oh well!

Yes there were some problems, but I think there were some great positives

We played a team missing 3 of their best 18 (Lynch, Hopper and Pickett) who were playing for a club legend and apart from the end of the first quarter and 2 or 3 brain fades we took it right up to them.

When the rain came we were always going to struggle with some of our younger bodies. In the wet you need big experienced bodies (step up Dusty, Graham, Vlaustin etc)

With 4 minutes to play we were still well and truly in the game.

To read some on here and social media you would have thought we lost by 10 goals (and at half time you might have thought we would)

One further point is the Richmond are still a really good team, they have had a bad run with injuries and their season is not nearly as bad as their position showed

People need to assess realistically the opposition

FQF

[Ghost Like]

Well written tsr. There were positives, Crouch, Windhager, The Pou, NWM, Butler, Sinclair (as always) & the "didn't roll over" when in conditions like that, it could have been expected.

My only disagreement is that when the rain came, we actually got back into the game. Richmond seemed to well and truly have our measure at half time. That may be a positive that our young players with yet to be developed AFL bodies stood up against the mature, experienced Richmond players in tough conditions.

In regards to leadership, does anyone else think Sinclair's time to lead is fast approaching. He does everything right and leaves everything on the field. I think he might be the one to lead our young players, on field and on the track. He's a story of getting the absolute most from himself. Allow Steele to get himself right and recapture his very best.

[Sainter_Dad]

In the light of day

- Today there is no light
- Today the sun does not shine

For yesterday St Kilda lost!

That is FQF

[Sanctorum]

Well written tsr. There were positives, Crouch, Windhager, The Pou, NWM, Butler, Sinclair (as always) & the "didn't roll over" when in conditions like that, it could have been expected.

My only disagreement is that when the rain came, we actually got back into the game. Richmond seemed to well and truly have our measure at half time. That may be a positive that our young players with yet to be developed AFL bodies stood up against the mature, experienced Richmond players in tough conditions.

In regards to leadership, does anyone else think Sinclair's time to lead is fast approaching. He does everything right and leaves everything on the field. I think he might be the one to lead our young players, on field and on the track. He's a story of getting the absolute most from himself. Allow Steele to get himself right and recapture his very best.

I actually thought the heavy rain definitely worked in St Kilda's favour as Richmond had been dominating at the time and it slowed their progress, it looked to me that the team were in line for a belting.

Agree totally GL that Sinclair would be a much better captain but as the players make the call it's unlikely they'll dump Jack Steele unless he himself decides to hand the mantle over.

I wasn't surprised with the result because on paper they had many more experienced A grade players than St Kilda and in form still a top 4 contender, so to lose by 20 points was in some ways a relief.

I've come to the conclusion that in many ways this season is just a pre-cursor to better years ahead. Ross Lyon certainly appears to be looking at things that way. Finals would be nice but not an imperative.

Right now St Kilda's midfield options are well below the level of the top teams, the team also lacks a champion fullback and could do with a strong partner at the stoppages for Rowan Marshall, evn though the tries hard and does reasonably well, using rookie Mitchoto Owens is pathetic and a waste of his talents. Richmond dominated the clearances 47/38 and as much as we all rate Roma, Nankervis is a much better tap ruckman.

And my regular bugbear this year: Richmond had 30 shots from 58 inside 50s (52%), yet St Kilda had 3 more entries for just 23 shots on goal and a pisspoor 38% - this stat surely must send a really strong message to the coaches that this has to be a #1 priority to fix, especially now that Max King is back!!

[B.M]

I’m the opposite

Bitterly disappointed

There were issues that have been constantly a problem

Clearances (ruck and mids)
Allowing a hb to control the game
Not being able to defend run and gun

[Ghost Like]

I guess that shows how important Paddy Ryder was. He made our mids look better and nullified the opposition ruck.
Letting half backs control the game is an issue, it shows our entries are panicked, exposing the poor disposal efficiency of our mids as well as a lack of discipline by our half forwards in holding their position or their two way running.
I think all teams struggle to defend the "run and gun" strategy when all the players are switched on and targets are hit - that's an arm wrestle a side will always lose when their disposal is poor and some stop running.
We simply aren't good enough yet, some are, some will get there and others have peaked and going backwards.

[seano1]

Would our forward coach make a better mid coach ? We are still predictable bomb it high into our talls when the rains came short low kicks would have been better and forwards spreading out would help the lot of them . Twice now opposing teams have slotted a spare to pick off the incoming pill to turn send it right back from whence it came .

[B.M]

If we are continuing to bomb it - wouldn’t that be a problem from the mids - not the forwards?

They need to lower their eyes

But reality is most teams under pressure bomb it to a hotspot to be predictable, especially in the wet. We got a number of goals last night from getting it in deep.

[Yorkeys]

I’m the opposite

Bitterly disappointed

There were issues that have been constantly a problem

Clearances (ruck and mids)
Allowing a hb to control the game
Not being able to defend run and gun

Same same.
It would be a disaster if we were not able to let the up and comers experience finals football and give supporters some return on their emotional investment.
Its no comfort to be told team isn't good enough, when clearly it is - or was.
The slide in personal and team form over the last weeks has been concerning and has to reflect on the coaches and selectors, even though they don't have a lot of options. Could have used Clark yesterday.
Would like Ross to answer why Cotchin was handed a free pass and Short not closely marked. Rolling the dice is ok if lady luck is with you but playing the percentages in regard to the obvious might grind out more over the long term. Howard looks a risk most of the time and that seems to be unnerving Wilkie a bit.
Surely Ross and co have a list of the not really required by now and a few are still getting games with regularity, perhaps that's where the gambling can come in, not just hoping Daicos, Sicily, Cotchin won't really go through the door if you leave it open.

[samoht]

It would be an interesting exercise to analyse the half back disposal numbers after round 14 of the teams we've played thus far, to see the raw numbers we're conceding, and where we rank compared to all the other teams.

I mean, Sicily got 43 possessions against us as a half back defender ... which is 3 more than Steele's career high, who's one of the AFL's leading midfielders.

Sicily averages 20 possessions a game in his best seasons, about the same as Wilkie (and obviously well below Steele's average) ... but, he blew that average and his previous career high out of the water, against us.

[B.M]

Josh Daicos had 41
Jack Zeiball had 37
James Sicily had 43
Nick Vlaustin had 11 intercepts


HBs have been dining out on us - because we roll back to defend in order to get mid turnovers

Plus we push an extra to the stoppage - leaving a defender spare

It’s back fired a few times now

[samoht]

It sure can back"fire", and has on occasion... and talking about fires.

It's like we're happy to allow fires to start at half back, with the assumption that we will hopefully extinguish them later and somewhere else, and having to break our backs to do that.

Why let the fires take hold and rage in the first place?

Risky business, this game plan - and physically exhausting, maybe unduly so - especially against the skillful sides, who can get the initial fire to spread.

[maverick]

We need an extra at stoppages because our best mid is playing poorly and our midfield is already probably the weakest in the league bar west coast

[samoht]

We need to recruit, poach and draft the best young or youngish midfielders. That's obvious to everyone.
But, I'm not sold on the game plan.

[SydneySainter]

We blew it. Plain and simple.

There was a kick in it circa 4 min to go and despite all of our 50m entries, we just couldn’t score.

In the end, they won by 20 points and were 5th and they were 12th.

No other top 8 team would accept this as anything other than an extremely disappointing result. It’s the St Kilda way to accept the honour in the loss and despite us being 5th and Richmond 12th, try to argue that they are actually the better team.

[Teflon]

We need an extra at stoppages because our best mid is playing poorly and our midfield is already probably the weakest in the league bar west coast

Correct
We are compensating for an inept midfield

[Banger9798]

I watched the last quarter replay (as I missed it live trying to get my bogged car out of the G carpark )

Could've won it , 4 missed shots, dominated the last Q.

Terrible coaching in 3Q with allowing the extra behind play.

[SydneySainter]

We need an extra at stoppages because our best mid is playing poorly and our midfield is already probably the weakest in the league bar west coast

Correct
We are compensating for an inept midfield

Story of our lives, or at least the last decade.

[Templar]

For mine I see too many blind kicks out of trouble or into the fwd 50 from senior players.

I wont mention names but one senior player who is not one of the repeat offenders (of whom we have several) made it really obvious kicking the ball from the defensive 50 and only after the ball left his boot then looked up to see where it was going. Straight to a Richmond players chest in the middle who then set up an attacking play.

There should be a team rule "eyes up". And if you kick the ball without looking you have to clean the club toilets or something.

FFS even some of our young brigade, god bless 'em, seem to have time when under pressure to have a quick look around for the best option before kicking.

I am an optimist, especially seeing the camaraderie developing between our young guns, but the number of blind kicks from our senior players week after week does my fricken head in.

[SydneySainter]

Still effing pissed at the Saints.

First the Hawks and the now the Tigers.

What other bottom six teams will magically become “on the rise” when we face them?

Knowing us, we’ll lose to WCE and the footy world will be abuzz with their new found form.

FFS, RTB is our coach and yet we’re still letting HBs play the game of their career against us.

Sorry, just so effing pissed off.

[Banger9798]

Looking forward to a good response against Brisbane.

Butler was excellent vs Tigers as he has been all year
Windhager had a good game and has recaptured his form

A couple of changes like Bytel for Ross to freshen up the midfield will be welcome.


Let's go Saints, we are 5th on the ladder.

[Beno88]

We were very poor in my opinion.

We conceded 13 goals, our worst effort of 2023, in conditions where scoring should have been difficult.

Richmond also had 10 more scoring shots - our equal worst differential since Round 15 last year.

Our excellent accuracy (73.3% - best since 2021) further masked a poor performance.

[The Fireman]

Still effing pissed at the Saints.

First the Hawks and the now the Tigers.

What other bottom six teams will magically become “on the rise” when we face them?

Knowing us, we’ll lose to WCE and the footy world will be abuzz with their new found form.

FFS, RTB is our coach and yet we’re still letting HBs play the game of their career against us.

Sorry, just so effing pissed off.

Tough ,isn’t it

[Yorkeys]

Watched replay of DeGoey's On The Couch interview. Mentioned despite the large salary offer he did not think St Kilda could deliver the results available to him by staying at Collingwood (even with him playing for StKFC).

He also mentioned he believed he knew a lot about football and that its enjoyable having the charismatic Coach and Club Captain at Pieville.

Our salesmen I guess were Lethlean and Ratts so can understand his position re anti-charisma. Interesting to hear his poor opinion of us though. Making the offer and being rejected must have been a bit of a face slap for those guys, especially after pleading the case to a skeptical board.

On Monday's 360 Ross observed we are in goodish form even though a number of players are not, so there is significant potential upside. As reported elsewhere, he said he is concerned with long term list build rather than defending a spot in the 8. Finals are the natural result of hard work/good process; the corollary?

In the light of day where does that leave supporters, low short term expectations and not much fun? Be nice if we were thrown a bone Friday night.

[Impatient Sainter]

Just goes to show what a spanker De Goey really is! He has basically publicly admitted that he used the Saints to drive up his Collingwood contract and had no intentions of coming across. A tool of the highest order...