Why do our opponents seem to lift against us?

[Enrico_Misso]

Five rounds in and three of our opponents have lifted to play their best game of the season so far - against us!

In Round 1 Port were hungry, intense and hard at it.
But they've barely fired a shot since.

(In fairness the GC and WBD were pretty lack lustre in our round 2 and 3 clashes).

In R4 a focused Freo played clinical efficient football to score 14.8 and exploit our endless turnovers.
The next week at home they couldn't kick to save themselves scoring 7.15 against a clinical Carlton.
And the prev week another inaccurate 8.16 to beat an insipid Brisbane.
(Their R1 performance was probably the equal of their game against us).

In R5 we played Melb fresh from a month of bruise-free footy.
And they come out and turn on their most (only) focused and intense performance of the year.

Round 6?
We come up against Hawthorn who after kicking just 15 goals in fairly insipid efforts the last two weeks will probably be revved up to fever pitch for next Sat night!

[St.Rob8]

Fair point. Perhaps they think we are both a scalp and vulnerable, which is probably true. May serve us well if we can win more than we lose. Next 4 weeks will give us a fair clue as to whether or not we are top 4 or mid table.

[stevie]

Port have been ultra competitive in all their games this year. They haven't been flogged

[mr six o'clock]

That is the st kilda curse , i have been to so many games over the years where on paper we should have won easily, yet we either lose or just win . because i'm not a serious gambler , i 've cheated myself out of allot of money i could have won on games involving the saints . looking at the odds each week , if the side playing us is at long odds , 9 times out of 10 , they'll be a good chance

E.g. first game v port , you could get 3 /1 for port , with the preseasons both sides had and being in adelaide both sides should have been even money .
freo were paying good money too .

Hawks will be favorites this week , but will probably be good value due to there 2 losses.

[kosifantutti]

Are the other teams lifting or are we not as good as we think we are?

[perfectionist]

We're jinxed!

[ralphsmith]

Melbourne absolutely lifted and played amazingly hard footy.


Excellent win from the saints to hold them off.

[saintspremiers]

Are the other teams lifting or are we not as good as we think we are?

Yes. We are 8 to 10 on the ladder. That's our spot.

[markp]

Perhaps they think we are both a scalp and vulnerable

Pretty much this.

We seem to have an historical genius for leaving the door tantalisingly ajar, even when apparently dominating in most areas.

[samuraisaint]

Melbourne have absolutely underperformed for at least the past two and a bit seasons. They have had some absolutely fantastic players out of the draft but don't combine well. And they have only beaten us twice in the past 11 games for pete's sake. And they only beat us those times because we had run out of fit players during those matches.

Port have the wood on us, nothing new there, apart from Essendon we have a good recent record against most clubs.

We'll beat Hawthorn on Saturday night.

[Enrico_Misso]

We'll beat Hawthorn on Saturday night.

I hope you are right.

But again the timing is just shocking.
Hawthorn were publicly accused of giving up last weekend.
They are under the pump from the media and their supporters.
They have had a "crisis" team meeting.

So the one certainty is that they will come out against us firing on all cylinders.
We are in for a really tough game.

So it will be another example of this thread topic - of us playing a team on one of their "up" or "lift" weeks.

[Middo]

Seems like each week the team we are playing are under the pump and copping it from the media ...
Not sure if it makes them play or try harder but fires them up all the same ..

[Enrico_Misso]

Well the media esp Robert Walls did their job for Hawthorn.

How can they now talk up Carlton.

[The Fireman]

Maybe we aren't that good ???

[Pwoit]

Maybe we aren't that good ???

We just dont have the cattle now - we will only make the 8 on default of others being worse than us.

[8856brother]

Be funny if Carlton lose today. They are struggling. May fire them up a tad too. Oh well.......

[bobmurray]

St Kilda has a real talent for playing teams back into form, not sure why that is....

We are good at it though...

[ShanghaiSaint]

Five rounds in and three of our opponents have lifted to play their best game of the season so far - against us!

In Round 1 Port were hungry, intense and hard at it.
But they've barely fired a shot since.

(In fairness the GC and WBD were pretty lack lustre in our round 2 and 3 clashes).

In R4 a focused Freo played clinical efficient football to score 14.8 and exploit our endless turnovers.
The next week at home they couldn't kick to save themselves scoring 7.15 against a clinical Carlton.
And the prev week another inaccurate 8.16 to beat an insipid Brisbane.
(Their R1 performance was probably the equal of their game against us).

In R5 we played Melb fresh from a month of bruise-free footy.
And they come out and turn on their most (only) focused and intense performance of the year.

Round 6?
We come up against Hawthorn who after kicking just 15 goals in fairly insipid efforts the last two weeks will probably be revved up to fever pitch for next Sat night!

nice post, I have also noticed this. alot of teams really rise and come to pay when we face them... it also pisses me off.

[plugger66]

Five rounds in and three of our opponents have lifted to play their best game of the season so far - against us!

In Round 1 Port were hungry, intense and hard at it.
But they've barely fired a shot since.

(In fairness the GC and WBD were pretty lack lustre in our round 2 and 3 clashes).

In R4 a focused Freo played clinical efficient football to score 14.8 and exploit our endless turnovers.
The next week at home they couldn't kick to save themselves scoring 7.15 against a clinical Carlton.
And the prev week another inaccurate 8.16 to beat an insipid Brisbane.
(Their R1 performance was probably the equal of their game against us).

In R5 we played Melb fresh from a month of bruise-free footy.
And they come out and turn on their most (only) focused and intense performance of the year.

Round 6?
We come up against Hawthorn who after kicking just 15 goals in fairly insipid efforts the last two weeks will probably be revved up to fever pitch for next Sat night!

nice post, I have also noticed this. alot of teams really rise and come to pay when we face them... it also pisses me off.

I thought this thread was a joke thread. WB and GC clearly played their worst games against us. Port beat us in arguably the worst game so far this year. There was no lifting. Freo are playing like a top 6 side and accordingly beat us. Melbourne did play their best game against us and the Hawks played as expected. Certainly nothing there to suggest sides are lifting.

[bobmurray]

I thought this thread was a joke thread.

It is now....

[saintspremiers]

St Kilda has a real talent for playing teams back into form, not sure why that is....

We are good at it though...

What about Port?

They've lost 5 in a row.

[plugger66]

I thought this thread was a joke thread.

It is now....

But you continue to not say anything funny.

[bobmurray]

I thought this thread was a joke thread.

It is now....

But you continue to not say anything funny.

People don't need to laugh at my posts....They're too busy laughing at yours....

[plugger66]

It is now....

But you continue to not say anything funny.

People don't need to laugh at my posts....They're too busy laughing at yours....

Wow. Great stuff.

[mullet]

Heard Robert Walls on SEN this morning. They were mucking around saying they were getting sms's from people to get stuck into their team or players. At first I thought Walls was just playing along, talking about how it comes to you in the middle of the night what to write and you cant wait to write it blah blah blah. Then I realised that he was in fact serious, and really took credit for getting hawthorn up. One particular thing that disturbed me was when he said, its good for the punters out there too, they think Oh they are a good bet this week.

So would he get on a team early when their odds arent so great after coming off a loss, then write an article to fire them to help his bet.

Maybe I just lack a sense of humour, but I was rather surprised by his comments.