a few positives from the weekend

[saintbrat]

Sandringham won
Collingwood lost
Collingwood lost again , twice in weekend
Carlton lost
Essendon lost

Did we come out of the weekend without major injury?

[FQF]

It's the sign of a very weak team when its only source of joy is derived from the failure of other teams. These sorts of sentiments were happily absent during the dominant years, and the fact that we've reverted back to it is far from a positive.

[wasoncestkil58]

Sad but a Carlton loss is almost a win to me. Well done Melbourne. I picked that but didn't get the bulldogs as many wouldn't have.

[saintdooley]

Positive: this time last year we lost to Geelong down there 21.11.137 v 5.6.36, yesterday was 20.13.133 v 5.7.37. Our forward line really stepped up this year and took it head on, our defence was outstanding to keep them below 137, although they had one extra scoring shot this year to last, we've got a year to work on that and if they put in the hard yards maybe next year we can keep them to just the 19. Fingers crossed

[The Fireman]

A collingwood loss can be seen no other way other than a positive no matter how we are travelling..

The majority of Australians would agree with that.

[3rd generation saint]

Apparently we are winning the contested ball stats, the problem is that when we win the contested ball, we have no outside runners like a Nicky Dal to take advantage of it.
We have many inside players like Armo, Dunstan, Lenny, Weller even Jones for that matter.
Maybe we need Joey and Jack plus Billings to be those outside players who can carry the ball from the contested possession to our advantage.
But I suppose that is to develop later, when we have more players to play with which hopefully will come via draft, trade and FA.

[gringo]

We are in transition. It would be a disaster if we are about to lose Lenny and had no one to comein and replace him. The good thing is we have been hit hard by injury and the kids are getting games by default. Freo built up their list through bad injury luck. If we get back a few more players who hold up next year we will be better and the development we are getting into the youth will set us up. We are working our way through the list and the guys who we have discovered or rediscovered are....
Weller- looks like at least as good as Farren as an extra mid winger type.
Dunstan- probably a future captain
Billings- looks like a rolls Royce for the future
Delaney-real FB
Bruce -handy swingman
Rucks- best depth there ever for us
Shenton- looks like another Gram style attacking back pocket
Milera- looks like he will make it again
Eli- rookie list gem
Ross- stepped it up and starting to look at home
Newnes- showing what the coaches saw in him.
Saunders, Wright and several other kids showing signs
Still missing Gears, Gilbert, Schnieder, Hickey etc. who will all make us a stronger team next year
Armo and Steven well down on last year and with a preseason and no injury likely or at least possible to become a grade.

[saintspremiers]

Sad but a Carlton loss is almost a win to me. Well done Melbourne. I picked that but didn't get the bulldogs as many wouldn't have.

agree. can't stand the cheats.

[samoht]

We won the clearances 38 to 31 - after being "smashed" in the hitouts 63 to 21 - that's 3 to 1!
So much for the importance of hitouts!

I'd prefer a ruckman who can gather 15-20 possessions around the ground - who can contribute that way.

[The Fireman]

hit outs are important in a good side.

[saintbrat]

It's the sign of a very weak team when its only source of joy is derived from the failure of other teams. These sorts of sentiments were happily absent during the dominant years, and the fact that we've reverted back to it is far from a positive.

Good or bad years I am always smiling when those teams lose