NAB Review....The Good, The Bad and the Ugly....and...

[saintsRrising]

Ok the NAB is over..what have we learnt?

THE GOOD

Gram has shown every sign that his GF game will not be a once off and that he is set for a good year in 2010.

Jones is in very good form and looks set to improve yet again.

Ben looks to have improved including his ruckwork which was quite a deficiency in 2009. King while solid just looks like age and injuries are restricting him a bit. If all 3 ruckman are fit I would now play Ben in front of King and with Gardi. With a solid season of 2010 behind him I would expect him to be better again come finals time, whereas King will still be essentially at the same level he is now.

Armo looks to be quite cpable of being a first 22 player. Like with Ben, I would believe that a 2010 season playing at the higher level that the AFL is will hone his ability and see him improve his disposal and decision-making under pressure.

Geary has built up some muscle and his form has been good. He will be strong contention fora Round 1 spot.

Schneider looks a lot fitter and looks capable of playing bursts in the midfield.

Stanley We all saw enough to confirm our 2009 suspicions that Stanley is going to be very good for us. Only question is how long before he becomes a regular. His frame is still very light and he just needs to learn to find the ball more..though he already has the knack in being in some good spots in the forward line.

A Smith was also a pleasant surprise and bodes well for 2011 on. He will be better when he has more body mass.

THE BAD

Zac needs to pull his finger out. He look very switch off at times during the NAB game often been caught badly out of position. His 2009 was excellent and so he needs to recapture that form.

Kosi just does not looked switched on. Dropping marks that he should take and once the ball hits the ground he is a liability..and in these days of very hard working defenses this is more of a liability. On the plus side he has presented reasonably often splitting packs to provide opportunities for Milne..but gain Kosi needs to hold more marks.

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

THE VERY UGLY

Lovett.

THE PLEASING

Gwilt once moved back has played ok football across HB. Not sure it will make any significant impact or not in 2010, but it is handy to have more options here to help free up Goddard and to cover for Raph.

THE SO SO

Peake[/b has not been good or bad. But his form so far certainly has not been good enough to demand a first 22 place. Hopefully with time and practice he will slot into the St Kilda Way better.

Lynch looks a fair bit short of AFL level footy just now.

Our Form. Was not good r bad. however the intensity of last years H&A was not there. However as it is just the NAB it is hardly surprising that the tackling pressure and body on body contact was below par. It is practice competition after all. This needs to be switched back on for Round 1 and most likely will be.

Ray's form has been so so, but I am confident that come the H&A he will still play a valuable role for us.


THE DISAPPOINTING

Steven going down injured early in the NAB, Steven had been burning in training and this will set him back somewhat.


OVERALL AND FOR 2010

Ruck
Ben will replace King I feel. However our ruck fortunes in 2010 will most likely remain firmly in Gardi's hands. An injury plagued year with Gardi and the Saints will be down the pecking order of the AFL's best ruck divisions. A solid year from Gardi and we should be more than competitive.

Midfield

Ball has left. However with Armo, Geary and Steven I feel we have the goods to replace Ball's 2008/2009 output.

With Gram looking more mature and polished combined with Jones really looking the goods, and with Schneider looking fit enough to play on ball some of the time to spread the load, I feel that our midfield unit will actually be a fraction better in 2010 compared to 2009.

Defense
Zac needs to lift a notch , but overall our defense has plenty of options. However we cannot afford for Baker to go down.

Forward line.
Roo will have great year I believe. However Kosi continues to frustrate. For a guy that lacks the ability to apply forward pressure he really needs to land more of his marks. Our missing HFF continues to be weakness and most likely we will see an extra mid rotated through here. Our midfield therefore has to kick more goals...otherwise we will remain Roo-centric with opposition teams limiting Roo's ability to kick enough goals for us to beat elite teams.

Stanley provided a lot of excitement but most likely against quality teams would struggle a bit..just yet. Will be interesting to see how he goes in a few H&A games. Remains an x-factor for us. But that may be x in 2010 and X in 2011 on...


TEAM PLAY
Will again be were the Saint's season sinks or swims. We have to work harder and commit more that any other team in order to prevail. For this reason I fully expect Lyon to favour more mature bodies in 2010 (though also for this reason it is pleasing to see Geary a that bit bigger).


PS
Yes I know I did not mention Lenny, BJ, Dal or Sam. They will all be VERY good for us and along with Roo are the five most important players in our team and are vital for success.

[maverick]

I thought Benny Macs ruckwork last night was poor, got smashed by Hudson for mine....

Around the ground though, he continues to impress.

Tough decision round 1 for mine.

[Moods]

Ok the NAB is over..what have we learnt?

THE GOOD


Armo looks to be quite cpable of being a first 22 player. Like with Ben, I would believe that a 2010 season playing at the higher level that the AFL is will hone his ability and see him improve his disposal and decision-making under pressure.


THE SO SO

Ray's form has been so so, but I am confident that come the H&A he will still play a valuable role for us.

I agree with everything you wrote except these two things (so I didn't bother quoting the whole of your post)

You may well be right about Armo, but I don't reckon the pre-season has shown that though. He played one good game - against the pies. I thought he only got into the game last week once everyone was getting a kick. I actually was hoping to see a bit more from him this pre-season. Maybe I got sucked in by the hype about his training.

AS for Ray I would have agreed before last night. I reckon last night he just about our best player. The only reason doggie supporter were foolishly getting into him was because he was so prominent. Back to early 2009 form for mine.

[Choppa]

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

Yes, but he WILL hit someone this season

[degruch]

I thought Benny Macs ruckwork last night was poor, got smashed by Hudson for mine....

Around the ground though, he continues to impress.

Tough decision round 1 for mine.

Looking more like a Kosi replacement (or rather, 'displacement') to me at the moment. But showed enough in the ruck...pulled off a couple stunning taps.

[CeilidhSaint]

Good summary.
When Hayes is out, our midfield is only so so.
Monty last night had a shocker I thought and so we really looked pretty ordinary in there - and that includes ruck work as an important part.
Dal and Monty are class acts but the others are not top notch except for CJ in his tagging role.
Kosi - yikes. Against a team that is notoriously "short" in the backline he should rip 'em but barely gave a yelp, nor had he in any other NAB match.

[VietNam_Saint]

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

Yes, but he WILL hit someone this season

Now theirs something worth checking on sportsbet ,, what round will BH have a brain fade and belt someone ,,, blokes a tool ,,disgraced his last club and his own name .

[plugger66]

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

Yes, but he WILL hit someone this season

Now theirs something worth checking on sportsbet ,, what round will BH have a brain fade and belt someone ,,, blokes a tool ,,disgraced his last club and his own name .

Why it that. Because he got reported a few times. What do you think of Big Carl or Robbie Muir

[Pwoit]

Dal and Monty are class acts

These two are definitely a chance to suit up round 1

[borderbarry]

Monty had a poor one last night, so did quite few others, including Armo, Kosi, Dawson, Peake. And I thought King was a long way in front of Ben last night.

[saintsRrising]

With Ben...I would be keen to get 20 H&A games into him as I believe it would really grow him asa player and by finals time he would likely be amuch better option that King.

Right now it is probably which one out of the two you would go for. King would be more reliable in the ruck, but he is not going to improve.

If Gardi is available which out of King and Ben is selected will be most interesting and flag how much Lyon believes that we need to grwo the team to win a flag.

Lyon does tend to deleop players in the reserves though, but I believe that Ben is ripe for the seniors and that his field play will be quite valuable.

[borderbarry]

I agree that Ben will gain more from playing than Kingy will.

[Moods]

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

Yes, but he WILL hit someone this season

Now theirs something worth checking on sportsbet ,, what round will BH have a brain fade and belt someone ,,, blokes a tool ,,disgraced his last club and his own name .

Why it that. Because he got reported a few times. What do you think of Big Carl or Robbie Muir

Why did the swans get rid of him then plugger, if he was going so well that is? I agree with Vietnam Saint. I don't know the bloke personally as you appear to do, but I thought his carry on Sat night after taking a couple of marks in the last 1/4 showed what a real wanker he can be. I've got no problem with him throwing his weight around, and his presence in the fwd line is definitely intimidating but why belittle your opponent?

AS for Big Carl and mad dog muir. I'm not as up to scratch with the history of the saints as many on here, but I never saw Muir play a decent game in my life. He was a side show in a bad era for the saints as far as I'm concerned. AS for Big Carl - dirty, tough, intimidating and bloody talented. Everything you want your ruckman to be (maybe not dirty ) Hated him when I supported the roys, but always wished we had a ruckman like him. He was perfect for his era. Big Ron Alexander was the closest the roys came to this.

[Thinline]

THE UGLY

Hall has settled in superbly at the dogs filling their major lack. So the dogs will be a better team in 2010...so the Saints are going to need to crank up a notch as well. Not sure if Barry can maintain his stellar form or not...but he clearly will be at least a very handy contributor the Dogs and most likely a lot more than that.

Yes, but he WILL hit someone this season

Someone will irritate him into a whack.

It's almost negligent for opposition coaches NOT to instruct their backmen to get his face.

The cup will fill and fill and fill and then it will all come spilling over.

If not, he's a recruiting masterstroke.

[BAM! (shhhh)]

The good:
There's some kids to be interested in with the 2s, a few guys look like they want to tear the league a new one (Schneider).

The bad:
Injuries to Fisher and (lesser extent): Stephen

Everything else is quite possibly just preseason. We didn't take the chocolates, but if the Saints were going to be shown up for putting in a half baked effort, I'd much rather it happened in the NAB than H&A.

Oh, and Barry Hall's going to be fine. The biggest difference between what we've seen of him in NAB at the Dogs and last sighted for Swans isn't the form - Barry's having fun again. He's there for a good time, not a long time, and he's going to make a world of difference... the dogs just got even harder to keep off the scoreboard.

[SainterK]

Two biggest worries for the Dogs in regards to Hall IMO

Grabbed his hamstrings after his collision with Hahn, is going very hard, very early...let's be honest, he is no spring chicken.

They were the highest scoring side last year, but as we have seen ourselves with a good key forward, as a midfielder, it's very easy to learn to rely on them instead of taking a shot on goal. They would hope he compliments rather than dominates.

[Joffa 5]

Dal and Monty are class acts

These two are definitely a chance to suit up round 1

I see what you did there, nice