Saints Team -

[barks4eva]

Here's a list of our mids as selected.....

Xavier Clarke, Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes, Luke Ball, Jason Blake, Leigh Fisher, Aaron Fiora

This is just wrong, our achilles heel is our lack of pace and a pedestrian midfield

Hayes and Ball are not quick

then you round it out with Blake, Fisher, Fiora, Harvey 36yo

is it any wonder we're not going gangbusters

FAIR DINKUM


Play some kids

Ferguson should be in the team ahead of Blake

Armitage should be in the team ahead of Fiora

we need an upside, room for improvement

we will NOT get it with Blake and Fiora taking up spaces, best made available for some new fresh young talent coming through

that's just being sensible and logical

FAIR DINKUM, what does Ferguson need to do to get an opportunity


After the bullies exposed our lack of pace it's good to see Maguire rushed back, we really need his run

[Huzzad]

[quote="barks4eva
FAIR DINKUM, what does Ferguson need to do to get an opportunity

[/quote]

Perhaps not being injured would be a good start....

[The_Dud]

After the bullies exposed our lack of pace it's good to see Maguire rushed back, we really need his run

as opposed to Raph's......



and isn't Armitage just as slow as the rest of them? i'd say Fiora provides much more run than him.....

[james rose]

goose was hardly rushed back.. 4 weeks in the two's

same as bj i think?

personally I like the thought that our backline is full of good long kiking players... might enable us to go up the guts more

goose- 60 meters
fisher- 60 meter player as in run and kick
gram- see above
demp- told is a big kick
BJ- need I say more

I like how we may be able to get from half back to half fwd in one kick reasonably often

I do expect us to play a defensive game.. but

expect at least 2 tall and a small to be told to stay forward for the quick rebound with those long kicking players

[barks4eva]

goose was hardly rushed back.. 4 weeks in the two's

same as bj i think?

personally I like the thought that our backline is full of good long kiking players... might enable us to go up the guts more

goose- 60 meters
fisher- 60 meter player as in run and kick
gram- see above
demp- told is a big kick
BJ- need I say more

I like how we may be able to get from half back to half fwd in one kick reasonably often

Yeah let's just bomb it long into the Geelong defence, seriously they are the best in the business at picking this sort of stuff off

Excuse me for being captain obvious but we need to win the midfield, otherwise we are stuffed and quite frankly if we rotate L.Fisher, Blake and Fiora through there, we are stuffed already.

I would have put Armitage onto Selwood, this would fast track him, more so than another game for Casey

Ferguson deserves an opportunity

Blake and Fiora have had plenty

Fiora wouldn't be so bad if the rest of our mids were lightning quick, but he just compounds the overall lack of leg speed that we have and becomes another ineffectual player continually selected at the expense of kids who might actually give us something from left field, which we desperately need.

[spert]

If Goose plays, the I bet it's at FF, not in the backline ..I reckon Kozi will be down there.

[Solar]

[quote="barks4eva
FAIR DINKUM, what does Ferguson need to do to get an opportunity

Perhaps not being injured would be a good start....[/quote]

thats strange, was BOG last week for casey and was named again this week.

Yet dempster plays a couple of games and comes straight in....

[Richter]

This is just wrong, our achilles heel is our lack of pace and a pedestrian midfield

........

After the bullies exposed our lack of pace it's good to see Maguire rushed back, we really need his run

I agree that we lack midfield pace, but we really don't have anyone superquick in the wings ready to take over. This can only really be fixed by a recruiting and draft selection policy over years.

CJ - disposal not good enough - I have no problem with him coming in but not a saviour

Howard - green

Armitage - well, I'd like to see him in the team.

So your solution to our lack of pace - drop Fiora, our second quickest mid..... lol, or play Ferguson, who has never shown anything at AFL level. Is he really ahead of Goose, a proven gun, or Dempster a premiership defender?

What the bullies really showed up last week was our lack of toughness - that is a much bigger worry for this season than lack of pace, as it used to be a strength of ours. I'm hoping that it was a one-off weak performance; that the boys were stung, that they took the win for granted after quarter time...... and that they will be ready to make amends this week. It's not panic stations yet.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

the dogs are crap stop thinking its the be all end all over one poor half of footy

we will finish much higher than them at the end of round 22

[BAM! (shhhh)]

This is 6 of one half dozen of the other for me.

On one hand, I think we've selected to our strength, which is height. If we try to select to speed against the Cats we're not going to amtch it with them, and just set ourselves up to fail.

At the same time, I'm puzzled by Dempster and Blake in the same team, and we've also got Leigh Fisher as a tagging option... play too negative, and we're setting ourselves up for a repeat of last years game at the Gabba. Are Dempster and Goose ready?

I suppose what the selectors have done is created a scenario where if the game's decided in the air, we've given ourselves the horses to win, and if it isn't we weren't going to win anyway.

It's bold and risky. In not much over 24 hours, the selectors will look either very smart... or not...

[saintsRrising]

While Dempster is tall...he is also quick with a booming kick.....and is meant to be a good runner too. Swansters have him able to play on smalls or talls.

While out team looks tall....Dempster and Max can both play on smalls to talls..so versatility there.

Importantly he is a 4 quarter contributor....something that we lacked last week.


Against the Dogs for 3 quarters we lacked amongst other things the ability to make a contest.


I think that RL is demanding of the players this week against the Cats a tough bruising encounter and so in part that is why he has erred on the bigger bodies.

And while the Saints are not super blessed with pace (compared to the Dogs)...we actually have a fair number who have pace and a lot of running cpacity.


Though CJ is a tough little nut though.


The Cats are quick with the ball, but are not overly pacey....and so at least that aspect should not count account us.


I expect that RL is angling fora tough bruising encounter.

[evertonfc]

Xavier Clarke, Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes, Luke Ball, Jason Blake, Leigh Fisher, Aaron Fiora

They are our first choice midfield.

Jesus.

Fizz has had a terrible start to the year; Leigh Fisher is an ok tagger...

And Jason Blake? First choice midfield? Hells bells...we're in strife, even when you include Schneider.

Armitage should be playing, probably Geary, too. Blake should not.

[plugger66]

CJ will give us more pace but his skills are poor. Dempster is very lucky to play IMO as he has only been fair at Scorps. Goose is maybe a week early but I suppose when you have a poor result changes must be made.

[CURLY]

im disappointed that Geary is out, and even more disappointed that it seems that ross thinks dempster is an automatic selection;

Any reason for this? No coach plays favourites. If Lyon beleives Dempster will help us win favourite or not he would play.

[saintsRrising]

One point of difference between the two teams is that the Saints now have no inexperienced players in their team (if yiu use 29 games asa minimum)...whereas the Cats have 4.

B: Tom Harley - Matthew Scarlett - Josh Hunt
HB: Darren Milburn - Harry Taylor - Corey Enright
C: Cameron Ling - Joel Selwood - Jimmy Bartel
HF: Steve Johnson - Cameron Mooney - Paul Chapman
F: Ryan Gamble - Tom Hawkins - Mathew Stokes
Foll: Mark Blake - Gary Ablett - Joel Corey
Int: Trent West, James Kelly, David Wojcinski, Max Rooke

Gilbert with 23 games is our least experienced...followed I think by L fisher on 49.


This is one of the reasons why we need all of our guys to work their buts off for 4 quarters to keep the pressure up.

It is a possible weakness in the Ctas line up to be exploited.

Whether we are good enough to, sat will show.

[plugger66]

One point of difference between the two teams is that the Saints now have no inexperienced players in their team...whereas the Cats have 4.

B: Tom Harley - Matthew Scarlett - Josh Hunt
HB: Darren Milburn - Harry Taylor - Corey Enright
C: Cameron Ling - Joel Selwood - Jimmy Bartel
HF: Steve Johnson - Cameron Mooney - Paul Chapman
F: Ryan Gamble - Tom Hawkins - Mathew Stokes
Foll: Mark Blake - Gary Ablett - Joel Corey
Int: Trent West, James Kelly, David Wojcinski, Max Rooke


This is one of the reasons why we neec all of our guys to work their buts off for 4 quarters to keep the pressure up.

CJ doesnt have much experience.

[saintsRrising]

CJ doesnt have much experience.

No he doesn't. So you think he will bea late inclusion then?

[plugger66]

CJ doesnt have much experience.

No he doesn't. So you think he will bea lte inclusion then?

Isnt he playing? Sorry.

[saintsRrising]

CJ doesnt have much experience.

No he doesn't. So you think he will bea lte inclusion then?

Isnt he playing? Sorry.

He is one of 3 emergencies...so he could be....


However while RL has had many late withdrawls I think that has been by picking a player or two who were either never going to play as they were not fit, or had a strong possibility of not shaping up.


The selected team this week I think is all fit??? even if say Goose is a mite underdone???

[CURLY]

Goose has to play as hes part of what I beleive the coaching staff think is our best back six. A team with its best defence available no matter how each player is rated individually rarely get exposed to oppistion forward lines. Each player has confidence in running off to help and pushing back into holes to cover leads. When in trouble its almost a reflex give as they know and trust each others game. We need to settle our back six as early as possible along with our fowards as early as possible.

[bigcarl]

I suppose what the selectors have done is created a scenario where if the game's decided in the air, we've given ourselves the horses to win

aerial ability is one of our strengths so we might as well play to it, i guess.

riewoldt, koschitzke, gehrig, maguire, hudghton and even blake, s. fisher and l. fisher are good above their heads. so is raph btw.

i was a little surprised not to see either jones or armitage. perhaps our mids have been given the chance to show how last week was merely an aberration.

[bigcarl]

We need to settle our back six as early as possible along with our fowards as early as possible.

i agree with this. structure, particularly down the spine, is just vital and you can build the side around it.

if goose can hit some form he'd slot in at chb and give us a pretty strong and formidable goal-to-goal line up.

FB: Hudghton
CHB: Maguire
C: Dal Santo
HF: Kosi or Riewoldt
F: Gehrig or Kosi or Riewoldt

i thought we missed a bloke like goose to kick to in defence when we were under seige last friday night. ended with guys like dal santo running off half back trying to pinpoint little passes to guys who weren't really presenting

[saintsRrising]

Not too happy about this.

Very slow,

Why very slow?

Sean Dempster, quickish
Max Hudghton, fast closing speed
Brendon Goddard average to slow (but reportedly has good sprint times)
Jason Gram, quick
Sam Fisher, quickish for his size
Sam Gilbert quick
Xavier Clarke, quick
Leigh Montagna, quick
Nick Dal Santo , average
Adam Schneider, quick
Nick Riewoldt, quick for his size
Robert Harvey , average
Fraser Gehrig, slowish, but quick on the burst
Justin Koschitzke, slow
Stephen Milne , average+
Steven King, slow
Lenny Hayes, average
Luke Ball , average at present
Jason Blake, slow
Leigh Fisher, average-
Matt Maguire, average
Aaron Fiora, quick


Now the above list has no one that has express pace.

But then the Cat's list does not either.

Yes our list is slow compared to the Dogs...but very slow?? = No

Compared to Cat's we are ok for leg pace...and arguably are quicker.

[CURLY]

Cats have quick ball use not leg speed. All but a few of there players have penertrating footskills meaning that players dont have to sit and wait for the ball. With the exception of Ablett and Wojinski not many of them are overly quick.

[bigcarl]

Cats have quick ball use not leg speed. All but a few of there players have penertrating footskills meaning that players dont have to sit and wait for the ball. With the exception of Ablett and Wojinski not many of them are overly quick.

yep. a lot of the time it is about how quickly you think and how quickly and well you use it rather than pure leg speed