talk about overkill ffs

[stinger]

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Article from:
Herald Sun

Saints defeat Bombers by 19 points at Etihad Stadium

Mark Stevens | May 17, 2009 05:50pm
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UPDATE 8.10pm ESSENDON couldn't kill it, but at least we now know it bleeds.

The scary monster that is St Kilda finally suffered some flesh wounds in a 19-point victory at Etihad Stadium.

Although the margin was comfortable enough on face-value, a daring Essendon should have got closer in the final term.

If not for the odd dumb decision and turnover, they might have even won. For the first time this season, as the Bombers made a run early in the last term, the Saints' key defenders found themselves seriously under the pump.

You could maybe blame the short break after Monday night's defeat of Collingwood, but St Kilda also became a little sloppy by foot.

The Bombers won the disposal count and almost matched the Saints for inside 50 entries.

And a really strange thing happened: the Bombers won the final three quarters against a side usually too stingy to give up one.

The Saints were clinical and clean in the opening term, posting a lead of 28 points. It looked odds-on we were in a for a 12-goal-plus shellacking.

But Essendon refused to roll over and managed to stay within the range of three to four goals for the rest of the game.

Matthew Lloyd emerged as a threat in the Bombers' forward line and they dominated the opening five minutes of the final quarter for the reward of only two behinds.

Still, they only trailed by 21 and seemingly had all the momentum. The Bombers surged again six minutes in, but Jobe Watson missed teammate Andrew Lovett and instead gifted a chest-mark to Farren Ray in the centre corridor.

In a flash, Nick Riewoldt had marked 30m out from goal.

The St Kilda star made them pay dearly. Essendon kept coming, but the Watson turnover in some ways summed up the contest.

As brave as they were, the Bombers simply stuffed it up too many times heading into 50, either hesitating or choosing the wrong option.

In the final term, with St Kilda finally trickling blood, the Bombers could only manage a wasteful 2.5 as the efficient Saints managed to keep them at bay with 2.2 at the other end.

St Kilda has been so damn good all season, it is easy to dig too deep in search of fault. Again, there were so many positives.

Justin Koschitzke and Nick Riewoldt were superb, having 12 shots at goal between them. Lenny Hayes continues to look like a man on a mission and you would swear Brendon Goddard is yet to miss a target all year.

Again, their pressure and tackling skills were elite. At times, particularly early in the game, it was like meb versus boys.

But did we see Zac Dawson finally wobble a little yesterday? Perhaps. Were we reminded why Clinton Jones should handball at all costs?

Yes. Jones' stopping job on Brent Stanton should be applauded, but his kicking is still a concern. Others also caught the disease.

The Saints had 17 kicking clangers to the Bombers' 12 - we would have expected that to be reversed at the start of the game.

Essendon can take a lot of heart and it is a shame Watson had to turn one over, because the midfielder was sensational.

Watson had 39 disposals, including 18 contested. His intensity around the ball set the tone. The run of Courtenay Dempsey, Andrew Lovett and Alywn Davey was exhilarating and Adam McPhee continues to quieten the doubters who were starting to queue up after Round 1.

Jay Neagle kicked three before fading, but shows enough to suggest coach Matthew Knights should just back him in from here.

Knights, himself under the pump not so long ago, clearly is on to something at Windy Hill. Having eye-balled the monster, and seeing an ever so slight sign of weakness, the Bombers might fancy their chances next time.

Forward Justin Koschitzke booted four goals for the Saints, while midfielder Lenny Hayes was outstanding with 33 touches as their side won 13.12 (90) to 10.11 (71).

A six goals to two first quarter proved the difference for the Saints, with Essendon recovering from their sluggish start to match the competition leaders for the remaining three quarters.
St Kilda led by 28 points at quarter-time - a margin they more or less maintained until the final change.

The Bombers threatened several times to overrun the Saints, with forward spearhead Matthew Lloyd coming alive in the second half to kick all three of his goals.

But while the young Bombers played out of their skins, they just lacked polish and poise at pivotal times.

After closing to within 21 points with Lloyd's third goal early in the final term, the Bombers' fate was sealed with two fourth quarter majors to Nick Riewoldt who finished with three for the match.

Bombers defender Andrew Lovett was effective and gave his side plenty of run all day, while Jobe Watson battled hard in the midfield, gathering 39 possessions.

St Kilda have now won their opening eight matches of the year and remain clear of Geelong at the top of the ladder on percentage.

Essendon have a 4-4 win-loss record and remain in the top eight.

ST KILDA 6.5 8.8 11.11 13.12 (90)
ESSENDON 2.1 5.1 8.6 10.11 (71)
Goals: St Kilda: J Koschitzke 4 N Riewoldt 3 A McQualter J Geary J Gram L Ball L Hayes S Milne. Essendon: J Neagle 3 M Lloyd 3 C Dempsey D Myers H Slattery J Winderlich.
Best: St Kilda: L Hayes B Goddard L Montagna J Koschitzke C Jones N Riewoldt. Essendon: A Lovett J Watson R Dyson C Dempsey H Hocking M Lloyd. Umpires: Troy Pannell, Stephen McBurney, Ray Chamberlain.
Official Crowd: 45,594 at Etihad Stadium.

[plugger66]

ffs ffs

[matrix]

u cabbage plugger66

[stinger]

u cabbage plugger66

... ...got that right........bit insulting to cabbages though....i'm sure they have a higher iq.....

[plugger66]

u cabbage plugger66

... ...got that right........bit insulting to cabbages though....i'm sure they have a higher iq.....

They have computers there?

[stinger]

u cabbage plugger66

... ...got that right........bit insulting to cabbages though....i'm sure they have a higher iq.....

They have computers there?

...shakes head......pity they have computers in your ward though.....

[plugger66]

u cabbage plugger66

... ...got that right........bit insulting to cabbages though....i'm sure they have a higher iq.....

They have computers there?

...shakes head......pity they have computers in your ward though.....

No ffs. Whats going on. They are censoring the old folk now.

[mbogo]

SO this game review is off the Ess site. yeah?
Did they win or us?

[stinger]

SO this game review is off the Ess site. yeah?
Did they win or us?

from the hun......just think what the pr!cks will write when we finally lose one.....

[felixleo]

Stevens is just writing for his job where as we know the dons played well and applied pressure which made us cough the ball up a few times. To single out guys like Dawson( who i thought was great ) and Jones ( kept stanton reasonably quiet) was a cheap shot.

[Richter]

I think that the tenor of the article is about right.

First quarter it looked like we were going to blow the Bombers away...... after that we were holding on.

We looked seriously weary in the second half - but given that we were off a 6 day break vs the Bombers 9 that is probably not surprising. What was surprising was the amount of contested ball the Bombers won - especially in the midfield. I really expected us to smash them in the middle. We didn't. I thought that MG would have a field day against Ryder. Ryder took the chocolates. Essendon's run was terrific - they were sloppy in the first but thereafter ran us pretty ragged.

I disagree with Stevens' comments on CJ though. I thought that CJ's disposal was easily the best I have ever seen it....... though Dal and BJ still dispose better on their non-preferred sides than CJ does on his preferred - but his passing has come on leaps and bounds since last year.

On the day it was a bit here and a bit there that got us over the line. Slightly better man-on-man in pretty much all the key positions both forward and back..... and beautiful disposal from Dal and BJ (in particular) especially in the first quarter. Add in a lively contribution from Gwilt who was involved in numerous goal assists.... and there you have it..... Saints go 8 zip.....

[mbogo]

I reckon if analysed 75% of this article is about the losing team! How is that journalism? It obviously is not news anymore when we win ......

[saint3d]

Thanks to Geelong the Saints can fly under the radar from the top of the ladder. If everything goes right and we end up 14-0, the papers will be full of articles about Geelong having an off day. Sounds good to me.

[mbogo]

Yeah - I can see it now - we win by 3pts and articles abound about Abletts groin and how Scarlett got robbed by the umps

[maz1685]

I actually thought that was a good article, it was a massive compliment to the St Kilda team, unless I read it wrong. I took it as a positive, but that's just me i guess.

[python]

yes, we 'bled' tonight. But how many sides have anything close to essendons pace? None. It was always going to be a concern as we saw last week what their runners did to hawthorn. Extremely underrated they are, some of their players are deadly in open space, was a good win tonight.

I dont think any other teams will be able to take advantage of us like essendon did, as they dont have the leg speed. Its a better win than what some of us are giving it credit for imo

[ark]

The article is not totally unreasonable, but the journo is trying to use the historical reference (Lions vs Bombers 2001; re bleeding) and struggles a bit.

Basically, they (media) didn't rate us on 2009, then they thought we were invincible, now they/he don't/doesn't.

The narrative they are running with is theirs (the media's), not St Kilda's. Can only be good for us, as I suspect the team don't take much notice of the Herald Sun.

Slightly annoying nonetheless.