I'm not convinced

[Moods]

Hate to be a wet blanket - but let's face it, Port were as inept as I've seen any AFL team for a long time. There was literally no pressure placed on our guys for much of the game. How can Milne twice find himself in 50m of space on his own? I actually didn't think Roo looked all that sharp, and even though his stats said he had a great day, I believe he played better against the hawks and even last week against the bombers.

Lenny and BJ were great again, but Gilbert's disposal genuinely worries me. Start of the year he seemed so much more confident.

I came away yesterday disappointed. Not in our boys, as you can only beat whoever is put in front of you. I guess it's nice to have an easy pedestrian win like that, but I wanted to see a game with frantic pressure in which we smashed the opposition. At 1/4 time I think we had 9 tackles and were leading by 30 odd points. That's not pressure, that's just Port being crap.

What's inspired this thread? Reading articles proclaiming that 'Saints Footy' is back. How the hell would any of us know as the opposition were so pathetic I reckon many VFL teams would have given them a run for their money.

[CURLY]

You dont know much about football do you?

[Moods]

You dont know much about football do you?

Why?

[IluvHarvey]

what you need to ask yourself is "why were the opposition so bad?"
I believe they were that bad because we made them play that way. They cracked under our pressure (the pressure that has not been present for 3 weeks). That is why people are claiming saints footy is back.

[IluvHarvey]

I came away yesterday disappointed. Not in our boys, as you can only beat whoever is put in front of you. I guess it's nice to have an easy pedestrian win like that, but I wanted to see a game with frantic pressure in which we smashed the opposition. At 1/4 time I think we had 9 tackles and were leading by 30 odd points. That's not pressure, that's just Port being crap.

Pressure is not just tackling. Our structures were back! Especially our defencive pressure in our forward fifty. That hasn't been seen for quite some time.

[Milan Faletic]

I came away yesterday disappointed. Not in our boys, as you can only beat whoever is put in front of you. I guess it's nice to have an easy pedestrian win like that, but I wanted to see a game with frantic pressure in which we smashed the opposition. At 1/4 time I think we had 9 tackles and were leading by 30 odd points. That's not pressure, that's just Port being crap.

Pressure is not just tackling. Our structures were back! Especially our defencive pressure in our forward fifty. That hasn't been seen for quite some time.

Spot on. A week ago there were threads on here saying we wouldn't win. A week ago PA beat Hawthorn. If we won by 20 points, people would say we didn't put them away. We played 4 quarters of pressure footy and we couldn't do a lot more.

To say that we can be better than that is exciting as far as I am concerned, then again, how knows what we will be talking about in 7 days.

[Thinline]

I didn't read Moods comments as overtly hostile.

Seemed a simple equation to me. Port had no answer to us playing something near the standard we can.

Better sides will cope much better.

Still, on the form of the past month, we should take incredible confidence from the fact that when the heat was really on us - and have a look at the ladder...the heat WAS on us - we were able to re-learn our plan and execute well. And the four quarter effort was great.

North this week, a side playing for a finals spot, will be less inclined to wilt. I'll enjoy the win over the Power, but will reserve my judgement as to whether we're 'back' until 7pm or so on Sunday.

[IluvHarvey]

I didn't read Moods comments as overtly hostile.

Neither did I

[Moods]

North this week, a side playing for a finals spot, will be less inclined to wilt. I'll enjoy the win over the Power, but will reserve my judgement as to whether we're 'back' until 7pm or so on Sunday.

THis is probably better sums up what I meant.

[Thinline]

Plenty of our blokes were running around with five yards on their opponents. Goddard, Peake, Schneider, Milne, Fisher, Gilbert, and (bizarrely given his role) even bloody Jonesy had so much time they often didn't know what to do with themselves.

Port didn't turn up on a day when we did.

[Stillwaiting]

You dont know much about football do you?

Moods gave a decent explanation as to why he/she was not convinced, without bagging the team, one that is pretty accurate I think, but then I suppose I know nothing about footy either

[jonesy]

It's a reasonable post.

I'm not 100% convinced that we are premiership material again either. However yesterday was a step back in the right direction. Yet we still need to improve massively on yesterdays performance. We need to get that instinctive habitual pressure back on the opposition ball carrier and at the contest. Yesterday was more like a sharpen up of our shoot out skills against an opposition that weren't having a go

After the Essendon game we were never going to come out and flick the switch back to our 100% game,but as long as we keep improving the next 3 weeks we can get back there.

100 point wins don't automatically mean you are premiership material. Remember 08? 108 point win in round 22, then got pulverised the week after,and again in the prelim.

I want the 09 inpenetratable wall to be back up this weekend,then I'll be feeling more confident

[Legendary]

What more could we have done yesterday?

[markp]

What's inspired this thread? Reading articles proclaiming that 'Saints Footy' is back.

I was not convinced by articles proclaiming we were gone.

When this team seriously flicks the switch and unleashes four quarters of untempered biblical fury, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.


(or tooth).

[Moods]

What more could we have done yesterday?

Nothing. that's my point. They did all they could against what can only be described loosely as opposition. I'm not disappointed with our effort at all. More disappointed with the opposition.

The analogy with R22 2008 rings true to me. In that game we did all we could against terrible opposition. Sometimes a 50 point win against opposition who are hell bent on fighting tooth and nail is more satisfying though. Just my opinion from the vantage point I had. In fairness it was a different vantage point to the one I normally have so I gained a different perspective. Normally I'm on level 1 and the game always looks quicker when closer to it and you ride the bumps more.

I also would have LOVED to see Kosi take the game on more in a game like that. Just go for his marks and drag down a couple of rippers.

I also would love to hear CURLY's point of view. I've got thick enough skin to cop a couple of barbs on here, but if you tell someone they know nothing about footy, then at least have the courage to back it up - or is he worried HIS lack of footy knowledge will be exposed if he has to do that?

[saintsRrising]

Sunday I am happy as all the signs were heading in the right direction....

ie Forward pressure back....using multiple forward options...etc etc...
But YES we need to do this against quality opponents .

But then again the only quality opponent that we have not really been up for this year was the second Pies match.

Our biggest MIA this years have been against the weaker team.

So I am taking a sign from Sunday that our commitment and focus is back.

We shall soon find out...........

[bozza1980]

What more could we have done yesterday?

Nothing. that's my point. They did all they could against what can only be described loosely as opposition. I'm not disappointed with our effort at all. More disappointed with the opposition.

The analogy with R22 2008 rings true to me. In that game we did all we could against terrible opposition. Sometimes a 50 point win against opposition who are hell bent on fighting tooth and nail is more satisfying though. Just my opinion from the vantage point I had. In fairness it was a different vantage point to the one I normally have so I gained a different perspective. Normally I'm on level 1 and the game always looks quicker when closer to it and you ride the bumps more.

I also would have LOVED to see Kosi take the game on more in a game like that. Just go for his marks and drag down a couple of rippers.

I also would love to hear CURLY's point of view. I've got thick enough skin to cop a couple of barbs on here, but if you tell someone they know nothing about footy, then at least have the courage to back it up - or is he worried HIS lack of footy knowledge will be exposed if he has to do that?

I understand what you are saying.

Unfortunately, unless we drop a game or two in our run home, you could argue that you won't be able to find anything pointing to premiership winning form, when the merits of the opposition are considered.

That said the dominance of yesterday when combined with the fact we have beaten all other contenders this year (a feat only Collingwood can also boast) gives me confidence.

At out best we can win it, at not quite our best we probably won't, if we play like we did against Essendon we'll be belted by everyone.

At the end of the day there are 3 other very good teams with equal or better claims to the flag than we do but when the finals start they will be faced with the same equation we will be, win 3 games win the flag.

[SainterK]

If Port had won yesterday, they still could of made finals with some very winnable games on the way home....they certainly had incentive.

[Saints43]

ie Forward pressure back....

The week off didn't do Mini's attitude any harm did it? Looked a lot more determined to tackle and get into space than he has for a long time.

I suppose he has a tendency to get happy with himself which would explain getting delisted (a couple of times?) before.

Hopefully that will be the last time he needs that sort of reminder to keep his shoulder to the wheel.

[Beno88]

At 1/4 time I think we had 9 tackles and were leading by 30 odd points. That's not pressure, that's just Port being crap.

You can't tackle when you've got the ball. St.Kilda had 49 more possessions in the first quarter. (112 - 63)

And for the record, St.Kilda had 14 tackles in the first quarter, that means Port were tackled every 4.5 touches!

[saintsRrising]

ie Forward pressure back....

The week off didn't do Mini's attitude any harm did it? Looked a lot more determined to tackle and get into space than he has for a long time.

I suppose he has a tendency to get happy with himself which would explain getting delisted (a couple of times?) before.

Hopefully that will be the last time he needs that sort of reminder to keep his shoulder to the wheel.

Yes that part of his game was back.

However the part that still has to resume is his confidence in using the ball in our forward line.

Compared to last year he hesitates a lot more and heads backwards too readily. Last year he "hurt" the opposition a lot more.


Fora guy that was our most accurate at goals last year it has been a complete turn around.

[plugger66]

I think it is a good post. If the loss to Essendon doesnt mean we are out of the premiership race then surely a win doesnt mean we are back to our best either. There were great signs but also poor signs. Gilbert has lost confidence in his kicking. We still have Kosi out of form and an injury to MG. More positives than negatives and by a fair margin but we need still to lift our skills by 20 % which we can hopefully do.

[saintsRrising]

One aspect of the Port game that will probably not occur again this year is that PA let us play the game as we wanted too...

I do not expect to see any other team this season that wants to knock us off go with a spare man in defense at each end.

[bozza1980]

At 1/4 time I think we had 9 tackles and were leading by 30 odd points. That's not pressure, that's just Port being crap.

You can't tackle when you've got the ball. St.Kilda had 49 more possessions in the first quarter. (112 - 63)

And for the record, St.Kilda had 14 tackles in the first quarter, that means Port were tackled every 4.5 touches!

Very true.

In addition surely people realise that the tackle count isn't the only measure of a sides pressure??

In fact a side can comprehensively win the tackle count and not be applying any real pressure at all.

[SaintPav]

I think Moods makes some good points and I don't disagree with him. Lets be brutally honest, it's a good start and that's all it is. We need a repeat and a sustained performance over the next three weeks to give us momentum and confidence going into the firts final; probably against the Cats.

Rossy did say that he knew exactly where we are at and that we had some weaknesses that were cracked over because of the huge margin so they are on top of it.

I don't think teams will let us get away with playing a lose man behind play and they are going to work their butts off and be really smart to overcome Fisher and Gilbert being tagged. I'm also worried about Sam Gilberts kicking and the form and awareness of Kosi. I'm also worried about a defensive option on a nippy small forward. We need Bakes back.

Having said that, it was a good start to turning the slump around. Other good sign were Schneider's ability to play in the midfield and kick goals(we really need another quality mid and I hope he is the answer), Macca's form and Roos continued improvement. They need to back this effort up over the next 3 weeks which will be a nice build up to the finals.