We could conceivably lose three of our next five matches by over 100 points

[samuraisaint]

I'm calling it - unless our ball movement changes and our conversion improves, I believe the games in Tasmania, Geelong and Adelaide could all result in losses of greater than 100 points.

I can't see how we will be even remotely competitive at any of those venues when we have clearly been unable to score on dry, perfect decks, with no wind.
How we will go in cold, blustery Hobart, in the wet, slippery conditions at night in Geelong, or in midwinter Adelaide open to the elements, is very predictable.

Apart from the injuries, I am very concerned about the lack of conditioning a lot of our players seem to have.

I said some time ago that we wouldn't see Geary, Carlisle, Hannebury, Steven or King for the remainder of this season, and this is why. Playing guys underdone is going to find us out.

I am just hoping that the coaching panel will approach this next fortnight extremely seriously, and ensure that players are put on notice about how vital it is to remain truly competitive because I think our results over this period will have big say in how we set up for 2020.

I fear for the next five weeks or so because I don't believe that in the past coaches of St Kilda fail to appreciate how this impacts us, the members, when players put in blocks of sub-standard performances. Coaches view these things as a job, but ironically I believe that sometimes it is because they view performances in this light that they fail to do their jobs as comprehensively as they should have.

If we just go through the motions in those aforementioned matches the club will have a massive hole to dig themselves out of.

[WellardSaint]

Norf in Tassy will be a loss by maybe 40-50,
Cats will definitely be a coach-killer, it'll be ugly

Crows won't be so bad, might be under 40

[ace]

We could conceivably lose three of our next five matches by less than 100 points.

[elizabethr]

Bring back Armitage ☻

[Special]

Bring back Armitage ☻

The Queen has spoken!

We may as well. He’s no good anymore but whatever.

We will lose to Norf by 40 points, but Geelong don’t need a percentage roost so they may rest a few players and spare us of a proper shellacking.

[samuraisaint]

The only reason that ridiculous kicking sideways that we saw yesterday wasn't unraveled by Richmond a lot earlier was that they had 7 players coming back into the side this week after long layoffs and they were coming off the bye and were rusty.

North, Geelong, and Adelaide could all beat us by 100 points + in the next month because our team is being poorly coached and suffering from a surfeit of injuries and players lacking basic match conditioning.

Based on exposed form over the past nearly 6 seasons, any expectation that we will be competitive in the three matches I mentioned (plus the Sydney game) is completely doolally.

I want the coaching staff and players to be under no illusions about this fact, and to properly prepare and change the game plan now to one which at least gives the players a chance of being able to play their natural game.

[WellardSaint]

During the pre-season, AR and another guy, maybe Lethers, said that the whole team was unhappy with 2018 and wanted to be much better, so they worked really hard over the pre-season and were hungry to be better.

Saw a lot of 'better' in our wins (as well as sloppy/poor judgement)
but now we're back to 'mediocre'.
It's how they roll

[Yorkeys]

North may be hung over from beating the Pies and we could go ok in Tassy. Geelong is a Christians to the Lions event, depends if the big Cats want to tease us or go for a Harlem globe trotters performance, but it won't want injuries so may throttle back second half. Same with Adelaide - put us away and then practice circle work so it might be only 7 or 8 goals. However if we change coaches before any of those games all bets are off and I reckon we can give them a fright.

[older saint]

North in Hobart isn't beating anyone by 100 points. based on usual conditions in Hobart i cant recall a team scoring 100 points, let alone winning by that much.

Geelong however could be a blood bath.

Adelaide - depends which crows turn up

[whiskers3614]

Bring back Armitage ☻

And lose by 150...
One goodbye match is all he will get now.

[samuraisaint]

North in Hobart isn't beating anyone by 100 points. based on usual conditions in Hobart i cant recall a team scoring 100 points, let alone winning by that much.

Geelong however could be a blood bath.

Adelaide - depends which crows turn up

North could easily beat us by 100 points - we can't score in perfect conditions, and I have seen plenty of poor first halves this year from us. And they were on good grounds in perfect conditions.
We could easily score below 30 points in the entire match down there and it wouldn't surprise me (or anybody else I suspect.)
Geelong - agreed. St Kilda to play to the script again.
Adelaide - against us you can bet the high scoring hard nosed Crows will show up. They always do - against us at least, because we allow them too, and fail to prepare properly for them.
I think we are in for a world if hurt in the next month unless there is a quantum leap in the way we prepare, set up, and finish with the ball.

Since the fourth quarter against Collingwood we have been in a slump and playing interstate and in regional Victoria are no places to arrest that slump.

[degruch]

Adelaide - depends which crows turn up

I predict the usual one...the one that beats us by 60-80 points every time we play them.

[kosifantutti]

We could win the next five games.

[barneyboyz]

Bring back Armitage ☻

The Queen has spoken!

We may as well. He’s no good anymore but whatever.

We will lose to Norf by 40 points, but Geelong don’t need a percentage roost so they may rest a few players and spare us of a proper shellacking.

If it were any one but us they might, but won't

[BarryGrogan]

The only reason that ridiculous kicking sideways that we saw yesterday wasn't unraveled by Richmond a lot earlier was that they had 7 players coming back into the side this week after long layoffs and they were coming off the bye and were rusty.

North, Geelong, and Adelaide could all beat us by 100 points + in the next month because our team is being poorly coached and suffering from a surfeit of injuries and players lacking basic match conditioning.

Based on exposed form over the past nearly 6 seasons, any expectation that we will be competitive in the three matches I mentioned (plus the Sydney game) is completely doolally.

I want the coaching staff and players to be under no illusions about this fact, and to properly prepare and change the game plan now to one which at least gives the players a chance of being able to play their natural game.

The kicking sideways was the good bit.

Richmond had setup ahead of the ball. Football suicide against Richmond is to bomb it long into their setup, or try to move it forward by hand.

The chipping it around patiently, especially in the 3rd quarter, almost won us the game.

The problem wasn't the kicking it sideways, it was the inability to know what to do once we did patiently get the ball into our 3rd of the ground.

We did that exceptionally well. I was perplexed to hear the Saints crowd booing it. It was akin to old geezers screaming 'kick the bloody thing!'


But tgere is no point being patient and sensible moving the ball forward - if you're then going to just bomb it in to a mob of 6 defenders every time! That was the infuriating part.

[samuraisaint]

The only reason that ridiculous kicking sideways that we saw yesterday wasn't unraveled by Richmond a lot earlier was that they had 7 players coming back into the side this week after long layoffs and they were coming off the bye and were rusty.

North, Geelong, and Adelaide could all beat us by 100 points + in the next month because our team is being poorly coached and suffering from a surfeit of injuries and players lacking basic match conditioning.

Based on exposed form over the past nearly 6 seasons, any expectation that we will be competitive in the three matches I mentioned (plus the Sydney game) is completely doolally.

I want the coaching staff and players to be under no illusions about this fact, and to properly prepare and change the game plan now to one which at least gives the players a chance of being able to play their natural game.

The kicking sideways was the good bit.

Richmond had setup ahead of the ball. Football suicide against Richmond is to bomb it long into their setup, or try to move it forward by hand.

The chipping it around patiently, especially in the 3rd quarter, almost won us the game.

The problem wasn't the kicking it sideways, it was the inability to know what to do once we did patiently get the ball into our 3rd of the ground.

We did that exceptionally well. I was perplexed to hear the Saints crowd booing it. It was akin to old geezers screaming 'kick the bloody thing!'


But tgere is no point being patient and sensible moving the ball forward - if you're then going to just bomb it in to a mob of 6 defenders every time! That was the infuriating part.

The chipping the ball around and playing keepings off worked for Grant Thomas in a couple of matches when we were hopelessly undermanned in 2002 but that was nearly 20 years ago.
Richmond were rusty and didn't play at all well. We try that at Geelong or Adelaide in the next few weeks and the chipping around won't be at all effective. You've got to move the ball forward to score.
Out forwards need to be coached on how to lead into the right places, not so wide and high up the ground that they have no chance of kicking a goal, and our mids need to get a lot better at breaking the lines themselves, backing themselves in and having a shot themselves.
The idea is to outscore your opponent and you can't do that by dominating a game for a half and kicking seven goals in perfect conditions.
Playing without flair or creativity is not going to win over new fans or encourage people to buy memberships. The supporters have spoken and they want our coaching staff to step up and come up with something original.
It's their bread and butter after all.

[samuraisaint]

We could win the next five games.

History and exposed form would strongly suggests otherwise. How many times have we beaten North in Hobart, Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval, or Geelong at Kardinia Park?

0, 0, and 13 times in nearly 80 years.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.


Of the other two matches; we'll beat Melbourne at Docklands sure, and we are a reasonable chance against the 'Dogs at Docklands, absolutely. I'd back us in against both of them.
We could win two of the next five.

[Saintmatt]

The only reason that ridiculous kicking sideways that we saw yesterday wasn't unraveled by Richmond a lot earlier was that they had 7 players coming back into the side this week after long layoffs and they were coming off the bye and were rusty.

North, Geelong, and Adelaide could all beat us by 100 points + in the next month because our team is being poorly coached and suffering from a surfeit of injuries and players lacking basic match conditioning.

Based on exposed form over the past nearly 6 seasons, any expectation that we will be competitive in the three matches I mentioned (plus the Sydney game) is completely doolally.

I want the coaching staff and players to be under no illusions about this fact, and to properly prepare and change the game plan now to one which at least gives the players a chance of being able to play their natural game.

The kicking sideways was the good bit.

Richmond had setup ahead of the ball. Football suicide against Richmond is to bomb it long into their setup, or try to move it forward by hand.

The chipping it around patiently, especially in the 3rd quarter, almost won us the game.

The problem wasn't the kicking it sideways, it was the inability to know what to do once we did patiently get the ball into our 3rd of the ground.

We did that exceptionally well. I was perplexed to hear the Saints crowd booing it. It was akin to old geezers screaming 'kick the bloody thing!'


But tgere is no point being patient and sensible moving the ball forward - if you're then going to just bomb it in to a mob of 6 defenders every time! That was the infuriating part.

Excellent observation BG. The keeping's off thing wasn't actually a bad plan and kudos to Richo (no, I'm not his biggest fan) and the other coaches for that. You're a 100% right that - as usual - it was the last kick inside 50 that killed us. In all reality - instead of us hoisting high bombs to out numbered forwards from the centre/wing - we did exactly the same thing; only from closer to the F50.

Once Richmond set their defensive line and zone a little deeper, they picked us off with ease in the usual manner.

The simple fact is that until we are able to procure a couple of midfielders that are able to run and carry with pace and then hit a target by foot - we'll continue to get beaten by better &/or more disciplined/organised/talented teams.

[samuraisaint]

Hannebury out for tomorrow's game and Newnes straight back in against North Melbourne in Hobart.

I have said it before; Geary, Hannebury, Carlisle, Steven, and King should not be playing this year at all. Which of course we add to the list including Paddy, Dylan and Logan Austin (and Bytel).

And there needs to be more integrity at the selection table. This should be a season where the likes of White and Langlands, Rice (If form warrants it) are given opportunities to show what they can do.

My prediction is looking a lot more credible now as much as I hope I'm wrong.

[samuraisaint]

Well, Josh Bruce, Marshall, and Steele saved us the embarrassment of a 100 point loss today, but going down by 40 points in the seniors and a 10 goals loss in the reserves both point to very tough times ahead. If anything the Zebras loss worries me more than the hiding the seniors got.
Clearly, our younger players struggle to make the transition from our VFL team to our AFL side and that must come down to the coaching that goes on down there. Look at North's young forwards kill it today. Players are clearly not being developed in their roles.
Not playing Brown in the seniors killed us today after Battle went down, and was always going to be a poor non-decision. And it's over to the selectors and the coach who the buck must stop with for this blunder.
And the defence today - undersized and inexperienced; where is our Director of Coaching while all of this is going on? What are his roles and responsibilities?
The ball movement into the forward line and decision making with the ball in hand too often directly results in us giving the ball straight back to our opponents.
Example; we know Long struggles to kick more than 40 metres, but our mids deliver it to him when he is 50 metres or further out. Which means that he is kicking from 50 metres out and the ball drops short and the defenders can clear the ball out of our forward line. And they do this to all of our forwards. Madness!
Very concerned about what will happen at Geelong next Saturday night if the players go into that match with today's mindset.
We need a response otherwise we risk at least a 100 point loss, and it could be much, much more.
Hard decisions must be made at the end of the season.
We are supposed to be the fittest team in the AFL but were outscored (again) in the last quarter.

[samuraisaint]

Bump
Danger game in Adelaide this week.
Notorious flat-track bullies - lost four of their last five matches and their only win was a 100 point victory over the Suns.
This is definitely going to be a line in the sand match for them.
Apparently, 16 of their 2017 GF team played yesterday and Gibbs and Betts played well in their reserves win, so we will most likely be playing the 2017 GF team (albeit an 8 goal losing GF team) next week on their own dung heap with all of the social club and members' wing charity free kicks that go along with it.
I believe that this week the bubble of the last three weeks will burst and we'll go down by 100 or thereabouts.
Don't let it happen Saints!

[SaintPav]

We probably won't win but it doesn't mean that we will just capitulate either.

I'm predicting a 40 point loss.

and there is always hope.

[saynta]

Nah, the crows are crap. Saints by 19 points . Again.

[Ghost Like]

Possibly our best chance for a win in Adelaide since Rob Harvey played State of Origin. Something is rotten with the Crows, for once we might be a coach killer.

[Josh Battle]

I think Neil Craig got the sack or quit after we thrashed them back in Lyin's last year - 2011