Post match - Pies v. Saints. All comments.

[DaVe86]

Least it wasn't the blowout I predicted (80 points)

Though we are losing, we aint to far off the top sides.

geez not too far off the top sides, the way we played today was pathetic, we could not pick up the ball. Saints shouldve beat us by 100 points atleast. We deserved to be bottom after todays match.

Fraser was ok on return, really lifted us the first half.

Iaccobucci has talent and speed

Rowe has a lot to learn but was ok

Yes maxwell was good

J cloke ok, better 1st half, was no match for gherig

Licuria had a great first half but was taken off luke ball in the second for some reason. After the match he spoke to tripple m and sounded really flat and couldnt give a reason for his move.

Didak was good when he was on.

Morrison and caracella pathetic. Forget about the 28 touches to morrison, his direct opponent was dal santo and he payed him no respect. Even Dal Santo after the game said that morrison was suprisingly loose on him. Can be excuse i suppose because he got his 28 touches so maybe he wasnt pathetic, but dal santo was so much more damaging going the other way.

Rheece continues to improve. Tarrant tried hard i thought, 5 tackles is a huge effort. Again kicking was poor to him. Unfortunately taz dropped a few as well.

I am going to be critical on cam cloke again, no effort from him again today around the ground. Time for a spell in the 2nds i think

Lockyer and obree no good again. Obree having 11 touches is pittaful but spent most of the game on the bench. Lockyer has lost his touch.

What happened to ben johnson, i thought he was ok until he was dragged in the 2nd half and didnt come back on, is he injured, havent heard anything about him.

Trav showed a bit again against a quality opponent in maguire.

Its good we are been positive but geez, today did not bear a lot of positives apart from a few individual efforts. Saints blew us away in the 2nd half. All day however we were bad. We handball it to players under pressure, miss our targets, miss easy goal (ala caracella). Time for a big shuffle next week if we are to match a pacey fremantle.

Lockyer, O'bree, Cam Cloke and possibly even cole need a spot in the 2nds with woey, lonie, egan to come in.

Thought our defence wasnt great today. Wakelin was quiet, J cloke started well but was beaten convincingly in the end, clement did ok but not influential. Presti was good until the injury. However we let saints get a lot of goals and gherig kicked 8. Hammil also went off with an injury.

Very frustrating, irritating and lacklustre performance from a team who is deserving to be at the bottom at the moment. Season officially over. Young kids are coming on but.

[Johnson#26]

Agree Premiers. With a bit of luck we could have been 3-3.

[Johnson#26]

We deserved to be bottom after todays match.

Deserve? Gee Dave, I don't think so mate. Including today, we have performed well in 4 of the six matches and won only one. Luck or not, we have looked good on all four occasions. We aren't the worst side in the comp. We have had a better year then Carlton.

[Nath]

We were far from good and a distance from bad, its was the kind of performance in which I expected and St.Kilda to their credit were very workman like.

Presti going off really did hurt us and its about time a lot of people appreciated how very honest he is as a performer.

Regardless, you can't be disheartened. A win is a win in anyones language and so is a loss, but we don't have the cattle available to us right now and its hurting the structure of the team. Centre Half Forwards don't grow on trees and neither do quality midfielders that are ready to go at 17 or 18.

Without knowing how Willy went today, you'd hope to get Richards back next week and that will allow Cam Cloke to play forward, because he isn't really a ruckman, that's a given after the past couple of weeks. Josh and Didak will be better for the run and I thought that Yakka was good for a debutant. His foot skills and ability to put the head over the ball are needed.

Given that, it wasn't the young kids today that were at fault. They are going to make errors and you have to live with that, but Rowe, Maxwell, T.Cloke and a few others were fairly solid if not in spurts. It's the second tear players that are letting us down. Shane O'Bree was below substandard if thats possible, Tarkyn seems to be treading water, Richie Cole struggled and Johnno had concussion. Burnsy was just there abouts, Dutchy wasn't impressive by any streak of the imagination either. Morrison played well but needs to get more possessions forward of centre to really capitalise on his kicking.

Overall, I think what you saw today is what we are going to get most of the year, and i'm not shattered about it. I like watching the young kids play and although frustrating, I'd rather see the positive out of our negative at the moment than walk through the next 16 rounds shattered. Jason Cloke was good first up, he plays the percentages and thats fair enough, I liked his game.

You'd think that given we are out west next week on a big paddock, Egan, Rusling and Heath Shaw would be in Mick's thoughts. I couldn't see O'Bree getting another reprise and I'm serioulsy hoping that Lonie played well in the magoos.

Nothing gained and not a lot more lost, I'd rather be in our situation right now than that of Essendon or Port Adelaide.

[DaVe86]

jonno look you know im a positive poster but you cannot defend a shocking performance today, we were lucky to stay with them for so long. St Kilda also have a lot of work to do. Injuries are playing a big factor and i didnt expect to win, but there are big problems at collingwood. Terrible game. Licuria was taken off and from his interview on tipple m didnt know why. There were positives but teams make their own luck, and if you play like we did today, no luck is going to come you way.

[lethalburns]

No midfield. Played too many talls. Clement on Milne? Johnno usually does ok. Cloke 1on1 with Fraser after Presti went down? Why not Clement on Fraser - Cloke dropping into hole.

Next week -

Would love to see Lonie and Tarrant on the wings. Travis CHF. Tex FF. Cara HF. Fraser in and out of CHF/Ruck.

Cole & Didak into the middle.... Even though Didak is out of sorts.... Let them learn for the rest of the year..

Future -

Play some guys out of position, find out if they have anything to offer the club.. Investigate thoroughly and begin cutting numbers...

When Leon is back play him in the middle all game. We dont need him unless he can provide us with midfield footspeed. Expose every weakness he has and throw the challange down.

[Johnson#26]

Morrison played well but needs to get more possessions forward of centre to really capitalise on his kicking.

Agree with you there Nath. I like the idea of Chad playing as a forward flanker, two goals a game (maybe) and a good contest. Uses his skills to advantage every time. Especially now that Maxy is cemented as a backman in the starting side. We are not far off. Just a bit more luck required.

[Morrigu]

Presti going off injured gave that thing at full forward almost a free run - bugger it!!

Not as bad as I thought it could have been - sad isn't when we are not too disappointed to be beaten by 40 odd points - cause it could have been 80!

Ah well - Dids and Josh will be better for the run, Heath should make a good replacement for OB, Leon should be back next week and play his one blinder for the year V Fremantle in WA. Trav backed up well again today and Cam held some marks - 2 overhead with both arms up!

Can someone who plays the game - please explain that free kick Guerra got and goaled from - be buggered if I could see it????

[Madness]

Malthouse explained in his post match review why Jimmy wasn't on Gehrig...Jimmy sustained a heel injury in the third quater and was finding it hard to excellerate and pull up...that is why he said he couldn't put him on Gehrig...

apparently was out there in the last quater cuz we had no one else

[M@®©]

I havent see any of the game yet, a 6 goal loss to a top side isnt to bad in my book.

I still stand by that we aint to far off the top sides.

We lost to the roos by a few poins they are second, we lost to adealide by a goal, who are now 4th, we now have lost to the Saint who are vey much in form and sitting 3rd on the ladder. I still think we aint to far off the top sides. Losing 2 games by a goal has made the season look very bleak.

[DaVe86]

No one expected us to win, no one expected us to get close, and apart from a competitive first half, we did exactly what everyone expected us to do. And thats the sad thing because we are better than that.

We played so much better in our losses against kangaroos, adelaide but the last two weeks we have been pathetic. You cant say we were good last week and you cant say we were good today. SO apart from a few ok matches which we lost, we are in terrible terrible form with not a lot to cheer about apart from trav cloke and yakka. Rowe is good but makes a lot of mistakes still. However will be a champ. Unfortunately when you play as bad as we have the last two weeks, you end up at the bottom of the ladder. Essendon spurred up when they hit bottom, so did hawthorn and brisbane. Maybe we can to because we need something to spur us. Micks 500th didnt do the trick.

[DaVe86]

I havent see any of the game yet, a 6 goal loss to a top side isnt to bad in my book.

I still stand by that we aint to far off the top sides.

We lost to the roos by a few poins they are second, we lost to adealide by a goal, who are now 4th, we now have lost to the Saint who are vey much in form and sitting 3rd on the ladder. I still think we aint to far off the top sides. Losing 2 games by a goal has made the season look very bleak.

You said it, you havent watched the game yet. The saints were pathetic too. They had more errors than us to half time. THey were absolutely lacklustre, but came out full of running. They also missed a lot of easy goals, a few posters. Trust me, watch the game and get back to me on whether we are not to far of the top sides. Cos we are. We were soooo bad today. Worse we have been all year actually, probably worse than last week. And trust me, the saints are not premiership material just yet. They have a long way to go. An all round crap match to watch.

[Daniel]

Seems the 'positive' people are finding it difficult to face reality.

I thought we went as I expected. Battled, but eventually St Kilda's class overwhelmed us.

Well done Jason Cloke. Excellent on Hamill, and servicible on Gehrig after he took Wakelin apart. My question is, if u r a defender, surely you would need to play 5 metres in front of Gehrig as you simply cannot stop him on a lead.

Our midfield just has no runners and delivery into the F50 is appaling.

Tarrant is not going to kick goals if the ball is coming in over his head.

[Johnson#26]

jonno look you know im a positive poster but you cannot defend a shocking performance today, we were lucky to stay with them for so long. St Kilda also have a lot of work to do. Injuries are playing a big factor and i didnt expect to win, but there are big problems at collingwood. Terrible game. Licuria was taken off and from his interview on tipple m didnt know why. There were positives but teams make their own luck, and if you play like we did today, no luck is going to come you way.

I wouldn't call it a shocking performance, thats for sure. Yes, St.Kilda were far from their best, understandable. But you can only play what you are up again, and we played a side which will finish in the top 4 and beyond. They will give out worse drubbings this season.

A lack of goalscorers (Didak only multiple with two) killed us. With Tarrant and Rocca firing...

[Johnson#26]

What do you mean by that, Daniel? We fought well against a class side, who weren't at their best. Without Gehrig we would have won.