Round 1 v St Kilda

[Booney]

Will miss Trengove who would probably have taken Reiwoldt making St.Nick a handful for either Westhoff, Chaplin or even perhaps D.Stewart. Roams too far and wide for Bob Carlile so it wont be his job.

I hope to see Brad and McCarthy out there making their presence felt in the midfield and I hope Wingard gets given a chance to prove himself.

If Redden can compete with McEvoy and give our midfield an even look at the first touch of the footy I think we can offer the Saints some headaches in our front half.

Will post the team later in the weekwhen named and I am hopeful of causing a bit of an upset come Sunday afternoon. ( Shit time slot, I hate it )

[overloaded]

We are a real chance to win this. Saints are finished

[carey]

Can we please just kick the f@#king ball!

[LMA]

Pearce needs to be dropped, his decision making is terrible

[GWW]

It can be, but he wouldn't be the first one I'd look at dropping. Broadbent I think is a fringe player who lacks pace, and needs a spell in the SANFL.

We were a fraction lucky to win, but the 4 premiership points are so vital, not for our standing on the ladder, but for confidence going into the next month of games.

Hartlett I thought in particular was great. Hope he has put his injuries behind him and plays a full season this year.

[valleys07]

It can be, but he wouldn't be the first one I'd look at dropping. Broadbent I think is a fringe player who lacks pace, and needs a spell in the SANFL.

We were a fraction lucky to win, but the 4 premiership points are so vital, not for our standing on the ladder, but for confidence going into the next month of games.

Hartlett I thought in particular was great. Hope he has put his injuries behind him and plays a full season this year.

Think the attention to Pearce is a fraction harsh. The Saints after our 5 goal burst in the opening term really tightened up their forward press and Pearce wasnt the only player who struggled to exit the back 50. Hartlett as you mentioned GWW was absolutely brilliant, and if he stays fit, will be right up there come B&F night.

Broady looked a little off the pace, and butcher was well held by dempster. Wingard looked right at home in patches also.

Am increasingly concerned with the ease in which the saints scored their goals tonight. At times our defence was lost in the wind, but can be expected i guess with a young side trying to play an attacking brand of footy (although we still go too wide for my liking).

All in all im happy with the 4 points, move onto Essendon this week in what will prove to be another tough contest for us.

[LMA]

Pearce's discipline is a concern. Twice he should of put the ball to the top of the square but elected not to

[GWW]

Yeah it certainly is a concern with the ease at which they kicked some of their goals. But today showed that some progress has been made, we fought back after the Saints got the momentum in the second quarter. We can't expect miracles and stamp this out completely in a pre-season and one game (as much as I wish we could!).

If this game was played in any other years in the lat 4 or 5 years, we would have probably laid down and lost by 6 goals.

[Ruben Carter]

Yeah it certainly is a concern with the ease at which they kicked some of their goals. But today showed that some progress has been made, we fought back after the Saints got the momentum in the second quarter. We can't expect miracles and stamp this out completely in a pre-season and one game (as much as I wish we could!).

If this game was played in any other years in the lat 4 or 5 years, we would have probably laid down and lost by 6 goals.

I agree. It's round 1 and we won. We will improve each week and I think be far more competitive. Pearce is always the first one to get maligned by Port supporters but he is vital to the teams structure. Criticism of Broadbent is very unfair - I thought he was one of our best players. Kane Cornes worries me more than both of them. Daniel Stewart suddenly looks a player as well. All good!

[lutz]

Broadbent looked ok to me, but was disappointing for him to miss 3 shots on goal in the 2nd quarter. Westhoff was very quiet today, and I would be dropping him before Pearce. I thought Kane was fine today as well Ruben.

Disappointing that the 5-6 goal lead that we established was so easily wiped away by the Saints, but I guess they were always going to come back. Good signs to hold on, and get a much needed win, but will need to carry on with the good work achieved, and not let it go to waste.

[carey]

Pearce's discipline is a concern. Twice he should of put the ball to the top of the square but elected not to

Pearce's discipline is a concern. Twice he should of put the ball to the top of the square but elected not to

Agreed on both.

I'm also a little concerned with Westhoff's efforts does he really want to be there?

We were very lucky to get the win but this being said weve been very unlucky at times so we'll take the 4 pointsand move on Essendon away.

[Ruben Carter]

[quote="lutz"]Broadbent looked ok to me, but was disappointing for him to miss 3 shots on goal in the 2nd quarter. Westhoff was very quiet today, and I would be dropping him before Pearce. I thought Kane was fine today as well Ruben.

He has improved but I still noticed a few times that he "burnt" the ball with poor decision making under pressure. But yes - he does still get it a lot.

[auto]

Optimistic: We showed some heart and some fight and did what we had to do to win.

Pesimistic: We got easy goals scored against us time and again, we lack some good half backs, we were one dimensional going into attack (long bombs), we lacked a crumbing forward to feed off the long balls.

Realistic: Win 6-9 games

[Booney]

I think Broady has taken the next step towards ebing more consistent. If he plays like that every week, he will be more than serviceable.

It showed Pearce will still be heavily tagged even if he moves across the back line, nowhere to hide on the filed nowadays.

[Ruben Carter]

Optimistic: We showed some heart and some fight and did what we had to do to win.

Pesimistic: We got easy goals scored against us time and again, we lack some good half backs, we were one dimensional going into attack (long bombs), we lacked a crumbing forward to feed off the long balls.

Realistic: Win 6-9 games

We did, his name is Robert Gray.
Or is it Simon Phillips ?
Or Brett Ebert....

[Slots It Through]

Pearce's discipline is a concern. Twice he should of put the ball to the top of the square but elected not to

Agreed Pearce should have put the ball to the top of the square to let the big boys have a jump at it.

Did anyone else see the 2 v 1 on the outer wing , where it was Chaplin and Carlisle v a Saints player and Carlisle gave a half arsed shepherd and then ran forward of the ball instead of working hard to keep the Saints player from Chaplin to enable him time to hit a target up the field. This for me was the worst thing for the evening..... (Maybe on par with Cassisi going short straight to the Saints player in the last quarter to put them within a few points)

Hartlett was brilliant, and if teams leave him loose across half back he will destroy them. Uses the ball very well, hopefully his body holds up all season.

[Booney]

Pearce's discipline is a concern. Twice he should of put the ball to the top of the square but elected not to

Agreed Pearce should have put the ball to the top of the square to let the big boys have a jump at it.

Did anyone else see the 2 v 1 on the outer wing , where it was Chaplin and Carlisle v a Saints player and Carlisle gave a half arsed shepherd and then ran forward of the ball instead of working hard to keep the Saints player from Chaplin to enable him time to hit a target up the field. This for me was the worst thing for the evening..... (Maybe on par with Cassisi going short straight to the Saints player in the last quarter to put them within a few points)
Hartlett was brilliant, and if teams leave him loose across half back he will destroy them. Uses the ball very well, hopefully his body holds up all season.

Yep, it Kossi out on the wing with Bob and Chappy and Bobs effort was very poor.

[GWW]

I thought Jacobs put in one or two poor efforts as well late in the game.