Also they were back from WA and playing a team that put a lot of pressure on and had a lot to play for. It was also pretty gusty windy so the poor kicking for goal by both sides (except despised but brilliant Milne) was understandable.
Probably because the players are not programmable robots but are human and thus subject to making mistakes. Or maybe they just wanted to let the saints think they had a chance before they crushed them.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke
I like your style Erica.
And may I say, you signature pretty much describes Sunday's game.
If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhood
I was talking to a member who told me it is the grasses they use in the surface. He says that years ago when they used Cooch and Kikuyu the thought was that the stops used to get gaught in the runners and cause injury. They changed to a multi combination grass that is softer with no runner but the problem is that it stays moister longer and causes players to slip.
I watched the game from far away places and thought it was a very gutsy win. We knew the Saints had a lot at stake and they played accordingly. That last 4.10 minutes on the clock was outstanding.
What a great game by Malceski. He has restored my faith with regards to his toughness.
Must say I downed a few nervous stubbies in the tense last quarter.
I thought the major problem, other than a bit of tiredness after the Perth trip, was kicking. Our delivery and goal kicking sucked for most of the game. For most of the season we have been pretty good to wonderful in these departments. Just moments that come to mind, AJ out on the full was the worst kick in years, the kicking down the members wingto a pack for nearly 10 minutes at one stage was just frustrating. It was bomb and hope as though it was all too hard. That could have been due to the Perth trip tiredness or it could have been part of the plan, if so it didn't work.
There were moments of brilliance, the last 5 minutes, second quarter where we should have buried them if not for wayward kicking for goal. It was a hard fought win but I don't believe this Saints side a real top eight side. Definitely not top four. They are a fringe eight side and that is all. They get teams to play at their level and scrag, scrimmage and hold on all the time.
I was a bit peeved in the last quarter to see the full defensive press used. That is nobody at all in our forward half for much of the first half of the last quarter. It was painful as we couldn't get the ball much past half way and if we did it came back again as we had nobody to take it. That is a part of our game I thought gone but maybe not, DAMN!!!
Yep - plenty of reasons . . .
Sun was in and out all day, along with two (maybe more) showers. Temperature was all over the place too - with sun out felt like ten degrees warmer! Wind was all over the place - was breezy then still, then back again all afternoon. The bomb site at the Paddo end was clearly affecting ALL players kicking to that end and was certainly not limited to the swans players struggling to convert down that end. Our six straight points in the first quarter were matched by the Saints doing the same in the last quarter. We remarked to each other on arriving what a different feel the ground had with the stand pretty much entirely smashed up compared to even a few short weeks ago. There was some big piece of ducting hanging behind the goals that looked like it was ready to drop. It was distracting to us in the O'Reilly concourse, so who knows what effect it had on the players!!!!
I seem to recall that accuracy was a problem at the MCG a few seasons back when the old Northern and Olympic stands had been torn down and looked much like the SCG does at the moment. Maybe there is a 'missing grandstand effect' - taking away the familiar spots that players aim at could be messing with their heads!
Probably was just one of those days and in the final wash up our boys handled it better than theirs. They've been handling pretty much everything (with a few exceptions) better than other teams all year too, as evidenced by games won and ladder position. Milne kept them in it. Kleenex was his usual inaccurate self (probably Kosi's fault for belting him - again) but he should be used to that by now! Umpires had their usual few howlers, but at least we got some of them - the second bite of the cherry to Reg was one of the softest frees in years, but hey, we'll take those if the three blind mice are going to hand them out. Both frees involving Goodes were a joke too - he slipped and got smashed under a bloke but gave away a free (still no-one knows what for) then he copped the cheapest of cheap shots getting belted in the back at the end of the third quarter, but they got a free in the middle before play restarted.
Top win - winning ugly when needed is priceless.
With the inappropriate frees being given against goodsey all the time, does that mean he is the new Barry Hall?
If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhood
I'm with you there, Nico. I've almost become a broken record on it since Nick came back into the seniors, purely because it's just shocked me- at the game on the weekend I was surprised at just how much of a change there's been with how hard he goes at it, he was getting across to spoil/going hard at the ball/trying to burst through guys instead or circling around more on to his boot. Good on him.
I knew him as a gentle young man, I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes, and years before his time
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