Match report: GWS vs. St Kilda
Saints and sinners, hello!
My name is Matt, and welcome to Saintered Love match reports for the first ever time.
They’ve given the keys of this bus to a pessimist, a potentially dangerous move. But let’s wallow in misery together and then bathe in champagne together when we celebrate the fruits of victory. I write about my Saints with love and I frustration, but it all happens because I care, and would trade my soul to the devil to see us have one more flag. It worked for Bart surely it can work for me..?
You may not always, or ever, agree with what I say, and that’s cool, I’m just a saints nuffy with a keyboard. So, let’s chat, discuss, dissect, and delist together, across the course of the season.
On ABC Grandstand, our crooked-nosed former captain Nathan Burke said, ‘I’m struggling to come up with a positive for St. Kilda today.’ He said this ten-minutes into the final quarter. I listened to the entire game on ABC radio as it was the only station with reception in the mountain I was camping on. Our skills and kicking for goal were nowhere near as serene as the landscape I could see over the dashboard. We turned the ball over more than a passionless chef turns over a steak. We ended the game with SEVENTY-THREE turnovers. That is just straight up crazy, and we can’t expect to win any games with those sorts of numbers. Multiple turnovers led directly to Giants goals and when you lose by one point, every mistake counts. And when you only lose by a point, and Jake Riccardi kicks a goal twenty seconds into the fourth quarter, it hurts even more.
The forward line couldn’t fire a shot for the first three quarters, with our key big boys struggling to get their hands on the pill. Max King ended his day early with only four touches and no goals – a disappointing effort considering Sam Taylor wasn’t out there for most of the game (thoughts and prayers with Sam). Mitch Owens could have torn the game open in the second quarter, with two goals, which should have had three had he not missed from straight in front. Saints fans have been waiting for Owens to turn a game on its head, and it almost happened against the Giants. Sharman had a stinker and Hammer couldn’t get near it, and then almost won us the game off his own boat in the last two minutes!
That last quarter was the kind of quarter us fans have been BEGGING for, but not for a quarter, for four of them. If we can play that damn good, then why don’t we do it consistently?
We are now sitting at 2-3 and all three losses have been by under 10 points. Our goal kicking lost us the game against Essendon, and our disposal lost us the game against the Giants – will these errors come back to bite us?
Okay. Let’s talk positively. There were positives. Some really positive positives at that. Straight off the bat – big Rowan Marshall, move over EB Games, this smiling ruckman is the new clearance king.
He should have been All Australian last year and is once again showing everybody why. He had sixteen clearances. Boy oh boy wowee! Eleven more clearances than the next best player on the ground – the man is a freak! Marshall also had 20 more touches than Briggs. Domination. Next up, Jacky Steele doing Jackey Steele things. He is back to his 2022 best and we are so lucky to have him leading the team. Lastly, Hugo Garcia. Seven tackles, eleven touches and three clearances after only 34% game time are astonishing numbers. Have we unearthed an absolute gem? Give the man an Eric Hipwood length contract pronto.
I do want to ask a couple questions though, and don’t shoot me I’m just putting it out there for discussions sake.
Does Phillipou need a stint with the Zebras? Mattaeus hasn’t kicked a goal for three weeks, had only the ten touches and struggled to have any sort of impact. Apart from a solid game against the Dons, Pou hasn’t been putting up big or even medium sorts of numbers. What position will get the best out of him? What is he currently bringing to the team to warrant a spot every week? He kicked three goals in the second game of his career and since then hasn’t registered multiple goals in a game once.
Wilkie not feeling silky? Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know, tell me why I’m wrong please, but Wilks just seems a bit out of sorts this year.
How to counteract the Nas shut down? When NWM is targeted by the opposition, which has happened a couple times now, our run and drive out of the backline suffers dearly. He had 15 kicks this week and 13 against Essendon – games we lost. What’s our plan B here?
Anyway. If you made it this far, well done, thank you, sorry for waffling on. Let’s put the dogs back in their kennel on Thursday.
Go Saints!
MT
