Absoloutely! It was shocking decision making by Cripps but he was still legged it should have been a freekick for tripping.

Can't blame the umpires.
Blame the turnovers and the fact they outran us.
Blame Cripps's miss or Fisher's or Murphy's.
Blame whoever let their mob mark unattended inside their F50

Too easy to blame the umpires.
Mind you, the throwing the ball rule was applied pretty loosely tonight.

_________________
Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

One of things I am liking most about our kids is that don't take a backward step.

One in, all in.

flower love it.

ASOS gives us some mongrel.. i like that. Still think this is one that got away

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I think today showed me (us?) that we are not as far behind in our rebuild as what I thought. SPS, Fisher, Curnow, SOJ, Willow all have a good future, and continue to improve and gain more confidence. Equally exciting are the players who aren't getting a game yet. While many didn't expect us to win, I think the boys did. They are starting to believe in themselves and something special is happening with this group. This is real. I was brimming at the end of the 3rd quarter with pride. They finished us of in the last, but while I was pretty sad about the loss for a few minutes, I remembered how I felt at 3/4 time, and realised that the kids just ran out of legs toward the end, which we would/should all expect. As they continue building their tanks, and bodies, we'll start getting more consistency in the midfield, and be more capable of kicking winning scores (with that miserly defence of ours ensuring our success).

Hear the Saints in the rooms after the game were talking about how frustrating it was trying to get through our defence. What a great thing to be able to do to our opposition.

The result was only 19 points though, and that also flattered them.

3 points to Billings
2 points to the umpires who allowed the Saints to illegally dispose of the ball during tackles
1 point to Kruze

Honorable mention to SPS selling candy during the first quarter, and Fisher doing the same only moments later. Also note Charlie Curnow's marking, a moment when Ed went up to Fish and gave him some praise, every desperate smother, and SOJ's first quarter. I also have to say that Cripps was solid all day, that I have a man-crush on Alex Silvagni, and that I ate too many corn-chips during the game.

Can't wait for next week.

GO BLUES

_________________
I will always love this club, no matter what. But I ride the roller coaster like I'm in the front seat and the losses really hurt.

Three key bits of play really hurt.

Cripps getting cute rather than taking the shot.
Zac Fisher no right boot running into goal.
Matt Wright dropped chest mark turned into a rebound goal.

All massive momentum killers. But all things you expect from a young side. I reckon the lads will be filthy and realise they let this one slip.

_________________
The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

You can pinpoint the missed opportunities:

Cripps' brain-fade cost a certain goal.
Fisher no right foot cost a certain goal.
Ed Curnow, free shot on goal directly in front... miss.
Gibbs dropped mark means no shot on goal.
Wright's dropped mark means no shot on goal and they scored from the rebound.
Silvagni out of bounds when he really should have gone top of the square.
Casboult's mark and shot from 50 that didn't result in any score.

Take even 50% of those and we win, basically.

Going back to our glory days growing up, I use to have a bit of sympathy for poor old saints supporters. How stupid was that! They've got to be the worst ...If a Richmond supporter, a Collingwood supporter and an Essendon* supporter had a baby, (lets face it, no one would know who the father is) the result would be a St.Kilda supporter.

Anyway, nice effort from the boys. Can't ask for more than that. Didn't get thumped and really made the Aints work for it today.

Lol. BOG last week. Probably just got extra attention

_________________
"I had to eat"

Good signs with enduring for greater periods of the game when all looked lost.
Defensive structures held up with all the repeat f50 entries for aints.
C. Curnow showed more great signs.
Weitering needs a spell. Doesn't look right
Midfield needs depth and some line breakers.
Loved ASOS' mongrel. We will no longer be anyone's bitch.
Some poor errors in our F50. Crips, Fisher (he'll learn), and the obvious throw missed by the umps directly in front when the game was up for grabs

_________________
For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

I thought our defence was outstanding... we had no business being so close on the scoreboard with all the I50 the Saints had, especially the first half.

Our game plan stood up well for most of the day but we did have patches where we lapsed and had to play catch-up.

Definitely need more quality and pace running though the middle... Cripps and Murphy were good but the rest were bar a few moments, well below par.

_________________
“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

There are some very considered and sane posts above - agree with most of all that.

_________________
"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I was just thinking the same thing.

I think there's some mass hypnosis or something, even the Facebook comments are level headed and almost entirely positive.

_________________
I hope Essendon* folds.

I was hoping to for a middle ground post in this thread.

THis is it.

So close...and they're 3 years ahead of us with rebuild?

I feel good about the whole reset process.

Still can't believe we were close to pinching a win against potential GF contenders
But that's where we're at...so close

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I saw it from level 3 so I don't know why the umpire didn't see it.

Still celebrating our win, and the 3 prior.

This was a win for Carlton.
We had them bar luck

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Good effort today and if not for some silly mistakes and terrible umpiring we could have won this one.
Can someone shed some light on why Murphy was attacked and then booed for the last quarter?
I saw him say something to a Saints player who was on the ground and as he was running back to the centre the melee started.
Is it true he didn't shake hands with the St Kilda players after the game?

This game confirms the recruiting must focus on accessing 3 to 4 quality mids
You don't win many games with 33 inside 50s
Bolton is an outstanding tactical coach to go along with his development ability
Casboult is not the answer. No doubting his effort but he doesn't half aerial contests and then is too slow with his decision making

You have to be encouraged by the way they fought out the game today never throwing in the towel, it's easy to be critical about some mistakes today but they will learn from those and you can see they have a great attitude , more positives than negatives they are truly a team on the rise and with more good draft picks we have an exciting future and I think the boys believe this which is so important , get behind them ,we are on the way!!!