This week we took on the Saints. Making hard work of it for nearly 3 quarters. A little help from the Saints’ wayward kicking kept us thereabouts. We really need to go back to playing our hard brand of footy. While there were still 4 points added to our tally, we need to be better. There is much that needs improving. A few weeks ago I said that these things were improving but that seems to have stalled.
Injuries haven’t been kind but our replacements have done okay. Fasolo out most of the game wasn’t ideal and probably sees him out again. We’re waiting on scans of his ankle to see the extent of the damage. A man down is bad for business these days.
With Sidebottom leading the way again with 38 disposals, there were four other Pies that had 30 each. Pendlebury, Phillips, Howe and Crisp all bug contributors. De Goey played forward all game to sneak six past the posts in a handy effort which prompted glowing praise from the Coach. “I think he is enjoying playing forward,” Buckley said at the post match. Ok, a little less than glowing but six goals should be reward enough.
Stephenson, Wells and Hoskin-Elliot the only others to get multiples on the night for the Pies. Wells popped up for a few flashy possessions and showed glimpses of why we got him which was encouraging. I look forward to more. Flinn Appleby continues to show he has good decision making and skills. He’s not scared to come off his man if he knows he can get the ball much like Rance. I really like him.
The competition is showing you can’t take anything for granted.
We executed a little bit better offensively [in the second half] but we really fed into the slingshot style of St Kilda in the first half and we needed to impose an offensive tempo to take that away.
Nathan Buckley – Post Game
I think if we stick to playing our style and go hard we will win more games. The ones we do win could be won by a lot more if we keep doing our thing. Don’t let teams drag us into their way of things. A more direct and forceful run up the guts and we are a team to fear. Back before the last quarter against Richmond where we were being us, that is the type of footy we want to see. Since then it’s all dropped a little. We can recover though and better now than later.
Maybe we need Maynard to show a little bit of grit and show us how to do it. I like his white line fever attitude. When is he back? The Doggies on Friday night. I wanna see more go about us! Let’s get back in the eight. We’ve had our couple of bad weeks, now comes the good stuff…
Play hard Pies!
ROUND NINE
ST KILDA 3.5 7.7 9.9 10.12 (72)
COLLINGWOOD 3.3 7.6 14.7 15.10 (100)
GOALS
St Kilda: Newnes 4, Lonie 2, Gresham 2, Billings, Savage
Collingwood: De Goey 6, Stephenson 2, Wells 2, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Thomas, T. Phillips, Pendlebury
BEST
St Kilda: Steven, Newnes, Dunstan, Sinclair, Brown
Collingwood: De Goey, Sidebottom, Pendlebury, Howe, Crisp, T. Phillips
INJURIES
St Kilda: Brown (leg)
Collingwood: Fasolo (right ankle)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Margetts, O’Gorman, Harris
Official crowd: 33,994 at Etihad Stadium
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