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Saints forwards wilt under pressure
07 June 2004 Herald Sun
Michael Stevens
FRASER Gehrig, his right leg in a bucket full of ice, was a dejected figure as he sat with his head bowed in the funereal St Kilda rooms after the game.
Sydney stats
St Kilda stats
Round 11 photos
Fight club at the MCG
Close checking: Leo Barry held Fraser Gehrig to two handballs.
Picutre: Phil Hillyard
With 50 goals to his name in the Saints' 10-game winning streak, Gehrig was expected to play a dominant role against Sydney yesterday.
Instead, he rarely touched the ball, did not kick a goal, and finished with statistics of two handballs, one ineffective.
In contrast, opponent Leo Barry was the most proficient player in the game. He had eight kicks and 15 effective handballs, and just as importantly, received 11 handballs to precipitate many of the Swans' scoring thrusts from deep out of defence.
Although the Saints were also comprehensively beaten in the midfield, it was the lack of pressure applied by his forwards that riled coach Grant Thomas most about the 36-point loss.
The statistics again tell the story. Goalsneak Stephen Milne had one kick on Jared Crouch; Paul Bevan accounted for Brent Guerra; Adam Goodes stitched up Aaron Hamill; and Craig Bolton restricted Nick Riewoldt to only a cameo of his sparkling performances this season.
Thomas bemoaned the lack of forward pressure after the game. "For four of their five defenders to be the top possession-getters on the day and to give them so much drive from our forward 50m hasn't happened all year," he said.
"All year we've been really tough, hard, and relentless in our forward 50m and caused enormous pressure for opposition sides. But we didn't give pressure today and they walked around us.
"And because they walked around us, they were able to draw another player towards them, and then handball over the top, and away they went.
"Our lack of physicality on them really compounded the situation and allowed them to look better than it probably was."
MIDFIELD WOES
Although St Kilda's Trent Knobel and Justin Koschitzke had 46 hit-outs between them compared to opponents Jason Ball and Stephen Doyle's 34, the Swans were comprehensive winners in the midfield.
The alarm bells were ringing early in the first term when Austinn Jones found himself without a suitable defensive match-up and started on a wing against opposition captain Stuart Maxfield.
Maxfield began brilliantly and eventually Jones was moved to try to generate more drive.
Robert Harvey and Paul Williams went head to head in the centre, and while Harvey started well, Williams was also winning plenty of the ball, and significantly, his efforts kept getting better as the game wore on while Harvey was rotated off the bench.
Captain Lenny Hayes became another Brett Kirk scalp, finishing with only three kicks and nine handballs.
Luke Ball started with Jude Bolton as his minder, and was the side's major possession-getter with 18, the first time all season that no St Kilda player has had less than 20 touches.
Ball, along with Nick Dal Santo, who was arguably the Saints' best, were the preferred options in the midfield after halftime, but they, too, were overwhelmed by weight of opposition numbers.
"Leo (Barry) is a lot stronger than we realised," Thomas said. "Our supply would have helped Leo a lot, and our supply, to their credit, gave us enormous amount of pressure in the midfield, and our disposal and decision-making was as bad as it has been for some time."
BACKLINE MALAISE
Burly Swans spearhead Barry Hall was a match-winner with five goals against Luke Penny and Max Hudghton late in the game; and the ubiquitous Matthew Nicks, whom it was feared would not play at all this season because of a debilitating back injury, chipped in with four goals, after starting on Brendon Goddard.
In contrast, the Saints got only one major from a key forward (Riewoldt), while Guerra also snapped the game's first on his left foot, but was rarely sighted there after.
The one bright spot in defence for the Saints was Matt Maguire, who started on late replacement Heath James, and battled hard for his 11 kicks and four handpasses.
"I thought our defence and through the midfield we were really poor at manning up," Thomas said.
"And we allowed them to kick all those short lead-ups, that we said before the game was going to happen.
"We said they'd do that to frustrate us; we said they'd get numbers behind the ball; they did that as well.
"So we were well briefed and well analysed in relation to what they were going to do. But our lack of ability to deal with that and cope with that after we'd trained for it and prepared for it, was disappointing."
TURNING POINT
The turning point of the game came late in the second quarter after the Saints had increased their workrate to almost erase a 21-point deficit.
But after doing all the hard work to get within a point at the 19-minute mark, the Swans rallied with three goals to Hall, Jarrad McVeigh and Williams to stretch their advantage to 20 points at halftime.
From there the game was never in doubt, and the Swans put the match beyond St Kilda by piling on seven goals in the third quarter to surge 38 points clear ? and then kicked the first three majors of the last quarter.
Thomas said: "What the players are most disappointed about is their (lack of) effort. They just didn't bring their A-grade effort to the game today.
"If we had had a serious crack, but for whatever reason, we made mistakes and things didn't go our way, and we were beaten in the end, that makes it more palatable.
"But I suppose the fact we just didn't work anywhere near hard enough, which is uncharacteristic of our players, that's probably the most disappointing thing."
NO WINNERS
When asked to nominate any positives from the game, Thomas was hard-pressed to find any.
"I really can't see that we had a winner on the day," he said.
"I can't remember one, although I haven't had enough time to pore through all the stats. I think we were beaten fairly and squarely by a much better, more committed team."
WINNING STREAK
Rival coaches Mick Malthouse (Collingwood) and Denis Pagan (Carlton) both said last week they felt a loss would be good for the Saints and ease some pressure, but Thomas does not agree.
"I don't subscribe to that," he said. "But I don't know what goes through all the players' heads.
"But I'd be really disappointed if they weren't desperately trying to win week in, week out.
"Now that we've lost we've just got to try to work out why we lost and then we've got to make sure we bounce back next week."
Swans' coach Paul Roos, however, said he didn't think a loss would hurt the Saints.
"They're 10 and 0, it's a great position for them to be in as a club. You know they're going to play finals, but a loss I wouldn't think will hurt them.
"They're still two games clear on top of the ladder; it's more a glitch in the road, rather than anything dramatic for them."
MARK OF THE YEAR
Nick Riewoldt catapulted himself headlong with the flight of the ball to take a sensational mark during the third quarter, albeit he nearly beheaded Milne in doing so.
Roos rated it one of the best he'd seen.
"I don't I've ever seen a player run that quick, that fast, headlong, in a situation like like. It was an outstanding effort; I haven't seen one like that for a long time."
07 June 2004 Herald Sun
Michael Stevens
FRASER Gehrig, his right leg in a bucket full of ice, was a dejected figure as he sat with his head bowed in the funereal St Kilda rooms after the game.
Sydney stats
St Kilda stats
Round 11 photos
Fight club at the MCG
Close checking: Leo Barry held Fraser Gehrig to two handballs.
Picutre: Phil Hillyard
With 50 goals to his name in the Saints' 10-game winning streak, Gehrig was expected to play a dominant role against Sydney yesterday.
Instead, he rarely touched the ball, did not kick a goal, and finished with statistics of two handballs, one ineffective.
In contrast, opponent Leo Barry was the most proficient player in the game. He had eight kicks and 15 effective handballs, and just as importantly, received 11 handballs to precipitate many of the Swans' scoring thrusts from deep out of defence.
Although the Saints were also comprehensively beaten in the midfield, it was the lack of pressure applied by his forwards that riled coach Grant Thomas most about the 36-point loss.
The statistics again tell the story. Goalsneak Stephen Milne had one kick on Jared Crouch; Paul Bevan accounted for Brent Guerra; Adam Goodes stitched up Aaron Hamill; and Craig Bolton restricted Nick Riewoldt to only a cameo of his sparkling performances this season.
Thomas bemoaned the lack of forward pressure after the game. "For four of their five defenders to be the top possession-getters on the day and to give them so much drive from our forward 50m hasn't happened all year," he said.
"All year we've been really tough, hard, and relentless in our forward 50m and caused enormous pressure for opposition sides. But we didn't give pressure today and they walked around us.
"And because they walked around us, they were able to draw another player towards them, and then handball over the top, and away they went.
"Our lack of physicality on them really compounded the situation and allowed them to look better than it probably was."
MIDFIELD WOES
Although St Kilda's Trent Knobel and Justin Koschitzke had 46 hit-outs between them compared to opponents Jason Ball and Stephen Doyle's 34, the Swans were comprehensive winners in the midfield.
The alarm bells were ringing early in the first term when Austinn Jones found himself without a suitable defensive match-up and started on a wing against opposition captain Stuart Maxfield.
Maxfield began brilliantly and eventually Jones was moved to try to generate more drive.
Robert Harvey and Paul Williams went head to head in the centre, and while Harvey started well, Williams was also winning plenty of the ball, and significantly, his efforts kept getting better as the game wore on while Harvey was rotated off the bench.
Captain Lenny Hayes became another Brett Kirk scalp, finishing with only three kicks and nine handballs.
Luke Ball started with Jude Bolton as his minder, and was the side's major possession-getter with 18, the first time all season that no St Kilda player has had less than 20 touches.
Ball, along with Nick Dal Santo, who was arguably the Saints' best, were the preferred options in the midfield after halftime, but they, too, were overwhelmed by weight of opposition numbers.
"Leo (Barry) is a lot stronger than we realised," Thomas said. "Our supply would have helped Leo a lot, and our supply, to their credit, gave us enormous amount of pressure in the midfield, and our disposal and decision-making was as bad as it has been for some time."
BACKLINE MALAISE
Burly Swans spearhead Barry Hall was a match-winner with five goals against Luke Penny and Max Hudghton late in the game; and the ubiquitous Matthew Nicks, whom it was feared would not play at all this season because of a debilitating back injury, chipped in with four goals, after starting on Brendon Goddard.
In contrast, the Saints got only one major from a key forward (Riewoldt), while Guerra also snapped the game's first on his left foot, but was rarely sighted there after.
The one bright spot in defence for the Saints was Matt Maguire, who started on late replacement Heath James, and battled hard for his 11 kicks and four handpasses.
"I thought our defence and through the midfield we were really poor at manning up," Thomas said.
"And we allowed them to kick all those short lead-ups, that we said before the game was going to happen.
"We said they'd do that to frustrate us; we said they'd get numbers behind the ball; they did that as well.
"So we were well briefed and well analysed in relation to what they were going to do. But our lack of ability to deal with that and cope with that after we'd trained for it and prepared for it, was disappointing."
TURNING POINT
The turning point of the game came late in the second quarter after the Saints had increased their workrate to almost erase a 21-point deficit.
But after doing all the hard work to get within a point at the 19-minute mark, the Swans rallied with three goals to Hall, Jarrad McVeigh and Williams to stretch their advantage to 20 points at halftime.
From there the game was never in doubt, and the Swans put the match beyond St Kilda by piling on seven goals in the third quarter to surge 38 points clear ? and then kicked the first three majors of the last quarter.
Thomas said: "What the players are most disappointed about is their (lack of) effort. They just didn't bring their A-grade effort to the game today.
"If we had had a serious crack, but for whatever reason, we made mistakes and things didn't go our way, and we were beaten in the end, that makes it more palatable.
"But I suppose the fact we just didn't work anywhere near hard enough, which is uncharacteristic of our players, that's probably the most disappointing thing."
NO WINNERS
When asked to nominate any positives from the game, Thomas was hard-pressed to find any.
"I really can't see that we had a winner on the day," he said.
"I can't remember one, although I haven't had enough time to pore through all the stats. I think we were beaten fairly and squarely by a much better, more committed team."
WINNING STREAK
Rival coaches Mick Malthouse (Collingwood) and Denis Pagan (Carlton) both said last week they felt a loss would be good for the Saints and ease some pressure, but Thomas does not agree.
"I don't subscribe to that," he said. "But I don't know what goes through all the players' heads.
"But I'd be really disappointed if they weren't desperately trying to win week in, week out.
"Now that we've lost we've just got to try to work out why we lost and then we've got to make sure we bounce back next week."
Swans' coach Paul Roos, however, said he didn't think a loss would hurt the Saints.
"They're 10 and 0, it's a great position for them to be in as a club. You know they're going to play finals, but a loss I wouldn't think will hurt them.
"They're still two games clear on top of the ladder; it's more a glitch in the road, rather than anything dramatic for them."
MARK OF THE YEAR
Nick Riewoldt catapulted himself headlong with the flight of the ball to take a sensational mark during the third quarter, albeit he nearly beheaded Milne in doing so.
Roos rated it one of the best he'd seen.
"I don't I've ever seen a player run that quick, that fast, headlong, in a situation like like. It was an outstanding effort; I haven't seen one like that for a long time."
