St Kilda

[cruiser]

From an article in today's SMH:

The Swans brought St Kilda's 10-game winning streak to an abrupt end in round 11 at the SCG earlier this year, and the trip to Melbourne to face a team that finished third after the premiership rounds were over will hold no fears.

With few injury worries and in some of their best all-round form this year, the Swans will meet a Saints outfit battling to overcome their confidence-sapping, 80-point thrashing at the hands of the three-time premiers, the Brisbane Lions, on Friday night.

[Mike_B]

That pretty much sums it up, and I wouldn't be surprised if we go in as favourites on the betting lines.

[SXP]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. As Roosy would normally say "One match at the time, please".
The fact is that Saint will re-group, afterall they are playing in Melbourne and will be very heavilly scrutinised by the media. They won't be an easy task and will come out firing.

[Barry Schneider]

St Kilda are soft front runners.Our intensity won the game earlier this season and it will do it again.I wonder if the Coleman medallist will get more than 1 handball this game.
We just need to keep Riewoldt outside kicking distance.

[NMWBloods]

I don't like it when we're favourites. Hope the guys remain focussed.

[dread and might]

i'm glad it's not at the phone booth! saints will be looking to bounce back, IMHO thomas left riewoldt too deep for too long. i doubt wether that will happen again. c bolt did a great job on him last time, give him the job again.

[BigBadBustlin]

I hope the boys are switched on from the start next week, they seem to have slow starts recently. If we can get on top of them early, they might go into their shell and the mental scarring that the lions dished out might surface.

It should be very very close, i doubt the saints will just roll over after such a successful season. The key will be stopping their forward line, particularly Riewoldt. I'm sure they will be thinking the same thing about Bazza.

Looks as if it will be a battle of 2 of the best forward lines in the competition. If we can break even in the middle, we should be able to kick a winning score with baz, magic, schneiderman, ROK, Goodsey and Davis all great targets. I hope Goodsey starts up forward like he did last night.

[Foreign Legion]

Make no mistake, the first 20 minutes will be played at fever pitch. The journos have started on the Saints already.

We need to remain calm and focussed on a 4 qtr effort - I reckon we will be slight favourites but following the Swans you know that means nothing!

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by Foreign Legion
Make no mistake, the first 20 minutes will be played at fever pitch. The journos have started on the Saints already.

We need to remain calm and focussed on a 4 qtr effort - I reckon we will be slight favourites but following the Swans you know that means nothing!

I think our "anonymity" will be our biggest asset this week. The Melbourne media machine will be at the young and gifted but equally brittle Sainters all week. Plus I don't think that Thomas is as tactily adroit as maybe Matthews Sheedy or even Thompson may be.

We can just concentrate on our own game. And have interviews with the Sydney media, who Jeff Wells aside rarely are tough on the team in any case.

I'm excited about our chances here.

JF

[swan_song]

Yes, let's not get cocky. Sure, I can see no reason that we can't win on Friday night, but then again I've often seen no reason why we shouldn't win, sometimes even at three-quarter time when we're six goals up. We all know footy is a fickle game, all we can do is wish the boys our best these next three weeks and hope and pray... The sainters will be no pushover, they will want to redeem themselves, mightily.

But then again, if, by the grace of God, we did manage to win one...would it be an enormous let down for followers of a club that hasn't seen success for almost three quarters of a century. What would I have to look forward to...

[cruiser]

Originally posted by swan_song
What would I have to look forward to...

Blissful happiness for a week.

[Bron]

Originally posted by cruiser
Blissful happiness for a week.

Three times.

[EMJ]

Spoke to a couple at the game Swans supporters living in Sydney. Their son is a St Kilda supporter living in Melbourne - said that the team has lost confidence in their coach.
Hope he is correct.
Didn't think much when their coach tossed the phone down on Friday night in temper.
Keep up the great coaching Roos - three more games please - we have confidence in you.
We showed it before you came coach.

[Thunder Shaker]

Originally posted by swan_song
What would I have to look forward to...

If we won a premiership you can look forward to the mother of all hangovers on the following Monday.

[BigBadBustlin]

If we won you would have a final against the chokers to look forward to. They didnt convince anyone with their performance today, i thought geelong were just poor.