Schneider & Dempster in the GF....

[reigning premier]

Saw a few comments on another thread re these two so rather than de-railing that one, and considering it's as close as we got to the GF this year , thought it worthy of a discussion.

Didn't see much of Dempster but Thought Schneider played OK. Didn't deserve the pasting some have given him. He was the Saints leading goal scorer and kicked 2.3. Had he kicked 4.1, he would of won the Norm Smith (And I had $5 on him too).

[SwansFan1972]

Yep - he went ok - but as we all know, Grand Finals require a bit more than ok.

Same flaws as when he was with us - butchers opportunities that should be converted. Still kicks with his tongue out (maybe should try keeping it in)!

Still sad for him and all the Saints though - had it in the bag and let it slip.

[AnnieH]

Speaking of past players ... did anyone watch the VFL granny on Friday night?

Saddo is still getting in trouble every time the ball comes near him.

[Hartijon]

Yep - he went ok - but as we all know, Grand Finals require a bit more than ok.

Same flaws as when he was with us - butchers opportunities that should be converted. Still kicks with his tongue out (maybe should try keeping it in)!

Still sad for him and all the Saints though - had it in the bag and let it slip.

Yeah,that says it all! against Geelong ok is not good enough,neither is typical
missed chances. I really thought with the weather it was Milne's and Schneider's day.It wasn't,Schneider played ok, Milne was terrible. Dempster,well he had the rare chance to almost seal the game in the last quarter and never looked like doing it,was slow and I can see why we let him go. Rather have Shaw and Mal or Mattner on our half back line any day.

[Cardinal]

Saw a few comments on another thread re these two so rather than de-railing that one, and considering it's as close as we got to the GF this year , thought it worthy of a discussion.

Didn't see much of Dempster but Thought Schneider played OK. Didn't deserve the pasting some have given him. He was the Saints leading goal scorer and kicked 2.3. Had he kicked 4.1, he would of won the Norm Smith (And I had $5 on him too).

Yep - cost me my $2 at 101 as well

[573v30]

I was glad to see Schneider kick a couple of goals on the big occasion but at the same time very disappointed to see him blatantly dive for free kicks inside the forward 50. Leave that to the filthy rodent (Milne).

[hammo]

St Kilda lost the game because they blew their chances inside 50 and Schneider was the chief offender. His 3 behinds were all howlers, his second goal simply because he was in the right place at the right time a dodgy free kick was given.

He did all the hard work in the last quarter to get inside his man, get onto his left and kick from about 45 but it never went close.

[Cardinal]

I was glad to see Schneider kick a couple of goals on the big occasion but at the same time very disappointed to see him blatantly dive for free kicks inside the forward 50. Leave that to the filthy rodent (Milne).

St Kilda lost the game because they blew their chances inside 50 and Schneider was the chief offender. His 3 behinds were all howlers, his second goal simply because he was in the right place at the right time a dodgy free kick was given.

He did all the hard work in the last quarter to get inside his man, get onto his left and kick from about 45 but it never went close.

And didn't his playing for frees cost him in the end. Mind you the entire Hawthorn team and Selwood seem to have done ok from their acting. Don't think Milne will be so lucky though.

[Lohengrin]

Schneider had a deadset shocker. Missed 2 gimmes and 1 gettable goal. Cost the Saints the flag with his poor efforts. With that much experience in GFs he should have done a lot better, but missing the easy shots is what we were used to with him.

He kicked one real goal (the second doesn't count for assessing his perfomance) - 1.3 for the day was wasteful.

Dempster was ineffective.

[lachlanc]

Also think Schneider had a shocker, and I could see why we traded him, for all his liveliness this year. When he really has to do it, like kick a goal in the Grand Final, you can't rely on him. It was same when he wore red and white - you just couldn't be confident he would nail the big goals. His scoreline of two goals flattered him - one was a free kick at point blank range.

Best thing you could say is that he was infinitely better than Milne.

[Melbournehammer]

actually I think most of this thread misses the point. Schneider and Dempster did their job under the lyons game plan - keep the ball in - don't let mackie, harley run off you. Don't let them go third man up too often. And don't let geelong get uncontested possessions. They tackled hard and kept the ball in which was what they were there for.

The reality is that neither is an A grade goal sneak - in fact milne is better than both at that by quite some distance.

I remain frustrated with schneider because he has a good footy brain but he does have (barring that final quarter v the saints) an unerring ability to miss gettable goals, and a little frustrated with dempster because as father sons go he wasn't scarlett or ablett

The thing that stuffed the saints was the weather - st kilda had better big man forwards, geelong better little man forwards. The weather made it a day for little men forwards....and neither schneider nor dempster are in the top echelon for this.

I'm happy we traded them (although I still think we traded "light" to a mate rather than what they were worth) but they did their jobs

[mcs]

actually I think most of this thread misses the point. Schneider and Dempster did their job under the lyons game plan - keep the ball in - don't let mackie, harley run off you. Don't let them go third man up too often. And don't let geelong get uncontested possessions. They tackled hard and kept the ball in which was what they were there for.

The reality is that neither is an A grade goal sneak - in fact milne is better than both at that by quite some distance.

I remain frustrated with schneider because he has a good footy brain but he does have (barring that final quarter v the saints) an unerring ability to miss gettable goals, and a little frustrated with dempster because as father sons go he wasn't scarlett or ablett

The thing that stuffed the saints was the weather - st kilda had better big man forwards, geelong better little man forwards. The weather made it a day for little men forwards....and neither schneider nor dempster are in the top echelon for this.

I'm happy we traded them (although I still think we traded "light" to a mate rather than what they were worth) but they did their jobs

They might have done their job on the day, but surely part of Schneiders job, especially on a wet day at the G is to kick any goals that present themselves. His misses (especially that one from about 10 out) were criminal, and in a low scoring, close tussle, he could very well have made the difference for the Saints. He can do very good things at times, but I'm not convinced about his ability to step it up a gear and put the proverbial foot in when the opponent is on the ropes.

As for Dempster, he did ok but that is all he ever does imo. I'm still not unhappy we traded them, apart from what we recieved in return for them in terms of a draft pick, but thats footy.

[satchmopugdog]

I thought Dempster did some excellent work.. In the pack situations he did some excellent shepherds to free space for others. Nothing flashy but a lot of self sacrificing stuff. I kept saying to my brother"Did you see what Dempster did then..that was so good." Maybe because I was looking for him, but also I look for that stuff..like the stuff Bird does for us that doesn't get noticed.

[Darren Thomson]

I'm not certain about iether players game. Under the conditions, and with the number of inside 50's the Saints had,you would have expected them to win by about blot. Geelong's defence is pretty bloody good though, and there isn't a team that has licked a big score on them this year, or the last three years, well, from memory. I think these players were serviceable without being Lenny Hayes, who had a blinding first quarter then trailed off a bit. Saints spent their petrol tickets creating opportunities that were not capitalised on and yes, Schneider may well have a kicked afew more, but show me a team that hasn't struggled to kick goals against Geelong.

[mcs]

I'm not certain about iether players game. Under the conditions, and with the number of inside 50's the Saints had,you would have expected them to win by about blot. Geelong's defence is pretty bloody good though, and there isn't a team that has licked a big score on them this year, or the last three years, well, from memory. I think these players were serviceable without being Lenny Hayes, who had a blinding first quarter then trailed off a bit. Saints spent their petrol tickets creating opportunities that were not capitalised on and yes, Schneider may well have a kicked afew more, but show me a team that hasn't struggled to kick goals against Geelong.

All that you say is completely true DT, but at the end of the day Schneider (Along With Milne) missed clear cut opportunities against the Geelong defence. Every team struggles to kick goals against Geelong, but it wasn't the case on Saturday that St Kilda simply didn't have enough chances to win the game. They had plenty of opportunities (Especially considering how good their defence is) to kick enough goals to win, but they wasted several golden chances, and Schneider was one of the worst offenders. It was never going to be about St Kilda kicking 20 goals and flogging Geelong- if St Kilda was going to win it was going to be a close game, and that it was, and St Kilda had their chances, but didn't take them.