RD 4 : Blues Beat Saints To Win The Cake-Tin !!

[LanceRomance]

x2

Agree about Cripps being tagged but Judd should be back next week working beside Murph so unlikely they will tag Cripps when the other 2 are in there.

I was impressed with him for that very reason. He didn't have a lot of support today but still managed to have standout game.

I wasn't convinced with him early on but I'm on the bandwagon now!

Given the type of game he plays... Cripps would be a very hard player to tag.

[DJC]

@DJC potentially saints weren't able to cut off our close options like other teams are, leaving the handball option to players in better position open..... but maybe someone at the ground can comment more informatively

Possibly IOT but my impression from our other three games is that we didn't look for close options, by hand or foot.

[shadesy]

Just watched the replay, Cripps was Bog.. By a fair margin.

[cookie2]

And that's why I disagree with the rebuild.  Our list has deficiencies and we lack depth but we don't need to make wholesale changes.

G. Healey today during the game suggested that we are already well into our rebuild.

[MosquitoFleet]

They build the bridge to take the side to the next step though. That's how sides develop and evolve.

Take judd out the rest are building a bridge to the bottom...

[Bear]

King did another dissection of the list immediately after the game on Fox... they didn't even show the song... give us at least 5 mins of enjoyment you pricks!

[crashlander]

King did another dissection of the list immediately after the game on Fox... they didn't even show the song... give us at least 5 mins of enjoyment you pricks!

Unlikely to get one from King. From Maclure, yes, and he would have played the song. 
I bet he didn't mention the players we had unavailable either.

[Brettie]

Btw - with the crowd, about 95% of the crowd was seated on the TV viewing side of the ground to make it look good on camera, as there were literally only a couple of hundred people on the opposite camera side of the ground. Smoke and mirrors!

[MosquitoFleet]

Btw - with the crowd, about 95% of the crowd was seated on the TV viewing side of the ground to make it look good on camera, as there were literally only a couple of hundred people on the opposite camera side of the ground. Smoke and mirrors!

thats why I think it was 6-8,000 only

[kruddler]

I disagree.  There was a dramatic change in the way we used the football.  Against Richmond we had 196 kicks and 129 handpasses, against West Coast it was 192 kicks and 128 handpasses, 200 kicks and 136 handpasses against Essendon and today it was 193 kicks and 182 handpasses.  You can't tell me that the players all decided to handpass more today.

Clearly, Malthouse has realised that the kick at all costs approach results in too many turnovers and he has instructed the players to handpass more.  I haven't seen the game yet but the radio commentary gave me the impression that our ball movement was better and was set up by creative handpassing. 

Another marked difference from our previous three games is the fact that almost all of our goals were scored from directly in front and there were relatively few shots from the pockets.

The players may have controlled their arousal levels a little better but Malthouse definitely changed the way we played and he deserves credit for that.

Playing on a smaller ground means less space to kick too and more handballs result. There was always going to be more handballs especially since the numbers of stoppages skyrocketed as well.

Different ground + Different conditions = Different style of play.

Doubt you'll see the same handball:kick ratio next week back on the 'G.