NAB Challenge – Melbourne v St Kilda: Learning and Rotating

Sunday, 13 March 2016
4:10 pm (AEST, 2:10 pm Kyoto)
Docklands Stadium

After the cancellation a week earlier and the Richmond’s sending off three players, St Kilda kept motivated to the preseason match against Melbourne.

Unfortunately I had to work on Sunday so had no opportunity to watch the game at my favourite Coolabah. Only keeping up with the live radio coverage and highlights video is the only activity to write here, although some interruptions occurred before and during the game as well as post match.

The Game with live SEN coverage and match highlights video

At the First Quarter, the mighty Saints got the score with a behind first. Then our gin Josh Bruce took a mark and scored a goal in the first two minute. His position was on the left close to the boundary line inside 50. It was good start for the Saints so my hope winning the game flied up.

But opponent player Peterson took a mark by the goal led scoring a goal.

Demon defender’s poor kick gave Jack Lonie to possession kicking a ball to Jack Billings at 22 minutes reminding. Paul Roos seemed to be anxious on the bench. He kicked a goal from 25 metres out. Commentator Terry Wallace made a comment “Lonie setting up, Billings kicking goals.” How brilliant work two Jacks made

But at the second quarter, Dempster was hit by the opponent goal and gave Demons an opportunity to score a goal. What a pity!

At 11:18 reminding, former Blue Jeff Garlett who had an off field incident got a ball from the similar collision and scored a goal. I feel shame to see him kicking a goal.

At over six minutes reminding, Riewold, Lonie and Armitage kicked balls towards to create a good inside 50 with the straight angle toward goal posts. Then Armitage scored a goal.

Steven and Newnes did another great team work kicking the ball to our veteran Leigh Montagna who scored a goal from the right hand side boundary line. The video commentator complimented him with “Thank you Joey.” It is like when Joey kicked the winning goal at Docklands against Demons last year. Saints were to marching in.

Bruce scored his second goal at the beginning of the third quarter which gave me a hope to see Saints go marching in.

Garlett’s evil power came back after Bruce’s goal. That was when I had to disconnect listening to SEN on Sunday not because I lost my hope but had to go back to work.

We missed the opportunity to score a goal around seven minutes reminding by being tackled three time by Demons and then free kick wax awarded to the opponents. So bad to see.

At the beginning of the last quarter, Riewoldt could not take a mark from the ball kicked by Gilbert. But Bruce got a ball and tossed towards Newnes who scored a goal.

Afterwards were Demon shows. No more St Kilda dominant highlights on the video.

Even it was just a preseason match, losing to the opponent who was alleged to use the game against us to tank to pick early draft is not what I want to see. But I put my head up and hope we keep winning against ‘evils’ in home and away season games.

Star Jacks

On Monday, I found the Monday Wash Up article published on St Kilda club App was interesting. Two Jacks, Billings and Lonie are mentioned in the top column. They were potent in attack. Lonie created opportunities to score goals while Billings booted, as mentioned above in the match report. Brilliant Jack Saints.

Veterans

Age is not the issue for Montagna, the article continues. He collected 27 possessions and five inside 50s.

Sadly our captain Riewoldt left the ground due to the general tightness. Many fans seem to worry but the coach Alan Richardson plays down. I believe he will be back to play at Round 1 against Port Adelaide.

Rotation issues

After the all-time very long work on Monday night, I found another interesting article on the Age website.

In the match, the club was worried of number of interchange cap at 90. Then the club only used 35 rotations on the first half.

Ruckman Tom Hickey was not granted to have a break on the bench when he seemed to want to go off the field.

Footy is a hard and contact sport with long running. Rotating is needed to keep up the game.

AFL’s changing rules always confuse coaches and clubs. As a person who is often asked many tasks while doing tasks that my boss had just asked so that gets confused, clubs should not suffered by such changes.

And we all need to know individuals have limit to do things. We are human beings not machines. It is good to push limits, but unreasonable push ups cause confusion and potentially mental damages

Long-hour works are unreasonable, in my opinion. In my current work, I feel like did Hickey on the ground. Indeed I am seeking a better job where I will be able to perform well with better qualities.

Number of interchange cap should be revised as some fans urge that the rule is advantaged with the club who has more experienced players, for equalisation.

MELBOURNE 0.4.1 0.8.5 0.11.12 1.14.14 (107)
ST KILDA 0.4.5 0.6.7 9.10.0 0.12.11 (83)

NAB SUPERGOALS
Melbourne: Salem
St Kilda: Nil

GOALS
Melbourne: Garlett 3, Watts 2, Oliver 2, Kent 2, Hogan 2, Kennedy, Pedersen, Bugg
St Kilda: Billings 3, Bruce 2, Armitage, Montagna, Hickey, Steven, Newnes, Weller, Dunstan

BEST
Melbourne: Garlett, Watts, Hogan, Bugg
St Kilda: Steven, Lonie, Ross, Montagna, Billings, Newnes and Fisher

Official crowd: 8,621