I'd expect Pagan to try a flood style which the Saints weren't able to break against Geel. The question is are we capable of executing it as well as the Cats did…and away from the Dome? That's the bit where my heart slips a little. I reckon Mclaren will be good dropping back to help Whitts & Tbird in defence. French in for Deluca seems logical as St K really struggle in the ruck.

Wouldn't mind seeing Prenda come in for Fish actually - saw him for the Ants against Willy the other week & took strong marks all day.

The Saints with a 9 day break & plenty of motivation will still win it I reckon, but not by more than 4-5 goals.

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#DonTheStash

Confirmed on the AFL official site that Hudghton has accepted his one week suspension.

http://carltonfc.com.au/default.asp?pg= ... eid=266015

That takes a lot of drive out of the St Kilda defence.

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Some more useless info;

Of our 5 losses, 4 have come from teams inside the top 8 as it stands today. Only 1 from bottom 8

Saints have lost 4 - 2 from top 8 and 2 from bottom 8 including Port.

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end of message

i would love us to win, goes without saying, then why did i say it? anyway, i think the battle will be won and lost in the midfield.

we know with hudgton out, fev will take the next best defender(maguire) who really, would have gone to wait most likely, and then waite will get number three(voss) who probably would have gone to fisher and kennedy will be up next.

i think this week is the perfect opportunity to give big Bear Bryan a run in the navy blue....put him in the forward line, where St. Kilda are going to be stretched already dealing with fev, waite, and JK. Throw the bear in there (lol) and thats a pretty formidable forward line. Drop deluca and bring in blackers to play off the bench and swapping on the ball.....throw him right in the deep end and see how he goes.

in games from now on we really need to hang a nut out and take some risks, we signalled our intentions on sunday and to backpedal now would be extremely disappointing.

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Back like a raging case of pubic lice

bnz - are you gay and are you having a relationship with Bear.



you sure or keen on him playing though i dont mind him either, would certainly prefer him over Deluca that is for sure.

Sultana or Bear for me over Deluca - any day of the week

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

i have been pushing the bear bandwagon for a while now haven't i prez???

it's just frustrating that a bloke who is 6 foot 4000 built like a brick shithouse, can mark and can hit a target on the tit from 80000km isnt in the senior side.


but yes, me and the bear have spent several nights together.....ironically, on the bear skin rug.

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Back like a raging case of pubic lice

Here are my thoughts on Sunday's game.

St Kilda's forward line is better than our backline (7/10 vs. 4/10)

Their mid-field is better than our mid-field (8/10 vs. 6/10)

Our forward line is better than their defence (8/10 vs. 3/10).

That's 18 all.

On current form (if I can ignore the second half against Collingwood), we're in better shape, and rain is forecast, which is better for us, given our 'contested posession' statistics this season.

Current odds on 'Sportsbet': St Kilda 1.37, Carlton 3.10

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

IMO we should have two changes this week.

One of them has to be French in for DeLuca. The Saints major weakness is in the ruck and although they win a lot of clearances it puts them on the back foot and I believe is the greatest advantage we have over them. We have two AFL ruckmen in French and McLaren and they don't have one unless the include Rix. DeLuca didn't show a lot in the ruck for mine so Barnaby after a weeks penance and a good game in the Bullants comes back.

Up forward with Waite Kennedy and Fevola we appear to be too big and strong for their defenders unless they re-jig their team. In normal situations you would say the Saints would include Rix which would release Blake to play down back. However Thomas has stated before that he doesn't think ruckmen are necessary so it may be Hudghton out and Milne in with Goddard playing on Waite.

Just a quick question for some of our track watchers. If Justin Davies is listed as indefinite with a back injury can we elevate a rookie and who is closest to demanding a senior game?

The second change IMO should be the inclusion of another midfield runner and given the current senior list I think that would most likely be either Bannister or Sporn. If we could elevate Smith Jackson or Flint then I would love to see one of them make their debut.

If it is Bannister or Sporn then I think it shows that the club is more interested in winning games than giving another of the youngsters a senior game. Bannister and Sporn have shown the ability to be a run with or tagging player and can also play defense depending upon the Saints forward set up. They could play on Harvey or Hayes as part of a 3 way rotation with Wiggins and Scotland. I think Lappin to the back half and if he is getting touched up or we want him on ball then he could also play either Sporn or Bannister off half back. Carrazzo on Milne with Saddington taking Gehrig and

If Barnaby and McLaren can give us first usage by clever ruck taps out of the centre and we get a simliar result to the Cats ie smash them in Hit outs, hit outs to advantage, first possession from the ruck use and clearances well in our favour then we just need to use the ball properly to give our forwards ample chances to kick a winning score.

If BNZ isn't i will be. Bear has to be given a shot, Deluca shows nothing in the ruck never has so we have nothing to lose.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Th other advantage with Bear is that playing him at CHF and keeping him around the 50m arc creates space for Fev to lead into, but bear marking around 55-65m out kills any flood as it's a shot at goal from that distance.

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“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Guys Bryan was reportedly dragged (repeatedly) in the VFL on the weekend and is not putting in the effort. The regular VFL watchers say he is no where near a call up.

Why do people think we play good in the rain?
... Remember the Collingwood game we barely scored when the ground was wet!

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"Dont count the games, make the games count"

Wouldn't surprise me if Bryan is that player who won't be playing seniors again.

Bryan would surely have to get a game if say Barney & McLaren went down injured.

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There's so much I could say...

if bear is the guy who was told he would not be in senior contention this year i just dont understand...

why would you draft a guy, and then 12 months later tell him he is not going to play what you drafted him for.....to me that just doesnt make sense.

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Back like a raging case of pubic lice

David Clarke anyone?

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Afew players were drafted to play seniors and we ain't going to be using them for that......

I think Bear was recruited specifically as a backup ruckman in case French got injured when we missed out on Knobel. I reckon if we'd have got Knobel in the PSD he probably wouldn't have been picked up.

Now with McLaren as another ruckman in the side I reckon the writing is on the wall.

It was probably just a case of recruting Bryan as an insurance policy and while we have him see what he can do.

Having a look at finalsiren they have a list of the top 20 players over the last 5 meetings between these teams.

http://www.finalsiren.com/PreviousGames ... layerLast5

5 of the top 6 are Saints (no surprises there),

Hayes, Harvey, Dal Santo, Gehrig and Reiwoldt.

We need to shut down as much as possible 2 out of those three midfielders, they have cut us up (Harvey in particular) in recent times.

Carlton only has 2 players in the top 10 and both are out of form at the moment, time for some others to step up.

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|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

The scary thing about that link is the Top 20 players since 1993. Only current Carlton player is Kouta, and he's probably in his last year. It really highlights the problems we've had bringing young players through in the last 13 years or so...