The Soaring

Recap
Well, the Sunday Times called it Mission Impossible but a combination of poor football by the home team and the rousing motivation of Robert Harvey’s 350th game meant it was in fact possible. The Saints toppled the Eagles at home by 23 points.

West Coast Eagles 3.4 4.5 10.7 11.10 76
St Kilda 3.3 10.6 12.7 15.9 99

Top Five
1. Team Hierarchy
Every team has a hierarchy. If you’ve played team sport we know about this. There are certain players who lead from the front and the rest of the team follows. For the West Coast Eagles we have two such players in our current list and neither played on Sunday. Namely, they are Judd and Cousins.

Daniel Kerr, for all his positive press, has yet to raise his football to the level required of a number 1 go-to player. He might has the capacity to do so, but hasn’t needed to since he was drafted. Now in his 7th season he’s finding it hard to switch on and become the unstoppable force that we know the other two regularly are / have been.

In addition, our other midfielders can’t flick the switch either. They have roles and they are used to playing a certain way. One small example of this yesterday saw Tyson Stenglein working hard to block his opponent off the ball. He kept his opponent out but there was no Judd to come scooping through to clear the area. Instead of making a play for the ball himself, another Saints player came through and got the clearance. The hierarchy has become unsettled and I don’t see any easy or quick fix.

2. Mid-season form
We make a habit of it don’t we? Last season we managed to sandwich our bye with some poor form and losses to the Bulldogs (home) and Port (away) and this season we’ve done the same. I guess it’s complacency. The foot comes of the pedal. I understand that. I just hope we get the foot back on the pedal soon because form is dangerous to flirt with.

The good news is we turned it around last season and there is nothing to suggest we can’t do it again this season. If you look at our side yesterday it is still a very young and inexperienced team. Whilst the inexperience of Hurn (18 games), Graham (28 games), LeCras (13 games), Morton (9 games), Waters (45 games), Rosa (30 games), and Priddis (14 games) hurts when exposed like yesterday’s game, the upside is there is still plenty of scope for improvement. Add in some of our injured stars currently out of the side and things are not as gloomy as they seem.

3. The Old Forward-line Chestnut
Up forward we have two problems 1) In the absence of Hansen there is only one Q.Lynch and he can’t play FF and CHF and 2) there are no other reliable options. None.

The last quarter, highlighted by the coach, saw us repeatedly bomb the ball in to packs of 6 or more players hoping some one would take a mark (like Seaby did at the end of the third). It should be recognised that is the exception, rather than the rule, and also makes for an easy clearance from defence as the Saints flooded back.

I am not sure we don’t make better use of our options up forward. Hunter has been a non factor in the forward line this season. LeCras and Morton are leading out rather than creative types and again go missing (same with McKinley in the WAFL). Ditto Wirra. Seaby is at best a third option and is after all a resting ruckman. All of these problems are exacerbated by poor delivery.

Some how we need to get our forwards more space to work in and then be smart with our delivery. How often do you see a one-on-one in our forward line? Apart from the odd lead to the pocket, never. Relying on muscle and the luck of bounce is too predictable and not productive enough. Something needs to change.

4. The Saviour Cousins
He isn’t really (Judd is!). But going on yesterday’s midfield effort - it will be nice to have his run, competitiveness and leadership back on the ground.

I have resisted mentioning too much about Benny-boy on this blog because of the very fact it is easy to place unrealistic expectations upon a player, hoping he will come in a sort out all your problems. Firstly, he hasn’t been available so no use crying over spilt milk. Secondly, he’s not going to come in a solve all our problems.

What he will do though is significantly improve the calibre of our team. Take out the worst player from the team yesterday and insert Cousins - see what I mean? For all his dramas off the field, he sets the standard on the field and after yesterday’s deplorable effort we need that badly.

(And if you’re still not convinced, just look at the impact one R. Harvey had to the Saints. It never ceases to amaze me how much of the game of football is played “between the ears”).

5. Ok, now’s the time to snap out of it fellas
Next week we play Adelaide in Adelaide. Although we have good recent form against them, we will need to step up big time to be competitive against them as they are a side beginning to find some form. Hansen and Embley are two players who usually do well against them and it is unlikely they will play (Hansen is no chance, Embley a very slight one).

Really what we need to pull our heads out of the mid-season malaise by winning over the ascendency in the midfield. Really, that is where we dominate or get beaten - out of the middle. With no Judd, Cousins, Embley, Fletcher we are no where near as strong there as we once were. Couple that with less run and less confidence up forward and we are on toast for teams who are prepared to work hard in the middle (see Hawthorn, Geelong, Bummers and now Saints).

Next week shapes as a critical game - if we don’t bounce back we will need to work extra hard for the remaining 9 games (again with some tough away games). If we do win I feel it will give us some new found confidence and the knowledge of what it takes to win when we need to win.