As a doggie supporter who has watched St Kilda smash us with their talls for years, I think St Kilda's strength is also its greatest weakness. When Kosi, Riewoldt and Gehrig are on fire Saints are hard to beat. When they are held, you have NO other options for scoring. Your midfield players don't score goals - compare that to what the Dogs did (Griffen 3 goals, Cooney 2 goals, Hill 2 goals) Our best forward scored nothing ( Johnno ) but every other forward did. Saints lack options and you struggle to play 4 quarters because your big guys can't consistently fire for 4 quarters.
I also worry your midfield stars played their best footy 3-4 years ago (injured Ball hasn't been great for years, Del Santo is hot and cold and Harvey is an all time legend who is in his last year )whereas we have the youngsters Cooney, Griffen, Boyd and Cross taking over from the old master Westy.
Saints have always outmuscled us in midfield with Hayes, Harvey, Ball, Baker ( you missed him) but we won the contests and then ran away from your slower side.

I still rate the Saints but you have to get more goal kickers in this era of running goals. Look at the Cats - everyone in the side kicks 2-3 goals each running down the ground. Hayes, Dal Santo and Harvey have never been regular goalkickers - that's your problem.

The Saints seem to be good a breaking down game plans and beating teams at their own game, it's great strategic coaching when it pays off.

We've got the 05/06 players all back in action, which basically means run, run and more run. Our disposals can be a bit sloppy at times look at fridays qtr time stats, you guys were significantly leading us in tackles and inside 50's yet we had more disposals the effort was all there but the execution was sloppy in the first qtr. Whereas St Kildas execution was fairly flawless. All your key forwards took marks inside fifty and kicked goals in the first qtr.

I dont mean to sound over confident because being a bulldogs fan believe me im not but I knew we would come back, I didn't think it would be to that extreme though. Shutting the main guys out of it helped too. Our defense really stood up for the last 3 qtrs.

Overall though I think the Saints can and do play 4 qtrs of footy and remember we hadn't beaten you guys since 2004 so it has been long time coming.
GO DOGGIES 08

They can and DO play four quarters of footy - they're just not good enough to put teams away, they simply aren't good enough to consistently outplay their opposition. They may have a good quarter or two , but as the game wears on will get outplayed and beaten by all the teams in the competition that are better than them.

I was at the game and I can admit easily that the dogs killed us in the midfield. Alot of their goals came from midfielders running freely into the 50 and kicking easy goals on the run. The Saints need to pressure opposition midfields for longer.

jesus i cant remember coming on here last. i think the doggies will be a very good team this year

And credit to the doggies they played exceptionally well!!! I think next week against the catters it's either going to be walk in the park for the cats or a close game. Depends on what quality football the saints decide to play. I hope for the saints sake they come out and play a good game, even though there likely to lose at least I know the came up against a good side and played the game.

good win to the doggies, i tipped them and they came through. Griffens tepped up. Saints had too many passengers

Confidence We the DOGGIES gained it through the game & you guys lost it. The game's one in the midfield and that's where we played some of our best tonight. It's like you guys relide on the next big shot to do the work and when they didn't knowone did in the end. A well deserved win for the boys

Very dissapointing result ( Cos i tipped them ) but by gee, did the doggies get a nice run ????

im annoyed 2.
i think its still form. a lot of players are still not playing awesome. also i think bringing goddard in was a misstake, and also bringin raph clarke back in aswell.
the reason y i think we dont is because our guns (reiwoldt, dal santo etc) onli ever play 2 or 3 quarters. the coach palys players in the rong spots, wen we get up against a **** team like carlton we just sit back n think its won.