St Kilda coach Alan Richardson dissects his team’s 49-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday night.
On how the game at Etihad Stadium played out …
“In the early part of the game, most of the first half, we were really competitive. We had some real opportunities to put scoreboard pressure on (but we) didn’t do that, and if you don’t do that against good teams there’s a fair chance they’re going to have their period (of dominance).
“Our third quarter was poor, particularly the start of the third quarter. We were beaten badly by the Crows in clearances in that quarter. They were able to get field position and score on us, that was pretty obvious.
“There was a bit of a response in the last but they were just a bit too good. Our forward line didn’t work. To respond in the contest is pleasing, it’s something we were beaten in really badly last week (against North Melbourne). They (the Crows) flogged the Tigers in that same area, so it was good to come out on top there. I think hard-ball gets were also pleasing.
“But you just can’t beat quality teams if you don’t maximise your opportunities. We felt like the boys had big periods of control in the first half and just weren’t able to get any sort of scoreboard pressure, and that can potentially changes things.
“We had 54 (forward 50m) entries to 51 against a really good footy team, and the sort of team we want to be. We’re not there, obviously. That’s good, but it just underpins the fact that we weren’t able to maximise (our opportunities).”
On skill errors that marred the game …
“I don’t know how many times we kicked it out on the full tonight, but it seemed a lot. And it wasn’t always under pressure. They (the Crows are) a good team in terms of putting on pressure, but we did just fail in some basic execution.
“It was the same in our front half. I thought at times our guys got reasonable opportunities and reasonable looks at the ball, no worse than what (Taylor) Walker and (Josh) Jenkins would’ve got … and yet there was a different … in terms of the way they were able to maximise that.”
On whether the Saints have enough class players with finishing skills …
“In Round One, we finished the round ranked No.1 in the competition for effective disposals and Brisbane’s pressure and defence was pretty positive for big parts of that game.
“We’ve just been knocked off our game a little bit offensively. I’m parking (the performance) last week, and talking about these two games (Round One and Three). It’s something I think we can address reasonably quickly. We’ll work on it on the training track. We spoke about that post-game, (that) guys have got to take a bit more responsibility to get a bit more done. When something’s not working, it’s one thing to talk about it but it only gets fixed when you do something about it and that’s what we’ll do.”
On inexperienced ruckman Rowan Marshall’s battle with Sam Jacobs …
“I thought he (Marshall) was good and he’ll get better. We got beaten in hit-outs. Jacobs is a big, experienced ruckman and Rowan was playing his second game of footy, but by and large I thought it was a positive performance.
“I thought (Nick) Coffield did some good work too (on debut). I felt comfortable when Coffield had the ball on a day when we weren’t hitting targets as often as we’d like and we swung him around a little bit between midfield and back. I thought he showed that, as he continues to improve and grow, he’s going to be a real player for us.”
