Round 21 Pre-Game Articles - Page 1
Road ahead shapes as test for Saints
Already, it's been an extraordinary year for St Kilda, but the real challenge for its players is not today and not even in the next six weeks. It's over the next few years. As much as I am sure the Saints are looking only short-term, starting with today's game at the Gabba, experience tells me that how they handle their rise in football status will be the big test. It becomes a battle of will and ego, and of how prepared individuals are to forgo personal success for team good, whether they are still willing to make the sacrifices that won't earn a headline or a bigger pay packet but will make the team better.
The Article - Michael Voss - TheAge - 22Aug04
Knobel intentions
Trent Knobel need only gaze across the Gabba centre square at rucking counterpart Clark Keating today to see what can be achieved with a modicum of talent and a lot of heart. For these two former Gold Coast juniors there is none of the finesse or fancy tapwork of Luke Darcy or Peter Everitt. Instead, the job description is simply to nullify high-leaping opponents or, in the words of Knobel, 'be ultra-competitive'. Both are a throwback to a former era; the personification of the bash-and-crash ruckman.
The Article - Jon Ralph - HeraldSun - 22Aug04
Saints will definitely feel heat
. . . Thomas said he will rely on the players and his conditioning staff to ensure the Saints do not melt under the Queensland sun with temperatures expected in the mid-20s. The Saints are already prolific users of the interchange rule. In round 6, when they beat the Lions by a behind, they used the bench 41 times, while the Lions used the interchange on 29 occasions of which about eight were to exchange ruckmen. "Conditions up there are going to be warmish and we have to make sure we rotate through the midfield and keep as much in their legs as we can," Thomas said. Thomas said he had viewed tapes of Brisbane's losses to Sydney and West Coast, but would not try to implement parts of either successful game plans against the Lions . . . He said they would rely heavily on their own achievements against the Lions to win.
The Article - Darren Cartwright - CourierMail - 21Aug04
Michael ready for Gehrig
. . . Lions coach Leigh Matthews made it clear Michael would be responsible for Gehrig's whereabouts and reducing the St Kilda forward to a mere mortal."Mal Michael did a real good job on him the last time they played," Matthews said. "Fraser Gehrig is a big, big strong man and he has speed as well, which is what Alastair Lynch's equation is. Therefore, you have to get a powerful man to play on them and Mal Michael provides that for us. So he is a good match-up and it will be a very, very good full-back against a very, very good full-forward."
The Article - Darren Cartwright - HeraldSun - 21Aug04
Big guns back for Saints
St Kilda will welcome back Justin Koschitzke and Stephen Powell for Sunday's crucial clash against Brisbane at the Gabba. Koschitzke, named on the bench, and Powell, who will start at half-forward are among five inclusions to the Saints' extended squad of 25. Justin Peckett, Stephen Milne and Andrew Thompson, who was a late withdrawal last week, are the others to come in.
The Article - Sportal - saints.com.au - 20Aug04
Lions settle on the one change - saints.com.au - 20Aug04
Three changes for Saints - Sportal - saints.com.au - 20Aug04
Leppitsch holds the key
How do you mark Nick Riewoldt? Justin Leppitsch gives Chip Le Grand some clues as to how he plans to go about it. At the Gabba, it is an imaginary zone between 10 and 40 metres out from goal and it's known as the House of Mal, the Land of Leppa. Or, as Justin Leppitsch simply calls it, the key. Had Leppitsch spent this week pondering how to match St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt stride for stride all over the Gabba tomorrow afternoon, it would have turned his orange hair white. Kangaroo Drew Petrie last week doggedly pursued Riewoldt the length and breadth of Telstra Dome only to finish the match a physical wreck and having seen his opponent take 18 marks. Leppitsch has other plans. The three-time All-Australian and premiership centre half-back knows he can't beat Riewoldt in a 100-metre sprint to the ball so he won't waste his legs trying. Leppitsch knows he can't match Riewoldt in a dash from the wing to the goalsquare under the shadow of the ball so he'll avoid getting stuck on the wing in the first place. If Riewoldt wants to run half a marathon and collect 20 marks, Leppitsch is prepared to wear it. So long as he protects the key.
The Article - Chip Le Grand - TheAustralian - 21Aug04
Lions to prove they are title contenders
. . . Saints defender Austinn Jones plays his 200th match and teammate and former Lion Trent Knobel makes his 50th appearance. Knobel, who was raised on the Gold Coast and swam alongside Grant Hackett as a junior swimmer, played 13 games with the Lions in 2000 and 2001 before being traded to St Kilda. He has experienced winning at the Gabba, but very few of his teammates have. St Kilda's only win from nine appearances at the Gabba was in 1991. Lynch and first-year utility Joel Macdonald were elevated to the senior side last night.
The Article - Darren Cartwright - CourierMail - 20Aug04
Saints primed to tame Lions: Jones
Experienced Saint Austinn Jones believes his side is better prepared than ever to knock off the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba. St Kilda has scored just one victory - in 1991 - in nine games at the Brisbane ground. But Jones, who will reach his 200-game milestone in the match critical to the top four placements, said his team's form this season indicated it was primed to buck the trend. "In previous years I know I believed that close enough would have been good enough. But this year if we don't win we'll be disappointed," he said on Thursday. "We will go up there more confident than maybe in years gone by (when) you go up to Brisbane and you probably don't expect to win. But we've got a great side going up, we are in form and we know that we can throw it down to them."
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 19Aug04
Lynch one of three additions
Ace AAPT Brisbane Lions full-forward Alastair Lynch has been named in a 25-man squad to meet St Kilda at the Gabba on Sunday after training through a 90-minute skills session tonight. Lynch was named in his customary position at full-forward after missing the last two weeks with a groin strain. The six-time club leading goalkicker has played nine games for a return of 31 goals this season, having missed the first two weeks with a thigh strain, Round 4 due to the travel factor, and Rounds 8-13 with an ankle problem. The 36-year-old booted three last quarter goals in the Round 6 clash between the two sides after being held goalless by Luke Penny to the last change. The Lions came from 25 points down nine minutes into the last quarter to hit the front by a goal, before an Austinn Jones behind and Troy Schwarze goal saw the Saints home by a point.
The Article - lions.com.au - 20Aug04
Pratt suspended by AFLQ Tribunal - lions.com.au - 20Aug04
The Jones boy quietly marks 200 games
While most players look forward to their milestone games putting them in the spotlight briefly, St Kilda's Austinn Jones is pleased his 200th coincides with the big match against Brisbane Lions. "It is good; I'd rather have a really big game. I don't want too much focus on my milestone, which playing Brisbane at home certainly has taken away from that," Jones said yesterday "It's good for the club, it's a massive game and I'm looking forward to it." Indeed, massive may be an understatement. As with last year's round-17 clash between the Lions and Port Adelaide at the Gabba, which Port won by a point, Sunday's match is seen by many as a grand final preview.
The Article - Lyall Johnson - TheAge - 20Aug04
Saints march without any fear
It is some measure of St Kilda's improvement and maturation as a football team that this weekend's trip to Brisbane to play the Lions is not as daunting as it once was. The Lions are an impressive 43-6 at the Gabba in the past four seasons, but that is not such a big deal to the Saints, who want to test themselves against the best going into the finals. " We'll go up there more confident than in years gone by," St Kilda veteran Aussie Jones said yesterday. " This year, if we don't win, we'll be disappointed."
The Article - Grantley Bernard - HeraldSun - 20Aug04
The kick that made Schwarze
One kick was all it took to transform Troy Schwarze's AFL career. Four months ago against the Brisbane Lions at Telstra Dome, the St Kilda defender kicked a dramatic 55m goal inside the final minute to give the Saints a one-point win. "Looking back . . . it's something that might have kick-started something for me. It might have just reaffirmed in my own mind that I was good enough to play," Schwarze said yesterday, as the Saints build up for their return showdown with the Lions at the Gabba on Sunday. "Perhaps I had doubts back then. As Grant Thomas said at the time, it might have been a defining moment. You don't really know that until it happens. Perhaps I needed something like that in my career to really get me started."
The Article - Michael Horan - HeraldSun - 20Aug04
Lions, Saints the hot ticket
The Brisbane Lions' popularity has reached scalping proportions with fans prepared to pay more than five times the face value of tickets to see the Lions' clash with St Kilda at the Gabba on Sunday. Reserved seats for the Round 21 match were being auctioned on an internet site yesterday. One ticket with restricted views that was bought for $31, had reached $151 when the club contacted the member to voice its disapproval. The ticket was withdrawn. But one fan was cashing in on a couple of complimentary tickets obtained in a radio competition with the price for the two seats passing $240.
The Article - Darren Cartwright - HeraldSun - 18Aug04
Maguire on comeback trail
St Kilda key defender Matt Maguire is set to test out his fitness this weekend and push for a September return by playing a half for VFL side Springvale. One of the most improved players for the Saints this season, Maguire was diagnosed with osteitis pubis after round 15 and was initially given an indefinite recovery period. The third year player was given a two week rest after experiencing groin pain following the first 12 matches of the season and returned to the side unsuccessfully. "I think 'Goose' will play a half this week for Springvale, so he's going okay obviously by that sign," senior Saint Austinn Jones said on Thursday.
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 19Aug04
Saints quandary over Koschitzke
. . . St Kilda's Luke Penny will stand Lynch and in the absence of regular centre half-back Matt Maguire - expected to play with St Kilda's VFL affiliate Springvale as part of his rehabilitation from osteitis pubis - Max Hudghton is the most obvious match for Brown. Thomas has also floated the suggestion of Nick Dal Santo as a radical choice of opponent for Brown. There is less conjecture over the Brisbane match-ups: Justin Leppitsch on Riewoldt and Mal Michael on Fraser Gehrig. (Aussie) Jones said containing the Lions' power forward pair would be a collective responsibility, with Brett Voss expected to provide aerial assistance and ruckman Trent Knobel likely to drop back in defence.
The Article - Chipe Le Grand/The Australian - FoxSports - 20Aug04
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