Kane on clutch Cripps, REGRESSING Saints on notice | First Up

Thanks to Sportsbed, it's all about the Blue Baggers.Kane has got his carton hat and his t -shirt on.Get up and about because they have stunned the Cats by four points at the MCG.And Kane, that is three wins now on the trot under interim coach Josh Fraser.

All aboard.Three in a row, as you said.What a game of footy, firstly.What an epic game of football.Exactly what you want to see at the MCG.60 ,000 plus there.

And two teams just playing with some freedom.Having an absolute crack in it, coming down to the last quarter moments, Nat.Jeremy Cameron, he ended up with four goals.Cowan had to go to him.Did a reasonable job.I thought it was three goals each in the last quarter.

The Blues had eight scoring shots, though.Three goals, five.Henry kicks this one.You think the Blues' hearts are broken.But for this.

And you've been critical of Patrick Cripps at times.

Yeah, no doubt.I thought he was done.I really did.I thought he looked like, not done, but I said well past his best and that's exactly what it looked like.But his last month, you've got to hand it to him.So even before Michael Voss got the sack, he had started to turn the corner.

His last month's been terrific.So tonight he had 10 disposals, three scoring involvements and kicked the goal in the last quarter.He ended up with eight clearances for the game.21 clearances between Cripps, Walsh and Jagger -Smith.And it was really from stoppage where the Blues did their damage.So that's been their trademark, even under Michael Vos.

So there's a good foundation there.But then in general play, there's a freedom about the way that they're playing.It's a high handball game.It's, you know, they're not afraid to take risks, even though they turned the footy over early and Geelong absolutely punished them off turnover.They kept going for it.There's a speed on the game.

There's some youth.There's some players getting some opportunities.and there's a genuine freedom and enthusiasm about this group.It's amazing how quickly that's turned.

to get excited about.

Yeah, absolutely.That's spot on.But it's also about the senior players who look broken, to be fair.Krips at times, with the weight that he's carried, just looked like it was too much for him.We know that Harry Mackay looked broken at stages, now playing a lot more time in the ruck.I think that has allowed him to play with some freedom.

He's still struggling in front of goal, but took some big contested marks at crucial times tonight.Walsh is absolutely back to his best, covering the ground well.Hewitt back into the side, the best and fairest winner couldn't get a game.to roll.Tara's gone out to the wing.So whilst yes, absolutely, the youth has given them some enthusiasm and some speed and some, I mean, they're unafraid to move the footy.

It has been the core group of senior players that look broken, that Josh Fraser has somehow got them back into some really good form.

Yeah, he's rejuvenated the group at this point.Their tackling pressure was excellent as well tonight.They were really up for the fight from the first bounce.And I just love the ferocity that they attacked the contest with.

Yeah, so there's tackles and there's tackles.So they laid nearly 70 tackles tonight.But look at these ones, like absolutely tackling to hurt.And I guess some desperate, almost goal -saving tackles as well that resulted in some big holding the ball decisions.So you can look at pressure rating or not.But this was a high -pressure game.

Both sides actually brought the heat.But I just thought Carlton's ability to stick big tackles physically at key moments was crucial tonight.And nearly every player, only three players for Carlton didn't lay a tackle.tonight So they were all in right across the board.

So if you go back to the offseason Charlie Kernow leaves Carlton for Sydney part of that trade is Will Hayward who comes across and he's probably had an up -and -down sort of season.He hasn't been uber consistent to this point, but tonight he was impressive the three goals 17 touches seven score involvements as well and seven marks and he was crucial in in particular in that second half.

And this is why.He's a genuine team -first player.He's versatile.I do like the fact that Josh Fraser's given him more of a role up the field.So he's playing wing a little bit, and that gets him involved.He can get back, use his big tank, and then press forward, which he did tonight.

So I thought he was really important.To be fair, I watched him live last week against Port Adelaide.He was excellent as well with more wing time.But three crucial goals tonight.Your team kicks 12, you win by two points, and you're a key reason for that.So this trade in five years' time, going to look back and go, provided the Blues nail their picks, which is a challenge when you don't have a list manager at the moment, that's a problem, but provided they nail the picks and there's Academy players coming in, we know that with Walker, this trade is going to be a winner for them.

Yeah, we'll reassess it in three years' time, once they have those picks in their system.Hey, I want to take you back to earlier in the game, Kane, because Oli Dempsey, we know he's a star for Geelong.He kicks, well, what is deemed and adjudicated by David Roden, the goal umpire there, a behind.Upon replay, it looks like his hand does touch it and it is below the knee.So that to me looks like a goal.David Roden is confident though.

Touched, he calls the behind, doesn't call the touch.a score review, which I don't mind the fact that he backed in his judgment.But was Ollie Dempsey robbed?And when it's a four point ball game in the end?

Well, he was, but we can't really whinge about it because when we go to the score review and it takes a long time and it's inconclusive and there's poor vision behind it, we all shook about it and say, this score review is broken.David Roden would say he was in an excellent position there.And probably needed to be overruled upstairs quickly.Now, the problem was they got the ball from a kick in straight away and that rule has been adjusted since we had a bit of a fastball situation earlier on in the year.So they changed that ball into play too late to overturn it.Big story though.

There's no doubt it's a big story.I don't think Geelong will complain about it because they would argue they had their opportunities and that was early in the game.We need to be getting these ones right.And that was a big error.And when it's, as you say, two points, it's going to be a talking point this week.

And there's another non -goal that we'll discuss in just a moment.We'll get to Thursday night now where the Hawks absolutely blitzed the Saints and they kept them goalless in the first half.It's Hawthorne's eighth win for the season.And this leads us straight into your volcano tonight.

And Scott was some of the board members.from the Hawks, because this is very un -Ross Lyon -like.When Hawthorne are moving the footy from one end of the ground to the other with as much ease as this, you go, what is the Ross Lyon coach DNA now?Used to be built on defense.Yep, you could criticize him for not being able to score himself, but very miserly with his defensive action.This is, he's got to look at this.

Now this is reasonably early into the game as well.Don't give me fatigue or anything like that.This is a complete breakdown of your defensive system.So this was alarm bells ringing everywhere for me when I was watching this and there's Ginniven, there's Watson bobbing up with no one around them in the background.of the ground, then easy uncontested marks inside Ford 50.Now that happened multiple times.

That was a warning sign.And it did take me back to the president, Andrew Bassett, when he was pretty bold and pretty strong with his language about what sort of St Kilda side they had become.

The truth is, I think we're getting under their skin because we're getting somewhere as a football club.I think everyone liked us, no one criticised us when we were down at the bottom of the ladder and we weren't saying anything and we were just taking our hits quietly.We were delighted to attract Nolan to keep them to the side, to attract TDK, Silvani, Ryan, Flanders.They've all shown they can make an enormous impact on our club.

Yeah, I'm just not sure about it.So the discussion was around, is this going to work?And I think we're all pretty keen to see it, them having a big crack and taking big risks with the money that we're going to see from the players that have been paid, which we've covered a lot.Is it going to work?That was the big question.Will this big spending spree work for the Saints?

We can now answer, no.It won't work and it hasn't worked.When you look at the size that St Kilda have been unable to beat this year, and really they only beat anyone below them.So they're zero and seven against top 10 teams this year.Of course, they beat everyone below them.The Giants, Port Adelaide, West Coast, Carlton at the time were a mess, and Richmond.

So of all the money, Nat, of every single cent you've spent on all these players, you have not improved.Every other coach to me at some stage gets under pressure.Like Matthew Nix is under pressure.Clarkson was under pressure.Beveridge has been under pressure multiple times.Voss is gone.

Scott's gone.Why is Ross Line never under pressure?This is year four and there's been zero improvement.In fact, there's been regression from when he first came in his first season.It's not a rebuilding side.They're not rebuilding like Adam Uze.

This was a side ready to go and he was going to take them to the next step.Breakdown defensively.New recruits not having an impact.not able to beat any of the quality sides in the competition, yet Ross Lyon is not under pressure.So Nat, I'm officially putting Ross Lyon under pressure on first up tonight.Ross, you're under pressure.

That's it, officially.

All right, take note.They just don't scare anyone for mine.They're just not a threat when you look at that team.And at the moment, those recruits aren't performing.But last night, all eyes were on Will Day, his first AFL game in 300 days.We know he's had the issues with the foot and, of course, the shoulder reconstruction.

You just hope that he can get his body right.But last night, it was great to see him back.62 percent of game time.And there were just a few classy moments, even this kick here.

Beautiful.He's special.Like the resilience that he's shown, the toughness.He just makes this midfield, doesn't he?Like they just look a different midfield.Even though he was only in there for small parts of it, 62%, they could manage him because of the result.

You just think, wow, what could this look like if he gets up and going by September?Newcombe and day through the midfield with the bit part players of Ward and McKenzie and McDonald and Watson going through there.We won't be talking about Hawthorne's midfield lacking firepower.And I did like this from him.I just think that he's been a bit, a fraction smarter than what he's been in the past.Now, he's been so courageous and not to his benefit.

You can just see him backing out of that marking contest where I can previously, he would have crashed that pack.And then again, the ball will come back in.Will Day could have easily run back with a fly to the ball here for this.I think it's Dan Brosio that is going to kick it in here.But I'm just not going to go.I've had the shoulder, I've had everything under the sun.

To me, that's a player who's just starting.You don't need to put yourself in that position, Will.So just pick your moments.Yep, grand final, prelim final, games on the line, third quarter, no worries.Not against St Kilda, who didn't score at halftime yesterday.So perhaps that's an instruction or he's just come to the realization that I just got to be a bit smarter about the way I'm playing.

I think there is a bit of that.The Kamikaze World Day days are over.I think every Hawthorne fan was just holding their breath going, please don't get injured.But he got through this game.Hey, I honestly thought your volcano tonight might have been something to do with your favorite, the wizard, Nick Watson, having a goal disallowed at halftime.The Wizzy not happy.

You're not happy.I'm not happy.The AFL is ticked off.off on this now if we show you the the vision behind the goals he barely deviates Kane it might be five centimeters if that surely you don't want that called in a grand final Nah, it's a terrible decision.

The AFL, sorry Wiz, if you end up on 599 goals, you've been robbed.It's just a terrible decision.It's a decision that there's no feel for the game.And look, the AFL, I get it.They're paranoid about protecting their umpires and we want umpires coming through.It was just a poor decision.

It's a decision that we never say.So when we say something very unusual that we never ever say at round 12 of the season, just plucked from nowhere because an umpire wants to have a moment in the game, then it's unusual.And I think we've got to call that out.Like, I don't think Greg Swan is sitting in the crowd or at home wanting that decision.to be paid.Now, I may be wrong, but he's a good footy person.

He knows the game.I don't think any of us want that overturned.It was a natural kicking motion.He ran pretty much straight at the goals.Maybe the guy on the mark was off to the side because of the new stand rule.I don't know, but it's a decision that shouldn't have been made.

It was an error.And I'm disappointed the AFL haven't come out and said as much because now we're going to see umpires second -guessing themselves of play -on -callthat they haven't called in the past that now they're going to be forced to call.

Yeah, it just made no sense because he's not going to run wider towards the boundary.That makes it a harder shot at goal.So it just, it doesn't compute for mine, but we'll just leave it there because both of us might be slightly biased given how much we love the Wizard.

Just, just a tad.

It is time now though for your Crystal Ball.Thanks to Sportsbet.What have you got for me when we look ahead to the rest of this weekend's games?

Well, what do we make of the Giants?I can't pick the Giants.Who knows what you're going to get from the Giants from week to week.But what I do know is they're going to be much better with the ins that they have got for this game in Alice Springs against Melbourne.So Sam Taylor back in, Whitfield back in, and Lecalier back in.This man If Tim English is the most important player to his side out of anyone in the competition, or Nick Dacos is the most important, then this guy's in the top three, Sam Taylor.

Like, they are just a different side.So, I think with him back in, provided he's pretty sound and ready to go for 85 % game time, I reckon they can really restrict Melbourne's scoring.We've spoken about Cadiz and them scoring over 100 multiple times this year.I think the Giants in those conditions can restrict them to 90 points.And with those ins, off the back of the momentum in the third quarter against the reigning premiers last week, 14 goals, I think they can cause somewhat of an upset.He's a star and it's great to see him back because we haven't seen him since Origin.

Georgie Tunny No, we haven't.So good luck to Sam Taylor in Alice Springs this weekend.Time to finish off with Nat's Nuggets.Now I've got a question for you before we get into it.How did you refuel your body after the 2004 preliminary final?What were you eating?

What were you drinking?

Usually I'd reward myself with a extra large chocolate sundae from McDonald's but only if I played well Nat.I played okay on that night so I reckon I'vewould have treated myself.

Okay, well, New York Knicks star Josh Hart broke the internet when he enjoyed a glass of wine at his post -match presser.Obviously, they won their way into the NBA Finals, the Knicks, for the first time since 1999.How would this go down at the AFL, do you think, if someone rocked up to a presser with a glass of wine?

Not at the presser, I don't think.You've got one more, Josh.Do what you want after you win the finals.You've still got potentially seven games to go against a red -hot opponent, OKC or the Spurs, so just hold fire.Hold fire on the red wine.It's a good pick up from you.

I like it.Who do you think would be the AFL player most likely to rock in though with the glass of red wine?

Jeremy Cameron?

I reckon Max Gourney owns a few wine bars, doesn't he?He strikes me as that kind of guy.Yeah, he's got his own wine as well.a little bit of promotion.I can imagine if an AFL player did that, your volcano would be the size of Mount Vesuvius.So hopefully we don't see that anytime soon.

All right, well, neither of us drink, so I think we should go to bed.But this has been First Up with Cain Corns.Thanks to Sportsbet.We'll see you again next week.

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