Matthew Lloyd has slammed St Kilda’s performance against Essendon on Saturday, saying they were “all at sea” and said he was worried how their ruck setup would fare against West Coast in Round 4.
The Saints lost by a whopping 75 points against a Bombers side who coming into the match wasn’t expected to pose a threat to Brett Ratten’s men.
Ruck duo Rowan Marshall (injury) and Paddy Ryder (personal reasons) both didn’t play against Essendon, and Lloyd expressed his concern about how St Kilda’s fill-in ruck duo of Shaun McKernan and Jake Carlisle would go against Nic Naitanui this weekend.
“They’re coming up against Nic Naitanui (on Saturday),” he said on Sportsday.
“They were all at sea on the weekend, I thought Shaun McKernan was all at sea in the ruck and he was up against Peter Wright.
“Then I thought Jake Carlisle was at all sea as well as the stop-gap ruckman, that didn’t help him (playing that role), but that’s not an excuse.”
Lloyd said the Saints could stand to be one of the big losers from the rule changes which were made this year, which included cutting rotations, introducing a new stand rule on the mark and the extra space players are allowed kicking in after a behind.
“I just wonder whether St Kilda’s midfielder will be the loser out of the new rules,” he said.
“We look at (co-captain) Jack Steele who’s a wonderful player, Brad Crouch comes in and Seb Ross – are those players going to be exposed on the spread? I thought they were on the weekend against Essendon.
“The question is can they go with the dynamic midfields (in the competition) and that’s a big question mark after the weekend.”