Seaso Review:

[S.A Saint]

Just some of my thoughts for the whole year in what was a better than expected one.

Positives:
- Won more games than i thought we would
- Effort and intensity was there for most of the games
- McCartin, Goddard, Sinclair, Lonie, Membery and McKenzie all look to be 200 game players from our last draft/trading
- Bruce kicking 50 up forward and will lead that forward line with a few others.
- Fitness levels seem to be much higher than last season
- Injuries post round 1 have been good
- Seem to have finally sorted out our offield issues and backroom staff
- Armo taking his game to another level
- Steven returning to his b and f form
- Seb Ross improving after pretty much tearing his hammy off the bone
- Dylan Roberton returning to form after that ankle injury last season

Negatives:
- Disposal needs to be the KEY focus in the off season
- Structres, teams seem to always rebound against us and kick a goal once we bomb it into our 50
- Entries into the forward 50
- Kicking for goal
- Billings not getting onto the park and play less than 10 games
- Dunstan possibly having the 2nd year blues
- White, Sippos, Markworth most likely gone who all seem to have something we are lacking in our best 22
- Saunders when given an opportunity has not shown anything
- Templeton not picking up were he left off last season
- Delany see eli above
- Umpires against us
- Free kicks, we finished second to last in the differential!

What we need:
- Another key defender (Carlile)
- Fast mids (Bennell, Kelly)
- Players that have good disposal

Who will go:
Simpkin
Sippos
White
Ray (if he doesnt take that one year)
Markworth

[Bruce G McAbee]

Think Markworth might be given another year due to his misfortune with injury.
Saad maybe let go as well.
Other than that, agree with everything, though the other negative would have been a very disappointing last 2 rounds after such a promising year.

[WellardSaint]

-Consecutive 90+ thrashings, for the first time since the late !980's.
-Players retreating into their shells and "not playing team defence" - direct quote from Richo's members' email
-Idiots handballing to the feet of a team-mate, or to someone who is stationary between 2 opponents, or doing the "Robert Harvey kick" over a team-mate's head (Harves did this 60% of the time)
- missing goals (Rooey has shanked a huge percentage of set shots)
- Armo+ Bruce showing great form early on, then realising with a shock) how hard you have to work to maintain that standard, and just going through the motions
- Jack Steven ruining all of his hard work with shocking disposal and turning the ball over- thus being a spare man for the opposition
- fans being happy with "honourable losses"
- club being too scared to go to the AFL about Rooey's treatment, being manhandled, etc and never ever getting a free kick
There's more...

[mambo2706]

-Consecutive 90+ thrashings, for the first time since the late !980's.
-Players retreating into their shells and "not playing team defence" - direct quote from Richo's members' email
-Idiots handballing to the feet of a team-mate, or to someone who is stationary between 2 opponents, or doing the "Robert Harvey kick" over a team-mate's head (Harves did this 60% of the time)
- missing goals (Rooey has shanked a huge percentage of set shots)
- Armo+ Bruce showing great form early on, then realising with a shock) how hard you have to work to maintain that standard, and just going through the motions
- Jack Steven ruining all of his hard work with shocking disposal and turning the ball over- thus being a spare man for the opposition
- fans being happy with "honourable losses"
- club being too scared to go to the AFL about Rooey's treatment, being manhandled, etc and never ever getting a free kick
There's more...

So no positives for the year?

[mambo2706]

-Consecutive 90+ thrashings, for the first time since the late !980's.
-Players retreating into their shells and "not playing team defence" - direct quote from Richo's members' email
-Idiots handballing to the feet of a team-mate, or to someone who is stationary between 2 opponents, or doing the "Robert Harvey kick" over a team-mate's head (Harves did this 60% of the time)
- missing goals (Rooey has shanked a huge percentage of set shots)
- Armo+ Bruce showing great form early on, then realising with a shock) how hard you have to work to maintain that standard, and just going through the motions
- Jack Steven ruining all of his hard work with shocking disposal and turning the ball over- thus being a spare man for the opposition
- fans being happy with "honourable losses"
- club being too scared to go to the AFL about Rooey's treatment, being manhandled, etc and never ever getting a free kick
There's more...

So no positives for the year?

[WinnersOnly]

Exceptional review SA Saint! Paints a perfect picture of the Saints 2015 season....

[WellardSaint]

Richo seems obsessed with numbers "inside 50" but I think he ignores the context.
Getting the ball into the forward line is good. If delivery is shocking, it will come straight back out. Teams will crush you on the turnover.
It happened every single time we got beaten this year.
Precision and placement are important. And it will only get WORSE because the coaches just talk about "we are the number one pressure team"
and ignore the elephant in the room- we are probably 18th when it comes to precision and actually disposing nicely.
I don't care about numbers; I cringe when someone handballs behind a teammate or kicks it to their feet ! and it happens more often than not !

[WinnersOnly]

Agreed Wellard Richo's game plan is not perfect but neither is our list ! I think its wise to wait until 90% of the team can consistently beat their opponent before being too critical. We dont have the leg spèed or the kicking skills of most teams, hence the compressed style of play. Im sure the game plan will evolve with the capacity of the players, we just need the players!

[bergholt]

Richo seems obsessed with numbers "inside 50" but I think he ignores the context.
Getting the ball into the forward line is good. If delivery is shocking, it will come straight back out. Teams will crush you on the turnover.
It happened every single time we got beaten this year.
Precision and placement are important. And it will only get WORSE because the coaches just talk about "we are the number one pressure team"
and ignore the elephant in the room- we are probably 18th when it comes to precision and actually disposing nicely.
I don't care about numbers; I cringe when someone handballs behind a teammate or kicks it to their feet ! and it happens more often than not !

I don't completely disagree with that. I'm hoping that it's easier to be a good pressure team which then learns to find guys in space, than a good uncontested team that still needs to find out how to win the footy.

[plugger66]

Agreed Wellard Richo's game plan is not perfect but neither is our list ! I think its wise to wait until 90% of the team can consistently beat their opponent before being too critical. We dont have the leg spèed or the kicking skills of most teams, hence the compressed style of play. Im sure the game plan will evolve with the capacity of the players, we just need the players!

For both of you that seem to know dame plans because I don't can you tell me what is wrong with the game plan and what we should actually be doing. All I see is a list that shouldn't have won 6 and half games but did. It amazing what 2 bad losses can do to people memory.

[spert]

Well P66, I expected this season that we should have improved over the shocking 2014 season, and we did, and 6.5 games was at least an improvement. Richo has problems with his defensive strategies, especially in the midfield, and the "yeah no, we were beaten with the outside run and spread" line is wearing thin after two seasons-he as coach needs to address this, as he does with the sub-standard disposal work of the team, which he has much responsibility to address..after all he is "coach"

[bergholt]

Well P66, I expected this season that we should have improved over the shocking 2014 season, and we did, and 6.5 games was at least an improvement. Richo has problems with his defensive strategies, especially in the midfield, and the "yeah no, we were beaten with the outside run and spread" line is wearing thin after two seasons-he as coach needs to address this, as he does with the sub-standard disposal work of the team, which he has much responsibility to address..after all he is "coach"

Does he have the cattle at his disposal, though?

[mambo2706]

Well P66, I expected this season that we should have improved over the shocking 2014 season, and we did, and 6.5 games was at least an improvement. Richo has problems with his defensive strategies, especially in the midfield, and the "yeah no, we were beaten with the outside run and spread" line is wearing thin after two seasons-he as coach needs to address this, as he does with the sub-standard disposal work of the team, which he has much responsibility to address..after all he is "coach"

Does he have the cattle at his disposal, though?

He has Bull Murdoch

[spert]

Richo has sufficient cattle to field a reasonably competitive team- not a star team, but it doesn't give me a lot of confidence to hear him say he spoke to the playing group a few weeks back and they discussed the importance of putting in a good effort in the the last couple of games..doesn't sound like the message got through at all. Anyway for next season I see no reason for us not to go a few games better, as we have made a slight improvement over 2014, so no excuses for 2016

[St Chris]

Richo seems obsessed with numbers "inside 50" but I think he ignores the context.
Getting the ball into the forward line is good. If delivery is shocking, it will come straight back out. Teams will crush you on the turnover.
It happened every single time we got beaten this year.
Precision and placement are important. And it will only get WORSE because the coaches just talk about "we are the number one pressure team"
and ignore the elephant in the room- we are probably 18th when it comes to precision and actually disposing nicely.
I don't care about numbers; I cringe when someone handballs behind a teammate or kicks it to their feet ! and it happens more often than not !

Obviously some think Richo will just click his fingers and this team will go from 18th to first, and that will make him a great coach.....

Last season our focus was on Contested Ball. The stat Richo kept repeating and repeating and the message to the players, media and supporters was always concentrated around contested footy. A season of that, and all of a sudden we come out this season hunting the footy, because contested footy is now just habit. Our team defence was superb this year (well for 20 rounds anyway), built from the focus on contested ball in 2014.

So in 2015 the focus shifts. Inside 50's is another building block to build a successful team. Sure, we butchered plenty of those inside 50 stats, but getting good numbers is half the battle. I would expect the focus to shift again in 2016, to add another building block to this "project".

And for what it's worth, we were ranked 10th for disposal efficiency, one behind West Coast, and one ahead of Richmond. All is not lost.

PS. Great review S.A Saint, I reckon you've covered pretty much everything, without being overly negative or positive.

[Stephen Theodore]

Just some of my thoughts for the whole year in what was a better than expected one.

Positives:
- Won more games than i thought we would
- Effort and intensity was there for most of the games
- McCartin, Goddard, Sinclair, Lonie, Membery and McKenzie all look to be 200 game players from our last draft/trading
- Bruce kicking 50 up forward and will lead that forward line with a few others.
- Fitness levels seem to be much higher than last season
- Injuries post round 1 have been good
- Seem to have finally sorted out our offield issues and backroom staff
- Armo taking his game to another level
- Steven returning to his b and f form
- Seb Ross improving after pretty much tearing his hammy off the bone
- Dylan Roberton returning to form after that ankle injury last season

Negatives:
- Disposal needs to be the KEY focus in the off season
- Structres, teams seem to always rebound against us and kick a goal once we bomb it into our 50
- Entries into the forward 50
- Kicking for goal
- Billings not getting onto the park and play less than 10 games
- Dunstan possibly having the 2nd year blues
- White, Sippos, Markworth most likely gone who all seem to have something we are lacking in our best 22
- Saunders when given an opportunity has not shown anything
- Templeton not picking up were he left off last season
- Delany see eli above
- Umpires against us
- Free kicks, we finished second to last in the differential!

What we need:
- Another key defender (Carlile)
- Fast mids (Bennell, Kelly)
- Players that have good disposal

Who will go:
Simpkin
Sippos
White
Ray (if he doesnt take that one year)
Markworth

Good review, I also think Markworth will survive another year, and Saad will be let go

[saynta]

Think Markworth might be given another year due to his misfortune with injury.
Saad maybe let go as well.
Other than that, agree with everything, though the other negative would have been a very disappointing last 2 rounds after such a promising year.

The coach is not a fan evidently, so no, Markworth will not be given another year. Imho.

[plugger66]

Well P66, I expected this season that we should have improved over the shocking 2014 season, and we did, and 6.5 games was at least an improvement. Richo has problems with his defensive strategies, especially in the midfield, and the "yeah no, we were beaten with the outside run and spread" line is wearing thin after two seasons-he as coach needs to address this, as he does with the sub-standard disposal work of the team, which he has much responsibility to address..after all he is "coach"

We have no spread because we don't have the players. Nothing to do with the coaches. And yep you may have expected improvement but most if not all unbiased people didn't. We are way ahead of those expectations. The list is so far behind what SW had in 2013 it isn't funny but we won more games. Think coaching may have played a part. Also people with more footy knowledge than you and me have said Rich o is doing a great job.

As for sun standard disposal well I'm afraid a coach cant fix that. That is inbuilt from years of junior footy. If you could explain how and then tell us that you know he doesn't do what you explained that would be great.