Supporters

[The_President]

Really disappointed in the majority of the posters on here.

How quickly the tide turns on players, coaches and the club as a whole.

I was sitting above the benches last night and one this I noticed throughout the night was that our boys came off the group completely spent, every time. The Doggies weren't as bad.

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

One other point I want to make is that one team is sitting on top of the ladder, full of confidence and playing like that.
The other team is on the bottom and still working on some things, let's be honest.

When you look at the game as a whole, not just the score line, it could've been a very different result.
- A few horrible shots at goal from us
-5 to 6 horrible last kicks into the 50 (they reach the target, we have a shot on goal)
- A few horrible basic skill errors.

All of these things can be put down simply to fatigue, that's something that can be improved. With the improved fitness will come the confidence.
We got them on the rebound a few times and made them look silly.

Ultimately the Doggies were a lot more polished then we were, no one can deny that.

We aren't far off. The only thing that makes us seem far off is all the negativity and hate that comes from the supporters.

- That was only Paddy's SEVENTH game. He should've at least had 2 (horrible set shot & terrible pass when he was in the goal square) you could easily add on another 2-3 shots at goal if we gave some clean entries.
- All this take about Parish and hate towards Gresham.. Ignoring the fact that we couldn't of drafted Parish. Parish is playing solid misfield time in a rubbish club that beat another rubbish club.
Gresham is playing forward because he is YOUNG and doesn't deserve to play in our midfield yet. Also he's played against two really good pressure teams so far (one that's on top of the ladder)

On the talk of Ross/Dunstan I agree both seem too be very similar players, hard at it without much speed. But both had a serious crack at the pill. Personally I'd love to see Acres selected (and given a serious run at it) over one of them.. And maybe that comes this season - same goes for Meatball getting an extended crack at senior level, something he now seriously deserved after his first couple of games this year.

As a whole, I think the club is in pretty good shape moving forward, with s good game plan & good cattle who will only get better with the more games & pre-seasons they get under their belt.

Maybe the fair weather supporters could stop the constant negativity after every game on here & start posting about some positives from the games & actually getting behind the players, coaches and the club.

[Con Gorozidis]

It is a two way street. The club sell a story to fans that is basically bulls***. Id prefer it if the club was a bit more honest.
A little less of PR spin. We pay them for membership - in my case even though I live interstate and am an MCC member in any case. They call us selling raffle tickets etc.
They all get paid top coin. All of the players and staff. Yet they piss in our pocket and tell us its raining. Not good enough.

I dont mind being s*** - but lets be honest about it and ease back on the spin. When you over-sell and under-deliver - there will be a backlash. Maybe if the club sold reality - then the fans would expect reality in return.

It is the first rule of marketing. You are better to under-promise and over deliver than over promise and under-deliver. Whenever you do the latter you get unhappy customers. And footy is a business. Clubs sell hope. But they also need to be realistic about how they that hope. So here we are - unhappy customers.

[The_President]

It is a two way street. The club sell a story to fans that is basically bulls***. Id prefer it if the club was a bit more honest.
A little less of PR spin. We pay them for membership - in my case even though I live interstate and am an MCC member in any case. They call us selling raffle tickets etc.
They all get paid top coin. All of the players and staff. Yet they piss in our pocket and tell us its raining. Not good enough. I dont mind being s*** - but lets be honest about it and ease back on the spin.

Have you seen Richo in the media?

Probably the most transparent coach in the league.

[Con Gorozidis]

It is a two way street. The club sell a story to fans that is basically bulls***. Id prefer it if the club was a bit more honest.
A little less of PR spin. We pay them for membership - in my case even though I live interstate and am an MCC member in any case. They call us selling raffle tickets etc.
They all get paid top coin. All of the players and staff. Yet they piss in our pocket and tell us its raining. Not good enough. I dont mind being s*** - but lets be honest about it and ease back on the spin.

Have you seen Richo in the media?

Probably the most transparent coach in the league.

Are you having a laugh? He huffs and puffs about 'demanding excellence' yet accepts mediocrity from a handful of favourites week in week out. He then craps on about how great a person Geary is when it is obvious he cant kick at an AFL standard. I dont care about the buzz words like 'leadership, 'great person', 'culture'. Its mgt speak drivel. If you cant kick it is a problem and it needs to be addressed head on.

Add to that - we had all the future fest crap and they sold us that we were young exciting side. And it isnt even true. We arent even one of the youngest sides in the AFL.

Is it in the Club Constitution somewhere that we cannot under any circumstances recruit someone who is BOTH quick and a nice kick? Because it seems we have refused to recruit such a player for the last ten years. Maybe it is in some club manual somewhere? No amount of managerial speak will make up for the fact that we are slow and cant kick.

[matrix]

if youre expecting people to post nothing but lovely dovey comments and say nothing but positive commenta then youre going to be disappointed

Yup, no legs, yup not enough pre seasons, yup skills are not that flash, yup paddy been here 5 mins

People still going to complain about leg speed, turnovers, geary, etc etc
Its not being a whiner, its not microwaving memberships

Its about telling it like it is

Althou chitywest trolling stupid threads about paddy being the worst number one pick ever in the history of football are taking it a bit too far...but thats a trolls job.

We are poor atm, we will be poor for a bit
Some of our players are not up to it and have not been up to it for a few years.

Reality

[degruch]

LOL at supporters who rely on club spin to judge how well we're travelling...watch some footy instead.

I agree, there's some sad sacks on here with little faith and less of a clue.

[Con Gorozidis]

What worries me the most is that our more seasoned middle runged players like Roberton (7th season) and Savage (7th season) have plateaued.

Where is Shenton and Lee? Bruce and Weller should be better. Delaney has fallen off the radar. Membrey and Wright are nowhere. Minch cant get a game. In fact almost everyone in that middle age bracket of players has gone backwards or simply vanished. Brodie Murdoch has gone from promising to unheard of.

The coach seem to like a handful of veterans and a handful of kids and everyone else seems to have lost the plot. Gilbert is now just a plodder. He is 29 - he should be dominating games.

Now we keep pointing to our kids as an excuse - but we should be getting much more from the middle rungers. They are all in a hole.

This is my main gripe. I dont blame the oldies and I dont blame the kids but our middle rungers are the worst in the AFL right now and instead of improving some have gone backwards.

The coach seems to have pigeon holed players very early and those on the outer have been stamped. This is no way to run a footy club.

[Con Gorozidis]

LOL at supporters who rely on club spin to judge how well we're travelling...watch some footy instead.

I agree, there's some sad sacks on here with little faith and less of a clue.

I've watched plenty and if you cant kick it well and cant attack off half back you are dead in the water at AFL level.

If you think we are going to press some magical transformational button and that things will just click into gear you are delusional. Guys wont suddenly get faster and other guys wont suddenly start kicking it better.

[degruch]

LOL at supporters who rely on club spin to judge how well we're travelling...watch some footy instead.

I agree, there's some sad sacks on here with little faith and less of a clue.

I've watched plenty and if you cant kick it well and cant attack off half back you are dead in the water at AFL level.

If you think we are going to press some magical transformational button and that things will just click into gear you are delusional. Guys wont suddenly get faster and other guys wont suddenly start kicking it better.

I'm upset...not every player we have is a superstar, and the club gave me an ironclad guarantee everyone on our list would win the Norm Smith in 2018. Seriously, it's not as if the club didn't gut our entire list and start again, nor would we have any holes to fill. Everyone knew we would have a hard time matching the Dogs kick for kick this weekend, a number of players are underdone and a number of players may just not be up to it, but to write an entire list off 2 games in is pretty outstanding.

And yes, players do improve, I'm sure we'll be working hard on that during the season.

[ralphsmith]

Billings is the only new player with the skill level of your average Hawthorn player.

Hawthorn have about 16 players with Billings skill level running around, hence why they win grand finals and we win spoons.
Denial of that will keep us winning spoons for 5-10 more years.

[dragit]

We turned it over all game, not just with tired legs at the end of quarters... Clutching at straws if 'not enough pre-seasons' is our excuse.

Agree with con here...

I'll cut the 1st & 2nd year guys some slack... Even 3rd, But guys with 5+ pre-seasons just aren't delivering - Ross, Weller, Roberton, savage, geary, Gilbert - they are our core and were all beaten soundly by generally younger opponents last night.

Should cut Ross some slack as he's still young and inexperienced, but he really deserves to be dropped after that game... 2 kicks at half time playing in the midfield is taking the piss.

Newnes our only exception in the 4-8 year bracket last night.

Richo shot himself in the foot as far as I'm concerned by making an example of acres and dropping him after 1 game ( which was his best)... Now he needs to drop 15 players to stick to his word.

[Con Gorozidis]

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

The Doggies actually had a (slightly) less experienced and younger side than us playing last night.

[saynta]

Really disappointed in the majority of the posters on here.

How quickly the tide turns on players, coaches and the club as a whole.

I was sitting above the benches last night and one this I noticed throughout the night was that our boys came off the group completely spent, every time. The Doggies weren't as bad.

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

One other point I want to make is that one team is sitting on top of the ladder, full of confidence and playing like that.
The other team is on the bottom and still working on some things, let's be honest.

When you look at the game as a whole, not just the score line, it could've been a very different result.
- A few horrible shots at goal from us
-5 to 6 horrible last kicks into the 50 (they reach the target, we have a shot on goal)
- A few horrible basic skill errors.




All of these things can be put down simply to fatigue, that's something that can be improved. With the improved fitness will come the confidence.
We got them on the rebound a few times and made them look silly.

Ultimately the Doggies were a lot more polished then we were, no one can deny that.

We aren't far off. The only thing that makes us seem far off is all the negativity and hate that comes from the supporters.

- That was only Paddy's SEVENTH game. He should've at least had 2 (horrible set shot & terrible pass when he was in the goal square) you could easily add on another 2-3 shots at goal if we gave some clean entries.
- All this take about Parish and hate towards Gresham.. Ignoring the fact that we couldn't of drafted Parish. Parish is playing solid misfield time in a rubbish club that beat another rubbish club.
Gresham is playing forward because he is YOUNG and doesn't deserve to play in our midfield yet. Also he's played against two really good pressure teams so far (one that's on top of the ladder)

On the talk of Ross/Dunstan I agree both seem too be very similar players, hard at it without much speed. But both had a serious crack at the pill. Personally I'd love to see Acres selected (and given a serious run at it) over one of them.. And maybe that comes this season - same goes for Meatball getting an extended crack at senior level, something he now seriously deserved after his first couple of games this year.

As a whole, I think the club is in pretty good shape moving forward, with s good game plan & good cattle who will only get better with the more games & pre-seasons they get under their belt.

Maybe the fair weather supporters could stop the constant negativity after every game on here & start posting about some positives from the games & actually getting behind the players, coaches and the club.

Your werent plugger 66 in an earlier life by any chance?

[Griggsy]

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

The actually Doggies had a (slightly) less experienced and younger side than us playing last night.

I'm too lazy to go and look at direct comparisons myself for the experience, but I never really understood these kinds of stats.
It's like saying Riewoldt at 300games should output the same numbers as 3 100gamers combined.

[saintspremiers]

Donald "The President" is not plugsie

He states he's from another state and has a job

[Bluthy]

Because people are so passionate about footy and the club having success you get a lot of psychological "splitting" going on:

Splitting (also called black and white thinking or all-or-nothing thinking) is the failure in a person's thinking to bring together both positive and negative qualities of the self and others into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism used by many people. The individual tends to think in extremes (i.e., an individual's actions and motivations are all good or all bad with no middle ground).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology)

People over-inflate their expectations (Freeman is in our top 22 will make a huge difference this year) and then its easy to flip into sheer negativity when we put in a poor showing (Billings is the only one with any hope of being elite) . It helps to try and take long-term view of the squad and not live or die based on the weeks results.

[Con Gorozidis]

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

The actually Doggies had a (slightly) less experienced and younger side than us playing last night.

I'm too lazy to go and look at direct comparisons myself for the experience, but I never really understood these kinds of stats.
It's like saying Riewoldt at 300games should output the same numbers as 3 100gamers combined.

Well no its not like saying that all. The Bulldogs had the same games profile as us but they actually had one more kid in the 1-50 game group than us.
It isnt that hard to understand. There is no age or game or experience difference between us and the Bulldogs. What we saw was a real reflection of our list quality.

[bigred]

Lol.

We should have lost last night by 20 goals.

That is a realistic figure.

No way any of us should accept that rubbish.

[perfectionist]

Your werent plugger 66 in an earlier life by any chance?

Odds on I'd say.

[loris]

Really disappointed in the majority of the posters on here.

How quickly the tide turns on players, coaches and the club as a whole.

I was sitting above the benches last night and one this I noticed throughout the night was that our boys came off the group completely spent, every time. The Doggies weren't as bad.

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

One other point I want to make is that one team is sitting on top of the ladder, full of confidence and playing like that.
The other team is on the bottom and still working on some things, let's be honest.

When you look at the game as a whole, not just the score line, it could've been a very different result.
- A few horrible shots at goal from us
-5 to 6 horrible last kicks into the 50 (they reach the target, we have a shot on goal)
- A few horrible basic skill errors.




All of these things can be put down simply to fatigue, that's something that can be improved. With the improved fitness will come the confidence.
We got them on the rebound a few times and made them look silly.

Ultimately the Doggies were a lot more polished then we were, no one can deny that.

We aren't far off. The only thing that makes us seem far off is all the negativity and hate that comes from the supporters.

- That was only Paddy's SEVENTH game. He should've at least had 2 (horrible set shot & terrible pass when he was in the goal square) you could easily add on another 2-3 shots at goal if we gave some clean entries.
- All this take about Parish and hate towards Gresham.. Ignoring the fact that we couldn't of drafted Parish. Parish is playing solid misfield time in a rubbish club that beat another rubbish club.
Gresham is playing forward because he is YOUNG and doesn't deserve to play in our midfield yet. Also he's played against two really good pressure teams so far (one that's on top of the ladder)

On the talk of Ross/Dunstan I agree both seem too be very similar players, hard at it without much speed. But both had a serious crack at the pill. Personally I'd love to see Acres selected (and given a serious run at it) over one of them.. And maybe that comes this season - same goes for Meatball getting an extended crack at senior level, something he now seriously deserved after his first couple of games this year.

As a whole, I think the club is in pretty good shape moving forward, with s good game plan & good cattle who will only get better with the more games & pre-seasons they get under their belt.

Maybe the fair weather supporters could stop the constant negativity after every game on here & start posting about some positives from the games & actually getting behind the players, coaches and the club.

Your werent plugger 66 in an earlier life by any chance?

Don't think so 'saynta' . The_President, knows when to use 'too' or 'to'. Also, The_Pres can use an apostrophe correctly. Plugs never displayed such skills in all his copious amount of posts.

[The_President]

Really disappointed in the majority of the posters on here.

How quickly the tide turns on players, coaches and the club as a whole.

I was sitting above the benches last night and one this I noticed throughout the night was that our boys came off the group completely spent, every time. The Doggies weren't as bad.

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

One other point I want to make is that one team is sitting on top of the ladder, full of confidence and playing like that.
The other team is on the bottom and still working on some things, let's be honest.

When you look at the game as a whole, not just the score line, it could've been a very different result.
- A few horrible shots at goal from us
-5 to 6 horrible last kicks into the 50 (they reach the target, we have a shot on goal)
- A few horrible basic skill errors.




All of these things can be put down simply to fatigue, that's something that can be improved. With the improved fitness will come the confidence.
We got them on the rebound a few times and made them look silly.

Ultimately the Doggies were a lot more polished then we were, no one can deny that.

We aren't far off. The only thing that makes us seem far off is all the negativity and hate that comes from the supporters.

- That was only Paddy's SEVENTH game. He should've at least had 2 (horrible set shot & terrible pass when he was in the goal square) you could easily add on another 2-3 shots at goal if we gave some clean entries.
- All this take about Parish and hate towards Gresham.. Ignoring the fact that we couldn't of drafted Parish. Parish is playing solid misfield time in a rubbish club that beat another rubbish club.
Gresham is playing forward because he is YOUNG and doesn't deserve to play in our midfield yet. Also he's played against two really good pressure teams so far (one that's on top of the ladder)

On the talk of Ross/Dunstan I agree both seem too be very similar players, hard at it without much speed. But both had a serious crack at the pill. Personally I'd love to see Acres selected (and given a serious run at it) over one of them.. And maybe that comes this season - same goes for Meatball getting an extended crack at senior level, something he now seriously deserved after his first couple of games this year.

As a whole, I think the club is in pretty good shape moving forward, with s good game plan & good cattle who will only get better with the more games & pre-seasons they get under their belt.

Maybe the fair weather supporters could stop the constant negativity after every game on here & start posting about some positives from the games & actually getting behind the players, coaches and the club.

Your werent plugger 66 in an earlier life by any chance?

Don't think so 'saynta' . The_President, knows when to use 'too' or 'to'. Also, The_Pres can use an apostrophe correctly. Plugs never displayed such skills in all his copious amount of posts.

haha, I'm not Plugger, but I'd rather Plugs come back than have to put up with the stuff Con has been posting.
Please don't be offended Conman, but you only ever post negative stuff about the club and players. I can't remember reading anything you've commented that was even partially positive.

[Trev from the Bush]

Well, Pres, reading most of the posts on this topic seems to prove you right.

We have supposters, not supporters, in that they are supposed to barrack for the Saints.

Too many people willing to over analyse a game played at a level they have never experienced themselves and then want to bag the players.

Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

[The Recruit]

It is a two way street. The club sell a story to fans that is basically bulls***. Id prefer it if the club was a bit more honest.
A little less of PR spin. We pay them for membership - in my case even though I live interstate and am an MCC member in any case. They call us selling raffle tickets etc.
They all get paid top coin. All of the players and staff. Yet they piss in our pocket and tell us its raining. Not good enough.

I dont mind being s*** - but lets be honest about it and ease back on the spin. When you over-sell and under-deliver - there will be a backlash. Maybe if the club sold reality - then the fans would expect reality in return.

It is the first rule of marketing. You are better to under-promise and over deliver than over promise and under-deliver. Whenever you do the latter you get unhappy customers. And footy is a business. Clubs sell hope. But they also need to be realistic about how they that hope. So here we are - unhappy customers.

Do not agree with this, the club have never promoted anything but a year of development and effort. I supposed everyone sees things differently.....

[The Recruit]

You know what that comes down too?
Pre-seasons.
A lot of our blokes are only into their 2nd or 3rd pre-season. Believe it or not, three pre seasons aren't going to make you an elite runner.

The Doggies actually had a (slightly) less experienced and younger side than us playing last night.

What is your point regarding this comment?

[The Fireman]

at least we have teeth