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Most of the different media outlets and fan-sites have had their say on our season, what do we think? Did they get it right? Or was there some too kind or some too harsh reviews of the horror show that was 2018?
St Kilda's efforts in the forward half were a disaster, not just due to another season of momentum-sapping inaccurate goalkicking, but also because the ball delivery into the forward 50 was horrible. The absence of Josh Bruce and Paddy McCartin for nearly the entire season didn't help. More concerning, the Saints frequently seemed incapable of preventing the opposition from launching into game-ending streaks of unanswered goals, which suggests a fragile mindset.
There were injuries, but there had been talk they could have snuck into the eight.
It couldn’t have been further from the truth as goalkicking again proved wayward and star power was lacking. It made for the fourth season in six with six wins or less. Not pretty.
A game plan that relied on heavy ball use was consistently let down by abominable disposal and even worse kicking for goal. All of which not helped by the club once again being dealt one of the hardest fixtures in the competition, upon release and again upon end of season review, despite once again missing the finals in 2017 like they had every year since 2011.
To all and sundry at Moorabbin, this year was a tremendous underachievement. Despite being so close to breaking through to the finals the past two seasons, the Saints were in wooden spoon contention for the majority of the season, unable to make up the huge loss created by the retirements of Leigh Montagna and Nick Riewoldt at the end of last season.
bozza1980 wrote: ↑Thu 04 Oct 2018 1:10pm
Most of the different media outlets and fan-sites have had their say on our season, what do we think? Did they get it right? Or was there some too kind or some too harsh reviews of the horror show that was 2018?
St Kilda's efforts in the forward half were a disaster, not just due to another season of momentum-sapping inaccurate goalkicking, but also because the ball delivery into the forward 50 was horrible. The absence of Josh Bruce and Paddy McCartin for nearly the entire season didn't help. More concerning, the Saints frequently seemed incapable of preventing the opposition from launching into game-ending streaks of unanswered goals, which suggests a fragile mindset.
There were injuries, but there had been talk they could have snuck into the eight.
It couldn’t have been further from the truth as goalkicking again proved wayward and star power was lacking. It made for the fourth season in six with six wins or less. Not pretty.
A game plan that relied on heavy ball use was consistently let down by abominable disposal and even worse kicking for goal. All of which not helped by the club once again being dealt one of the hardest fixtures in the competition, upon release and again upon end of season review, despite once again missing the finals in 2017 like they had every year since 2011.
To all and sundry at Moorabbin, this year was a tremendous underachievement. Despite being so close to breaking through to the finals the past two seasons, the Saints were in wooden spoon contention for the majority of the season, unable to make up the huge loss created by the retirements of Leigh Montagna and Nick Riewoldt at the end of last season.
They are all very accurate, but the first one from The Age absolutely nailed our season, and not just this season but all of our seasons since 2014. The inability to stem the tide of consecutive goals being scored against us early in games which effectively put matches out of our grasp before half time has been a feature of St. Kilda games since 2013. How this has not been rectified heading into season 2019 is utterly bewildering.
Good teams build a solid defensive base from all players and then look at increasing scoring power after that. A simple method that works but the saints cant get it right and haven't got the players to do that anyway.
I think they've got the building blocks of a good defensive unit with Carlisle, Brown and Roberton.
I think the impact of Roberton's absence was wildly underestimated this year.
I'm most definitely guilty of being in the optimists camp so I think a few tweaks could see some really big improvements but I definitely understand your reservations.
Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends.
Well, having Robbo, Bruce, and our preferred full forward, Battle or McCartin, and one of Hickey or Longer out there actually available to play will have a massive impact on how much we can improve our results next year.
samuraisaint wrote: ↑Fri 05 Oct 2018 1:02pm
Well, having Robbo, Bruce, and our preferred full forward, Battle or McCartin, and one of Hickey or Longer out there actually available to play will have a massive impact on how much we can improve our results next year.
Unfortunately samurai, three of those aforementioned are coming off serious injuries/illness which are known and may repeat. Not sure if Bruce can come back as big as ever after a broken leg either. And agree, Saints also have to determine who is the number 1 ruckman and stick with that ruckman, those two should never be played together.
