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Gershwin wrote: ↑Tue 01 Feb 2022 2:00pm
Please don’t give too much credence to pre-season training. I know it is all we have got at the moment, but premierships are not won in February. The players just need to get fit and avoid injuries.
Where was that feedback for pre-season 2021
Is there any factual basis to the discourse that we were not fit enough last season, or is it a clever ploy by those in power to direct blame at someone who could be an easy scapegoat ie. the head of high performance (Matt Hornsby).
I was more focused on injuries literally…
Pre-season 2021
Paton went down
Geary went down
Marshall got stress fractures
Ryder took leave (albeit not an injury but still)
No Carlisle
No Hannebery
Crouch was suspended
No Zac Jones
Maybe Roberton retired too? That one’s a bit blurry at this point
Rather disastrous pre-season
Bit of a miracle that we won rd1
Yes, I think injuries were cruel to us last year. Throw in Gresham.
But I'm interested in this belief that we weren't fit enough and it was all the fault of the high performance coach and physio. Great spin to take pressure off poor recruiting by people who are obviously more powerful than the fitness staff. ie. Lethlean, Gallagher etc.
Highly paid recruits such as Hannebery, Hill and Crouch (who is no better than handy) have been dreadful decisions.
Gershwin wrote: ↑Tue 01 Feb 2022 2:00pm
Please don’t give too much credence to pre-season training. I know it is all we have got at the moment, but premierships are not won in February. The players just need to get fit and avoid injuries.
Where was that feedback for pre-season 2021
Is there any factual basis to the discourse that we were not fit enough last season, or is it a clever ploy by those in power to direct blame at someone who could be an easy scapegoat ie. the head of high performance (Matt Hornsby).
I was more focused on injuries literally…
Pre-season 2021
Paton went down
Geary went down
Marshall got stress fractures
Ryder took leave (albeit not an injury but still)
No Carlisle
No Hannebery
Crouch was suspended
No Zac Jones
Maybe Roberton retired too? That one’s a bit blurry at this point
Rather disastrous pre-season
Bit of a miracle that we won rd1
Yes, I think injuries were cruel to us last year. Throw in Gresham.
But I'm interested in this belief that we weren't fit enough and it was all the fault of the high performance coach and physio. Great spin to take pressure off poor recruiting by people who are obviously more powerful than the fitness staff. ie. Lethlean, Gallagher etc.
Highly paid recruits such as Hannebery, Hill and Crouch (who is no better than handy) have been dreadful decisions.
Gershwin I was calling it after about round 4 last year, that the entire list were no where near fit enough. We just couldnt seem to run out quarters let alone games. I think the injuries to key players compounded the affect, but fitness was definitely an issue.
You are right regarding Hannebrey he has been a shocking recruit, but I think Hill and Crouch being high workload players were also hindered by a lack of fitness. I think its a cop out by Hill and Ratts playing him across HB, but lets see how they go this year before righting them off.
Hindsight keeps smashing us, as looking back Langdon would have been a much smarter player to target than Hill - but thats St Kilda.
Melbourne weren't fit in 2019. They recognised it, took action, and in 2021 were the fittest team in the competition. What an incredibly direct outfit they looked. They pocketed some decent players after 2019 which helped, and in 2021 they had a dream run with injuries, but without the improvement in fitness they wouldn't have won the flag. When the team is not fit enough, it looks like their attitude is poor. They don't look like they're chasing hard enough, they make skill errors through fatigue and they get burnt late in quarters. Throw a pile of injuries to key players on top of that and you have St Kilda in 2021.
We clearly weren't fit. I was sitting with a mate at docklands in round two and called it half way through the second quarter. Our guys looked absolutely spent. We ran through treacle for the rest of the game.....and then it just got compounded week after week due to injuries. We then sacked out fitness guy at the end of the season. That says it all.
Against Melbourne in Round 2 we were coming off a tough slog v GWS an interstate trip and a 6 day break
Melbourne had an 1 extra day to prepare, no travel and an easy game v Freo
Some may think it's insignificant but factors nonetheless
Melbourne stellar 2021 could quite easily put down to their amazing injury run ...... 16 of their best 22 played 23 out of 25 games
Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Lever, Brayshaw, Rivers, Spargo, Pickett, Neil Bullen & Jordon played all 25 games - Fritsch, Salem, Langdon, Jackson played 24 games & McDonald, May played 23 games
During their 3 Finals game they made 1 change
St Kilda could only dream of such an injury free run
Devilhead wrote: ↑Wed 02 Feb 2022 9:56pm
Against Melbourne in Round 2 we were coming off a tough slog v GWS an interstate trip and a 6 day break
Melbourne had an 1 extra day to prepare, no travel and an easy game v Freo
Some may think it's insignificant but factors nonetheless
Melbourne stellar 2021 could quite easily put down to their amazing injury run ...... 16 of their best 22 played 23 out of 25 games
Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Lever, Brayshaw, Rivers, Spargo, Pickett, Neil Bullen & Jordon played all 25 games - Fritsch, Salem, Langdon, Jackson played 24 games & McDonald, May played 23 games
During their 3 Finals game they made 1 change
St Kilda could only dream of such an injury free run
Interesting to note that yesterday in an article posting all clubs injured and rehabilitating players Melbourne had none.
Impatient Sainter wrote: ↑Tue 01 Feb 2022 1:56pm
You can make all sorts of excuses and blame others, but the reality is that Ross is an unreliable kick and turns the ball over at critical times. I get that he has his positives, but so did Dunstan. We just cant carry 'turn over merchants' if we want to improve. Some players just cant kick under pressure and unfortunately Ross is is also prone to clangers when there is zero pressure.
Gresham is another when playing in the midfield scrubs far too many kicks, but hopefully he is young enough to improve. Crouch is another that has too many clangers (plays inside role), but at least he can hit a target when he is in the clear.
Don't forget that it's also where you turn it over. When Gresh scrubs his mong kicks - they're generally after a midfield clearance as he's scooting forward into the forward line. A turnover there isn't as punishing there.
Seb's problem is that he institutionalized to getting it and crabbing sideways so that when he misses his target - it's still in the midfield. And then we're dead
Devilhead wrote: ↑Wed 02 Feb 2022 9:56pm
Against Melbourne in Round 2 we were coming off a tough slog v GWS an interstate trip and a 6 day break
Melbourne had an 1 extra day to prepare, no travel and an easy game v Freo
Some may think it's insignificant but factors nonetheless
I think you're either selling Melbourne short or overselling us.
Melbourne's poor accuracy that day meant the scoreboard flattered us.
After kicking the first three goals of the second quarter, Melbourne had the next 11 scores. They kicked 5.6. We failed to score from the 11 min mark of the second to the 12 min mark of the third.
We were lucky to be only 15 points down at the final change. Melbourne got out to a 5 goal lead before we managed some junk time goals to make the margin respectable.
Essendon showed us the following week where we really were as a club at that point!
Devilhead wrote: ↑Wed 02 Feb 2022 9:56pm
Against Melbourne in Round 2 we were coming off a tough slog v GWS an interstate trip and a 6 day break
Melbourne had an 1 extra day to prepare, no travel and an easy game v Freo
Some may think it's insignificant but factors nonetheless
I think you're either selling Melbourne short or overselling us.
Melbourne's poor accuracy that day meant the scoreboard flattered us.
After kicking the first three goals of the second quarter, Melbourne had the next 11 scores. They kicked 5.6. We failed to score from the 11 min mark of the second to the 12 min mark of the third.
We were lucky to be only 15 points down at the final change. Melbourne got out to a 5 goal lead before we managed some junk time goals to make the margin respectable.
Essendon showed us the following week where we really were as a club at that point!
So how do we explain us running over the top of West Coast the following week in Rd 4?
We didn't seem to have a fitness problem that day and finished the game full of running
For me our mental fragility was a bigger factor in those early losses .... whether that was due to losing some key players and not being switched on and coming up against a few sides in form with a point to prove?
A lot factors come in to winning and losing ..... having that mental edge is huge even more so than having a physical edge
cwrcyn wrote: ↑Wed 02 Feb 2022 5:24pm
Melbourne weren't fit in 2019. They recognised it, took action, and in 2021 were the fittest team in the competition. What an incredibly direct outfit they looked. They pocketed some decent players after 2019 which helped, and in 2021 they had a dream run with injuries, but without the improvement in fitness they wouldn't have won the flag. When the team is not fit enough, it looks like their attitude is poor. They don't look like they're chasing hard enough, they make skill errors through fatigue and they get burnt late in quarters. Throw a pile of injuries to key players on top of that and you have St Kilda in 2021.
We clearly weren't fit. I was sitting with a mate at docklands in round two and called it half way through the second quarter. Our guys looked absolutely spent. We ran through treacle for the rest of the game.....and then it just got compounded week after week due to injuries. We then sacked out fitness guy at the end of the season. That says it all.
They drafted terribly for years but righted the ship and started grabbing guns. Oliver and Petracca are absolute top shelf and they have Gawn and a heap of other high end talent. Petracca still hurts. His grand final performance was probably as good as anyone apart from Dusty in the last decade. We seem to have heaps of good but not much elite yet. Hopefully we are sitting on a few.
"Forty disposals, 24 of them contested, two goals, nine tackles and four clearances. Petracca was the first player to ever get 40 touches in a Grand Final in an absolutely titanic performance, particularly in the second half. " https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/new ... pmka525gtp
Onya Trout. He could come back to St Kilda as a recruiting consultant and they could just do the opposite. Might get a few guns then. Recruit all the guys with s*** character and know how to play footy.
Gershwin wrote: ↑Tue 01 Feb 2022 2:00pm
Please don’t give too much credence to pre-season training. I know it is all we have got at the moment, but premierships are not won in February. The players just need to get fit and avoid injuries.
Where was that feedback for pre-season 2021
Is there any factual basis to the discourse that we were not fit enough last season, or is it a clever ploy by those in power to direct blame at someone who could be an easy scapegoat ie. the head of high performance (Matt Hornsby).
Running out games was an issue last year and I personally thought we looked the more fatigued side in Q4 of just about every game we played. That being said, we do have a game plan based on defensive pressure, so that may be why.
