Story on saints mosquito fleet

[saynta]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... d8e5f34e17

"There’s only one Mosquito Fleet — Carlton’s circa 1980 — but the Saints are building their own

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten knows all about Carlton’s legendary mosquito fleet and it wold seem he’s intent on building his own at the Saints. It’s a plan, anyway, writes Mark Robinson.


First things first, there won’t be a better mosquito fleet than Carlton’s famous troupe which paraded from 1979 to 1982.

The Blues won flags in ’79, ’81 and ’82 and were beaten on semi-final weekend of ’80 by Collingwood.

Wayne Johnston, Rod Ashman, Ken Sheldon, Jimmy Buckley, Alex Marcou, Barry Armstrong, Trevor Keogh, Wayne Harmes, David Glascott, Phil Maylin, Vin Catoggio, Peter Francis ... old-ish Blues fan swooned over that lot more than they did over the Carlton Bluebirds who danced on the boundary line through that era.

Certain aspects have changed since then.

The concept of scantily-clad women dancing and whooping after a goal was kicked and will never return — nor should it.

But having a bevy of high-class midfielders/small forwards capable of winning a premiership will never go out of fashion.

St Kilda went shopping on High St over the summer and have assembled what could be one of the best, deepest, two-way running midfields in the competition.

No, it’s not a comparison to Carlton circa 1980. It’s a plan.

“Guess what, who’s coaching them? Brett Ratten. He knows,” Blues great Mark Maclure said.

Not since Lenny Hayes, Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna, Clint Jones, Farren Ray, Adam Schneider and Stephen Milne (circa 2010) have the Saints had a midfield/forward group that can seriously threaten opposition teams.

At the very least, it’s talented, quick and experienced.

To Jade Gresham, Jack Billings, Seb Ross, Jack Lonie and Jack Steele, they added Dan Hannebery, Bradley Hill, Zak Jones and Dan Butler.

And in the back half, they have Hunter Clark, who is shaping to be a real high-end talent, and Nick Coffield.>

Asked what he sees in that group, former Blue and Saints coach Sheldon says: “I haven't seen enough. But it is exciting.

“I see them use the ball quite brilliantly through the middle. Their efficiency is effective.

“The point I’m making is when they roll, they roll and make the most of their opportunity.”

Maclure added: “I think they’re OK, but they haven’t proven anything yet. Nothing.

“You have to prove yourself. You’ve got to put numbers on the board and then you get a little reputation about yourselves.

“And once you build that, it makes the opposition play differently, it makes them think.”
Of course, there’s more football than “rolling”.

On Saturday, the Saints play at the MCG against Collingwood, a team with a midfield engine that idles in high gear.

To call it a test is an understatement.

Their improvement will be tested both defensively and offensively against the stingiest team in the competition.

WHAT THE SAINTS STILL HAVE TO LEARN
St Kilda’s mosquito fleet is a work in progress.

And Sheldon and Maclure, who were teammates through Carlton’s glorious era, say the Saints have plenty to learn.

It’s not about the talent, they argue, it’s about trust and selflessness and synergy.

“A gun attacking midfield needs to be made into, not so much to have defensive ethic, but it needs to do all the defensive one percenters,” Sheldon said.

“You push the bloke, you carry the bloke five metres out of position, you guard the mark with real intent, and then you also have to play your role, go out and support the players when there needs to be two on one or three on two, as opposed to running forward.

“If you get too many downhill skiers, too many running forward of the footy, and all of a sudden something doesn’t connect, then bang, it’s a goal to the opposition.”

Maclure says of his Blues group: “If you didn’t buy in to this, you didn’t play.

“Don’t let the ball out, when it comes in don’t let it out. Smash everyone you can get hold of on the way through.

“And speed. Run them down, players like to saunter out of the back half and whoosh, they get rolled over.

“We were absolutely relentless on chase, tackle, harass. If you get it good luck getting out, that’s what we used to say..


It’s only two games in — and a huge test awaits — but the Saints seem to be adopting Brett Ratten’s mantra of having a strong defensive work ethic.

Their average pressure index is 1.96, which is ranked No.4 in the competition, and their forward-half pressure, which Maclure and Sheldon stressed underpinned their mosquito fleet, is 19.1, ranked second.

And you couldn’t ask more from ex-Tiger Butler and former Swan Jones, who are ranked No.2 and No.4 at the club for applying pressure.

“What I can see is respect starting to build, which is fantastic,” Sheldon said.

“If you haven’t got that ... like, there are times an individual or two or three will get ahead of themselves and you've got to be able pull that into line without unbalancing the team.

“The trust and respect is paramount and you’ve got to continue to work at that to make sure you’ve got plenty of that when the white heat is on.

“And when the white heat's on, you've got to have a level of confidence you can step up individually and also got to know your teammate is going to be able to do that.”

‘THEY CAN BEAT COLLINGWOOD’

Maclure says the mosquito fleer at Carlton was the Blues’ point of difference.

Most teams at that time had three tall forwards and resting rovers.

The Blues, at different times, had Maclure, Peter Brown, Peter Bosustow, Ross Ditchburn, resting ruck Mike Fitzpatrick and occasionally Kenny Hu

nter and Peter McConville, as the big guys, and the brilliant bunch of smalls around them.“Marcou was very quick, Buckley was quick, tough and clever, Johnston was ruthless, there were different aspects to each of them,” Maclure said..

“Keogh is a two-time premiership player and, let me tell you, nasty, Kenny Sheldon was clever, Ashy was a great player and I can’t understand why he’s not in the Hall of Fame.

“(Vin) Catoggio would just run around you, Phil Maylin came over from South Australia and played on the wing and was real handy, and Harmes was dynamic and he would occasionally go into the midfield.

“You know, that Butler is a beauty. I was filthy we didn’t pick him up at Carlton.'”

He says Saints have learned lessons in two weeks.

“Can they now actually test themselves against one of the really good sides in the competition? It’s a test.

“It doesn't matter if they win, lose or draw at this stage, they’ve got another 14 rounds. But they are putting together a good team.

“They can beat Collingwood. Collingwood was very ordinary last week against Richmond.”

Sheldon played and coached at St Kilda after leaving Carlton at the end of the 1986 season, so has huge affection for the club


His message to today’s group is respect and trust.

“It’s doing the little things which gets your team working together,” he said.

“That’s where your trust comes from. You can’t do it when you feel like it.

“There’s a few players that played league footy that wear that tag and probably the Saints have a few of those.

“It’s changing now. Ratten is onto that. As we used to say in the old days, he’s got a few more of the cattle.”


BUTLER TRADE: I WAS SH**ING MYSELF’

Jon Ralph

Not long after Dan Butler’s nerve-wracking trade to St Kilda went through Jayden Short had bought him a knock-off Saints jumper in the back-street markets of Bali.

Premiership Tiger Butler had sniffed the wind early in a 2019 season at Richmond in which he was dropped three times, eventually choosing St Kilda as a destination over Carlton’s hot and cold interest.

Yet with minutes to go in the trade period he was still officially a Tiger ... and sweating bullets.

“I was on a trip in Bali with a few of the Tigers boys sitting around the pool and they kept asking me when it was happening,” Butler recalled this week.

“I was saying it should be done by now so it made me nervous. I was sh--ing myself because strange things happen, until I finally saw it go through on Twitter. I had been holding my breath and it was a bit weird when it went through but one of the boys, Jayden Short, bought a Saints jersey from the market and I chucked it on.”

The speedy Butler was quickly in red, white and black while celebrating with a Bintang, but the reality he had truly found a new home came months later.

In February the entire St Kilda playing list made an emotional pilgrimage to Danny Frawley’s Bungaree farm outside Ballarat to pay tribute to the former captain.

Literally afraid to scare the horses at Frawley’s farm, they camped nearby at Butler’s parents’ farm.

It was there Stewart Loewe told stories about his great mate as players camped or slept in swags under the stars.

“Stewart Loewe spoke to us for a good while around the campfire, telling stories about Danny and reflecting on his career, what the club meant to him and the club meant to Danny.

“It was pretty amazing to be part of and hopefully it can become a yearly thing we do.
Dan Butler found a St Kilda jumper in Bali.


“We were initially going to camp at Danny’s place but with all the commotion and the horses there in rehab, I kind of mentioned mum and dad’s house. They have eight or nine acres and there was enough room for everyone, so it was good to see 60-odd tents on the front lawn.

“Ratts is really big on that kind of thing and he wanted to make a big effort to keep supporting Danny’s family. It was really touching that Ratts wanted to keep that connection strong.

“Obviously, the night wasn’t about me, but it was good to get all the boys to mum and dad’s house and show them where I lived my whole life.”

There is no bad blood from his move, Butler thrilled to be a Richmond AFL and VFL premiership player and excited about playing in a forward line with the likes of the emerging Max King.

He senses the same empathy from Ratten as he did in Damien Hardwick, but Butler says the former Blues great does have it over his Tigers counterpart in one category.

“Both are really similar in that they have created family clubs. At Richmond it was all about family and having family come to games and be in the changerooms, and it’s very similar with Ratts. One thing I have noticed that is different is the boys at Richmond love playing cricket but I never saw Dimma bowl a ball. Ratts is always bowling balls at the boys.”

Does he bring the express pace or is he a wilier customer?

“Look, I have no idea about cricket, but he does rate himself.” Butler says with a chuckle."

[Darth Vader]

Great article. I love the concept of honouring the traditions and history. The loss of Spud could weaken that so good to see the current group respecting him. Thanks for posting Saynta.

[saynta]

Great article. I love the concept of honouring the traditions and history. The loss of Spud could weaken that so good to see the current group respecting him. Thanks for posting Saynta.

No worries mate. Glad you enjoyed the two articles.