Lethlean? Genius or Stark Raving Mad this trade period?

[saintsRrising]

Ok with the trade and draft period still yet to happen I must admit to feeling very nervous.

At the end of it will Lethlean be considered a Genius or Stark Raving Mad this trade period?

At present the approach seems to be all over the shop with no clear strategy. I am hope like held that there are things that we do not yet know that mould male all the mooted moves successful and sensible.

Now first I agree that the club cannot just sit on our hands and just use the meagre draft picks that we have this year. We have to change up our list.

Our midfield for example has players that can win the ball ok, but who as a group just do not hurt the position enough with it.

Hill. This part I agree with . Even if he costs us pick 5. Even the $900K per year does not really as we have to spend the salary cap anyway. He is quality and gettable by us. Most quality players are of gettable by us at present.

When you read https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/mitch- ... 2174461cef you can understand what Hill will bea great acqusition for Stkilda and the list that we have.

Ryder. WTF. I simply cannot understand getting a player of his age, and on the slide , as a best 22 player for us. Stop gap recruiting is not how you rebuild a team. It is a top up play, and we do not have list where topping up will work. If he was cheap and was to manly play at Sandy as a back up ruck, then ok. But I doubt that is the plan.

Bruce. Unless the Doggies have offered us a truly overs offer either in terms of a player or pick (ie say to help land say Crouch) then this could smack of getting rid of BJ or Dal for little in return. Bruce swapped for say a second rounder is a dud deal for us. Bruce plays CHF, the hardest position in the team quite well, and at 27 is hitting his peak years. I can see why the Doggies would want him. Ryder is not a good key forward and if that is the plan next year to have him play up forward instead of Bruce then we will be the poorer team for it. And in one or two years when Bruce would still be playing well Bytel and Clark in the midfield would have benefited from having him as well as Max to kick too.

Steven. Well sad case for us. If he goes to the Cats we will cop unders, and that is the sad reality.
No point keeping him though if he wants to go. Hopefully will gain us Constable

Carlisle. This move I understand if we can attract an ok offer that helps us land a mid. With Battle, Brown, Austin, Marsh, Wilkie and Joyce we have enough talls to build a reasonable defence around. And an improved midfield means 1/ the ball down their less often and 2/ more support when it is.

Acres. Teases but does not deliver enough. If he helps us and more mids, then why not. Plus with Bytel, Hill, maybe Tomlinson, Mystery mid, Gresham, Steele, Dunstan and Ross someone needs to get squeezed out and that would probably be Acres.

Dunstan/ Ross. Dunstan finished the year really well. But if we gain a mid or two then one, or even possibly both may be expendable. Having said that if both have Hill feed the ball to, both will become more effective players for us.

Crouch. Gets it more than Dunstan, but like Dunstan is slow and has issues with ball use.

Tomlinson. Does not overly excite me. But may come as a RFA, can play many positions even though stars at none and is a good ball user which is a weakness of many at St Kilda. So he would ad versatility and quality of ball use.

Ben King. Probably more wishful thinking than anything that he will land at the Saints this year. Suns will not gift him up, and it is hard to imagine St Kilda players willingly wanting to go there in 2020. Suns are also rumoured to have large salary cap problems and so cannot offer St Kilda players overs in$$ to join them.

I personally would not want a forward with two Kings in it. So one would have to play back.



How will it all finish?

Hopefully all well, and we end up with two quality mids, better overall depth while having taken a hit up forward in losing Bruce.

But if the Hill deal fell over, and we end up only gaining Ryder and Tomlinson while losing Carlisle and Bruce for a couple of second rounders I would be thinking that we have gone backwards bigtime.

[WellardSaint]

We have Gubby Allen in our corner, who is rumoured to be somewhat of a tough and cunning old bugger.
Maybe his wise old head will be the perfect foil for Lethlean, who is marking time at the Saints, and just using our club
as a stepping stone to something higher in the industry. He ain't a Sainter, just a career footy admin guy

[chook23]

I think so many on this forum have been sucked in by the guess work/maybe's that have have appeared here and in various forms in the media

Most of it has just been rumour

too many think it is fact already...

media have you on a string.

[saintsRrising]

too many think it is fact already...

How so?

Fact The that the club has said enough for us to know that they want to be big traders this period.

How much they will be is a matter of speculation.

For example the more believable rumours include:

- that Ryder is considering offers from StKilda and Essendon
- That Hill has a number of suitors but our $$$ pre-Cogs staying at GWS was the highest
- That Saints have made an offer to Tomlinson
- That Steven is a strong chance to not be there in 2020

The other are more rumour are likely to be more speculative, but again we know that the Club wants to rejig the list somewhat this period. How successful they are we will wait and see.


Even if we only landed Hill I personally would be quite happy.


If we gain Hill and sell the farm with a bunch of stupid trades I would not be at all happy.

If the saints gain Ryder and then exit Bruce, then unless say the Dogs gave us a truly over for Bruce I would regard that as madness.

I do what to see with all the combined deals that their is some sound overall strategy to it.

Until it all has unfolded we will not know how good or bad it is for the Saint and how effective our trading has been.

[chook23]

I was being general ....many on the forum are stating rumours are true.....

and a fact already

that sort of crap sh.ts me

the club wanted to be big traders last year.....

I will wait until the trade period is finished

Has bee so much crap in paper/forum in a no news week

Too much fake news

[Ghost Like]

sRr you are truly someone who has followed St Kilda for a long time. Respect.

St Kilda have the innate ability to make you hyperventilate. Breathe, try not to anticipate a panic attack, just know one is just around the corner.

[saintsRrising]

I was being general ....many on the forum are stating rumours are true.....

and a fact already

that sort of crap sh.ts me

the club wanted to be big traders last year.....

I will wait until the trade period is finished

Has bee so much crap in paper/forum in a no news week

Too much fake news

Agree there. The Hill deal seems to be the likeliest to actually happen

[B.M]

This off season will be the beginning of the end for StK

3 bad decisions and we’re stuffed

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Get Ben King. Think long term.

One of the reasons we lost the 09/10 GFs is because Roo was getting a million and our bottom six were crap.

You'd have to think that the King brothers together at their beloved Saints wouldn't be holding the club to ransom when we finally come good.

[B.M]

One of the reasons we made the 09 grand final was that we had the AA captain in our side

Did you miss the prelim?

[CQ SAINT]

One of the reasons we made the 09 grand final was that we had the AA captain in our side

Did you miss the prelim?

Million dollar prelim.

[B.M]

He was worth every penny

Best player in the AFL in 09

[Scollop]

Once the coach is announced and once a few trades are confirmed behind closed doors, then the club should just come out and declare that we are in rebuild. The trades behind closed doors that I'm speaking about are the ones where we exit guys like Bruce (if the rumour is true) and Carlisle and Steven.

We should only be making it public that we are stripping right back AFTER we have secured contracts in writing to exit any of our senior players. Get those deals done first.

Once every manager and every young player realises that there is an opportunity to join a young list in rebuild mode we can perhaps attract some of our future leaders and some of our future All Australians. There are players who might be struggling to break into some of the top 8 teams ( Collingwood, the Doggies, West Coast and Essendon seem to have a lot of players all trying to squeeze into their midfields).

Are there high draft picks or any elite talent out there that we can attract? Players like Steele who we picked up that want to play more midfield minutes. The other thing that we need to do is perhaps try and grab a guy who wants to be our future captain. Who are the best under 21's in the comp right now and who out of these guys wants to be an AFL captain. Sell the concept and sell the prestige that comes with it to their managers

[CQ SAINT]

He was worth every penny

Best player in the AFL in 09

Ablett might think differently. Was underpaid at Geelong, got his 2 flags and then took his pension from.The Suns.

[BarryGrogan]

Lethlean isn't the List Manger nor the Head Recruiter.

[saintsRrising]

Lethlean isn't the List ManAger nor the Head Recruiter.

So you reckon he is not calling the shots? Really?

So Lethers had nothing to do with bringing in Hannas?

[BarryGrogan]

Lethlean isn't the List ManAger nor the Head Recruiter.

So you reckon he is not calling the shots? Really?

So Lethers had nothing to do with bringing in Hannas?

I'd say he's absolutely not calljng the shots.

Cho stated that getting Hannebury was his call.


Lethlean in his role, I would imagine would be facilitating his staff doing their jobs, and ensuring the higher level strategy is being adhered to.


I'd be shocked if he is making specific calls on players. There's no evidence to suggest that he is either.

[BarryGrogan]

This off season will be the beginning of the end for StK

3 bad decisions and we’re stuffed

Heard that hysterical nonsense before...

Honestly, I think we are a couple of bad decisions, or poor luck away from extinction.... It's a long way back. 18 spots in fact!

[Ghost Like]

This off season will be the beginning of the end for StK

3 bad decisions and we’re stuffed

Is it like wasting your 3 wishes as granted by a genie?

That's real "sky is falling" stuff. Can you create a counter for us please? Let us know when & what #1 is, then #2 so we can grab our life jackets and form orderly lines in front of the life boats.

[Trev from the Bush]

I believe Jack Steven's discontent can be linked directly to Lethlean.

[SMS]

We have got to change things UP!
We are BOTTOM 4 and have been for years!
So why would we stay with same group?
This trade period we need massive changes
IF we somehow pull off these changes then we can look forward to finals/flags in the 20s. If not then we are screwed. Get rid of dead weight that has value on market. Lonie for instance - good player but too small, cant kick over 40m and has serious issues in front of easy goals. Carlisle is s*** attitude and back issues, Newnes is Newnes, Bruce is good but cant ruck and with BKING/MKING/RYDER is great trade value. WE HAVE TO SHAKE THINGS UP.
Acres has value but his footy IQ is horrendous. Cant change that .

OUT
Carlisle, Lonie, Newnes, Acres, Bruce, Steven, Webster

IN
BKing, Tomlinson, Constable, BHill, ZJones, PRyder

Our lineup becomes more skillful, has proper ruck, tougher.

This team will play finals all thing considered
Change up positions.

Geary Tomlinson Coffield
Clark Battle Wilkie
ZJones Ross BHill
Billings BKing Kent
Gresham MKing Membrey

Marshal Steele, Hanneberry

Ryder, Long, Paton, Constable

[saintsRrising]

We have got to change things UP!

100%

We have not been churning our list enough.

[Scollop]

We've been churning but bringing in the wrong players. Instead of building the right core group we are just using a crappy scattergun approach.

Lethlean stands around listening at quarter time huddles and sits over the shoulder of the head coach in the box. To me, he acts like he wants to control all aspects of the footy department including recruitment.

[takeaway]

We've been churning but bringing in the wrong players. Instead of building the right core group we are just using a crappy scattergun approach.

Lethlean stands around listening at quarter time huddles and sits over the shoulder of the head coach in the box. To me, he acts like he wants to control all aspects of the footy department including recruitment.

Perhaps they should give him the title of "General Manager of Football".

[Scollop]

Perhaps he shouldn't micro manage and just trust people to do their job

Hope he doesn't make a habit of standing around near the huddles or sitting over peoples shoulders

As the title suggests; he'll be a genius if recruiting 1 King lands his twin brother...but if Rozee continues to shine and Maxy struggles with his body and if Ben decides NOT to join his brother then it's curtains for Lethlean