Any excuses for a slow start in 2012?

[evertonfc]

Hell no.

Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, Bulldogs, Fremantle [home], Melbourne.

We should be aiming to be at least 4/5 after that.

Give a nice jab to the membership figures and also the player's confidence.

Great opening draw. Thanks Demetriou and co.

[bigcarl]

We've got to take advantage of it and get off to a flyer. Set the standard early and maintain it.

[Seaford_Saint]

If we are serious about contending, we need to be 9W 3L hitting the bye (or 8 & 4 at worst)

[mr six o'clock]

We've got to take advantage of it and get off to a flyer. Set the standard early and maintain it.

yes ! and we've still got the players to do it

[dcstkfc]

I'm expecting 15 wins minimum with our draw.

Reminds me of our start in 2009.

[Winmar]

We certainly should be off to a flier after those games. Here's hoping all goes to plan!

[evertonfc]

Geelong's fast start imbued them with confidence this year to go on to greater heights.

Fingers crossed we get the same boost.

[Gershwin]

If I remember correctly Lyon and Misson "planned" a slow pre-season development building up to a strong run home.
This obviously misfired and we were always on the back-foot and struggling to keep up.
Can't imagine we would make that mistake again.

[saintspremiers]

I blame Watters for the slow start.

[saintly]

the only reason why we we won't do so well is the players having a changed game plan that they will have to get used to.

kicking goals for one thing

[kosifantutti23]

Geelong's fast start imbued them with confidence this year to go on to greater heights.

Fingers crossed we get the same boost.

They had a terrible start in '07.
Brisbane has a great start in 2010.

[hungry for a premiership]

I'm pretty sure Geelong had a great start to '07

[Teflon]

New coach
Changes to game plan
More kids in
Older stars

There will be mittigating circumstances, always are. Sure, on paper we should smack Melbourne..but I reckon Melbournes rate of improvement will be greater than ours so who knows what that is by start of 2012.

Ruck worries me.

[tweedaletomanning]

You are both wrong ... After 6 games Geelong were 3w 3l.

At the half way mark of the season they were on top of the ladder, so i guess kosi is a little more wrong.

Surprisingly, really, fan tutti is usually spot on..

[To the top]

Would not be counting our chickens across those games.

PA is in Adelaide where they have a very good record against us.

GC will improve at a rate of knots.

WB, Fremantle and Melbourrne will all be finals contenders - or should be.

2012 will be a very even and a very tough season.

As for St Kilda, we will rely on improved performances from our core hopefully assisted by improvement among our foot soldiers and middle ranked players and with contributions from those juniors who debuted in 2011.

Where the problem is is with our "22 to 26 year old" player numbers - those coming into their prime and who we can look to to improve hopefully significantly because of the experience they now have - the likes McEvoy, Clarke, Goddard, Gwilt, Gilbert, Armitage and Ray.

The problem is we are thin on the ground in this demographic - and that goes directly to our "bottom 6" debate where we are exposed and have done nothing about over some seasons.

So we look for the likes of Steven, Stanley, Ledger, Cripps and Siposs to quickly fill the breach and perform above their experience.

To expect that 6 or 8 players drafted for 2012 will immediately impact on on field performance in 2012 is fanciful - including with the 2 obtained from the SANFL and the VFL.

A couple of the players we have got rid of hurt us across the balance and succession demographic.

[The Redeemer]

Hell no.

Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, Bulldogs, Fremantle [home], Melbourne.

We should be aiming to be at least 4/5 after that.

Give a nice jab to the membership figures and also the player's confidence.

Great opening draw. Thanks Demetriou and co.

All of those teams are truly crap so we should be 5-0. Our draw is really favourable and if we can go 50/50 against the other top 4 sides then we have a great chance come september.

[kosifantutti23]

You are both wrong ... After 6 games Geelong were 3w 3l.

At the half way mark of the season they were on top of the ladder, so i guess kosi is a little more wrong.

Surprisingly, really, fan tutti is usually spot on..

They had two wins and three losses in the first five games, probably not terrible but very poor in comparison to the rest of that season and the next four.

I think that a good start just means you have points in the bank it doesn't mean much come finals time other than give you a better place to start from.

[Teflon]

Would not be counting our chickens across those games.

PA is in Adelaide where they have a very good record against us.

GC will improve at a rate of knots.

WB, Fremantle and Melbourrne will all be finals contenders - or should be.

2012 will be a very even and a very tough season.

As for St Kilda, we will rely on improved performances from our core hopefully assisted by improvement among our foot soldiers and middle ranked players and with contributions from those juniors who debuted in 2011.

Where the problem is is with our "22 to 26 year old" player numbers - those coming into their prime and who we can look to to improve hopefully significantly because of the experience they now have - the likes McEvoy, Clarke, Goddard, Gwilt, Gilbert, Armitage and Ray.

The problem is we are thin on the ground in this demographic - and that goes directly to our "bottom 6" debate where we are exposed and have done nothing about over some seasons.

So we look for the likes of Steven, Stanley, Ledger, Cripps and Siposs to quickly fill the breach and perform above their experience.

To expect that 6 or 8 players drafted for 2012 will immediately impact on on field performance in 2012 is fanciful - including with the 2 obtained from the SANFL and the VFL.

A couple of the players we have got rid of hurt us across the balance and succession demographic.

I agree with a lot of that but on the positive side Im expecting:

More from Riewoldt in 2012....couldnt be as ordinary could he?
More from Goddard - 2011 was a so so yr from him IMO
More from Montagna - avg yr for mine
I also expect a faster start from Gilbert etc without the mess of last yr
Hayes back
Gwilt maybe nice on the run home...
McEvoy will continue to improve....support worries me..Kosi...can he?

Reality is we need our stars stepping us more than most. 2011 for many was a down yr (except Dal/Fisher/Dempster) - must get a lift across board cause we are thin 22-26yrs picking up slack.

For us to win a flag we'd also need Ray, Peake, Jones, Scheider, Polo, Gram to have consistently good seasons even on a "role" basis.

A lot has to go right for mine.

[whiskers3614]

Biggest excuse will be from defenders who will suddenly be told that you're allowed to kick it forward, unlike everything drilled into them the last 5 years!

[clarky449]

Ummm Excuse will be that we arent good enough.