Where has the Saints spirit gone?

[matrix]

well said fqf

[saintspremiers]

FFS has anyone played competitive sport when you know your team is hopelessly either underdone or simply not as good as you're opponents are?

That mental challenge causes turnovers and general simple errors.

Men against Boys.

All these harsh trashings - and there will be several this year - will either break or make our players. Some will fall in a heap and won't cope, others, with guidance, will seek to improve and be the next A grader.

Patience. And lots and lots of it.

You'll be ok WO. The sun will rise in the East tomorrow, and then gradually it will move North from then onwards until September.

[Linton Lodger]

Where has the Saints spirit gone?

Teams under Grant Thomas and Ross Lyon werent always sucessful, but they had pride in there club and team!

When was the last time you recall a Saints player tackling to make an opponent feel it, getting under there opposition skins verbally and backing it up on the ground? Or bumping to run through and hurt there opponent, or spoiling to make their opponent know he deserves the mark.

Yes we are a young and inexpereinced side Richo, but it doesnt mean we have to be the most metally weak side in the competition. Grow some balls Richo and challenge and back your blokes to take on the opposition and let them know we are a team with some spirit! If it means some fines and suspensions so be it - we would rather that than the limp d..k performance you showed tonight! You will be surprised the psoitive affects that will have on your team and the opposition.

You are coaching how you played... you need to step out of that and show that resounding belief and drive that makes great coaches!

You have got to be joking. The effort and spirit were there last night. The boys busted their gut and some of the tackling was tremendous. Hawthorn were almost at full strength and gave it a red hot tilt, that's how they chose to use this practice game. They dismantled us, we kept attempting to attack instead of maybe slowing the game down at times, because that's what development and practice games are about.

Last night had its positives, for instance our young players would have had a great lesson against the Premiers. They will know more clearly the standard they need to get to. McCartin showed great character, unsighted in the first half and tired, he did well to work himself into the game in the second half. Bruce is a gorilla, Weller did some great work, Hickey's game is developing & Dunstan worked his arse off.

Getting into the coach at this stage is ridiculous, I think he's doing a good job and I believe when we come of age, we will be a physically brutal footy team.

[Bluthy]

I'm not sure we played with much urgency at all last night.
After one of the many Hawthorn goals in the third quarter, our midfield quartet decided to walk (slowly) to the centre circle from deep defense.
The umpire had to wait for them to arrive before bouncing the ball...Needless to say Hawthorn easily won the clearance and had another shot at goal (luckily for us it went out on the full).

On Dunstan (as someone brought up his game)...His disposal was bitterly disappointing last night. He is not Robinson Caruso but I lost count of the amount of times he put the ball at his teammate's feet. I am not sure this would count as an ineffective disposal but we need to be hititng our own players on the chest far more frequently than we are.

No you are wrong on Dunstan's disposal and here's why: he's actually trying to be damaging with his disposal rather than the normal non-descript bobble kicks to what is basically a 50-50 situation but counts as an "effective kick" in stats that guys like Savage do. As an example Dunstan came streaming out of the middle and lowered his eyes and tried a spearing pass to, can't remember who, maybe McCartin and he screwed it up and it bounced in front and I think hawks ran it out. But 1) he has the vision to see things like that option rather than just the normal floating kick to a pack that will almost always get cleared and 2) he has the guts to try it. It didn't come off but as time goes on more and more times it will start to come off. And I guarantee you Richo would have said after the game - you keep doing that, don't worry about the supporters reactions or the media or the fansites. You've got to have the guts to fail to succeed. I've seen Dunstan do some brilliant things with the footy in patches. Like all young players he is going to be wildly inconsistent early while he gets used to the speed, pressure, strength, speed of decision making needed in AFL and the thousands of screaming fans in a pressure cooker atmosphere each week. But when he gets to that 100 game mark he is going to be a player that can hurt the oppo. Same with ACres. He screwed up early with his disposal. But then I saw him do an effortless 40 meeting sweeping kick out of the backline to open up play on the left. That's the flashes of talent and vision you want to see. They are the players that will get better and better because they have that footy intelligence and skill that needs games and experience to fully flower. But it will happen. We just need to get a few more of them in.