Successful Season?

[MickThomas]

Not sure why Newnes used the word 'successful'
when some improvements were obvious, but also some glaring flaws as well.
Successful is the wrong word.

[Teflon]

I heard Jack Newnes on the radio news saying something like the players would be keeping an eye on other results but even if we don't make the finals it has still been a successful season.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but how can the players (although I hope it's just him) say it has been a successful season by any reasonable measure? Less wins, lower ladder position, no finals.

I'm getting sick of this sort of thing. Wake up saints!

Did I sleep through Round 23? If we win and West Coast lose, we will probably have the same number of wins and ladder position as last year. Better percentage too.

Does that make it a successful season? Probably not.

Well we are supposed to be GF bound 2018 so based on that expectation.....same result as last years soft draw is hardly success....

[stonecold]

Correct me if im wrong Teffy, but I believe it was challenging for top 4 in 2018 and GF by 2020, so if that's the case, we are not far off!!!!!

[Teflon]

Correct me if im wrong Teffy, but I believe it was challenging for top 4 in 2018 and GF by 2020, so if that's the case, we are not far off!!!!!

Well if it's top 4 next year you'd want to be playing finals this year for experience......we can guild the Lilly but I think we missed the mark this year imo

[Con Gorozidis]

We have First Round selections in McCartin, Freeman and Goddard where we look for impact in 2018

Freeman and Goddard are both 2nd rounders.

[St Lenny]

We have gone backwards this year. Skills are shocking. Very disappointing season.

[The Fireman]

most were expecting finals, disappointing and unsuccessful year.

[Con Gorozidis]

Correct me if im wrong Teffy, but I believe it was challenging for top 4 in 2018 and GF by 2020, so if that's the case, we are not far off!!!!!

Originally it was flag in 2018.
Then they changed it to top 4 in 2018 and flag in 2020.
The plan was we would need to be top 4 for a while to win a flag. So top 4 for 5 years. Sustainable success and a list that can stay up.
The idea being you will probably lose a GF or a prelim at some point with a good list.

But we are miles away from top 4 in 2018. Lets get real.

[DJ Higgins]

We have gone backwards this year. Skills are shocking. Very disappointing season.

Could not agree more. Our hand balling is overused, sloppy and usually to where a players is, not where he is running to so the play slows down or to a player about to get tackled or to a guy one meter next to him who has no more options than if he had kept running the other player acts as a shepherd. And don't get me started on our kicking and I don't mean at goal, I mean in play. Kicks to 3 on one contests where two guys are spare.

Watch on the weekend how many times the ball lands a metre or too short of the intended player and I am mean the kicking while not under pressure. e.g. while kicking backwards. It is just sloppy.

[oh when the]

Our goal kicking did not improve from round 1, our handball style of play gets squeezed out by good coaches like Essendon and Melbourne did.
When teams start to kick over the top we have no system to hold up that style of play
We still make dumb decisions like Hickey tapping to their goal side in time on just before half time
Against Melboune they got 2 goals in time on of the first 2 quarters by us going towards their goal.
As for the Port game our players went to sleep which allowed them the last 2 goals with less than 2 mins to play.

Apart from improvements in some players our team effort has failed with no improvement from Round 1.

[SemperFidelis]

Ladder wise, this season has been the same basically but with a much harder draw in place so thats a positive.

In some respects its been successful in that the club has got a heap of games into young players with some finally turning the corner. e.g. Billings and Dustan to name a couple. Our depth list is much better now and our backline improved dramatically to the point where I think its the strongest and most consistent part of the side.

All in all, its not a total failure of a season and it has been a successful one in some areas. Think long term Saints fans. Barely scraping into the 8 this year wasn't going to make things any better or display we truly had a successful season. If we don't make the 8 next year then we can call that a season of failure!!!

Like.

No one is sending out a marching parade.

But no Fisher, Shinner, lost Roo and Monty for parts, passed the baton on the captaincy and blooded some newbies. Sincs has given reason for great optimism, same for White. Much harder draw and should have won at least 2 more.

Only thing going backwards was our goal kicking. Deplorable. But fixable ... we couldn't miss in the Richmond match, remember.

[Scollop]

Can't say I echo Newnes'ys sentiments. We did not improve as much as others around us. Someone earlier in this thread said we only won 3 out of 11 games against top 8 teams. They thought we had a tough draw. What did you expect; to play 14 games against bottom 8 teams? As far as the playing group and coaches is concerned their is probably good learning and growth, but our ladder position is the ultimate measure.

As far as the club as a whole is concerned, perhaps we have indeed had a successful year. Success on field will come when you least expect it, as long as you get the fundamentals right. I'm still bullish on the team going forward and I think we need to stay on track and keep building a great club culture on field and off field.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/t ... -pizq.html

Last year there was going to be a challenge to the Richmond borad and the foundations were about to be unravelled by a suspect and novice team that were looking to challenge. The Tigers imo have succeeded on their 5 year plan...at least off field and if they can at laest win a final this year, their members will be stoked. This year is looking good for them when many predicted their demise. I reckon Neil Balme is one of the main reasons and I hope we can stay the course with the team of Finnis and co and I hope we can get somoene of the calibre of Balme to help our players and coaching team take the next step.

[saintsRrising]

Correct me if im wrong Teffy, but I believe it was challenging for top 4 in 2018 and GF by 2020, so if that's the case, we are not far off!!!!!

Originally it was flag in 2018.
Then they changed it to top 4 in 2018 and flag in 2020.
.

My recollection is different that your Cons, and also Stonecolds.

Though yes they have changed it now to flag in 2020. It was originally Top 4 by 2018 and flag before 2020. But if you have substantiation to your assertion, please post it.

Buy yes the club is behind where it planned and hoped to be.




http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-13/s ... ad-to-2018

ST KILDA has outlined plans to win its second premiership before 2020 as part of a long-range strategic outlook that includes increasing membership, reducing debt and creating an "admired culture".

The Saints unveiled their "strategic framework" for 2014-2018 to the club's members and key stakeholders at their season launch on Thursday night.

The vision is to ensure the club is "admired as a competition leader in recruiting, player development and coaching" by 2018.

The plan is to deliver Grand Final success before 2020 – which will be the Saints' second flag after their sole 1966 triumph – and ensure the club is in the top four by 2018.


And

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/former ... 5157d99760

“It really took 24 months to build (our) strategy because we had to look at what was currently available, the drafts going forward and most importantly the club had a really constrained TPP (total player payments) position,” Pelchen told Fox Footy’s Market Watch podcast.

“That’s why Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo and Ben McEvoy had to move on.

“They’re certainly fulfilling what I personally thought was the direction that should be taken.”

The process truly began in 2013 when the Saints won just five games and finished 16th, a year after finishing ninth.

The plan began with the building of a “talent base”, according to Pelchen who headed the charge and was one of the architects of St Kilda’s famous blueprint to return to the top four by 2018.



So yes we have improved, but are behind where we wanted to be. Worrying the plan was to be landing elite Free Agents now to complete the plan. Unfortunately the club over-estimated what Free Agency was going to be able to deliver player wise. Clubs have gotten smarter about how they manage their elite players and so it is largely back to if you want an elite player from another club that you will most likely have to trade for them. So instead of massive movement amongst the guns of the AFL via Free Agency, Fee Agency has become much more about making it easier for the lesser lights of clubs to switch teams.

As it stands in this coming draft period Martin is the only elite Free agent Player on offer. That means that their is huge competition for that one elite free agent.

The other KEY aspect that was not really foreseeable back when the plan was created was the massive boost in TPP starting in 2018. What this has done is meant that virtually all clubs are now cashed up to be able to pay large $$$ to a targeted player if they wish too.

This has largely destroyed the competitive advantage that the Saints had built up in banking the maximum allowable TPP over 2 years and pre-paying players contracts. Clubs like North, Essendon, Hawthorn etc originally were not going to be able to offer large offers that the Saints has been planning to offer in 2018. But due the large one off step-increase in the TPP the Saints are now just one of many clubs that can make large $$ offers next season.

As I have been posting for a while now this off-season is crucial for the Saints. The club put its eggs in the star players from other clubs basket, and in particular the gun midfielder from another club.

If we do not land a Kelly, Martin or Whitfield this off-season it will be a big setback. It will mean hitting the draft instead with our first rounders, and then that probably means that before those players will be at their best that Steven and Armo will be past their best or even gone. And that then means that we are just treading water, rather than building.

[GregPackhamsHeadband]

Depressingly accurate and realistic, SR. So much riding on this trade period and the market for FA seems to be shrinking by the day. We planned our TPP well, only for circumstances to level out the playing field again. We really are cursed it seems.

[supersaints]

It's all relative... we were that bad in the past I remember a successful season was about four wins...

[Zed]

The question is will we improve next year.
Without an influx of highly skilled players we will be stuck in this mid table no-mans land. We will finish 7-10 for the next 5 years.