Sanctorum wrote: ↑Fri 07 Jun 2019 2:48pm
tedtheodorelogan2018 wrote: ↑Fri 07 Jun 2019 12:23am
I think the Saints are entering a potentially very exciting era so many would or should want to be a part of it IMO.
The club has to keep trying, the Saints will not get anywhere by being negative and giving up on this front. You just keep plugging away.
This has been the forlorn catch cry of a lot of Saints supporters for as long as I can remember Ted and has sustained us with never ending hopes that consistent success is not very far away.
Last Sunday St Kilda featured in one of the biggest showcase games of the year on the international stage with a viewing audience in the countless milliions: the annual fixture in Shanghai against Port Adelaide. Other than the marquee games at the "G", here was a rare chance for St Kilda to strut its stuff, a game where both teams were poised at 5-5 to progress up the ladder. All the AFL Commissioners and a large number of Australia's top corporate heavyweights were there, offering the St Kilda FC a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to attract an A Grade sponsor for the team, someone like Ford, Holden, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Virgin, a brand that is (with no disrespect to the team's current naming rights sponsors) instantly recognisable and synonymous with SUCCESS!
Instead, to my great dismay, the Saints were absolutely smashed by Port, in a display that was quite insipid and verging on humiliation - who in their right mind having never watched a game of AFL before would want to identify with St Kilda?? Yes, the team had a few players succumb to illness pre-match, and sure, the team was without a number of their key players. But this was no excuse for the poor way the team played - there was no semblance of a game plan, no teamwork, and the skill levels way below what is expected at the elite level.
I don't think I have been so disappointed like this for a long time, it was the worst of 2018 on replay.
It is all very well to say that we'll keep plugging away, I say that too. However I have come to the conclusion that we should send a message to the club; "enough is enough", something has to change because whatever the team has been doing in the past 6 games is not acceptable and if allowed to continue in the same manner will turn supporters away from the Saints.
So to get back to the theme of this post, I agree that the current brand of football played by St Kilda will make it very difficult for the club to lure any one of the handful of established star players available to relocate to Moorabbin, irrespective of the obvious charm of living in the bayside suburbs. By far the most influential factor in the mindset of a star player seeking to move to another club is the team's potential to play finals, and sad to say, unless things change dramatically in the 2nd half of the season, the chances of St Kilda playing finals anytime soon is unlikely.
As for changes, I would not be surprised if after last Sunday's effort the Board will set up another major review of the football department, they owe this to their members, and obviously the position of senior coach has be top of the agenda.
This, this and so much this!
When I heard Finnis blowing off Sunday's issues as suggesting that the players could've all caught the germ of a doorknob (tongue in cheek I hope) I was incredulous. On one hand we've got our new administration telling us that now that we are back at Moorabbin we can now focus on the core business of winning games, and then the next minute we're selling our games overseas to Port Adelaide, a team we never beat, to play all the way over there in China. Well, these things don't match up.
I don't mind so much the selling of games if it makes the club some money but St. Kilda have made an art form of never preparing for them properly. Launceston, Wellington, the Pride Game, the Good Friday Match, and now Shanghai...When are they going to prepare and plan properly for these opportunities?
The club, team and members were absolutely humiliated in China last week, and the whole thing reeked of amateur hour from the get go. 24 hours before the match, we get breaking news that several players in China had been struck down with a bad bug or virus - well, straight away I knew it wouldn't be Port Adelaide!
Then before the game we're treated to Port Adelaide's theme song with a handful of their supporters waving their scarves around AT OUR HOME GAME!
And then we find out that a compliment of supporters ended up transported to the wrong stadium across the other side of bloomin' Shanghai! Well, I thought - how typical of the past six years this is. Bloomin' diabolical!
And if it does transpire that members of the team got sick through eating out, those responsible for allowing that to happen need to be held accountable.
Your friendly neighbourhood samurai.
and despise the Pies, the Blues, and the Injectors.