HS article 21/12 on new recruits

[theoracle]

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten says impact of recruits will be two-fold as he sets sights on 2020
The Saints lured six new faces from opposition clubs in the trade period. And they will bring more than just individual talent to Moorabbin. Could it be the difference in making their first finals series since 2011?
Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun
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December 21, 2019 3:32pm

Coach Brett Ratten plans to milk St Kilda’s six trade acquisitions for the intellectual property of their former AFL clubs in a bid to lift the Saints towards its first finals series since 2011.

He said each of the players brought the individual skills set that the club needs.

But the added bonus was their experience at rival clubs will also be used to help improve the Saints.

Ratten told the St Kilda faithful at the club’s AGM last week the team was confident it could make a serious assault on the 2020 season with a slight tweak to its game plan, with the acquisition of players and staff in the off-season and with a seamless pre-season to date.

“It’s not just the players who bring their own skills set (to St Kilda), but it’s some of the IP we will get from those (rival) clubs as well,” Ratten said.

“To have access to their IP is fantastic.

“When you start to gather people who have been involved in success, it starts to roll on to other people (within the team).”

St Kilda was the most active player in the trade window this year, bringing in premiership players Brad Hill (Hawthorn/Fremantle) and Dan Butler (Richmond), as well as Paddy Ryder (Essendon/Port Adelaide), Zak Jones (Sydney) and Dougal Howard (Port Adelaide).

They also took Ryan Abbott (Geelong) as a delisted free agent late last month.

The Saints were also able to secure four-time Hawks premiership hero Jarryd Roughead and former Hawk and AFL strategist David Rath to the off-field coaching group.

“There has been a fair bit of change to the list, we lost a few players, but there are 45 or 46 men now and we get to change the identity of this football team,” he said.

“We are not changing our brand; we are just changing our identity to chase the success we need.”

Ratten stressed one of the key drivers of the pre-season so far has been lifting the skills of the entire group, and he has been pleased with the response from the players.

“We have put a lot of time into that,” he said. “The joy I got to see from those players achieving PBs and coming back in great condition for the time trial allowed us to start the footy programs and to educate with skill acquisition and skill execution.”

There have been a few game plan tweaks which will become more apparent closer to the pre-season series.

“We have shifted slightly (in the game plan), last year it wasn’t completely broken … but you need to keep changing and keep adapting,” he said.

“The players have had a bit of a buy-in around game plan in what they think works for us.

“We can shape it as coaches, but the players must have a buy-in and must own part of the game plan, and what they can do within it.”

The Saints play their first Marsh Community pre-season game against Hawthorn at Moorabbin on February 20.

[freely]

How do you change your identity without changing your brand? What bollocks.

[saintly]

that article was taken from the AGM. gell journos are lazy these days

[Sanctorum]

How do you change your identity without changing your brand? What bollocks.

Changing "Identity" and "brand" are just corporate speak for how the team is perceived in the outside world, I wouldn't read anything more into it than just that. Let's face it, St Kilda's "i & b" have been pretty poor since the heydays of 2008 - 2011 and before the recent trading splurge, which has dramatically transformed the playing list, there was little prospect of that changing any time soon.

The good thing about this article is that the football media are talking up the expectations for the Saints to rise up the ladder in 2020, which is gold when the club is trying to sign up 50,000 members....

[BarryGrogan]

How do you change your identity without changing your brand? What bollocks.

He's politely saying that we sucked under Cho and everything is changing.

Without actually saying it.

[B.M]

But then said there will only be minor changes to the Game Plan as a lot of stuff worked.

[Secret Kiel]

That's absolutely right, a lot of stuff did work under Richo, and the reason our game plan only needs minor tweaks is because it was a good game plan and really very similar to the other 17 teams. The legacy left by Richo should provide Ratts with a full tank of fuel to launch with and continue the good work. He needs some luck though with injuries and if he does then the transition between coaches should be almost seamless. All of this talk with regards to players such King and Bytel being walk up starts for round 1 is interesting, there is no need for anything radical in round 1.

[Nick_BlueNRG]

That's absolutely right, a lot of stuff did work under Richo, and the reason our game plan only needs minor tweaks is because it was a good game plan and really very similar to the other 17 teams. The legacy left by Richo should provide Ratts with a full tank of fuel to launch with and continue the good work. He needs some luck though with injuries and if he does then the transition between coaches should be almost seamless. All of this talk with regards to players such King and Bytel being walk up starts for round 1 is interesting, there is no need for anything radical in round 1.

We need to be radical to erase 6 years of SHITNESS.

[B.M]

2016
12 wins
9th

2017
11 wins
11th

2018 injury riddled but poor
4 wins
16th

2019 injury riddled
9 wins
14th


Have we really been s***?!

We have not been good, but far from s*** compared to other eras

[Secret Kiel]

We have not been good, but all the while we've been building.

We are not coming off the back of 2013 in terms of commencing our rebuild cycle and the associated low expectations. Expectation is probably returning to the heights last experienced towards the end of 2016 and 2017. In a sense this is a resetting of the expectations that was building in the lead up to round 1 2018. This time is different though, no excuses now and it's all or nothing over the next 1 to 3 years with regards to staking a claim to being a sustained finals team.