GT on Robert Harvey - Aug 2008

[bigcarl]

For what it’s worth my top 3 Saints are Plugger, Roo and Banger

Mine, too, but I’d have Plugger at 1 and Harvey at 2. But Stewart and Doc must have been really something.

[B.M]

I have

Harves 1
Riewoldt 2
Lockett 3
Stewart 4
Hayes 5
Winmar 6

As far as great saints go

That mean contribution to the STKFC

[Banger9798]

I was always convinced Harvey could see 2 seconds into the future.
The amount of times he would just run to the right spot and forth would appear there....Craig Bradley was also like that.

[B.M]

Great ball winners

Harvey, Williams, West, Sam and Tom Mitchell - players that find the footy consistently (more than others) have an innate sense of reading the play and seeing it unfold quicker than others.

[saynta]

Banger, Doc, Big Carl, Stewart, Plugger, Rooey, Lenny. Cuz.

I feel blessed to have followed the saints and watched those champions play, but a couple more flags would have been nice.

More love for the ones who stayed for their whole career. Cuz is excused though.

[whiskers3614]

Banger, Doc, Big Carl, Stewart, Plugger, Rooey, Lenny. Cuz.

I feel blessed to have followed the saints and watched those champions play, but a couple more flags would have been nice.

More love for the ones who stayed for their whole career. Cuz is excused though.

Amazing that four of the eight went elsewhere and Riewoldt threatened to do so!

Does it say more about them or about the club?

[saynta]

Banger, Doc, Big Carl, Stewart, Plugger, Rooey, Lenny. Cuz.

I feel blessed to have followed the saints and watched those champions play, but a couple more flags would have been nice.

More love for the ones who stayed for their whole career. Cuz is excused though.

Amazing that four of the eight went elsewhere and Riewoldt threatened to do so!

Does it say more about them or about the club?

Has to be the club doesn't it ?

Throw in captains Trott and Ball and guys like Elliott and it doesn't really beg the question.

[whiskers3614]

Banger, Doc, Big Carl, Stewart, Plugger, Rooey, Lenny. Cuz.

I feel blessed to have followed the saints and watched those champions play, but a couple more flags would have been nice.

More love for the ones who stayed for their whole career. Cuz is excused though.

Amazing that four of the eight went elsewhere and Riewoldt threatened to do so!

Does it say more about them or about the club?

Has to be the club doesn't it ?

Throw in captains Trott and Ball and guys like Elliott and it doesn't really beg the question.

Russell Greene, Bj, Dal. Big Boy, big bad boofhead
Sure all clubs have traffic in and out but which ones have lost as many topliners?

[saynta]

Banger, Doc, Big Carl, Stewart, Plugger, Rooey, Lenny. Cuz.

I feel blessed to have followed the saints and watched those champions play, but a couple more flags would have been nice.

More love for the ones who stayed for their whole career. Cuz is excused though.

Amazing that four of the eight went elsewhere and Riewoldt threatened to do so!

Does it say more about them or about the club?

Has to be the club doesn't it ?

Throw in captains Trott and Ball and guys like Elliott and it doesn't really beg the question.

Russell Greene, Bj, Dal. Big Boy, big bad boofhead
Sure all clubs have traffic in and out but which ones have lost as many topliners?

I didn't include Greene and McEvoy because those two were forced out of the saints without really consenting at the time. Same with Rod Owens and Acres. BJ had a choice but choose to go as did Boofhead. Not sure if Dal was left with any options.

Like reading a horror story, isn't it ?

[Ghost Like]

Plugger
Harves
Roo
Lenny
Nicky

I would have loved a flag when Plugger was playing with us. We would have torn down Moorabbin saving thousands on demolition fees - Plugger would have been the wrecking ball.

That said, it would have been torn down in 97, (04), 09 & 10, just different wrecking balls.

[spert]

All the players mentioned were great. Ian Stewart in our midfield now would turn it from serviceable to elite. The gut running hard work of Harvs to the point of pain, is what many of our players need to get happening.

[desertsaint]

yep, pretty much in full agreement with bm on harves. i think he's kicking was usually 20-30 because that was almost always the best kick to advantage, he was quite capable of delivering further with the same accuracy. if he'd played for a bigger club he'd be recognised as better than the usual trio of nineties champs who all went on to media careers at some stage and had their reputations further inflated by all the promotion. all great leaders, but harvs the greatest player. bucks to his credit, places harvey where he belongs.

[Jacks Back]

The whole interchange bench thing changed the game so dramatically that we won't ever get to see sustained Robert Harvey like heroics again.

Interchange also killed off those marathon like one on one battles between opposing champions.

And I blame Kevin Sheedy and the leagues desire to appease the alpha coach of that time - one game where Essendon had a bunch of injuries in a game that led to a loss, Sheedy complains and knee jerk reaction before you know the game has a 4 man interchange. Players running off and on every few minutes, sprinting around, the end of the "stayer", and then the emergence of flooding.

The subsequent flooding then leads to 35 other rule changes. Games totally changed. A different game IMO. The demise of the one on one sub-plots that were so fascinating in a game. The jeering when a coach realised a match up was doomed and moved a player to a different match up.

A game that was more of a marathon, where players would have to pace themselves to last four quarters. And the exceptional player like banger who would just keep running relentlessly for four quarters.

Old school but I used to love going to a game and watching the matchup dramas or following Banger for four quarters with the glasses.

Those were the good old days. I don't give a s*** what anyone says, going to the suburban grounds was fantastic - all of them - you could even get in at Geelong back in the day. I really miss that.

[saintkev]

Too young to see Stewart at his best but in my old man's opinion Ditterich & Stewart were the best Saints players of his era ...

In the period where it mattered, 1965-66, Ian Stewart was not only our best player, but the best in the League. I rate Bob Murray as our second best player with Darrel Baldock, Ian Cooper, Daryl Griffiths and Ross Smith close behind. Brian Mynott was our best ruckman in 1966. Big Carl never really came into his own until 1971. He was an impact player before that, sometimes making an impact on the head of an opposition player which led to a 6 match suspension in Round 17 of 1966.

True. Wonderful heady days, but I’d also add in John McIntosh. Sublime, silky smooth footballer with exquisite skills. What could have been…if he wasn’t cruelly injured?

[PADDLEPOP1001]

John Mcintosh is up there in my top 10 saints even though he barely play 50 games could kick either foot 50/60 metres & could play anywhere
I think he had two top 3 Brownlow finishes for the 2 full years he played,absolute gun!

[B.M]

How could John McIntosh be in the top 10 although he only played 50 games?

Was he getting 50 possessions per game?

Longevity MUST be taken into account when regarding the greatest saints surely?!

Otherwise Brian Gleeson is also in the conversation

[Ghost Like]

We all watch St Kilda B.M, so we all have our own memories about what we like, enjoy and want in a St Kilda player. It's not an absolute or a definitive who's right.

Each person's memory is a bit more than a B&F or Brownlow vote.

[B.M]

In other words it’s subjective

[Mr Magic]

or objective

[Ghost Like]

Possibly reflective

[Mr Magic]

Possibly reflective

All of the above, most likely

[D.B.Cooper]

John Mcintosh is up there in my top 10 saints even though he barely play 50 games could kick either foot 50/60 metres & could play anywhere
I think he had two top 3 Brownlow finishes for the 2 full years he played,absolute gun!

Agree with you, was an absolute GUN.

Was like putting a modern day player skills into a team 40 years ago.

Who knows where he would have ended up, massive improvement or maybe plateau, but he was outstanding in his 51 matches and a huge favorite of mine.

The two StK players that stick out in my memory as having skills that were extraordinary in the late 60’s early 70’s we’re McIntosh & Stewart.

[D.B.Cooper]

Possibly reflective

Perspective?

[B.M]

Interesting perspective

Naming a guy who played 50 games as one of the best ever saints!

[bangaulegend]

Interesting perspective

Naming a guy who played 50 games as one of the best ever saints!

John Mac was before my time but obviously he has impressed a fair few in those 50 games to be even nominated