God Strike Me!

[cwrcyn]

I'm reserving my judgement on Ross Lyon until round 22, but my patience has bee sorely tested for the past 35 weeks of football.

At the start of the year, would we have said that we would win a game against reasonable opposition with the following players missing?

X.Clarke
Gehrig
Baker
Schneider
M.Gardiner
R.Clarke
Koschitzke
Dal Santo
Maguire
Milne
L.Fisher


Perhaps, but I wouldn't have had high hopes. We see other teams bemoaning the loss of two or three regular players and the media explains their losses away on their small injury list.


Our inexperienced crew on Friday were

McEvoy - 0 games experience
Allen - 0 games experience
Eddy - 0 games experience
Gwilt - 12 games?
Armitage - 10 games
McQualter - 15 games?
Gilbert - 20 games
C.Jones - 15 games?


Now, of course, it does not prove too much and doesn't settle any arguments about whether the coach has got it right or the playing list is worthy of top 6 standing.

But, it has to be said that it was an important win, with small steps being taken in the right direction in regards to the selection of players and the turning over of the list.

One thing is certain, however. In the 18- 22 age group we have very little obvious class that is apparent at this stage. Some hard workers who might be players? YES.

I'm with Quixote in relation to the performance last Friday - it was worthy of some praise. But overall, things look too brittle for us to have any great expectations, and the coaching panel has much to prove before round 22. The pleasing thing is that the stagnation phase is over, with important and progressive selection changes having been made. If we don't make the finals, and this is highly likely, at least some steps are being made to progress the team into a new combination, as the old one, sadly, has had its day with the impending retirements of Gehrig, Harvey, and Hudghton, which have followed the recent retirements of Thompson, Peckett, Jones, Penny, and Hamill. All those players were key players in the peak periods of 2004 and 2005.

This is a new era folks, and there's some work to do to make us a formidable outfit again.

[Mr Magic]

Our inexperienced crew on Friday were

McEvoy - 0 games experience
Allen - 0 games experience
Eddy - 0 games experience
Gwilt - 12 games?
Armitage - 10 games
McQualter - 15 games?
Gilbert - 20 games
C.Jones - 15 games?

You forgot Geary
That makes up the 9 players with 20 games or less.

[Shaggy]

I'm reserving my judgement on Ross Lyon until round 22, but my patience has bee sorely tested for the past 35 weeks of football.

At the start of the year, would we have said that we would win a game against reasonable opposition with the following players missing?

X.Clarke
Gehrig
Baker
Schneider
M.Gardiner
R.Clarke
Koschitzke
Dal Santo
Maguire
Milne
L.Fisher


Perhaps, but I wouldn't have had high hopes. We see other teams bemoaning the loss of two or three regular players and the media explains their losses away on their small injury list.


Our inexperienced crew on Friday were

McEvoy - 0 games experience
Allen - 0 games experience
Eddy - 0 games experience
Gwilt - 12 games?
Armitage - 10 games
McQualter - 15 games?
Gilbert - 20 games
C.Jones - 15 games?


Now, of course, it does not prove too much and doesn't settle any arguments about whether the coach has got it right or the playing list is worthy of top 6 standing.

But, it has to be said that it was an important win, with small steps being taken in the right direction in regards to the selection of players and the turning over of the list.

One thing is certain, however. In the 18- 22 age group we have very little obvious class that is apparent at this stage. Some hard workers who might be players? YES.

I'm with Quixote in relation to the performance last Friday - it was worthy of some praise. But overall, things look too brittle for us to have any great expectations, and the coaching panel has much to prove before round 22. The pleasing thing is that the stagnation phase is over, with important and progressive selection changes having been made. If we don't make the finals, and this is highly likely, at least some steps are being made to progress the team into a new combination, as the old one, sadly, has had its day with the impending retirements of Gehrig, Harvey, and Hudghton, which have followed the recent retirements of Thompson, Peckett, Jones, Penny, and Hamill. All those players were key players in the peak periods of 2004 and 2005.

This is a new era folks, and there's some work to do to make us a formidable outfit again.

Thats a good and fair analysis.

However for the blokes missing now most of them are not performing under RL anyway.

We won on Friday because of the extraordinary efforts of 5 players.

It doesn't prove much to me but I am happy we won, I am happy our guns stepped up and I am even more happy that our newbies were a part of it.

To expect the 5 to do it week in week out will not happen and against more real opponents we will be very exposed.

[spert]

The four points are awarded to the winning team no matter how it plays, and if we get to a Grand Final and win 8 goals to 7, I think I would be quite happy...looks like some here would rather see pretty football than the real prize at the end of the year season.

[fonz_#15]

good topic and some good points of view.

i agree whole-heartedly with the op.

[rodgerfox]

Now as for the kids that were gained prior to RL...yes WTF are they??? that is the problem..our poor recruiting over several years turned the tap off and rather than having a steady stream,,,it was down to a trickle in Gilbert and not much else.

It is a bit hard to bring into the team what was not provided!!!

At least now we actually have a GROUP of young players coming through.

3 of the famous '9 players with less than 20 games' from Friday night were picked up and blooded before Lyon arrived.

[Saint_in_SA]

I must say the line about the mongrel dog had me laughing...
Tend to agree with Solar and Quixote's posts - but every club is blessed with their dickchop supporters and there good supporters. That's just the way the gene pool is.

[degruch]

Stick it up 'em Quixote!

I agree with just about every point raised, a lot of which was missed by our less observant/optimistic fan base. Although you can't tell other supporters how to support, I'm still surprised some people were upset with a win, especially with the team be up against it like we were!?!

Hope it continues this week, I'd love to at least see 'em continue have a crack.

[Mr Magic]

their dickchop supporters

What does that mean?
I've never heard that expression before.

[matrix]

Fair dinkum, you lot are a bunch of in-breeding, flat-headed, s***-rubbing simian FLOGS.

The vitriolic sewerage, the illiterate vomit that flies around here just astounds me. Not just this thread, but the whole stinking joint. Eating your-own is not an idea for a good night out you twits!

Mutiny to you snipers is a form of cooperation!


God strike me!!


Piss-ant FLOGS!

hypocrite...

i apologise for being a member and a pissant flogg who supports st kilda week in and week out, who wears some form of st kilda attire EVERY day surrounded by crows and power fans...who goes to as many games i can afford (airfare, accommodation).....and for having faith in our players abilities but not our present coach.

i humbley apologise your worship.
now.....can i call u a pissant flogg who i think is a wanker, or should i just ignore u?
hmmm
tough decision

[meher baba]

Now as for the kids that were gained prior to RL...yes WTF are they??? that is the problem..our poor recruiting over several years turned the tap off and rather than having a steady stream,,,it was down to a trickle in Gilbert and not much else.

It is a bit hard to bring into the team what was not provided!!!

At least now we actually have a GROUP of young players coming through.

3 of the famous '9 players with less than 20 games' from Friday night were picked up and blooded before Lyon arrived.

Yes, and the three have collectively played almost 60 games of AFL over 4 seasons.

Another one of them is older than Nick Dal Santo and has played many seasons of AFL.

And two others - Allen and Armitage - are 2006 draft picks who haven't exactly been rushed into the top side.

Lyon could be accused of throwing a few guys in at the deep end, but he has waited almost until the end of the swimming season!!

[rodgerfox]

What is 'supporting' your club anyway?

Is chipping in $100 a year 'supporting' your club?

Or is sitting there like a loser in a Saints jumper, scarfe and beanie screaming at kids playing footy in an attempt to make you feel better about yourself 'supporting' your club?

Is arguing on an internet forum that we're in great shape 'supporting' your club?

[meher baba]

What is 'supporting' your club anyway?

Is chipping in $100 a year 'supporting' your club?

Or is sitting there like a loser in a Saints jumper, scarfe and beanie screaming at kids playing footy in an attempt to make you feel better about yourself 'supporting' your club?

Is arguing on an internet forum that we're in great shape 'supporting' your club?

I think for some it's a bit like being an Islamic fundamentalist: showing unswerving commitment to the mad mullahs currently in control, calling for attacks on innocent victims (well, at any rate, for them to be traded or delisted), while railing endless against the Great Satan (aka known as GT).

[rodgerfox]

"You're either with us, or against us."

[saintsRrising]

And two others - Allen and Armitage - are 2006 draft picks who haven't exactly been rushed into the top side.

Lyon could be accused of throwing a few guys in at the deep end, but he has waited almost until the end of the swimming season!!

There is a good reason for not rushing both of these two...(mind you most players should be expected to come in over years anyway and not straight from the draft camp!!!. The Roos and Selwoods are the exceptions, and not the norm).

So you would have picked Allen last year despite that he would have been playing with crutches????? Or have you forgotten that he basically missed last year due to injury?

Armo was not fit enough to play last year...even Armo admits that....

[rodgerfox]

So you would have picked Allen last year despite that he would have been playing with crutches????? Or have you forgotten that he basically missed last year due to injury?

Bit like Barry Brooks and Fergus Watts I suppose, isn't it?

[meher baba]

And two others - Allen and Armitage - are 2006 draft picks who haven't exactly been rushed into the top side.

Lyon could be accused of throwing a few guys in at the deep end, but he has waited almost until the end of the swimming season!!

There is a good reason for not rushing both of these two...(mind you most players should be expected to come in over years anyway and not straight from the draft camp!!!. The Roos and Selwoods are the exceptions, and not the norm).

So you would have picked Allen last year despite that he would have been playing with crutches????? Or have you forgotten that he basically missed last year due to injury?

Armo was not fit enough to play last year...even Armo admits that....

I would certainly thought seriously about giving Allen a run a bit sooner this year than Round 13.

As for Armo, I don't agree that you wouldn't normally expect to see a top 10 draft pick play quite a few AFL games in their first season. The fact that Armo struggled with his fitness in his first season and is still struggling to make it in the top grade suggests that he might not have been a particularly tremendous use of a top 10 draft pick (gosh, gee, fancy that: a sub-optimal piece of recruiting that wasn't GT's fault!!).

[Con Gorozidis]

it is the opposite of fickle. i have been consistently saying we needed to be a production line blooding 2-3 players EVERY year regardless of our position on the ladder. your "points" just confirm my position that saints are too prone to "boom/bust" cycles and not doing the basics of producing good footy players which is what our core business is and should always be!

Points some of our esteemed 'supporters' seem to be forgetting:


* Friday night we fielded nine players under the age of 20

cos we have blooded the least in the comp in the last 5 years.

* Friday night we fielded the youngest team in the AFL

form the 2nd oldest list

* Friday night we won a must win game against a team who - finally having found some form - were intent to 'dismantle' our finals hopes and keep their own slim aspirations alive


freo in melbourne? -umm... you have to be pulling my leg. they are a rabble

* Friday night our players, collectively and individually, showed as much passion and spirit for their club as I've seen in a long, long time

starting from a low base (port game in 04 was our last really hard game)

* Friday night we played many of the names many on here have been screaming for, and we dropped two of the names many on here have been labeling soft for as long as I can remember

yep. good stuff. agree.

* Friday night our midfield was beginning to assume a structure which looks very promising

hope so!

* Friday night there may have only been 22 thousand at the game, but from where I was standing, they were as loud as I've heard them all season

top stuff.



Also...


* At the beginning of this year, we signed what was called one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in the competition

not bill express?

* We had a clean transition of the board and have committed to spending money in the right places, for example the football department

agree. good move.
* By 2010 or 2011 we will be moving to an elite training facility in Frankston

maybe

* We are winning games of football whilst clearly going through a list re-shape, with an emphasis on youth

its not clear. some people still in denial.

* Next year, with the retirements of Fraser, Harvey and perhaps Max (not saying I want the last two to go, either!), and several new draft picks, we will again have one of the youngest lists in the comp, complimented by a core of experienced, hardened senior players in their mid-to-late twenties

maybe. age is irrelvant. i just want to see some good players produced (see above)

Keeping in mind...


* We need to groom a forward line quick smart, and the panel is working on this as priority.

agree. but easier said than done. they dont grow on trees.

* Our CHB is out for the year, and we've seen very little of Baker and X Clarke (the latter who was showing fantastic signs when on the field this year), both who enhance our structure no-end.

Goose is really struggling with his leg.

* Ross Lyon did not inherit a golden chalice, he walked into a joint run into the ground by its former 'leader'. There were no kids coming through, player belief was wavering at best and there were more donkeys kicking around than a Christmas party at Old MacDonalds.

Agree





So, after all of this... after one of the best off-seasons we've had in an age, after a passionate, desperate win on Friday night, after the coach has shown he's prepared to make the hard decisions and shape the team to fit, after the players responded in a manner which should make you proud, and after - at last! - the biggest injection of youth we've had in six years...



You, the supporters, turn around and spit in the face of the club and say - No! We're Not Happy! RL Has Put The Club In A TailSpin!! Not Good Enough! Kick 150 Each Bloody Week! Sack The Coach!! The Sky's Falling In!!!

Thanks Donald Rumsfield






Fair dinkum, you lot are a bunch of in-breeding, flat-headed, s***-rubbing simian FLOGS.

i did try to hit on my cousin once. so yes.


Mutiny to you snipers is a form of cooperation!

i like the sound of that


God strike me!!


Piss-ant FLOGS!

[asiu]

....consistently saying we needed....

are you actually someone else then ?

6 days of production line posts .....go con

[Teflon]

Great OP it sums up my feelings also.

[matrix]

no surprise there.......

[Teflon]

no surprise there.......

what in? the fact you only offer an opinion on other peoples opinions?

Your right......no surprise.

[matrix]

no surprise there.......

what in? the fact you only offer an opinion on other peoples opinions?

Your right......no surprise.

if u say so....

[Teflon]

no surprise there.......

what in? the fact you only offer an opinion on other peoples opinions?

Your right......no surprise.

if u say so....

no surprise there....

[matrix]

kinda scaring me with the winks.......