"We'll have to play better against the good sides"

[saint66au]

Heard that quote more than once today....and it baffled me a bit

Who are these "good sides" who we are yet to come up against?

Brisbane and Essendon are both Top 8 sides at present..and show every sign of being that way in September. Gee maybe they are "good sides"..yet we beat them both. Ditto the Doggies.

Anyone reckon Geelong fans were shaking their heads muttering "Oh dear St Kilda would have thrashed us tonight" as they walked out of ES Fri night after a similarly hard-fought (and some might say much luckier) win?

[stinger]

Heard that quote more than once today....and it baffled me a bit

Who are these "good sides" who we are yet to come up against?

Brisbane and Essendon are both Top 8 sides at present..and show every sign of being that way in September. Gee maybe they are "good sides"..yet we beat them both. Ditto the Doggies.

Anyone reckon Geelong fans were shaking their heads muttering "Oh dear St Kilda would have thrashed us tonight" as they walked out of ES Fri night after a similarly hard-fought (and some might say much luckier) win?

great post...very valid comments........i reckon some fans are still waiting for us to beat a side ahead of us on the ladder...... ...me .????i'm just so happy i could s***....

[saint patrick]

Exactly...we did what we needed to do to win...a sign of a good side and as you say the last 2 weeks have been against top 8 teams...some people are never satisfied...me I'm over the moon

[Devilhead]

"We'll have to play better against the good sides ............................... if we want to win by 10 goals"

[Saint Pete]

Having just watched the replay of the game I am rapt with the boys today. While at the game you get frustrated and caught up barracking and yelling but to sit down and really watch how Brisbane threw everything at us and for the boys to stare back at the challenge and rise above it was awsome. This St.Kilda team has character that I have not seen before.

[Devilhead]

Having just watched the replay of the game I am rapt with the boys today. While at the game you get frustrated and caught up barracking and yelling but to sit down and really watch how Brisbane threw everything at us and for the boys to stare back at the challenge and rise above it was awsome. This St.Kilda team has character that I have not seen before.

Exactly the belief is there

The belief that we are good enough to win any game

In the past we would have lost the last two games

But this team has other ideas

[BAM! (shhhh)]

Heard that quote more than once today....and it baffled me a bit

Who are these "good sides" who we are yet to come up against?

Brisbane and Essendon are both Top 8 sides at present..and show every sign of being that way in September. Gee maybe they are "good sides"..yet we beat them both. Ditto the Doggies.

Anyone reckon Geelong fans were shaking their heads muttering "Oh dear St Kilda would have thrashed us tonight" as they walked out of ES Fri night after a similarly hard-fought (and some might say much luckier) win?

There are 2 teams that St Kilda hasn't beaten sitting in the top 8 right now - Hawthorn and (of course) Geelong.

I guess many are still bearing the scars of last years finals campaigns, where we were clearly better than those below, but a long way off the two that played off for the big prize.

I've got no trouble with keeping the lid on... but I'm getting sick to death of the dynamic duo of of "who have you beaten" (answer: everyone we've played), and "that won't cut it against the good teams"; folks, the good teams means us and Geelong right now. There's deinate room for improvement in the Saints game, but I watch any other game that doesn't involve either St Kilda or Geelong right now, and there's a general feeling of "that wouldn't cut it against St Kilda".

[Mr Magic]

We're very overated.

We've only beaten sides below us on the ladder

Until we beat someone higher than us we'll remain overated.

[aussierules0k]

[Legendary]

Geelong, Western Bulldogs, Sydney, Hawthorn, Essendon, Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Carlton are the other sides in the competition that should be playing finals football IMO.

We have beaten them all except 3 - the Cats, Hawks and Carlton.


We certainly couldn't have done any more to this stage of the season to prove that we're genuine.

[SainterK]

I applaud the boys for being so mentally tough, we have really shown that we can absorb pressure. If I was to be honest, I am not sure the saints of last year would have stolen back the lead in that kind of game. The improvement in our ability to re-group and lift accordingly, is nothing short of amazing.

[benengel14]

I don't think its too audacious for supporters to be more than a little aware of the impending giant that is Geelong. I mean 49 of 52 (whatever it is), their depth and quality all round - Geelong have proved themselves in a Grand Final with their current group - the club and supporters don't really need to be that concerned about whether they are good enough to match it with the competition.

They know they can match it.
We believe we can, we don't know it though.

Competition = Hawthorn & Geelong in a Final.

For the record, I'm enjoying believing in '09.

[dcstkfc]

I don't think its too audacious for supporters to be more than a little aware of the impending giant that is Geelong. I mean 49 of 52 (whatever it is), their depth and quality all round - Geelong have proved themselves in a Grand Final with their current group - the club and supporters don't really need to be that concerned about whether they are good enough to match it with the competition.

They know they can match it.
We believe we can, we don't know it though.

Competition = Hawthorn & Geelong in a Final.

For the record, I'm enjoying believing in '09.

I agree with this post, but I also believe that our collective psyche has been so shattered by three preliminary final defeats in five years that we are all trying to play it all down so we don't get let down too much. Take the ladder on its merits, we and Geelong are FOUR games clear for a reason. Only three sides can win the flag this year for mine, Geelong, St.Kilda and Hawthorn.

[python]

there are six team currently equal third.

We have beaten 5 of them.

What more can we do?

[Mr Magic]

there are six team currently equal third.

We have beaten 5 of them.

What more can we do?

And obviously, in some peoples' mind, none of them are any good BECAUSE WE BEAT THEM.

There is this prevailing undercurrent amongst some that if we beat someone it's because they're no good, and not that we are.

[Beej]

Heard that quote more than once today....and it baffled me a bit

Who are these "good sides" who we are yet to come up against?

Brisbane and Essendon are both Top 8 sides at present..and show every sign of being that way in September. Gee maybe they are "good sides"..yet we beat them both. Ditto the Doggies.

Agreed. I've heard this a few times this season. Who are these fabled "good sides"?

We've beaten Sydney.

We've beaten Port and Adelaide, both in Adelaide.

We've beaten the Bulldogs.

We've beaten Collingwood.

We've beaten Essendon.

We've beaten Brisbane.

I get the feeling that by "good sides" they actually mean Geelong.

Another thing I've heard a few times: "you're peaking too early"

I've never understood that. What on earth does it mean? Obviously you need to play your best footy in September but would we be better off if we were struggling for form right now? If we play well over the first third of a season, does it mean we can't possibly play well during the last third? Is there a limit to how much good footy a team can play during a season?

This is footy, not horse-racing ffs.

Ridiculous.

[StSteven]

Looking at our fixture a worst case is that we would only lose 3 games, Geelong, Hawthorn and Bulldogs. This would still have us in top 2.

We are certainties to play finals from a top two position. Geelong have winning finals experience. They had that last year also.

So 09 has great possibilities of us winning a flag but in football anything can happen. But I am feeling very very good about this year.

(I agree Geelong is one of the greates sides ever (51 out 0f 54 or whatever) but what happens in 09 is all that matters now).

[QuestionOfAccuracy]

The Lions were very good today, VERY good.
Proven by our wide shots at goal.

The Lions were good, they stuck to their plan. But if we had converted well in front of goal it would been a 5-8 goal win - would we be saying they were very good then?

I accept they did force us to go wide on occasions but we also did have at least 3 oppurtunities with players running into goal less than 30m out under minimal pressure.

[St Fidelius]

Heard that quote more than once today....and it baffled me a bit

Who are these "good sides" who we are yet to come up against?

Brisbane and Essendon are both Top 8 sides at present..and show every sign of being that way in September. Gee maybe they are "good sides"..yet we beat them both. Ditto the Doggies.

Anyone reckon Geelong fans were shaking their heads muttering "Oh dear St Kilda would have thrashed us tonight" as they walked out of ES Fri night after a similarly hard-fought (and some might say much luckier) win?

Exactly mate.

Some fans expect to beat near on every other side by 10 goals or more...

Talk about getting ahead of themselves

And the constant banter of "MAN UP" ....

Just sh1ts me....

This one bloke shouts this out about 10 times a quarter...

Obviously he has never heard of a zone defence...

I swear I will let fly before too long

[milney044]

When people say we haven't played anyone decent i say "true, we can't play ourselves".
Obviously Geelong are the team to beat and i won't be too fussed if we lose to them in round 14, providing it's not a blow out. I do hope the game is moved to the G, if all continues the same way we'll be playing them there again some stage throughout September. Here's hoping it's the last saturday.

[Spinner]

Here comes the arrogance.

Our form against Essendon and Brisbane has been anything but pleasing. Big contrast to our form earlier in the year.

[SainterK]

Here comes the arrogance.

Our form against Essendon and Brisbane has been anything but pleasing. Big contrast to our form earlier in the year.

Disagree entirely, we are the inform team of the comp....without a shadow of a doubt. I think our opposition has lifted in intensity, rather than us dropping off. I have started a whole other thread about how teams get up for the big opponents....

[st.byron]

Agreed. I've heard this a few times this season. Who are these fabled "good sides"?

We've beaten Sydney.

We've beaten Port and Adelaide, both in Adelaide.

We've beaten the Bulldogs.

We've beaten Collingwood.

We've beaten Essendon.

We've beaten Brisbane.

I get the feeling that by "good sides" they actually mean Geelong.

Another thing I've heard a few times: "you're peaking too early"

I've never understood that. What on earth does it mean? Obviously you need to play your best footy in September but would we be better off if we were struggling for form right now? If we play well over the first third of a season, does it mean we can't possibly play well during the last third? Is there a limit to how much good footy a team can play during a season?

This is footy, not horse-racing ffs.

Ridiculous.

'
This reminds me of what Lethal said on the box after the Collingwood game. Someone asked him about the Saints ability to continue to deliver at such an intense level and whether they were peaking too early. His response was that really good sides make winning a habit. He said that the Saints are making a habit of meeting their team objectives and that can only be a good thing. Rather than being worried about peaking early he said it's a good thing that the Saints are becoming habituated in winning and playing intense pressure football and that it would stand them in good stead come finals time.