Believing in Ross?

[Darrel Baldock]

As the wins mount up so does the belief, little talk of Grant Thomas now, except as a slightly eccentric TV commentator with a penchant for the colourful and the provocative. We accept and advocate belief in the team's selections as they stand. We accept that if Goose wants to play then Goose has to be good enough. The Raph Clarke doubters and the Jimmy Gwilt sceptics seem more inclined to accept that "Ross knows best"
Team structure is accepted as the mantra for selection.
So, at last, does Ross know best?

[desertsaint]

wait for our first loss - the critics will be back!

[st.byron]

wait for our first loss - the critics will be back!

Our first what? Not sure what you mean.

[Dal_Santos_Gal]

IN ROSS WE TRUST!


Even if we do drop a game "that apprently we need to do" the critics will be back, not even winning this amount of games in a row will keep them away.

[rodgerfox]

As the wins mount up so does the belief, little talk of Grant Thomas now, except as a slightly eccentric TV commentator with a penchant for the colourful and the provocative. We accept and advocate belief in the team's selections as they stand. We accept that if Goose wants to play then Goose has to be good enough. The Raph Clarke doubters and the Jimmy Gwilt sceptics seem more inclined to accept that "Ross knows best"
Team structure is accepted as the mantra for selection.
So, at last, does Ross know best?

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

[saintsRrising]

Whilst we have the stars out there,


none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

Except by Rodgerfox................who is almost lone hand now at relalising what a dud of a coach Ross really is...and least in the world of RF.

I am sure that you are maintaining a list...to be dragged out in a Fox Report....once we have a loss.

[saintsRrising]

none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

Actually...rather than wait till after a loss....since all his poor decisons are so obvious to you can you please make a list of them here and now?

This is your chance to inpsire us all with your wisdom and observations.

If not....then we will all know that all you are really waiting for a is poor game to put the knife in.

[DWOODROW]

Ross Lyons worst decision. Being selected as Saints Coach. PFFFT I mean come on. Look at wear the bloke has the Saints and the supporters this year. 16-0 and the supporters nearly believing we have our best chance at a Premiership. Yeah I definitely reckon he should go at the enf of the year.

[maverick]

As the wins mount up so does the belief, little talk of Grant Thomas now, except as a slightly eccentric TV commentator with a penchant for the colourful and the provocative. We accept and advocate belief in the team's selections as they stand. We accept that if Goose wants to play then Goose has to be good enough. The Raph Clarke doubters and the Jimmy Gwilt sceptics seem more inclined to accept that "Ross knows best"
Team structure is accepted as the mantra for selection.
So, at last, does Ross know best?

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

So why not illuminate the poor ones now RF?

Who are they?

King
Gardiner
Schneider
Jones
Dempster
Milne
Dawson
Ray

There's a few of his decisions, which of those are poor?

[meher baba]

I'm sorry, I started another thread before I saw this one.

http://www.saintsational.com/forum/view ... p?p=781549

I certainly think Lyon's coaching has been a standout this year, and his player management and team selection/structuring has been, if anything, even better.

What I don't - and will never - understand is why thinking any of this means that I also have to think that GT was a bad coach. Or, for that matter, that Lyon was going ok prior to about the middle of last season.

Or that my continuing to believe that GT was a good coach who shouldn't have been sacked, or that Lyon (with his corralling and retreating crap) was pretty useless in 2007 and some of 2008, or that Dempster and Eddy aren't up to much and Schneider is overrated (or, more recently, that RL shouldn't have dropped Ball), means that I have an "agenda".

Oh well, whatever................. I'm still going to keep posting.

[Darrel Baldock]

meher baba,
Grant Thomas did some great things at St Kilda. I am not sure he knew how to make the next step. I am not a critic of GT but finding a way to improve conditioning staff and putting an emphasis on quality ruckmen were two initiatives of Ross Lyon that were fundamental bricks in the edifice which is the new St Kilda. Ross Lyon has built well on what Grant Thomas began and he plugged gaps that I don't think Thomas ever really appreciated were there. Opinions on players is another thing. These are often implied and sometimes overt, criticisms of a coach. Lyon continues to use players some are critical of. Of those my least favourite would be Dempster. I can't agree with you on Schneider. All of them play a part and the team is successful and the rest is just a wrong side of the fence opinion

[joffaboy]

What I don't - and will never - understand is why thinking any of this means that I also have to think that GT was a bad coach. Or, for that matter, that Lyon was going ok prior to about the middle of last season.

Or that my continuing to believe that GT was a good coach who shouldn't have been sacked, or that Lyon (with his corralling and retreating crap) was pretty useless in 2007 and some of 2008, or that Dempster and Eddy aren't up to much and Schneider is overrated (or, more recently, that RL shouldn't have dropped Ball), means that I have an "agenda".

Oh well, whatever................. I'm still going to keep posting.

Please - cant we have ONE Ross Lyon thread without you mentioning bloody Grant Thomas.

yeah I know the OP did, but who on here accused you of having an agenda?

PLEASE?????????????????????

[aussiejones]

GT did a good job ,but he had his go and now its Ross Lyons chance.

R Lyon for example saw
1 We needed Rucks and went about getting them.
2 There were opportunities to pick up some 'overlooked' players ie
Scnieder, Ray , Dawson etc.
3 Improve Fitness staff .

It took a while to get a playing style in place , finally there seems to be one that importantly they are all subscribing to. Now that is happening the thrust is to keep the playing group together as unchanged as possible so they all know what to expect from each other.

Its all coming together.

[Moods]

[quote="]

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

[/quote]

And just out of curiosity. Which teams DON'T require their guns on the park in late September to be successful? Isn't that half the battle to winning a flag, keeping your best players on the park? Which team has won a flag with 2-3 guns missing. I'll be pretty confident if we're playing ANY club in the GF and they're missing 2-3 guns. What a stupid comment.

[markp]

[quote="]

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

And just out of curiosity. Which teams DON'T require their guns on the park in late September to be successful? Isn't that half the battle to winning a flag, keeping your best players on the park? Which team has won a flag with 2-3 guns missing. I'll be pretty confident if we're playing ANY club in the GF and they're missing 2-3 guns. What a stupid comment.

[/quote][/quote]

Yup.... and why is it 'Ross'?

Sad that 'some' cant enjoy any of this.

[joffaboy]

[quote="]

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

And just out of curiosity. Which teams DON'T require their guns on the park in late September to be successful? Isn't that half the battle to winning a flag, keeping your best players on the park? Which team has won a flag with 2-3 guns missing. I'll be pretty confident if we're playing ANY club in the GF and they're missing 2-3 guns. What a stupid comment.

Yup.... and why is it 'Ross'?

Sad that 'some' cant enjoy any of this.

[/quote][/quote][/quote]

Because I haven't seen any evidence that he was actually christened"Ross".

Has anybody seen his birth certificate - he may be Kenyan and have a tribal name.

[Darrel Baldock]

Ladies! Not descending into bickering again are we?

[SydneySainter]

wait for our first loss - the critics will be back!

DAMN RIGHT! They're like crack addicts who have been waiting for their first hit since our last loss in the pre-season.

[evertonfc]

GT did a fantastic job - his contribution to this football club was enourmous.

He laid the foundations for a change of culture and belief.

We now have that. It's a huge credit to Ross Lyon that he's been able to build on that foundation and continue to take this club forward.

Two strong coaches has enabled us to compete in five of the past six finals series. Not a bad record.

Like GT, Ross has had to overcome early concerns but both evolved substantially and the club was the beneficiary.

Well done to GT, well done to Ross - their legacy is that this club has made nearly a decade of progress.

It's time to take those final steps.

[Moods]

GT did a fantastic job - his contribution to this football club was enourmous.

He laid the foundations for a change of culture and belief.

We now have that. It's a huge credit to Ross Lyon that he's been able to build on that foundation and continue to take this club forward.

Two strong coaches has enabled us to compete in five of the past six finals series. Not a bad record.

Like GT, Ross has had to overcome early concerns but both evolved substantially and the club was the beneficiary.

Well done to GT, well done to Ross - their legacy is that this club has made nearly a decade of progress.

It's time to take those final steps.

Now THAT I agree with. No coach is perfect. They all have their faults and weaknesses. IF the saints win the flag, I reckon GT will be having a quiet glass of wine somewhere and feeling quite happy with himself - and so he should. THere has been better coaches than him, but not that many who have coached stKilda.

One thing I do like about him, is that he's more than ready to admit that Lyon has done a great job with the saints - and I have rarely if ever heard him take any credit for Lyon's success. - Unlike some other recently retired/sacked coaches (I'm looking at you Sheedy)

[starsign]

GT did a fantastic job - his contribution to this football club was enourmous.

He laid the foundations for a change of culture and belief.

We now have that. It's a huge credit to Ross Lyon that he's been able to build on that foundation and continue to take this club forward.

Two strong coaches has enabled us to compete in five of the past six finals series. Not a bad record.

Like GT, Ross has had to overcome early concerns but both evolved substantially and the club was the beneficiary.

Well done to GT, well done to Ross - their legacy is that this club has made nearly a decade of progress.

It's time to take those final steps.

Now THAT I agree with. No coach is perfect. They all have their faults and weaknesses. IF the saints win the flag, I reckon GT will be having a quiet glass of wine somewhere and feeling quite happy with himself - and so he should. THere has been better coaches than him, but not that many who have coached stKilda.

One thing I do like about him, is that he's more than ready to admit that Lyon has done a great job with the saints - and I have rarely if ever heard him take any credit for Lyon's success. - Unlike some other recently retired/sacked coaches (I'm looking at you Sheedy)

AGREE !
some sensibility is coming into this long painfull GT/RL debate ..at last

(Although with respectI know its not the op, but we always get this degeneration of thought somehow)

NOW lets get back to the NOW!

Nothing but admiration for the way RL has gone about bringing THIS GROUP to where they sit at present

and in him I trust

RF you just lost me completely with that ridiculous comment re RL will cop it when his super stars are gone missing or whatever
Egocentric blokes like you give little credit to the intelligence of others and for what its worth your opinions are worthless in that light!

[Teflon]

One thing I do like about him, is that he's more than ready to admit that Lyon has done a great job with the saints - and I have rarely if ever heard him take any credit for Lyon's success. - Unlike some other recently retired/sacked coaches (I'm looking at you Sheedy)

That is true to Thomas's credit he hasnt tried to taking credit for the group that are there, however, in saying that...perhaps Tim Watson deserves some credit too...

[PJ]

'Ross' better keep his fingers crossed that our guns stay on the park until late September.

That's when some of his decisions will be tested. Whilst we have the stars out there, none of his poor decisions will even be noticed.

I'm not sure which one of the seven dwarfs you're trying to emulate - dopey, grumpy or grudgy.

Talk about carrying around some baggage, is Ross Lyon on your dart board? or perhaps your just taking some serious medication for a personality disorder.

[Teflon]

GT did a fantastic job - his contribution to this football club was enourmous.

He laid the foundations for a change of culture and belief.

We now have that. It's a huge credit to Ross Lyon that he's been able to build on that foundation and continue to take this club forward.

Two strong coaches has enabled us to compete in five of the past six finals series. Not a bad record.

Like GT, Ross has had to overcome early concerns but both evolved substantially and the club was the beneficiary.

Well done to GT, well done to Ross - their legacy is that this club has made nearly a decade of progress.

It's time to take those final steps.

Not sure I buy this whole "GT laid the foundations to culture/belief" stuff......I mean Im sure it reads like a newspaper article...if that's what excites you....but its not quite true is it?

GT helped steady our club after the disastrous Blight fiasco that left us a laughing stock...but culture change? - sure we won games under Thomas but weve done that before and fallen away (as we did under Thomas...) so no real culture change there.

Did we still have the usual off field dramas? - Im sure we did...the Milne/Joey debarcle, the AFL bashing/poor relationship and ultimately the ensuing Thomas V Butters war that ended in court (and large sum from OUR club to Thomas..) - no real culture change there.....still good old St Kilda imploding...

In all that again Butters is left out of any "culture change" chats - id argue his financial reign was instrumental in giving the club some semblance of stability (look at Melboure/Nths situation week to week struggling..) from which we could start to gain some respect in AFL circles.....sadly again that degenerated into mind blowing egotism from a Prez/head coach....no real "culture change" there except we were in the black....

To be candid IMHO the real cultural change that we have seen at St Kilda that appears unique and most un-St Kilda and perhaps sustainable has come from Lyon/Westaway.

GONE are the egos (refreshing for our club..),
GONE is the 1 dimensional game plan of attack, attack, attack and then when teams counter "oh shyte what do we do now..."
GONE are the "players selected on reputation"
GONE is the unhealthy reliance on a "Big Plugger" to do it all as a 1 man show from our team - actually its the first time at St Kilda that true TEAM appears to be IN.....thats a massive cultural shift for our club in itself.

We now have weekly articles picking apart our game plan - how do they do it ? stuff.....and yet still no talk of releasing a "streak" video...for which I am glad...

DISCIPLINE/COMMITMENT appear to be the new "INs" at St Kilda to me thats the real foundation required to stand up in both off field and on field endeavours into the future and I think you will find these "foundations" have only been laid in recent times...

Danny Frawley captures this new culture shift well in a recent article:

"For years and years, St Kilda was a side that was reliant on its stars," Frawley said. "The team-of-the-century are all superstars. But we've won one premiership."

Now it's all for one and one for all, and that is the secret to the way the Saints blank opponents. "Total team defence," said Frawley. "It starts in the forward pocket, with Stevie Milne. You only have to look at the way he is running and chasing. It's two-way football for everyone."

[The OtherThommo]

GT laid the foundations for an emotion driven, against the odds, downtrodden footy club triumph - and failed.

Ross The Boss has laid the foundations for a team of people to succeed. He allows them to express themselves, within a team ethic the competition has never seen before.

We play team football the likes of which have never been seen before. You do not become the hardest side to score against in the history of the game, in this era, if you are a bunch of self serving prime donnas.

This side is on it's way. They won't let us, or themselves, down, believe me.

Ross Lyon can coach, and I've said it from day freakin' 1.