has our coach flown the white flag

[stinger]

well, robbo seemed to suggest it on 360 last night and the panel on "on the couch seemed to agree that that's exactly what watters has done....

[dragit]

I reckon he would be consciously lowering the public perception of the list, partly in self preservation. If we only manage 5-6 wins this year, I guess he would prefer the attention on the shape of the list rather than his coaching abilities.

[Teflon]

Agree he's also got to slowly let the air out of members tyres and lower expectation which is fair enough - only a fool still thinks we are top 4 bound

[stinger]

Agree he's also got to slowly let the air out of members tyres and lower expectation which is fair enough - only a fool still thinks we are top 4 bound

i never thought that...but i was hoping 7/8 would be a possibility.....

after all we were 9th last year and just lost a couple or five close ones......

...but...after two rather inept performances against fairly ordinary opposition...i have lowered my sights a tad......12/14...now looks more likely.....


...i know the club believed bottom of the eight was a reality.....

[SainterK]

I thought we'd be in the bottom portion of the eight...

Surprised we are sitting at 0-2 to be perfectly honest.

Shocking injury run thus far though, good seasons are certainly built on good preseasons.

[spert]

We all want success and would like to have it this year, but how quickly can Watters and Pelchin etc turn around the poor recruiting and development during the Lyon era- not this season. The first two matches show us that we are lacking a strong full back and we had trouble finding a suitable recruit during trading. We also need a quality midfielder, and maybe our recruits can step up with development- Newnes will be a qulaity player in the next couple of years, but more recruiting can be done in this area at some stage. We needed a good tall strong marking half forward, and I think Lee is the right choice, but he needs time time to develop into AFL standard too. I think some of us are expecting recruits to immediately step in and play A grade footy- it won't happen in most cases. This season we will be lucky to get to 9th position, but I will be mighty happy if we do, as that will mean we have positive signs for the future.

[oh when the]

losing to gc no matter if we are re-building or not
is inexcusable - i think this week will show what kind of coach Watters is - he
could be outcoached by Sheeds.

[saintspremiers]

I thought we'd be in the bottom portion of the eight...

Surprised we are sitting at 0-2 to be perfectly honest.

Shocking injury run thus far though, good seasons are certainly built on good preseasons.

It's not shocking. Look at WCE and Collingwood. There's are much bigger than ours.

We have little depth.

Face reality K - we are unlikely to play finals this season.

It will make life easier for you!!

[Con Gorozidis]

Yes he has flown the white flag and I believe it is a good thing.
I flew it 12 months ago.
Now lets get on with rebuilding and stop fantasising we are still a top side and fiddling around with Blake and kosi and the like.

We are 12 to 14 bound. Blaming Watters is simply ludicrous.

Everyone in the afl knows we have the most unbalanced list in the afl. Our top 5 players are 29 and over. Some well over....

For the first time in my life the club doesn't have a single player in the afls top 20 players. Heck maybe even top 50.

Noone can coach a list like that to success.
So Watters is right to face facts and protect his reputation.

Lets enjoy improvement in seb Ross tom Lee Brodie Murdoch tom curren jack newnes Nate Wright Spencer and robo.

[matrix]

mehhhh
we'll be 1-5 soon enough

[Playon]

I Imagine this is some sort of new revelation by the coaching panel then. See how they go and if they're no good, were rebuilding?

If we were rebuilding before that then why would the club waste money on sending all its players to the USA for pre-season training. What happens if we win the next four?

[matrix]

What happens if we win the next four?

ill run down rundle mall with nothing but one sock on

[SunburySaint]

mehhhh
we'll be 1-5 soon enough

we could be 1-7 going into Rd 9 Against the Dogs...

[matrix]

mehhhh
we'll be 1-5 soon enough

we could be 1-7 going into Rd 9 Against the Dogs...

serious?
shesh i havent looked at rounds 7 and 8 yet
wouldnt know who we are playing

[SunburySaint]

Carlton and Adelaide away...

[Dis Believer]

What happens if we win the next four?

ill run down rundle mall with nothing but one sock on

Haha,
I hope it's a big sock coz you're gonna look very silly if you have to stick to your word on this Mat......

[matrix]

cant see us beating bumbers or filth tb

[cwrcyn]

Watters is just being a realist. We've all seen clubs kid themselves that they are on the cusp of finals participation (eg Richmond during the 2000s) and it can be a foolish, destructive delusion. Too many of our supporters are stuck in the 2009 era, and can't fathom why we're not as good as we were. They haven't been paying close enough attention.

I'm glad Watters has told us how it is. It's nothing to do with his own self preservation, either. Hell, even Lyon admitted at the end of 2011 that it was 'kind of an end of an era', didn't he?

Watters has been working on this transition since he walked in the door. It was probably the reason Pelchen was hired during 2011 - to get the ball rolling.

After this week against GWS, we face a significantly tougher draw than 2012. Even with our best team, we could easily be 3-8 at the halfway mark.

[saintly]

mehhhh
we'll be 1-5 soon enough

unfortuanley i agree.

[Scollop]

Well said cwrcyn and good post by you Con.

Firstly the comment comes from a journo -not from a Saints official. If some people want to infer from that journo's headline that he's given up on making the finals or being top 4 this year, that is ludicrous. SW came to the club and in his first couple of interviews he clearly stated that success onfield does not have to be mutually exclusive with developing your youth and giving game time to young players.

We were in the mix for finals last year and it was only his first year as an AFL senior coach. There is learning to be done on the job by SW, but who would've done a better job. Would Roos or Mick Malthouse have done a better job with the cattle available? What were the alternative untried coaches at the time SW was appointed?

Flown the white flag implies that he's given up...has he given up on coaching the Saints? No -he hasn't!!

Has he given up on the task at hand to get us back to being a top 4 side? NO -he hasn't!!

Scott Watters said on the Sunday Footy Show that his job is to get St Kilda to be a contender again.

"I've got one eye on the side we need to put out this week and one eye on the side we want out there in 3, 4, or 5 years time"

[saintspremiers]

Scollop we are not contenders for finals this year.

It's a multi year plan.

We don't have the young cattle to keep us as condenders whilst re phase out the oldies.

SW prob on the interview thought it would be like Collingwood with a Blair and Elliott recruited.

Sadly, that hasn't happend.

[stinger]

What happens if we win the next four?

ill run down rundle mall with nothing but one sock on

and i'd hold you to that...but it ain't going to happen unfortunately

[Teflon]

cant see us beating bumbers or filth tb

No we wont

[mad saint guy]

I thought we might have been a chance at finishing 6th-8th this year but what we've seen so far is that our stars are slowing down and the rest of the competition is speeding up. Treating this as a development year is the only sane way to go about the season from this point on.

[Junction Oval]

Focus on the effort, not the end-result, from now on.