Yippee, we've broken our WA dockers duck.

[karnaby]

I'll begin at the end of the match & go from there.

After Harves had gone down earlier I anticipated there still being another 3-4 mins on the clock so I was still fairly pooing myself, frankly the siren brought relief rather than any sense of joy. I'd done the sensible thing and found a big mob of fellow supporters & although there was a bit of whoppee I think a lot of the others were similarly relieved.

Third q was a shocker, both sides seemed to be playing a man loose in defence, but whilst we had the ball they manned up as well as having the free man. When they had the ball it looked like we were playing some kind of zone or else Blight had told them it was alright to stand 10 -15m away from their opponents (as if), whatever the excuse, virtually every time they had the ball they
looked a threat to score, when we had the ball it was often static
interspersed with kick & hope stuff.

Was really disgusted with some abysmal (unpressured) disposal throughout the game, Thomo, Milne, Beetham & the ever unreliable Frankie were the main culprits. How blokes on their wages can readily accept their pay with a straight face astounds me, if they really wanted to be good footballers instead of run-of-the-millers they could do a lot worse than spend an extra
5 10hrs/wk brushing up on their skills.

I thought Kosi was great early, it was one of the first times that he'd had a go at CHF & he looked good. Got swapped with Gehrig mid 2q ish & battled after that. 2 quick goals against him early in the 3rd & from there on it was sit down and learn your lesson boyo, frankly I think Blight could have easily bought him on again but took the option of giving him a bit of a lesson, if that was the case then I'm pretty happy, it really does look like he might have the goods to go on with it.

After the match a fair sprinkling of the match committee & most of the players went to a pub where there'd also been a pre-match funtion, on the basis that i wasn't totally depressed I took my daughter along for an hour or so & had a pretty good time among the faithful. It was a nice change from forever being the solitary supporter. Jess did well getting her (my old) jumper signed by all the players present, that was probably the final nail in her indoctrination process - poor kid stuck as a mug supporter just like us for the rest of her life, I can only hope she has the pleasure of more frequent flags than we've had.

On that sombre note I'll leave it for now and finish with a question:
If we're at the stage of not accepting honourable losses, how bouyed can we be with a crap win?

[Vaul Darkhour]

lol... I ask you Karnaby.. What can you do?... What can you do?..

[sainter]

Glad you had a great time Karnaby.

About time you had a win!

:D

To finally win a game but to lose Harvey for the year basically sums up our season. I was at the social club and it went dead quiet for quite a few minutes after the incident.

Putting aside the Harvey injury and in reply to your question Karnaby, I think we can be quite proud of the victory.

We didn't play too well, probably worse than in a lot of our losses. Our skill level was as poor as it has been. But the fact remains we went into a match that we just had to win and did the job. Thommo's disposal was average but he amassed 33 possessions and at least half a dozen tackles. The way he dived into packs to hold the ball in was like the Thommo of old. Callaghan was his busy self again, Hamill played his best match for the club, Lenny was good in his 50th game, Koschitzke impressed early and Spider dominated in the ruck. Of course there's no guessing what I was most excited about for the night. ;)

When the game was in the balance and we needed a spark, our came Stephen Milne to kick 3 goals in the last quarter to win us the match. I might go on about him too much, but we have been crying out for a small forward pocket player for ages. When he can become a little more consistent, we have a goalsneak to rival the Jeff Farmer's, Phil Matera's and Ronnie Burns' of this world.

With Lawrence, Jones, Powell and Traianidis all a good chance to return, and Nick Riewoldt likely to debut for Springvale, we have a lot more talent at our disposal. In 2002, with Harvey, Burke, Loewe and Moyle also ready to fire, things aren't going too badly.

There's no reason why we shouldn't be buoyed by the win. It wasn't pretty but it was honest, gutsy and hopefully the start of things to come.

[nightowl36]

It certainly was good to break our Subiaco Hoodoo!
The game certainly wasn't pretty, ESPECIALLY losing Harvs. ANY win for us saints supporters is welcome at this time in a unfortunate injury ravaged season. At least we can look forward to a more hopeful season next year, and hope we can win some more games this season even though we have so many injuries. Anyway here's hoping, Amen!

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

oh when karnaby, goes marching in
oh when karnaby, goes marching in
hes finaaallllly seeeen a winner
oh when karnaby goes marching in.

why not be buoyed by a crap win, we've already had some 'honorable losses' this year and despite how well we played you just can't celebrate a loss.

your post was remarkably down beat for a bloke that has seen 2 wins out of 13. as a saints supporter you should know that every win must be celebrated with the maximum amount of fervour possible, because you just never know when you'll see the next one. :rolleyes:

well done on completing the indoctrination of your daughter as a fully fledged saints supporter. keep telling her how great it's going to be when the saints are a force and the weagles and dockers are just useless, pathetic excuses for football sides, ha it's almost true now.

[karnaby]

Sainter,
Enjoyed your match report, I haven't gotten around to have a look at the replay which is my normal view of the game as against the live version but I reckon I might pick up quite a lot that I've otherwise missed.

Re your little mate, no reason he can't match it with those you mentioned, geez, wouldn't we love it if he could keep repeating his magic long term? However, like a few others he could do with some more kicking practice to round out his game some more.

STL,
As for being downbeat, 1)...I'd had a couple of days to take it in before writing, 2)...relief really was the overriding feeling, & 3)..."the next one" that I really care about happens at the end of September, I think I'll hold the excitement until it looks like we can at least match it regularly with the big boys - so watch out next year all you other bastards!!

Re crap wins, I saw your post on the main board & I think it answers my question really well. In fact I think it's such a good appraisal of where we are at the moment that I've copied it and brought it home where it belongs. Hope you don't mind mate.

Cheers karnaby

By STL:
damned if we do damned if we don't.

3 weeks ago we had an 'honorable loss' against top placed hawthorn and this week we have had an 'ugly' win. give me the ugly win anyday. a win is a win is a win, it is not another loss. in two days time koschitzke, beetham, baker and hayes will have played in a winning side. they will feel some reward for all the work and effort they have put in this year. the young blokes have to believe they are capable of winning and any win no matter how unattractive it is will help in their development as footballers.

when considering where the saints are at the moment we have to look at where we were at the end of the home and away season last year. this is how it stood.





2 wins out of 22 games

shocking list of players

losers culture

no coach

public board sqabbles and a boards split

no president

ageing stars

lowest membership of any melbourne side

an absolute pummeling by the media who love to kick us when where down. 'tragic history' headline is unoriginal and boring.



as a club i believe that all of the above problems have been addressed and we are moving forward as a club and a team.

we have a new and vibrant president and board who recognised the onfield problems and did all they could to correct it. they are unwavering in their belief that we are heading in the right direction. malcolm blight is instilling a discipline that has never happened at the club. the board and the coaching panel constantly talk of professionalism on and off the field. everyone talks of changing the culture of the club and everything is in place for this change to take place.

with all the changes that happened so quickly at the end of the year the supporters showed a rampant optimism to our teams fortunes this year. that optimism has been subdued now that reality has struck and we realise that we are coming from a long way behind every other side in the comp. but the optimism is still there, i can't speak for every saints supporter but the ones i know are still optimistic that we will improve, the only real arguing point is how long it will take. the impact of blight has not been immediate however the subtle changes to discipline and game plan will reap some rewards this year to the team but will be more evident next year.

2000 - 2 wins from 22.
2001 - 3 wins from 12.

looking at these figures alone suggests that already the tide is turning. the injury rate this year has severely limited the development of our team, for a new team to gel they have to spend time actually playing together. every week we are forced to make 3 or 4 changes to the side, constantly unsettling any cohesion that may have developed over the previous week. for our side to develop we need stability over a number of weeks the injuries have never allowed this to happen. i'm not using injuries as a direct excuse for losing we have been in winning positions a lot this year and our mental weakness has allowed other teams to run over us. somewhere during the game they stop doing the things they did to get us in front. the only thing to combat this weakness is to actually win a game, that is what we did last night.

of the new recruits this year gehrig has been the best. he has been extremely solid in defense, no one has kicked goals on him and every week he is improving his run out of defense. he had no pre season so i'm expecting he will be even better in the second half of the season. hamill should be thought of as the 3rd forward and has started to play better now that barry hall has gone forward, his toughness at the contest is magnificent. callahan, voss, gale have been servicable players. lawrence would be handy if he could get on the paddock.

everitt has been in great touch in the ruck and has finally added consistency to his game. he has been excellent over the last 6 weeks, if he plays capuano won't get a game.

with harvey, burke and loewe all out of the side for the rest of the year it will provide a magnificent opportunity for beetham, hayes, baker, kosi, reiwoldt, begley and milne to step up and take control of the teams fortunes. they should also elevate oliver off the rookie list who is a young ruckman and has been selected in the vfl state side, and has big raps on him.

so in answer to your question cik " How do you feel about where your club is at this point and where you think it is going in the short term future ? Are you really any better off ?"

i am comfortable with where the club is at the moment as their are real signs of change for the better on and off the field. as for the short term future of the team i would be happy for a gradual improvement in the youngsters and maybe 3 or 4 more wins for the year, obviously i would be happier with more but i am trying to be objective.

"are we really any better off?, cik" when i think back to where we were at the end of last season, f*cken oath we are, we are moving in the right direction.

[sainter]

Karnaby,

It wasn't a great win, but an effort that would be great to look back on and say this is where the St Kilda Revival began.

:D

It's definitely worth reading STL's piece again.

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

karnaby i don't mind at all. with all the hysteria, anger, despair, joy, frustration and every other emotion we have displayed barracking for the saints it still amazes me that we can be objective when writing about them. if you saw how i carried on at the footy reasonable, objective and level headed are definately not words you would use. :eek:

writing about our crap win has just jolted a memory from a couple of weeks ago. i remember talking to a richmond supporter after they had just beaten the dockers. he said the game was pathetic, richmond had played crap footy and the only good thing about such a dismal game was that after 3 losses the tiges had stopped a 3 game losing streak. the next week they came out and destroyed carlton who's form previously had been outstanding. never underestimate the influence to a team that any win can have.