Surely injuries can't be the thing St Kilda hangs it's hat on after today

[thegoldenbear]

Granted we have a wealth of talent out with injury.....BUT....today's effort was borderline pathetic. Was the writing on the wall last week when the wheels fell off and Freo "stormed" home to allow us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Is this a continuation of players failing to have any idea what's going on out there. Let's not forget this is the team that played DIRECT football against Carlton and DIRECT football in the first quarter against Fremantle. If the boys weren't embarressed by that performance then no motivational coach can save this lot.

As usual, I'm expecting and looking forward to the knockers who seem to want to sugar coat any form of criticism levelled towards the players. Before you do, answer yourself this: Are you, as a St Kilda supporter, as confident in the teams ticker now that we have injuries and others are being asked to step up?

[Savatage]

Originally posted by thegoldenbear
Granted we have a wealth of talent out with injury.....BUT....today's effort was borderline pathetic. Was the writing on the wall last week when the wheels fell off and Freo "stormed" home to allow us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Is this a continuation of players failing to have any idea what's going on out there. Let's not forget this is the team that played DIRECT football against Carlton and DIRECT football in the first quarter against Fremantle. If the boys weren't embarressed by that performance then no motivational coach can save this lot.

As usual, I'm expecting and looking forward to the knockers who seem to want to sugar coat any form of criticism levelled towards the players. Before you do, answer yourself this: Are you, as a St Kilda supporter, as confident in the teams ticker now that we have injuries and others are being asked to step up?

How could you sugar coat such a pathetic performance?

You can't.

[karnaby]

ya can't make strawberry jam from pigs hit


lost count of the number of times I put my hands on my head & groaned today, the statistician counting stuff ups has probably got rsi!

[sainter]

If you're looking for an argument goldenbear I doubt you'll find one here.

Obviously we would have performed better had we had players like Harvey, Everitt and Gehrig however injuries give opportunities to other players and they (along with the rest of the team) failed to make the most of it.

Our depth would have to be close to the worst in the competition.

[thegoldenbear]

Certainly not looking for an argument. Just heard a few talk back callers after the game trying weasel out an excuse for the poor showing and just wanted to show the other side of the coin.

It's times like this I wish the Fan Forum was back.......ohhhhhh baby I can imagine the rockets being posted on it.

[Savatage]

Originally posted by thegoldenbear
Certainly not looking for an argument. Just heard a few talk back callers after the game trying weasel out an excuse for the poor showing and just wanted to show the other side of the coin.



Yeah well they're idiots aren't they. They certainly aren't realists.

[Molky Saint]

Poor decision making and a lack of team work (Is it the chicken before the egg syndrome?) were painfully obvious yet again. Alas waiting for young players like Beetham, Davis, Voss et al to make crucial transitions from junior to senior mindsets seems akin to waiting for the next Ice Age. There is hope however in Kosi, Riewoldt and young Clarke-but unless they get support it will be Harvey, Burke, Loewe all over again.

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

goaldenbear, you are sugar coating this loss by saying that it was borderline pathetic. it was not borderline pathetic at all, it was fully fledged pathetic with a capital p.;)

we can't keeping using injuries as an excuse for what was simply an inept and insipid performance. apart from milne, thommo and maybe aussie in patches, we had a team of listless under achievers whose use of the football was disgraceful. turn over after turn over is simply inexcusable for a team that has touched the footballs 60000 times a day in the pre season.

davis, shcwarze, voss, blake, begley and capuano are not up to afl standard and are all in our first side. we are always going to have injuries and if these blokes are the cover then we are not going to win many games. i would have thought that a player like davis would be busting his guts to try and cement his spot in the side and possibly save him self from the chop at the end of the year. his efforts in the first few weeks suggests that a country league will be utilising his services next year and don't get me started on schwarze. :mad:

on the positive side i thought xavier clarke made an encouraging debut and should be given more ground time in future weeks. nick dal santo was listed as being in the best for springy on the weekend so hopefully will make his debut against the cats. it is better for us to have a look at kids like dal santo and maguire to see if they have got what it takes at senior level because we already know what the likes of davis, shcwarze and voss have got.

port are a top 4 side and a class above our injury depleted bunch so a loss to them is no surprise but a similar performance against a cats team that are mediocre at best next week will really have the alarm bells ringing.

play the kids, they are our only way forward.

[Savatage]

Burke does knee.

Gone for season.

We're ****ed.

[Macca19]

I dont think it is as bad as you guys think it will be.

The major reason you lost by so much yesterday was just errors. You seemed to turnover the ball too much.
I hope it isnt another injury ravaged season for the Sainters. I picked Saints to be the big improvers for the year so i hope that things look up again soon.

[Savatage]

Originally posted by Macca19
I dont think it is as bad as you guys think it will be.



Dude, look at this.

Burke- Knee,Season
Gehrig - Osteitis Pubis, Another 5 weeks at least
Everitt - Knee, Another 10 weeks at least
Callaghan - No Pre-Season, first game last week in reserves
Luke Ball - Osteitis Pubis
Steven Lawrence - Foot problem, out for another week at least
Matthew Capuano, shoulder problem- just started playing again
Justin Koschitzke - Knee problems, groin problems, back problems - playing injured, no pre-season
Chris Oliver - knee injury, no pre-season, just starting back in reserves
Matthew Maguire - some sort of injury, hasnt played in VFL for a while
Trent Knobel - No pre-season, has been playing underdone
Robert Harvey- calf, who knows how long he'll be out for
Brett Moyle - the worst corked thigh ever, internal bleeding- kept him out for 5 weeks already, at least another month away.

Out of those players half are key position players. The only ones we have on the field each week are: Hudghton (3rd stringer not 1st backman), Nick Riewoldt (developing nicely), Capuano (an unfit ruckman), Loewe (old warhorse), Koschitzke (could barely walk last week, but we have no choice but to play him), Trent Knobel (inexperienced, underdone ruckman). Troy Schwarze (not a key defender, not a key forward- playing out of necessity).

That means no forward line, and no backline.

With Burke, Callaghan, Luke Ball, Steven Lawrence, Harvey & Moyle out, then we don't have much of a midfield either.

There's no doubt that for us to be improvers we need as close to a full side as possible. As you can see it just isn't going to happen...the humiliation shall continue for some time unless a miracle occurs.

I think you don't know how life is, unless you've had a go at being a St.Kilda supporter - I don't think you'd believe it. I don't think you'd want to believe it. I don't think I want to believe it.