StKilda - the present and the future (and maybe the past)

[The Prosecutor]

I'm not even going to bother.

If you want to claim St Kilda's all good for the coming seasons because you had a win against Essendon and managed to fall over the line against Melbourne and GWS, go ahead.

But *, get some perspective and don't go celebrating now. It's embarrassing how you're trying to claim this thread as a massive failure after one win.

Celebrate after making finals or hell, celebrate after mid-table mediocrity. Not now for * sake.

 

[BillingsStar]

Was this St Kilda's premiership or something?

The way this one win is being celebrated and the reactions in this thread, you'd think it was.

One game does not constituent this season let along the coming seasons.

Talk about going early.

We have shown this season that we are much more competitive than anyone other than our own fans thought we could be. We have proved to doubters like yourself that we aren't rabble, and that we're no easy-beats.

 

[BillingsStar]

But ****, get some perspective and don't go celebrating now. It's embarrassing how you're trying to claim this thread as a massive failure after one win.

Celebrate after making finals or hell, celebrate after mid-table mediocrity. Not now for **** sake.

We are responding to a thread that pretty much doubted the saints existence in 5 years. This is not a thread bout the saints making the finals this year.

 

[Scotland]

How did St Kilda manage to lose to a mediocre West Coast side away then get trounced by 86 points by a mediocre Adelaide side at home?

Umpiring conspiracy, presumably.

 

[aussierulesrules]

We simply ran out of puff against West Coast. That was pretty obvious as we had been well on top throughout the period from about the start of the 2nd quarter to the mid part of the 3rd, by putting huge pressure on West Coast and not letting them run the ball in waves down the ground, while scoring regularly ourselves, but by about half way through the 3rd our pressure and harrassing started to drop off significantly and West Coast were suddenly able to run the ball down the ground in waves almost at will and piled on the goals as a result. Prior to that period they had hardly looked like scoring a goal for ages.

We then looked flat as a tack the following week against Adelaide as so many teams do on returning from a game in Perth on the bigger ground, while Adelaide looked like they played out of their skin, basically playing high-risk-high-reward footy, as a last roll of the dice for their season, which came off incredibly well on the day. It was pretty much a game to have a laugh about, wipe from our memory and leave behind, which we looked like we did on the weekend against Essendon.

 

[Falchoon]

I'm not even going to bother.

If you want to claim St Kilda's all good for the coming seasons because you had a win against Essendon and managed to fall over the line against Melbourne and GWS, go ahead.

and by the same logic, if you want to claim St Kilda are stuffed for 5 years because of 1 pre season loss against GWS.......... go ahead, happy to ridicule you.

 

[stfan]

The premise of op was that Stkilda was going to become a basket worse than Melbourne.


That clearly is not going to happen for unlike the Dees the Saints in their rebuild have got their picks and trades correct. Not ever selection as no one is perfect. But mainly right with some rippers.

The rebuild is now three years in and is looking good. It us not finished yet, but is on the right path.

We have some good kids that other club supporters are yet to see.

Watters turned put to be the wrong man and muddied the waters for a bit. Fortunately Pelchen was the one making the calls on the rebuild.

WATTERS make us look worse than we were and the op has fallen for that.

Saints are on the up. But it is a proper rebuild over many years....half way through.

 

[Tulip]

The premise of op was that Stkilda was going to become a basket worse than Melbourne.


That clearly is not going to happen for unlike the Dees the Saints in their rebuild have got their picks and trades correct. Not ever selection as no one is perfect. But mainly right with some rippers.

The rebuild is now three years in and is looking good. It us not finished yet, but is on the right path.

We have some good kids that other club supporters are yet to see.

Watters turned put to be the wrong man and muddied the waters for a bit. Fortunately Pelchen was the one making the calls on the rebuild.

WATTERS make us look worse than we were and the op has fallen for that.

Saints are on the up. But it is a proper rebuild over many years....half way through.

You're looking good, absolutely. Far better than I thought. But don't call it too early with these kids, it only leads to pain unless they're really good.

 

[Tulip]

Not to mention the fact that it's still coming down to a legend of the game to be the difference. He's quite old now.

 

[Ricmel]

Gi

Was this St Kilda's premiership or something?

The way this one win is being celebrated and the reactions in this thread, you'd think it was.

One game does not constituent this season .

Give it up mate. You had us struggling just to exist, a basket case. Saints have won 5 of their last 7 games and likely to make it 6 from 8 this weekend. You are getting bucketed on because your OP was a stinker.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Not to mention the fact that it's still coming down to a legend of the game to be the difference. He's quite old now.

The thing is though, like the older group at Geelong over recent years, he (along with Lenny, Joey, etc) are showing the younger ones how it's done and what is required to be as good as he is, so when he does eventually retire they will hopefully be well on the way to following his/their lead of how to go about things and may as a group be able to step into their shoes by then.

 

[Persevering Saint]

The thing is though, like the older group at Geelong over recent years, he (along with Lenny, Joey, etc) are showing the younger ones how it's done and what is required to be as good as he is, so when he does eventually retire they will hopefully be well on the way to following his/their lead of how to go about things and may as a group be able to step into their shoes by then.

Two examples: 1, Dunstan and Lenny, with Luke hanging around him all the time, and Lenny right next to him beaming proudly at his rising star nomination interview. 2, Stanley and Roo, with Stanley lifting his workrate, taking 13 marks on the weekend, across the forward half.

Their performances are showing boys how to be men.

 

[Riccardo11]

Not to mention the fact that it's still coming down to a legend of the game to be the difference. He's quite old now.

So you would rather we field a side made up of 19 years olds?

Of course Roo is a major factor, but how the hell do you expect the kids to get any experience just being thrown in the deep end wholesale? A successful rebuild requires the vets to show the young bloods how it's done.

 

[Tulip]

The thing is though, like the older group at Geelong over recent years, he (along with Lenny, Joey, etc) are showing the younger ones how it's done and what is required to be as good as he is, so when he does eventually retire they will hopefully be well on the way to following his/their lead of how to go about things and may as a group be able to step into their shoes by then.

So you would rather we field a side made up of 19 years olds?

Of course Roo is a major factor, but how the hell do you expect the kids to get any experience just being thrown in the deep end wholesale? A successful rebuild requires the vets to show the young bloods how it's done.

I'm not saying you shouldn't play him, I think it's terrific. All I mean is that he's a once-in-a-generation sort of player at a club, football and leadership wise, and he's still dragging the young blokes over the line. It won't be easy to replace him.

 

[Riccardo11]

I'm not saying you shouldn't play him, I think it's terrific. All I mean is that he's a once-in-a-generation sort of player at a club, football and leadership wise, and he's still dragging the young blokes over the line. It won't be easy to replace him.

Nobody expects that it will be, but for people to say we are only winning because of Riewoldt, Hayes, etc is not only wrong, but it is incredibly disrespectful to the kids who are giving their all in what are pretty trying circumstances.

It's infuriating to hear week after week that Riewoldt is our only good player. There are 21 other guys busting their arses out there, a good portion of whom have less than 25 games, and the rest between 50-100. We have been through this with Lockett already - I hated hearing it then and I hate it now.

By all means laud the captain, but give the kids some respect as well, please.

 

[Tulip]

Nobody expects that it will be, but for people to say we are only winning because of Riewoldt, Hayes, etc is not only wrong, but it is incredibly disrespectful to the kids who are giving their all in what are pretty trying circumstances.

It's infuriating to hear week after week that Riewoldt is our only good player. There are 21 other guys busting their arses out there, a good portion of whom have less than 25 games, and the rest between 50-100. We have been through this with Lockett already - I hated hearing it then and I hate it now.

By all means laud the captain, but give the kids some respect as well, please.

Would you just relax?

Riewoldt is your best player, that's a fact. He was the reason you beat us in round 1 (with both sides missing their better players [Steven, Hayes, Montagna vs Dawes, Garland, Clark*, Viney]), that dominant spell in the 3rd killed us and it showed.

I like the look of some of these kids, Steven obviously and Dunstan a standout from the younger group. Stanley played a good game on Saturday night, but where is Roo's replacement? Maister, Stanley, White?

 

[GammaScorpii]

I'd say we won't be in the 8 this year or even next. We'll most likely cop a few more floggings this year, but that doesn't matter to me now. The future looks bright and that's pretty much all I wanted out of this season. Get more games into the kids and the future is looking good.

Who's going to argue that?

As for Roo's replacement, we don't have one at the moment. But look at the talent that was brought in from only one year. All we have to do is trade/draft a few forwards. Besides, we don't need a replacement yet the way he's going!

 

[Riccardo11]

Would you just relax?

Quite simply - no.

I'm passionate about my team and ready to defend them when they are attacked. That's just the way I have always operated and I'm not changing it.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Should beat the Lions this week.

Will hold my judgement until the season is finished but so far so good. Their kids Billings etc outworked their more fancied opponents really impressed me the most.

 

[Ricmel]

Should beat the Lions this week.

Will hold my judgement until the season is finished but so far so good. their kids like Billings etc outworked their more fancied opponents really impressed me the most.

If they beat the Lions this week they are 6 from their last 8.

They will get some floggings this year. Obviously well off the pace of the top 5 or 6 but can be competitive with the rest I reckon.

The thing is, before the season, most Bigfooty would have said lucky to win 5 games for the year. People like the OP had Saints as the new Melbourne only worse. I think what we can say already is that their rebuild is a lot more progressed than most thought and the Alan Richardson is living up to his reputation with young teams. The future looks as bright now as it did in 2003. The only issue on the horizon is most Saints fans were expecting pick 1 or 2 this year and that is not looking likely at the moment.

 

[Tulip]

Quite simply - no.

I'm passionate about my team and ready to defend them when they are attacked. That's just the way I have always operated and I'm not changing it.

ATTACKED!

Are you referring to somebody presenting an opinion?

There's always room for improvement, plenty here. You're being precious.

I'm sure Spencer White will slot in nicely when Roo retires and there won't even be a bump

 

[aussierulesrules]

I like the look of some of these kids, Steven obviously and Dunstan a standout from the younger group. Stanley played a good game on Saturday night, but where is Roo's replacement? Maister, Stanley, White?

Perhaps instead of being so reliant one just one with the next premiership contending team we build, we will have a more even spread of the load and instead of expecting just one to replace Roo, his load will be taken over by say all of Stanley, Lee and White.

Other alternatives are to go really hard at a Johnathan Patton, or Tom Boyd and do our best to extract them from GWS, to trade up this year from whatever pick our first rounder ends up being, to a higher pick (just say you guys have two in the first 3, you may look to do what you did last year and trade down from say pick 2 to 9, or whatever) and then of course there is free agency. One option may even be to go hard again at James Frawley if he happens to continue to show something up forward. I believe we've had a pretty big crack at him in the past two offseasons and may do so again if we don't get the really high pick we were pretty much expecting to get this year.

It's not like there is a shortage of options.

 

[Riccardo11]

ATTACKED!

Are you referring to somebody presenting an opinion?

There's always room for improvement, plenty here. You're being precious.

I'm sure Spencer White will slot in nicely when Roo retires and there won't even be a bump

You have to accept that, given you have an opinion, someone will have a counter opinion that will by definition be different.

Never said there wasn't room for improvement, but the insinuation that Nick Riewoldt is St Kildas only good player and is basically winning all the games is disrespectful, I only wished to highlight that.

I didn't mention White, and I don't believe for a second there is anyone in the competition right now that would replace Roo with ease, it is something we need to work on while we are rebuilding. We will certainly have to change our forward structure when he is gone, but we have time to plan for that.

 

[My North]

Go the Saints

 

[Watson_my_mind]

I take back everything I said about the saints. These young kids they have , remind me of Saints around 2003, with their awesome end to the season, winning like 8 of the last 9 and just missing the finals. A core of young guns with supreme talent who could cover deficiencies in a 22 just because the core was so god damn good.

And Nick Riewoldt is a champion who could go down as the greatest ever Saint.