Prediction Do you think St kilda will make the 8 in 2018

[plugger66]

I’m interested to know what our new ‘defensive strategy’ is... Never seen Robbo and Carlisle have so little influence on a game.

Also if Gilbert, Weller, Wright or Lonie line up round 1 I’m throwing in the towel.

Throw it in because I reckon one if not 2 will play. I love the fact that when Lonie does well the same haters only look at his faults.

 

[St Significant]

I’m interested to know what our new ‘defensive strategy’ is... Never seen Robbo and Carlisle have so little influence on a game.

Also if Gilbert, Weller, Wright or Lonie line up round 1 I’m throwing in the towel.

Throw in the towel now SS coz Richo loves Gilbert and Lonie

 

[borderbarry]

We should make the eight. Particularly if the selectors pick the best team on form each week and stop picking the old hacks week after week like last year.

 

[plugger66]

We should make the eight. Particularly if the selectors pick the best team on form each week and stop picking the old hacks week after week like last year.

Who are they Barry?

 

[borderbarry]

The old hacks? You know who they are Pluggs. Weller, Gilbert, although he did play some important footy last year, Brown (its time to give a young one a run. Why did we pick Austin up if we wont play him?)

 

[Saint Watto]

I think it's very very difficult to make a call this far out..........especially when we are IMO in "reset" mode.

It's an old and worn cliché....but the season is a marathon....it's a long long slog.

So many variables can go right or go wrong.

If I was to put a little wager on....I'll say yes.....we'll just sneak in......If a fair chunk of our 40/50/60 and 70 gamers step up/keep performing well............that may do the trick.....so much will depend on that group firing.

 

[plugger66]

The old hacks? You know who they are Pluggs. Weller, Gilbert, although he did play some important footy last year, Brown (its time to give a young one a run. Why did we pick Austin up if we wont play him?)

Weller isn't old and Gilbert had a good year and we didn't have Austin last year so Brown was played. Barry just because we recruited them and they are young doesn't men they are any good. I don't think selection cost us many if any games last year and I doubt it will again this year.

 

[StCicatriz]

cant see us making it. i think a lot of strong home truths will come out this season.

 

[mufti15]

Dont think we will. Can't see us being better than 10 other teams

 

[St Significant]

cant see us making it. i think a lot of strong home truths will come out this season.

Coaching & Recruiting Departments?

 

[my name was taken]

Said yes but my range for us is 7-12th. Being optimistic.

More to do with not seeing any teams really drop off aside from eagles. It’s a pretty young top 8 teams then you have dees and dogs. Who knows what hawks/pies will do.

Still think we need some more speed and clean users. A lot of blue collar battler types in the team at the same time makes me feel we are not balanced.

If Clark and coffieild show a lot of promise it will soften the blow of not making it.

 

[MUFASA12]

if we stink it up against brisbane round 1, we will have a good gauge of how we will perform. personally i think we will be 5-6 at the end of round 11, even thats not the end of the world.

 

[VDS66]

Ken Oath we will.

Miserable campaigners.

Let's check back in after round 10.

It's like asking a woman if she loves motherhood straight after squeezing out a 6kg manchild without an epidural ffs...

 

[Cornish]

I have us finishing 8th

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Dont think we will. Can't see us being better than 10 other teams

we are better than :
Brisbane
Gold coast
Carlton
Collingwood
North

we should be (injury permiting) better than:

Fremantle
WCE

this in my opinion sees us in a log jam with Melbourne Essendon Hawthorn and the Dogs for that 7th and 8th spot on the ladder...

 

[Mowman]

we are better than :
Brisbane
Gold coast
Carlton
Collingwood
North

we should be (injury permiting) better than:

Fremantle
WCE

this in my opinion sees us in a log jam with Melbourne Essendon Hawthorn and the Dogs for that 7th and 8th spot on the ladder...

I see Melbourne Esssendon and Dogs are better then us at this early stage, agree with the rest

 

[mufti15]

we are better than :
Brisbane
Gold coast
Carlton
Collingwood
North

we should be (injury permiting) better than:

Fremantle
WCE

this in my opinion sees us in a log jam with Melbourne Essendon Hawthorn and the Dogs for that 7th and 8th spot on the ladder...

Melbourne should be far better than us. The dogs and bombers as well

 

[Human Person]

The old hacks? You know who they are Pluggs. Weller, Gilbert, although he did play some important footy last year, Brown (its time to give a young one a run. Why did we pick Austin up if we wont play him?)

I’d say Logan was for depth, if he was good enough to be a walk up start for FB, then why wasn’t he for Port? It’s not like their tall defenders are their best asset.

Not trying to put Logan down, I just don’t see the point in removing a premiership fullback who was top ten in our B&F last year if we’re intending to play finals.

 

[majortinkle]

I’d say Logan was for depth, if he was good enough to be a walk up start for FB, then why wasn’t he for Port? It’s not like their tall defenders are their best asset.

Not trying to put Logan down, I just don’t see the point in removing a premiership fullback who was top ten in our B&F last year if we’re intending to play finals.

Didn’t he get injured just after breaking into their team?

 

[StCicatriz]

Coaching & Recruiting Departments?

think bigger, well thats my thoughts anyway

 

[aussierulesrules]

I still see us as just as capable of making the 8 this year as I did prior to last night, if not more so, because losing one R1 JLT game doesn't undo the fact that we've won more games than we've lost over the last two seasons (which means we're very close) and that the only two we've lost from our list going into this season who played a single game last year were not instrumental in most of our wins- and between them only played 33 games.

Last night did show me that we could be getting back one of our very best though, in Armitage, who's return could cancel out say the loss of Joey- and then some- and it also showed me that Paddy is likely to be very much ready to give us a similar amount to what we got from Nick last year (at least from a performance/output/production POV), IF he stays on the park. And that on top of them, Steven is all things being equal likely to be back to his best- which is way better than what he produced last year and hugely critical to our prospects.

Then there's Clark and Coffield, who bring things to the table that we need and who who look extremely comfortable at the level already- and who are likely to look even more so once they have a few games under their belts- and that's before we get to all the others under 24yo (about 20 of them) who are very likely to be better for another preseason.

A Brandon White for instance didn't play last night, but that doesn't mean he won't be in there ASAP and taking the place of a Gilbo (and going much better than him), if Sam keeps playing like he did last night.

So from a playing and list POV, I have no doubt that we have the talent to be able to win that one or two extra games to play finals (even from another difficult looking draw), but the big ? for me is on Richo and co's ability to put all the pieces together and get the best out of them as a cohesive unit, with an effective game plan (and unfortunately last night was a poor looking start in this regard).

If they manage to do that and we have a decent injury run, I imagine we'll play finals. If they don't, or we don't, I'd say we'll miss again.

Without a crystal ball to see what our injuries will be like, I'm backing us to pull it together and take that next step this year. Just my opinion.

It's time for us as a club to step up.

 

[lethalsaints]

I’m interested to know what our new ‘defensive strategy’ is... Never seen Robbo and Carlisle have so little influence on a game.

Also if Gilbert, Weller, Wright or Lonie line up round 1 I’m throwing in the towel.

If they are serious about winning, those players should only be emergencys at best. Gilbert is a warrior but I believe we need to be playing others now. Id like to see Austin play the next JLT too. He could take Brown's spot to give the team more run.

 

[triggering bro]

Ordinary players, ordinary game plan, ordinary coach, ordinary finishing position.

14th with 7 wins

 

[Diehard Saint]

I still see us as just as capable of making the 8 this year as I did prior to last night, if not more so, because losing one R1 JLT game doesn't undo the fact that we've won more games than we've lost over the last two seasons (which means we're very close) and that the only two we've lost from our list going into this season who played a single game last year were not instrumental in most of our wins- and between them only played 33 games.

Last night did show me that we could be getting back one of our very best though, in Armitage, who's return could cancel out say the loss of Joey- and then some- and it also showed me that Paddy is likely to be very much ready to give us a similar amount to what we got from Nick last year (at least from a performance/output/production POV), IF he stays on the park. And that on top of them, Steven is all things being equal likely to be back to his best- which is way better than what he produced last year and hugely critical to our prospects.

Then there's Clark and Coffield, who bring things to the table that we need and who who look extremely comfortable at the level already- and who are likely to look even more so once they have a few games under their belts- and that's before we get to all the others under 24yo (about 20 of them) who are very likely to be better for another preseason.

A Brandon White for instance didn't play last night, but that doesn't mean he won't be in there ASAP and taking the place of a Gilbo (and going much better than him), if Sam keeps playing like he did last night.

So from a playing and list POV, I have no doubt that we have the talent to be able to win that one or two extra games to play finals (even from another difficult looking draw), but the big ? for me is on Richo and co's ability to put all the pieces together and get the best out of them as a cohesive unit, with an effective game plan (and unfortunately last night was a poor looking start in this regard).

If they manage to do that and we have a decent injury run, I imagine we'll play finals. If they don't, or we don't, I'd say we'll miss again.

Without a crystal ball to see what our injuries will be like, I'm backing us to pull it together and take that next step this year. Just my opinion.

It's time for us as a club to step up.

I hope you're right and I'm still fairly positive about sneaking into the 8.

But will Richo take risks and play the CC's? Based on his insistence on playing an injured Mav last season I'm not sure. I'm always ambivalent on Gilbo. He played a very good role for us last year, but his disposal can be absolutely shocking, largely undoing the good. We have to put some faith in players like White to get a cluster of games to show what he can do. And change up the midfield occasionally.

Just think the coaching panel may be a little risk-averse.

 

[VDS66]

I still see us as just as capable of making the 8 this year as I did prior to last night, if not more so, because losing one R1 JLT game doesn't undo the fact that we've won more games than we've lost over the last two seasons (which means we're very close) and that the only two we've lost from our list going into this season who played a single game last year were not instrumental in most of our wins- and between them only played 33 games.

Last night did show me that we could be getting back one of our very best though, in Armitage, who's return could cancel out say the loss of Joey- and then some- and it also showed me that Paddy is likely to be very much ready to give us a similar amount to what we got from Nick last year (at least from a performance/output/production POV), IF he stays on the park. And that on top of them, Steven is all things being equal likely to be back to his best- which is way better than what he produced last year and hugely critical to our prospects.

Then there's Clark and Coffield, who bring things to the table that we need and who who look extremely comfortable at the level already- and who are likely to look even more so once they have a few games under their belts- and that's before we get to all the others under 24yo (about 20 of them) who are very likely to be better for another preseason.

A Brandon White for instance didn't play last night, but that doesn't mean he won't be in there ASAP and taking the place of a Gilbo (and going much better than him), if Sam keeps playing like he did last night.

So from a playing and list POV, I have no doubt that we have the talent to be able to win that one or two extra games to play finals (even from another difficult looking draw), but the big ? for me is on Richo and co's ability to put all the pieces together and get the best out of them as a cohesive unit, with an effective game plan (and unfortunately last night was a poor looking start in this regard).

If they manage to do that and we have a decent injury run, I imagine we'll play finals. If they don't, or we don't, I'd say we'll miss again.

Without a crystal ball to see what our injuries will be like, I'm backing us to pull it together and take that next step this year. Just my opinion.

It's time for us as a club to step up.

Given that you were there and your analysis is as objective as it comes, did you see any changes in set ups in the middle or similar?

Not looking for excuses but you can practice and get it right at training, but the only way to execute is in real game situations where you also have to counter the opposition game plan at the same time.