Preview Round 1, 2019: St.Kilda v Gold Coast - Marvel Stadium, Sunday 24th March, 1:10PM AEDT *Parker, Wilkie & Kent Debut*

[Mowman]

Totally understandable to question the current regime & failed direction of the football club. The last seven years is evidence enough. The apologists will say it was the error of the previous regime but I bet my bottom dollar that same group were vehemently defending Watters & only turned on him after he was sacked.

So true lol
Would have be saying lets just see how it plays out

 

[AirWinmar]

Well then the mids would be stuffed. The mids win or lose this game for us. Doubt any side has 2 forwards on the bench

When Billings and Kent are on the bench is it a midfielder or a forward..

 

[plugger66]

When Billings and Kent are on the bench is it a midfielder or a forward..

It’s a mid and a forward

 

[pebblesofsand]

I reckon you can

No you can't - not allowed - you don't set the nomenclature rules for AFL player types.

Players aren't allowed to be considered to play multiple positions.

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

It’s a mid and a forward

I believe they call it a 'morward'

 

[triggering bro]

Just on the panic surrounding our midfield and how utterly hopeless it is - we are playing almost the exact same midfield we used in the jlt games minus Clark and including Stuv.

Just remember extra bench in the practice matches.

Starting midfield of Steele, Ross & Dunstan (& Pierce who is a glacier) is a concern. I’d like to see a combination of no more than two of them & Steven/Gresham.

 

[plugger66]

No you can't - not allowed - you don't set the nomenclature rules for AFL player types.

Players aren't allowed to be considered to play multiple positions.

You can say that but the selectors aren’t listening.

 

[plugger66]

Just remember extra bench in the practice matches.

Starting midfield of Steele, Ross & Dunstan (& Pierce who is a glacier) is a concern. I’d like to see a combination of no more than two of them & Steven/Gresham.

Surely dunstan starts on the bench.

 

[plugger66]

I believe they call it a, 'morward'

I call it a paul

 

[Jade Buddha]

Just remember extra bench in the practice matches.

Starting midfield of Steele, Ross & Dunstan (& Pierce who is a glacier) is a concern. I’d like to see a combination of no more than two of them & Steven/Gresham.

Remembering the set up from JLT I think you'll see that (obviously not Stuv)

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

I call it a paul

(I'm pretending to get it)

 

[plugger66]

(I'm pretending to get it)

Paul morwood. Don’t worry.

 

[kernelT]

Pretty sure I heard him discussing funeral insurance with his mum on that video posted by the club.

But no one would underwrite it...

 

[Persevering Saint]

Well, if we have a good win against the GC, then that would be a good team selection.

No it does not.

I'm confident the team picked will win tomorrow. It's not that hard, because it's only GC. This game is as much about establishing structures, etc, that the team become familiar with, allowing the players to be better prepared to take on better opponents; the kind of opponents that we need to beat to get off the bottom four.

I'm frustrated, because in the JLT we showed sane forward structures, with two talls, a medium-tall, and some smalls. Injury stopped that working, but selections made sense. Now, we've made a silly error. We'll get away with it this week, but we wont with better opposition.

 

[Enclosed_Animal]

Interesting 48 hours.

Personal opinions on selection aside, what I think we are seeing manifest is not insignificant number of those invested in this organisation losing almost complete faith in its leadership and current direction. Its actually the primary reason most people leave their jobs, disillusionment with the leadership.

When employees (or in this case supporters) reach this point, every decision is scrutinised and picked apart (this almost always begins internally and spreads beyond). It doesn't actually matter whether there is sound logic behind a specific decision or not. Once that faith in the leadership and their direction is lost, you will get different factions and cliques becoming increasingly vocal in their disagreement to everything from the choice of coffee in the breakroom to the selection of employees (however rightly or wrongly).

Very very hard to create or maintain a successful direction for any organisation when this is occurring, and it is very difficult to turn around. And if it is happening externally to any significant degree, it is almost certain to be happening internally. This never happens in isolation.

I think what we are seeing here is that a lot of supporters have either checked out, or are scrutinising every decision to down to extremely minute details (beyond what is 'normal' or the established standard). Yes Gringo is doing his "even Carlton rebuild better then us" routine that he does before round one every year (before Carlton proceed to lose 18+ of their games), but what you are seeing in the last 48 hours is mass dissatisfaction with almost every decision being made (recruitment, selection, medical department, employee retention, VFL etc).

Using this as a microcosm of the wider club and supporter base, you can assume that the main ones left outwardly defending the decisions being made are a clique of people whose livelihoods depend on the success of this regime, and a handful of others that have now invested so much social capital into a position of support that backtracking becomes unthinkable. So they dig in and support even harder, widening the chasm between them and the wider growing dissatisfied group.

Once an organisation fractures like this you are in a world of pain, and it takes something significant to turn it around from there. Replacing a significant leadership figure is usually the easiest and cleanest way forward, but unless you change the entrenched philosophies person x bought, that fix is just cosmetic. Its not usually something that can be turned around quickly either.

We have very clearly and publicly backed in the existing philosophy / approach (by keeping the figurehead and replacing the support staff). The first real test for that decision is tomorrow, and make no mistake it is a significant day. Drawing GC first up ensured that. People will say "its only rd 1" but it is a very public very significant test for the direction we have chosen. The comments in here about selection reflect what a big 48 hours it actually is. Tomorrow is the first big opportunity for a while to test individual / group positions that have been clearly demarcated, and potentially change neutral opinions towards either direction. That's why we are all on edge a bit.

I think most would concede, including potentially even Richo himself if asked privately, that 5 seconds of Gresh magic saved his job last year. Its a repeat of that game. Its round 1 of a new season, and the first real public test of 6 months of changes. Maybe I am stating the obvious, but I have a feeling all hell will break loose if we drop this one.

 

[gringo2011]

Why wouldn’t 11 wins do anything long term. I don’t get that. If we are midfield that means plenty of improvement

Well if you hover mid table it's stagnation. We don't look to be planning a premiership, just holding the dam wall back.

 

[plugger66]

No it does not.

I'm confident the team picked will win tomorrow. It's not that hard, because it's only GC. This game is as much about establishing structures, etc, that the team become familiar with, allowing the players to be better prepared to take on better opponents; the kind of opponents that we need to beat to get off the bottom four.

I'm frustrated, because in the JLT we showed sane forward structures, with two talls, a medium-tall, and some smalls. Injury stopped that working, but selections made sense. Now, we've made a silly error. We'll get away with it this week, but we wont with better opposition.

What worked in the jlt was 2 marking forwards. We picked 3 but played with 2 for 6 quarters. The send thing is paddy was playing. He is a pure forward. They obviously didn’t want to go with a buts and pieces player. We have recruited two new small to medium forwards. Let’s see how that goes.

 

[plugger66]

Interesting 48 hours.

Personal opinions on selection aside, what I think we are seeing manifest clearly is a significant number of those invested in an organisation losing almost complete faith in its leadership. Its actually the primary reason most people leave their jobs, disillusionment with the leadership.

When employees (or in this case supporters) reach this point, every decision is scrutinised and picked apart (begins internally and spreads further externally). It doesn't actually matter whether there is sound logic behind a specific decision or not. Once that faith in the leadership and their direction is lost, you will get different factions and cliques becoming increasingly more vocal in their disagreement to everything from the choice of coffee in the breakroom to the selection of employees (however rightly or wrongly).

Very very hard to create or maintain a successful direction for any organisation when this is occurring, and it is very difficult to turn around. And if it is happening externally to any significant degree, it is almost certain to be happening internally. This never happens in isolation.

I think what we are seeing here is that a lot of supporters have either checked out, or are scrutinising every decision to down to minute details. Yes Gringo is doing his "even Carlton rebuild better then us" routine that he does before round one every year (before Carlton proceed to lose 18+ of their games), but what you are seeing in the last 48 hours is mass dissatisfaction with almost every decision being made (recruitment, selection, medical department, employee retention, VFL etc).

Using this as a microcosm of the wider club and supporter base, you can assume that the only ones left defending the decisions being made are a clique of people who work for the club (and whose livelihoods depend on the success of this regime) and a few others who have locked themselves into a position of support and have now invested so much into that position that backtracking becomes unthinkable. So they dig in and support even harder, widening the chasm between them and the wider growing dissatisfied group.

Once an organisation fractures like this you are in a world of pain, and it takes something significant to turn it around from there. Replacing a significant leadership figure is usually the easiest and cleanest way forward, but unless you change the entrenched philosophies person x bought that fix is just cosmetic. Its not usually something that can be turned around quickly.

We have backed in the existing philosophy / approach (by keeping the figurehead and replacing the support staff). The first real test for that decision is tomorrow, and make no mistake it is a significant day. Drawing GC first up ensured that. People will say "its only rd 1" but it is a very public very significant test for the direction we have chosen. The comments in here reflect what a big 48 hours it actually is. Make no mistake tomorrow is a big opportunity to test individual / group positions that have been clearly demarcated, and potentially change neutral opinions towards either direction. That's why we are all on edge a bit.

I think most would concede (including potentially even Richo himself privately) that 5 seconds of Gresh magic saved Richos job last year. Its a repeat of that game. Its round 1 of a new season, and the first real public test of 6 months of changes. Maybe I am stating the obvious, but I have a feeling all hell will break loose if we drop this one.

Who has lost complete faith? Surely you don’t mean a few supporters. How many tickets do you have on yourself? Please don’t confuse an opinion from watching footy games and not being inside the club as fact.

 

[plugger66]

Well if you hover mid table it's stagnation. We don't look to be planning a premiership, just holding the dam wall back.

One year isn’t hovering. 4 wins to 11 wins isn’t hovering. It’s huge improvement

 

[Big 0]

Meanwhile, Watts looks like gold and Petracca like utter crap.

Goes to show anything can happen in this game

 

[Impatient Saint]

Yeah gotta disagree on that IS. Billings doesn't need to be an elite runner to be effective on the wing half back. His decision making is improving all the time and I have been really impressed with his work in the preseason. He IS capable of releasing off the half back to players lace out in the corridor or providing that run into the 50 arc to receive. Of our middle tier players he has impressed me the most - excluding Newnes returning to form.

I wasnt suggesting he needed to be an elite runner, but more he has no elite tools other than his kicking. In sumnary he is a very good player but I dont believe he has the tools, belief or attitude to ever become elite player.

 

[L_W_P]

BRB off to the Melbourne board...

 

[plugger66]

Meanwhile, Watts looks like gold and Petracca like utter crap.

Goes to show anything can happen in this game

Especially if you think one week is how the whole year ends up. Next week petracca will probably look good and watts no good

 

[Joffaboy]

Who has lost complete faith? Surely you don’t mean a few supporters. How many tickets do you have on yourself? Please don’t confuse an opinion from watching footy games and not being inside the club as fact.

Four or five of the usual suspects.

I have lost faith in the AFL setup that will consign teams like the Saints as a second tier club but thats different

 

[plugger66]

Four or five of the usual suspects.

I have lost faith in the AFL setup that will consign teams like the Saints as a second tier club but thats different

I’ve lost faith in god.