2026 Pre-Season Thread

[Elixuh]

The full chat with Ross the boss is unhinged, it’s all out war

 

[mpal6]

The full chat with Ross the boss is unhinged, it’s all out war

Not interested in spending more time on it. Ross is a w***er who clearly has to get some tiff going in case Saints underperform. Same with his nepobaby rubbish last year. He's already setup the mental health card for both Nas and TDK too if needed this year based on that article from AFL website.

He's vile individual who allegedly got fired for messing with female staff in Fremantle and I have no time for his nonsense.

 

[The Zork]

The wet mops of the afl

 

[p4p1]

All I am going to say is that they have won a total of 1 premiership in their entire history. 152 years. The VFA era had 11 or 12 teams competing for the premiership The first decade or so in the VFL had 8 clubs in the comp, then in 1908 it expanded to 10 then went back to 9 after university dropped out. 1925 the league adds North, Hawthorn and Footscray. Hawthorn and Footscray both win a premiership before St Kilda, Richmond picked up 5 before 1966. For the first 28 seasons in the VFL there was statistically roughly 1/9 chance of winning.
From 1925-1986 the competition (outside of WW2 years) stayed as a 12 team comp. A 1/12 chance for 61 years.
Then the AFL expansion between 1987 and now would work out to somewhere around an average of 16 teams over those 38 years.
Statistically there should be 9 premierships. To have only achieved 1 is statistically very impressive.

Our luck with F/S picks recently has no doubt helped us, and will help us in the future. But our 3 F/S selections at the time of us winning our back to back premierships were both 20 in 2024 and 21 and 19 in 2025. As good as they are, they’re not the reason for our success.
We were able to convince excellent free agents to come to our club before we ever achieved anything without paying ridiculous money because of a culture the club built and a direction the club looked to be heading in. We were able to get Charlie Cameron

23

Charlie Cameron

Age

31

Ht

180cm

Wt

76kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.1

3star

K

8.4

3star

HB

3.7

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.2

5star

G

1.5

5star

D

9.6

2star

K

7.9

3star

HB

1.7

1star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.7

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

9.6

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

4.2

4star

M

1.4

2star

T

3.4

5star

G

1.2

4star

from the crows who had just made the GF to the club that had just finished on the bottom of the ladder.

 

[Elixuh]

GCS should be very watchable this year. Petracca and a bit of X factor with JUH.

Old man Witts reaming the $1.7m man in the ruck. Oh dear!

 

[MSB ROYS]

GCS should be very watchable this year. Petracca and a bit of X factor with JUH.

Old man Witts reaming the $1.7m man in the ruck. Oh dear!

Saints to take the first Nepo-baby Cup though...

 

[Elixuh]

Saints to take the first Nepo-baby Cup though...

I’ve watched most of it. Suns genuinely not trying and are playing retired swallow and delisted sexton lol.

Rare that you see a team try so little with no intensity.

 

[Maboo]

Saints to take the first Nepo-baby Cup though...

A flogging, but I don't think the Suns could play any worse.

 

[dlanod]

When Brisbane's list could be in decline they go and get the captain from West Coast and the No.1 player from Essendon as free agents. And then have arguably the No.1-rated player (in the national draft) go at what was, it pick 40?"

lolololol.

Draper was the No.1 player at Essendon. Who knew? Clearly Essendon didn't otherwise they would have paid him a little bit more so he wasn't an unrestricted free agent.

Not only that, I don't recall a single (non-casual) draft pundit having Annable "No. 1".

 

[BangyBangy]

Not only that, I don't recall a single (non-casual) draft pundit having Annable "No. 1".

I know a few people with victim mentalities. Their versions of events are always heavily skewed & exaggerated from unbiased reality.

It must be very difficult to snap out of because as soon as you do, you acknowledge that it's your fault your life is a flaming dumpster fire.

There are certainly improvements that can be made to father son / academy / NGA bidding, but the carry on & distortion of facts from the saints reeks of externalization.

 

[Perrip]

Not only that, I don't recall a single (non-casual) draft pundit having Annable "No. 1".

The rewriting of Annable in the draft is bizarre. People refer to him as a top 5 pick as well, which he isn't.

 

[KissKiss]

The rewriting of Annable in the draft is bizarre. People refer to him as a top 5 pick as well, which he isn't.

They do it with the Ashcrofts and Daicos as well. Constantly refer to them as the top pick or undisputed top pick. Yet none of them were pick 1 and have had other clubs noted they werent the top of their board hence not bidding on them.

 

[SonofSuperboot]

Not only that, I don't recall a single (non-casual) draft pundit having Annable "No. 1".

I like Ross Lyon, as he was a fave of mine back in the Fitzroy days. One of those weirdly solid players like Ablett Snr that hurt opposition players. But he does go on with a lot of waffle, much of it just shit-stirring. I'm not that fussed by it all. I think Fages probably could have made his point without referring to TDK and Nasiah directly, but perhaps after all the St Kilda bellyaching about Brisbane he felt like firing one back. It also stopped people talking about Neale.
Ross pretending to not know what was Fagan said was just theatre, as was him pretending to take the moral high ground. When you coach st kilda, you have to be good at making excuses, and Ross is one of the better ones at it, with all the tricks, and distractions, attacking the questioner, etc. He'll be under a lot of pressure this year with their big spending. However I never liked st kilda as a club. they've made a lot of bad decisions over the years, one of which was to can Stan Alves, a mate of my dad's (they played footy together back in the Edi-Aspendale league), despite him taking them to their first grand final in years, and sacked him after he took them to a semi the next year. Their bed is of their own making. Never liked Riewoldt either. Argued against us winning pretty much every match of the three final series.

 

[morsie]

I had a soft spot for the Saints as they were my dads team.We went to the1966 GF.However that soft spot has now vanished with all the whingeing and the sense of entitlement shown by the club its officials and supporters.I am afraid I hope they face plant.

 

[Elixuh]

They do it with the Ashcrofts and Daicos as well. Constantly refer to them as the top pick or undisputed top pick. Yet none of them were pick 1 and have had other clubs noted they werent the top of their board hence not bidding on them.

When you have to change facts to suit your narrative, which is what the saints have been doing, you know you’re not arguing in good faith and just have a petulant little whinge. Eventually they’ll have to stand on their own two feet and take accountability for their history and current circumstances. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

Changing facts is what I do on the mainboard!

 

[ZoBlitz]

So now everyone wants to get on the hating Ross Lyon bandwagon...

 

[Nunez]

So now everyone wants to get on the hating Ross Lyon bandwagon...

Don't make me shout you down...

 

[Hanley]

So now everyone wants to get on the hating Ross Lyon bandwagon...

I think the response from Lyon has probably backfired pretty considerably - most of the comment reactions on social media seem to be now criticising Ross or the Saints and/or saying that Fagan had a point. Lyon may have failed to observe the old 'never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake'.

Not that this was the entire point, but Fagan and the Lions do seem to have managed to shift the chat away from the status of players' relationships....

 

[Viceregal]

When you have to change facts to suit your narrative, which is what the saints have been doing, you know you’re not arguing in good faith and just have a petulant little whinge. Eventually they’ll have to stand on their own two feet and take accountability for their history and current circumstances. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

Changing facts is what I do on the mainboard!

Your trolling is far more nuanced than merely being carefree with your factual presentations dear Elixuh!

 

[Tassie4ever]

GCS should be very watchable this year. Petracca and a bit of X factor with JUH.

Old man Witts reaming the $1.7m man in the ruck. Oh dear!

You must have been watching a different game. To my eye Petracca looked very underdone and slow to boot. JUH was an apparent enigma alight- a virtually non-existent enigma. Just my opinion, and very early days.

 

[Maboo]

To be fair, Fages gave them a gift whether it was a deflection from the Neal situation or not, but to fire back with nothing but rubbish, exaggerations and blatant lies is typical of the Saints under Ross and Fred. He has been called out by a couple of commentators also that I have seen, the Corn was one that called it whinging.

 

[Nunez]

You must have been watching a different game. To my eye Petracca looked very underdone and slow to boot. JUH was an apparent enigma alight- a virtually non-existent enigma. Just my opinion, and very early days.

Pre. Season. Game.

 

[Elixuh]

You must have been watching a different game. To my eye Petracca looked very underdone and slow to boot. JUH was an apparent enigma alight- a virtually non-existent enigma. Just my opinion, and very early days.

Putting to one side that I’m never wrong, I don’t think that preseason game where they were playing retired swallow and delisted sexton and none of the players were trying is a good yard stick.

Also no Rowell, Anderson etc

 

[Lal]

Lyon talks the way he played . Not much ability but always mouthing off and sniping.

St.Kilda have had decades to fix their problems and had every opportunity to do what Brisbane has done if they were astute enough and properly managed.

I get that you're defending the Lions, but he played over 100 games for my team despite being restricted by injuries throughout his career. He was hard and tough but he was not known as a sniper, in an era of snipers like Dermott and Dipper, who I watched knock our best players multiple times.

 

[martinson]

I get that you're defending the Lions, but he played over 100 games for my team despite being restricted by injuries throughout his career. He was hard and tough but he was not known as a sniper, in an era of snipers like Dermott and Dipper, who I watched knock our best players multiple times.

Absolutely he was a sniper which he admits himself.

He was a disappointing player considering the expectations when we got hold of him. Always injured , a bit slow , nothing special skill wise. But he was a smart sort of smart arse who's carved a career out of what he learnt as a player

To compare him with Derm and Dipper is just unfair imo. It's like comparing Mt.Everest to Mt. Baw Baw.