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David Armitage

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Time to rise Blues! said:
Obviously not very good by the responses u have had. Will Fiora back up his good form of last season?
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Armitage is a significant investment as a No 9 pick, and whilst many see him playing 200 games I'd like to see a lot more before making a call. He's not overly quick or tall, so needs to show he's a ball magnet and also can fit into a team with Lenny, Bally, Birss and Harvs who are not quick.

Fiora had a good 2007, but could have kicked better for goal. Given his significant improvement last year I would not expect him to go backwards in 2008 (assuming he stays fit).
 

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Time to rise Blues! said:
I didn't have a go at Armitage at all. I was referring to the amount of responses this post received at the time. And yes we have Hackland, but im not here for an argument. I asked a question about Fiora. Is he injured atm?
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I would not use the amount of posts replied in this thread as a true guide. The St.kilda forum is quiet currently, something which will hopefully be rectified when the season is up and running.

I agree with Squizzy. A little too early to call on Armitage. for 2008, he would be hoping to break into the senior side and hopefully clock up 10-12 games. 2009 will be the year where the St.kilda powers would like to see Armitage really step up and be a regular senior player. Still very young and needs time to develop.

I have not heard anything saying Fiora is injured. Although i do not know for sure, i would predict he is going along normal during pre-season. His one big advantage seems he is NOT injury prone, so hopefully this pre season is no different.
 
I didn't answer because I didn't know. I can't even recall that many posts about him on Saintsational. Sam Gilbert seems to be the man of the moment and rightfully so because he plays the game in such an exciting manner and as a late convert to aussie rules he'll only get better. That's a good thing for Armitage. As our #1 draft pick there was a bit of pressure on him this time last year. According to some experts at the time he was an inside midfielder that was expected to be ready made for senior footy which was probably a bit unfair on the kid.

He's now had a year in the system to develop and to work on his fitness and I'm looking forward to seeing him in action.

You'd probably have got a better response after the intra-club game on friday week and in the NAB Cup the week after that.
 
Rough_Edges said:
Attitude seems to have improved.

Training well.

Hope this helps :)
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I too am very interested to see how this kid is going. Does anyone know why there have been no recent training reports on West of Moorabbin lately? No open training sessions I'm guessing.

I agree though there was too much pressure placed on this bloke. He'll find his feet eventually tho. Was super impressive in Cairns in the NAB Cup playing on Simon Black and Luke Power (even tho they proved the difference he still found plenty of the ball and used it well). He was very Luke Ball'esque in the way he moved.
 
Have only been having 30 or so minutes open to the public and the rest elsewhere, as far as i know.

Not long until we see them in action now...

Hopefully then, we see how Armitage is going.
 
Rough_Edges said:
Have only been having 30 or so minutes open to the public and the rest elsewhere, as far as i know.

Not long until we see them in action now...

Hopefully then, we see how Armitage is going.
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Good point Rough Edges

The absence of training reports has been brought by the clubs decision to hold so many closed training sessions. I know a few supporters have been put out by not being able to watch us train but if they think it's helping the team then it's fine by me.

Gerard Healy asked Ross Lyon about Armitage on 3AW and he mentioned that the high expectations on all first round draft picks are unfair and used the example of players like Buchanan and Ablett taking into their third and fourth seasons before becoming regular players. In any case he's said that he's been working hard on his fitness and mentioned that he had got his skin folds down to about 40.

That's as helpful as we can be.
 

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Not looking too good atm, but this time last year I don't think anyone would have expected Gilbert to have even gotten a game in 07...

As for Fiora, same as always, only difference is this year is that he probably wont be getting a game because of it...
 
Gilbo19 said:
Not looking too good atm, but this time last year I don't think anyone would have expected Gilbert to have even gotten a game in 07...

As for Fiora, same as always, only difference is this year is that he probably wont be getting a game because of it...
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Why is it not looking good?

From all reports he's had a good pre-season.

What's the point about Fiora? Was v. good last year i thought...once he gets his goal kicking on the run right, will be one of our most important players IMO.
 
As for Fiora, same as always, only difference is this year is that he probably wont be getting a game because of it...[/quote]

Because he came from Richmond? What r u saying? He went through hell at Richmond and got a second chance at the Saints, and has now grabbed it by the balls and has shown why he was in high regard in that draft of 1999. Its about time people backed him instead of bagging him. Go Fizz, show em what you got!:thumbsu:
 

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Harvs has given Armitage a rap in the Herald Sun, and believes he will make it this year. Also good to hear his comments about Luke Ball (although he has been fit as a fiddle in pre-season before!!!)
 
Possibly Geary has overtaken Armitage in the pecking order, based on comments from Matthew Drain :

"He (Geary) ... should make his senior debut early in the season"

This is great news, as midfield depth has always been an issue for the club with Ball having to play when not right. With Schneider to pinch hit, a fit Ball and Hayes, potentially Gram being released into the midfield by Dempster, and now Geary pushing up (and not forgetting Montagna and Dal) we can feel more confident of the post Harvey era.
 
Armitage will be a very good AFL footballer in my mind, their is no doubt about it.

Just seems to be struggling to find the ball atm.

A good football mind and tackles well.

10 disposals, 6 tackles and a goal for him last night.

Hopefully keeps his spot for next week.
 
According to Montagna (in his 3/4 time interview), all that was asked of the kids was to not concentrate on accumulating a whole lot of possessions, but they were asked to contribute by tackling and chasing.

By these standards Armitage had a blinder.

He was very impressive with his fierce attack on the ball and especially on the man with the ball. He missed a few tackles, but those players he missed knew that they only escaped by the skin of their teeth. His in and under work needs polish but he shows a lot of courage and he was frequently able to free the ball to our advantage.

A gutsy display and his touch and confidence under pressure will improve in leaps and bounds this year.
 
I still believe we don't have enough leg-speed, but Geary showed why he'll be great value this year (he's got plenty of toe). Armo made the required contribution, but when Hayes and Ball return (with Dal, Harvs, Monty, Fiora, Schneider) I don't see his role just at the minute.
 

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