Flying under the radar

[Fehring]

I was having a look around the web this morning and noticed these headlines for our recent practice matches:

v Richmond
Polak Makes Successful Return for Tigers - Age
He's Back - Tiger Beats the Odds - H Sun
v Bulldogs
Heat, errors take their toll on Dogs - Age
Lamentable Bulldogs Lose Scrap - H Sun

Were we even playing? Not according to the press, it seems - the articles barely mention us.

It's very refreshing, but clearly the footy world has gone stone cold on us and reckons that we're going to go backwards this year. Our premiership window is apparently firmly shut even though we only have two or three players in their 30s on the list. We've got no improvement in us even though we have almost a full list at the beginning of the season for the first time in memory.

And Goddard is $251 to win Charlie.

I'm loving it.

 

[AFLOnline]

Wow, for once we're not hyped to be the premiership contenders after just playing in the NAB? Disastrous. I like flying under the radar to be honest, keeps expectations lie by other supporters, and we know exactly where we are ^_^

Btw, Goddard may be $251 on some betting sites, but on others his at as low as $86. After round 1, he may even drop as low as $50.

 

[Plugger35]

It guess it's one of the benefits of dropping out of the NAB Cup early, everyone tends to forget about you as you're just playing practice matches out in the boondocks rather than the high profile NAB Cup games.

This time last year everyone was talking us up just because we made the NAB Cup Grand Final and then won it. Ironically we are probably better placed now than we were last year. Most of our senior players appear to be fit and in good form whilst some of our new recruits and younger players have shown some encouraging signs. Also our long term or chronically injured players have all recovered now such as Baker, Maguire and Ball and I'm assuming Riewoldt will be fit for Round 1.

I know you can't read too much into practice matches but we have also had a couple of good wins now over the Bulldogs and Richmond who should both be finals contenders. With a reasonably favourable draw it all hopefully points to us getting off to a flyer and the fact that people are talking us down or forgetting about us can only help our chances too.

 

[oneandone]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25168810-19742,00.html

so much for under the radar, they're trying to talk us up again

 

[StFly]

GTFO Hun, talk about Buddy, or Fev or Twigley, I hear one of them may have saved a puppy!

 

[Rough_Edges]

haha, we can take pretty much nothing out of our practice matches.

Played pretty badly against the dogs.

And we very inefficient against the Tigers, 61 inside fifties we had for not many goals, against what was their actual second team.

 

[roosaints]

It's a nice change from being talked up every season and then cained for being disappointments even though we finish top 4.

 

[TassieSaint]

Don't forget the first round of the nab cup
HUN/Age: Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Lions early lead Voss Voss Voss saints late comeback Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss Goddard Voss McGrath reported Voss Voss Voss Voss Voss.

But I suppose no one cares enough about the result of the nab cup for them to bother with proper match reports, it's all about the big stories Cousins, Voss etc.

It's a nice change from being talked up every season and then cained for being disappointments even though we finish top 4.

Definitely, the less said about our chances the less opposition supporters can attempt to misconstrue it as overconfidence from our fans after every loss.

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

Being an opposition supporter I feel the change in attitude towards the Saints. Everyone's patience has worn out and they are ready to accept that if the Saints haven't delivered by now then they probably won't. I personally don't see a whole lot of improvement coming from the Saints and can see a steady decline from this year onwards unless they trade away some names to shake the place up a bit.

 

[oneandone]

Being an opposition supporter I feel the change in attitude towards the Saints. Everyone's patience has worn out and they are ready to accept that if the Saints haven't delivered by now then they probably won't. I personally don't see a whole lot of improvement coming from the Saints and can see a steady decline from this year onwards unless they trade away some names to shake the place up a bit.

This is the first time since 2004 we have been relatively injury free since 2004. The talent is there they just need to believe and work. You keep thinking like that we prefer to be underdogs

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Being an opposition supporter I feel the change in attitude towards the Saints. Everyone's patience has worn out and they are ready to accept that if the Saints haven't delivered by now then they probably won't. I personally don't see a whole lot of improvement coming from the Saints and can see a steady decline from this year onwards unless they trade away some names to shake the place up a bit.

Yes you are correct, we should trade away the Names. We would go much better without Nick Riewoldt and Stephen Milne and Lenny Hayes. That would make us play much better and fix any problems. Tosser
Our problems lie with players we don't have rather than the ones we do have.

 

[Fehring]

Being an opposition supporter I feel the change in attitude towards the Saints. Everyone's patience has worn out and they are ready to accept that if the Saints haven't delivered by now then they probably won't. I personally don't see a whole lot of improvement coming from the Saints and can see a steady decline from this year onwards unless they trade away some names to shake the place up a bit.

Funny. We feel the same way about you. But I'm sure that Adelaide reject of yours will kick 100 goals this year and you'll storm to the flag.

 

[sainter]

It's a great position to be in. The less hype the better. God knows how long it's been since we've gone into a season without any expectation from the media and the football world.

BTW, does it really matter what the RedWhite&Blues of the world think anyway?

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Let no one rate us brothers. Suits me fine. Ray Charles knows the previous two seasons we have come home like steam trains and I reckon collectively we are the fittest we have ever been at this stage of the year. All teams need some luck. Let's just focus on knocking off the Swannies and away we go.