In Order To Win Premiership

[Muzz_Buzz]

In order for the Saints to win a premiership Aaron Hamill needs to be the captain. As a Saints supporter I am annoyed about the constant changing of the Captain. I believe Aaron Hamill is the key to the Saints winning a Premiership. Along with the leadership group of Ball, Hayes, Baker, Riewoldt, Harvey, Koschitzke and more.

Also another thing is we need a bit of luck with injuries. With two key men up forward and two men down back not in the side or first week back in a Prelim Final, we were weak and undermanned.

Justin Koschitzke is a key man on the field, not only is he influencial in the middle but he is a main target when he moves up forward. As you all would have noticed Koschitzke was B.O.G the 3 games he played after coming back from injury. When he went down in the Fremantle game which I attended, the Saints clearly struggled in the second half for forward options. We also missed him during the finals series, also missed key players down back and when it came to running out a game aswell as accounting for all of Sydney's forward options, we were unable to account for them all.

So in order for the Saints to win a Premiership we need Hamill as captain with a solid leadership group and a bit of luck with injury throughout the season, (the whole season)

Carn The Sainters! 2006 Premiers! COME ON.....

Please give your thoughts on what we need to win a premiership.!

 

[RHAS]

Actually Muzz when I do my tipping for the Saints game I look to see if Hamill is playing. You are just that much harder to beat when he is in the side. So I would agree that he would make the best captain.

 

[WeneedyoungJarmans]

As a non-supporter, I love watching StKilda play. Your forward line is superb. When Hamill, Riewolt, Gehric, Kozi and Milne are all firing, you look unstoppable.

In my view, the biggest issue is the way in which StKilda looks to score. I recall the Essendon game where for 4 quarters, I watched the same long bomb into the forward line strategy only to see the footy quickly rebound with numbers and runners waiting, for a goal to the Bombers.

Your onballers need to kick goals. Rather than alway looking to kick to a contest or leading forward, they need to take the iniative more often to take them on at half forward and have a crack themselves. Break it up so that defences are forced to push up and try and tackle. At the moment, they know you are looking for a key forward to pass to so they zone off and play loose men in defence.

Everyone criticises your backline but Hudgton, Maguire and Voss doesn't sound too bad to me. 3 big strong bodies to fill the task.

Sorry but Grant Thomas's inability to change the game plan when things aren't going your way is a real concern. The Essendon game demonstrated this. When your team is flying, they look unstoppable but when they're getting beated, their resilience and adaptability looks a problem.

I still think it comes back to the game plan. Mix up the ways to score and a premiership this yr should be like Federer playing Hewitt. Piece of cake.

 

[m.diddy]

In order for the Saints to win a premiership Aaron Hamill needs to be the captain. As a Saints supporter I am annoyed about the constant changing of the Captain. I believe Aaron Hamill is the key to the Saints winning a Premiership. Along with the leadership group of Ball, Hayes, Baker, Riewoldt, Harvey, Koschitzke and more.

Also another thing is we need a bit of luck with injuries. With two key men up forward and two men down back not in the side or first week back in a Prelim Final, we were weak and undermanned.

Justin Koschitzke is a key man on the field, not only is he influencial in the middle but he is a main target when he moves up forward. As you all would have noticed Koschitzke was B.O.G the 3 games he played after coming back from injury. When he went down in the Fremantle game which I attended, the Saints clearly struggled in the second half for forward options. We also missed him during the finals series, also missed key players down back and when it came to running out a game aswell as accounting for all of Sydney's forward options, we were unable to account for them all.

So in order for the Saints to win a Premiership we need Hamill as captain with a solid leadership group and a bit of luck with injury throughout the season, (the whole season)

Carn The Sainters! 2006 Premiers! COME ON.....

Please give your thoughts on what we need to win a premiership.!

Yes it would be good to have HAmill as capt, however the last two seasons he has been unable to even take the ground during the final series and his body is starting to fail him due to his aggressive playing style.

IMO for us to win a Premiership we need the 2nd-3rd tier players that have talent to boot step up and live to their potential and string some games together without injury. These players include X.Clarke, l.Fisher, Brooks, Ferguson, Goddard, Montagna, R.Clarke etc

The main emphasis on Goddard and X.Clarke. Throughout last year they had some absolute blinder games but went missing in a few here and there, I predict that these two this year will step up and demand spots in that midfield. That's exactly what we need from those players I listed, once they start putting pressure on the selectors to be picked it also puts pressure on the players to perform making them go up another notch as well.

 

[m.diddy]

Your onballers need to kick goals. Rather than alway looking to kick to a contest or leading forward, they need to take the iniative more often to take them on at half forward and have a crack themselves. Break it up so that defences are forced to push up and try and tackle. At the moment, they know you are looking for a key forward to pass to so they zone off and play loose men in defence.

Everyone criticises your backline but Hudgton, Maguire and Voss doesn't sound too bad to me. 3 big strong bodies to fill the task.

With the onballers scoring goals issue; We addressed this about half through the year when we had a little slump, from there Dal Santo, Ball, Hayes and most of all harvs started kicking more goals.

Also in 2004 our weakness was our backline, however last year imo it was our major strength. Considering our forward line of Riewoldt, Hamill, G-Train and Kosi were all injured or under done most of the year it was our backline that won most of our games for us.

Also you are very right in some of your other observations.

 

[sainter]

We were decimated with injuries around the time of the Essendon game from memory. At times we only had Cain Ackland up forward and even he stood up to take a few marks and kick some goals late in the game. When you go from having players like Gehrig, Riewoldt, Kosi and Hamill up there and then lose the majority of them it's always going to have an adverse affect on your team, whether it's Grant Thomas, Mick Malthouse or an under 14 coach in charge. The issue was definitely addressed because the following week Dal Santo kicked 4 goals in the opening quarter on the way to an 80+ win over the Dees. That Essendon game actually kick-started our season. The only losses we suffered after that fateful night was by a point against Freo and the preliminary final. We'd definitely like to see a few more goals coming from the midfield to give us a bit more variety although when you are getting 200 goals out of two of your talls and a small forward pocket it's not as easy as it is for other teams.

Our backline is fine but we don't have a lot of depth there. We're due to have a bit of luck injury-wise. We've recruited another young key defender but he'll take a while to develop and realistically we can't expect him to step into Luke Penny's shoes for a few years. Voss isn't really a big, strong body though. He's more of a back pocket/half back flanker and he's major strength is the way he knows when to leave his man to affect a spoil. Well that and being one of the most courageous players in the league. Aussie will be a big loss but hopefully a fit Leigh Fisher will go some way towards filling that void. I'm comfortable with our backline but if we were to lose Max or Goose for a long period of time I'd be a little worried.

Good post WeneedyoungJarmans and best of luck to the Hawks. Unlike a few other clubs your team has at least chosen the right way to rebuild their list.