Analysis Reasons to be Cheerful (2019) - Part One.

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Saintos said:
We finish top 8 we play finals.
We finish bottom 4 we get a great draft pick.
Either way we’re winners.
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Can’t really agree with that, otherwise let’s just finish last every year and we can be true winners.
A great draft pick is really just a consolation prize for being lousy.
Personally, I’d rather be getting pick 18 or thereabouts every season.
 

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I've been noticing other supporters rating us for a similar/worse season next year and I'm struggling to recognise whether they are biased or I am. I have the expectation of finals next year but also realise that the last 2 seasons I have gone into with high hopes and ultimately been disappointed (more so obviously this season). It's just so hard to gauge where we are as a unit because I am so invested in our successes.

So I was just wondering if you guys feel this season will be any different from the rest? I would love for us to prove the footy community wrong about our lack of A-graders by having a couple inclusions in the AA team next year plus Hannebery having a really good year would be a cherry on top to prove the haters wrong.

Could this be the year in which the football club and players become sick of the failed promises of the past and start to deliver? I bloody well hope so
 
JimmyMann said:
I've been noticing other supporters rating us for a similar/worse season next year and I'm struggling to recognise whether they are biased or I am. I have the expectation of finals next year but also realise that the last 2 seasons I have gone into with high hopes and ultimately been disappointed (more so obviously this season). It's just so hard to gauge where we are as a unit because I am so invested in our successes.

So I was just wondering if you guys feel this season will be any different from the rest? I would love for us to prove the footy community wrong about our lack of A-graders by having a couple inclusions in the AA team next year plus Hannebery having a really good year would be a cherry on top to prove the haters wrong.

Could this be the year in which the football club and players become sick of the failed promises of the past and start to deliver? I bloody well hope so
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Incredibly hard to turn it all around in one off season. I think we are 2-3 seasons away from finals. Need a new CEO, new direction, new senior coach. Bit more churn in the footy dept. Then need the new coach to bed everything down.
 
StCicatriz said:
Incredibly hard to turn it all around in one off season. I think we are 2-3 seasons away from finals. Need a new CEO, new direction, new senior coach. Bit more churn in the footy dept. Then need the new coach to bed everything down.
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To get to top 4 yeah.
I think we can get to competitive mid table this year with enough drills, training, new voices with some autonomy to act.
 
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JimmyMann said:
I've been noticing other supporters rating us for a similar/worse season next year and I'm struggling to recognise whether they are biased or I am. I have the expectation of finals next year but also realise that the last 2 seasons I have gone into with high hopes and ultimately been disappointed (more so obviously this season). It's just so hard to gauge where we are as a unit because I am so invested in our successes.

So I was just wondering if you guys feel this season will be any different from the rest? I would love for us to prove the footy community wrong about our lack of A-graders by having a couple inclusions in the AA team next year plus Hannebery having a really good year would be a cherry on top to prove the haters wrong.

Could this be the year in which the football club and players become sick of the failed promises of the past and start to deliver? I bloody well hope so
Click to expand...
This is a question that most of us have posed inwardly.

If you look at our recent results, we exceeded expectations when AR first took over - but we had a few mature aged champions still acting as on-field coaches. Such was our recruiting that we did have a talent hole in the middle ages of our list. Despite this we still were exceeding our performance expectations in 2016 and 2017. 2018 was a perfect storm of leadership doldrums, poor skill execution, a seriously bad draw and inexperience. The game is played at such a breakneck speed these days that all clubs are experiencing injuries, and while we had a few, that wasn't the reason we failed in 2018.

This coming year we have a much better draw, we have brought in coaches to get the skill execution and game plan right. We did not lose a great deal of experience and we brought some in (Hannebery) and the players are a year older and wiser. We still need more games under the belts of our very best players (we're the third least experienced playing list in the comp).

I think we should perform much better this year, I see us as a strong performer in 2019, improving as the season progresses and I believe we have an outside chance of playing finals. I expect us to finish in the middle 6 of the comp, i.e. 7-12.

We will never have a level playing field while clubs (like Hawthorn, Collingwood, Richmond and Geelong) don't pay for free agents with the currency of player recruitment (draft picks or points equivalent). As such it is very difficult to predict when (if ever) a club like ours will be able to rise back into the 8 and stay there. If we can do so - we might be able to rort the system too. Gun players from other clubs are rarely enticed by money alone. They want to believe they are walking into a club where they are the last piece in the puzzle to form a premiership quality squad.

We have the skeleton of a really good team now. The players just need to develop more in strength and confidence in order to put the meat on those bones. I think we will need an undeserved exceptional player - which is what free agency provides - to put the cherry on top. We won't be able to attract that cherry until we are a strong finals performer. So I reckon we are two or three years away from that if everything goes well.
 
Sir Skid said:
To get to top 4 yeah.
I think we can get to competitive mid table thos year with enough drills, training, new voices with some autonomy to act.
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I have made an executive decision and decided to like the 2nd one
In order to highlight the problem! :D
 
BlazeOfGlory said:
I

I know it’s easier to look back on it now but if you had WC pencilled in for the wooden spoon in 2018 you might want to follow a different sport.
They still had the talent and experience on there list that clubs do/ did not have.
Norf surprised me though.
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No less of an "expert" than Robert Walls named WCE as his wooden spooner for 2018. As for norf, i think there sre many parallels between their 2017 and our 2018. Similar predictions of doom followed them, as are following us. The so called experts don't often get it right.
 
Drake Huggins said:
No less of an "expert" than Robert Walls named WCE as his wooden spooner for 2018. As for norf, i think there sre many parallels between their 2017 and our 2018. Similar predictions of doom followed them, as are following us. The so called experts don't often get it right.
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North could go either way. They bought in a few good players but there is something about them that reminds me of us. They have a couple of very good to excellent players but lack some superstar talent. Often bringing in too many new players takes time for them to settle.

WCE and Collingwood don't even look like they are definite top 4 sides. Both will be lumped with harder draws and teams won't be taking them lightly. I think GC are the only really obviously poor side considering who they lost and I don't think they will be completely uncompetitive. I would say Richmond look the best side in the comp but far from a foregone winner then the sides are so close from 2 to 17th they could fall in any order. Adelaide were the best side for 4 years and went from top 4 to 12th, they should bounce, Melbourne has momentum etc but then there are cases to be made for nearly every side.

Every year the comp seems to get more competitive. The difference between the teams that finished top 4 and bottom 4 wasn't that massive this year. The Hawks didn't seem to be an 11 game better team than us. Collingwood too for that mater.
 

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austinnn said:
I thought 2018 would answer a lot of questions we had and I think it did. We now have a new range of questions, and this year is make or break. For that reason it's going to be fascinating, with many careers on the line; Finnis, Richo, Paddy, JB, Geary, Bruce and Acres for starters. I hope all concerned can use the next 9 months to resurrect their sporting careers and push themselves their comrades and their club not just back on track but further towards the holy grail.
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A great post there austinnn…...a fantastic summary and I pretty well agree with everything you said.

Here's hoping !!!!!!
 
BlazeOfGlory said:
I know it’s easier to look back on it now but if you had WC pencilled in for the wooden spoon in 2018 you might want to follow a different sport.
They still had the talent and experience on there list that clubs do/ did not have.
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A stat I saw after the GF was that WC had won more games over the last 3 seasons than any other club.
 
sunny3193 said:
Currently in NZ where it is grey, wet and 19’.
Reason to be cheerful: the champagne is exceptional.:)
Surely this is an omen for the Saints.
#bubbles19premiers
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Didn't realise they have fruit fly inspectors on NZ.

Anyway, I've swallowed all the club spin and hype because I'm too stupid to think for myself and I'm confident of a top 16 finish.
 
VDS66 said:
Didn't realise they have fruit fly inspectors on NZ.

Anyway, I've swallowed all the club spin and hype because I'm too stupid to think for myself and I'm confident of a top 16 finish.
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The fruit fly inspectors are at Biosecurity at Auckland airport.
Big guys with no sense of humour.
Same breed as the turkeys at LAX.
No franchise opportunities for me here!

Top 16 finish?
You josh.
The place is a hotbed of incompetence.
Look at that video of draft night.
Finnis is balding yet still using gel?
If that is not a measure that we need a new CEO, then what is it?
Gubby Allan speaks, is even subtitled, yet at no stage does his lips move.
Nor does he.
Yet he is the recruiting/trade guru?
For what?
Statues?
Does he even breathe?
Farce.
Satan spends his entire time looking at the tv or skimming some bound booklet. Does he have a voice box that works?
Leadership skills of a four year old.
Cho does a great impersonation of Marcel Marceau.
But speaks.
Like what?
As for the Banker: he can’t count to twenty cause he can’t count to nineteen.

We’ll finish 19th.
 
Jade Buddha said:
U

Used to come away with no voice
Many happy memories
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My fondest memories of football all happened in that space between the races. So many characters. The agony. The sit down protest. The ecstacy. Plugger's hundreth and win against Footscray in 1987. Nothing has ever come close to it. Only a premiership will supersede it in my memories. I had a group of mates who weren't saints' supporters who would always be there. They came to watch Plugger, but stayed for the banter and ambience.
 
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