Discussion Simon Lethlean vs Ameet Bains

[CursingFijian]

Simon Lethlean has been pushed into the spotlight in the second half of the season and his exposure to St Kilda fans has ramped up another notch now that we are into post season. Lethlean joined the Saints after a self described "distressing and remorseful time". As soon as his appointment to the Saints was confirmed he declared "I'm going to work hard and look forward to being judged on performance".

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-01-22/judge-me-on-my-performance-says-lethlean

I'm genuinely interested in how Saints fans are feeling about him now that we have had the chance to observe some of his early moves in terms of managing the football strategy. I think many of us saw him as Ameet's replacement, although their roles within the Saints are not identical.

On the record I am liking what I see and hear. He comes across as bold and decisive and seems to be having an enormous impact on the organisation. Do you share the same sentiment?

 

[Moorabbin Ghost]

Just for clarity, Lethlean and Bains are two totally different people, performing totally different roles, with different objectives under conditions that are polar opposites.
I love what Ameet did for our club, without him I don’t know how we would have gotten out of the mess which was our salary cap in 2011.
Unfortunately Ameet’s legacy on our footy department is going to be diminished by the results of poor coaching and even worse player development.
In regards to Lethlean, I first want to say how sick I am of some supporters still taking the moral high ground in regards to their opinion of him. He had a consensual sexual relationship with somebody that wasn’t his wife. None of our business at all and it has absolutely zero affect on his capacity to perform his role at St Kilda.
I will say that I believe his arrival at St Kilda is perfect timing. He is aggressive in his persuit of players and he is considered a good guy amongst managers and other clubs list management teams. The proof will be in probably 3 years though, are we back playing finals, was the Hannebery deal great or a $3.5M flop? Is our TPP in good shape? Have we been able to attract elite talent? Is our coaching and player development not still league worst?
I’m happy to trust him to perform his role and reserve my judgment for another couple of years.

 

[StCicatriz]

my opinion is that the issue with ameet was that whilst he was exceptional in a lot of areas, he was spread way too thin and didn't have the football background necessary to be football boss. great for our TPP. great for the list strategy to an extent. great for managing people etc. but he was not the guy you want driving a football dept.

purely my outside uninformed opinion. would be interesting to see what those inside the football dept say.

on lethers my opinion is that he lacks the ability to sell the club to stakeholders to be a CEO, i don't think he has the background to be a footy boss either. he's more the middle guy i reckon. i'd like to see him be the guy that builds up the footy dept though by appointing a new footy boss and working with them to drive the club moving forward. i mean lets be honest he's showing the cut and thrust that finnis should have been implementing on day 1.

people stating finnis is off to the AFL is a bit off the mark. i reckon he'd be better in politics.

again all uninformed.

 

[Keg on legs]

Lethers is the kinda crazy eyed chick you just wanna shag coz you're gonna be taught a thing or 2

Ameet is that sweetheart you marry and live happily ever after with

 

[Masquerade]

Imagine we still had Ameet, working alongside Lethlean.

We wouldn't need players, we'd win premierships by default.

 

[Persevering Saint]

You know what Bains used to call trade period?

... Ameet market.

 

[Keg on legs]

You know what Bains used to call trade period?

... Ameet market.

 

[Doug Hogan 23]

Ameet ****ed our list and rebuild, Jars is here to fix it. Couldn’t care less about anything else.

 

[hayes]

Ameet ****** our list and rebuild, Jars is here to fix it. Couldn’t care less about anything else.

Didn’t trout pick the players.

 

[Mikka84]

Lethers is the kinda crazy eyed chick you just wanna shag coz you're gonna be taught a thing or 2

Ameet is that sweetheart you marry and live happily ever after with

I married the first one to rebel against my parents.

I'm writing this from my hospital bed and fear my words my never be heard.

 

[Nutsngum]

Didn’t trout pick the players.

Trout didnt "**** our list" either. It was our drafting prior to 2011 which has put us into this hole.

 

[hayes]

Trout didnt "**** our list" either. It was our drafting prior to 2011 which has put us into this hole.

I agree that played a part but it’s a bit of both IMO. No doubt that the poor drafting before 2011 meant we almost had to draft safe.

 

[sunny3193]

If Lethlean gets:

Lade, Ratten and Mitchell in on our coaching panel,
Hannebery and Shiel as trades,
Plus Pick #3 at this year’s draft,

He wins.

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

You know what Bains used to call trade period?

... Ameet market.

hahaha, did you come up with that pers?

brilliant

 

[Persevering Saint]

hahaha, did you come up with that pers?

brilliant

All by myself.

 

[Winmar2Lockett]

Ameet ****** our list and rebuild, Jars is here to fix it. Couldn’t care less about anything else.

Which trades in particular did Ameetos stuff up?


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[SaintsSeptember]

Trout didnt "**** our list" either. It was our drafting prior to 2011 which has put us into this hole.

Our talent spotting hasn't been great.
The top ten is pretty obvious, and no, i don't blame anyone for Paddy ( who everyone rated ) or Billings ( similar).
Its our later picks have been very ordinary.

Somewhere i flippantly suggested that if we threw darts at Knightmare's top 50 for all our picks taken after round one we would do better.
Then, because this time of year is boring, i thought why not try it.
Now it would be better if i weighted the picks, so that the darts didn't land on a player that no-one would do anything with except rookie, but i didn't.
So i set up a spreadsheet with knightmare's top 50 each year , and a random number generator. If the "pick" was taken, i rolled again.

2010: We took . 43 Crocker. 59 Ledger. 75 Sippos 90 Gamble. 100 Polo.
Random attempt 1. 43 Alex Fasolo. 59 Tom young. 75 Ben Brown. 90 Nathan Phillips 100 Myles Sewell.
Random attempt 2. 43 Angus Litherland 59 Myles Sewell 75 Ed Curnow 90 Andrew Phillips 103 Sam Crocker

2011: We took 35 Markworth 37 Newnes 39 Webster 60 Lever
Random attempt 1. 35 Webster 37 Markworth. 39 Haiden Schlothe 60 Sam Frost ( would have got Ben Brown at 39 if we hadn't picked him 2010).
Random attempt 2. 35 Alex Forster 37 Cameron Valentine, 39 Julian Dobosz 60 Zyrus Manson

2012: We took 24 Wright 25 Spencer White 40 Murdoch 43 Saunders 90 Pierce
Random attempt 1 24 Spencer White. 25 Mason Shaw. 40 Tim Membrey 43 Nathan Stark 90 Cameron Banfield.
Random attempt 2 24 Cameron Banfield 25 Mason Wood 40 Zac Williams 90 Tipungwuti

2013: 18 Dunstan 19 Acres
Random Attempt 1 18 Louis Herbert 19 Mitchell Harvey
Random Attempt 2. 18 Nicholas Robertson 19 Lewis Taylor

2014: 21 Goddard , 22 McKenzie, 41 Lonie.
Random Attempt 1. 21 Hugh Beasley 22 Connor Menadue. 41. Clem Smith
Random Attempt 2. 21 Toby McLean , 22 Peter Bampton, 41 Reece McKenzie

So still playing AFL.
Saints: 7. Newnes, Webster, Pierce, Dunstan, Acres, McKenzie , Lonie.
Att1 : 6. Alex Fasolo, Ben Brown, Webster, Sam Frost, Tim Membrey, Connor Menadue.
Att2 : 6. Ed Curnow , Andrew Phillips , Mason Wood, Tipungwuti , Taylor, McLean.

So a team of highly paid experts picked one extra player than a dumb random picker. But doesn't necessarily pick a better group of players.
Personally i think if i had to choose a group of players i'd take the Randoms 1, followed by Randoms 2, before the Saints group.

 

[Macgruber]

Which trades in particular did Ameetos stuff up?


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FREEMAN!!!

Pick 30 for a bloke that was only an outside chance of making a career of it.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

FREEMAN!!!

Pick 30 for a bloke that was only an outside chance of making a career of it.

It was 33.
I bet Port are pissed that they listened to Knightmare and picked Drew.
( Who has so far played less than Freeman ).
What are Drew's chances of making a career of it?
How about Joe Atley?
Declan Watson?
Josh Williams.

Damn they all picked blokes who were only an outside chance of making it.

 

[Macgruber]

It was 33.
I bet Port are pissed that they listened to Knightmare and picked Drew.
( Who has so far played less than Freeman ).
What are Drew's chances of making a career of it?
How about Joe Atley?
Declan Watson?
Josh Williams.

Damn they all picked blokes who were only an outside chance of making it.

Did they sign drew on a $300k a year contract for 3 years ???

Hard to compare really.

 

[gringo2011]

It was 33.
I bet Port are pissed that they listened to Knightmare and picked Drew.
( Who has so far played less than Freeman ).
What are Drew's chances of making a career of it?
How about Joe Atley?
Declan Watson?
Josh Williams.

Damn they all picked blokes who were only an outside chance of making it.

Drew is an injury bust but a good player.

 

[Drake Huggins]

Trout didnt "**** our list" either. It was our drafting prior to 2011 which has put us into this hole.

And the earth is flat.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Did they sign drew on a $300k a year contract for 3 years ???

Hard to compare really.

Makes no difference if we didn't spend it on Freeman, we'd have had to pay Armo, Brown and Gilbert extra.
Really you are bitter over a non-issue.
You can count on one hand how many good kids we've taken at pick 30 or later in the draft in the last decade.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Drew is an injury bust but a good player.

So was Freeman.

 

[plugger66]

Until Leathers does something neither has been good for the club apart from getting the SC right. Not that hard when you have no good players.