The Age - Richard Hinds - sticks the boot into the Saints

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Swans show time waits for no team
Richard Hinds | August 10, 2007

WHERE form in home-and-away games fluctuates, finals often produce results that define where teams sit in the grand scheme. The 2004 second semi-final between St Kilda and Sydney at the MCG seemed like one of those.

The Saints had beaten the Swans by 51 points, the class of dual Brownlow medallist Robert Harvey and the power of forward Fraser Gehrig, who kicked six goals, just two of the things separating a team seemingly bound for glory and one apparently in need of extreme makeover.

After the game, Swans coach Paul Roos would lament the fact economic considerations did not allow the club to spend time at the bottom warehousing top draft picks as the Saints had done.

Since then? St Kilda's injury toll has been more what you would expect from a train derailment than a few football seasons, while the Swans are still using the same packet of Band-Aids.

St Kilda passed judgment on coach Grant Thomas by sacking him last year, while the now widely respected - and coveted - Roos can write his own contract.

St Kilda have found not all early round draft picks are surefire champions, while the Swans have turned cast-offs into matchwinners. St Kilda's players were happy to be led by Thomas, while the Swans seized control of their destiny.

As a consequence, Sydney won a flag and St Kilda have watched the trophy inch ever further from their grasp since losing the 2004 preliminary final to eventual premiers Port Adelaide by six points. So, rather than the semi-final, the result that defined the clubs' fortunes would be the 2005 preliminary in which the Swans overran the badly wounded Saints en route to the flag.

That is the only match in the past five between the clubs that the Swans have won, a fact that underlines the lesson to be learnt from the clubs' contrasting fortunes: climb through the premiership window quickly or end up with broken fingers.

Which brings us to tomorrow night's Telstra Stadium showdown between two teams struggling to scramble through a gap likely to get narrower in the next few years.

The Swans have acknowledged that in continuing to top-up with experienced players - this year Peter Everitt - they are taking a risk, hoping to keep contending in the final years of stars Brett Kirk, Barry Hall and Leo Barry while backing their recruiting staff and development coaches to find and polish more diamonds in the rough.

Stumble in the next few weeks and the Swans will have wasted a year. But having won a grand final and come close in another, history will still judge this Swans era kindly.

Meanwhile, St Kilda are at risk of wasting one of the few opportunities in their mostly tragic history to achieve significant success. Fail to win a premiership, and no one will remember this Saints team was just the second in the club's history to play finals in three straight seasons, or their cruel injury toll. Facing elimination from the finals race tomorrow night, the signs are ominous.

At 35, Harvey is performing well enough to play on but his body can let him down. Gehrig is a well-worn 31, and the frequency of the quiet games, such as last week's kickless outing, is growing.

Of the young generation of stars, Justin Koschitzke is finally fit but performing better as a pinch-hitting ruckman than the power forward he might have been. Luke Ball is tough and relentless but you can't help remember the Saints could have taken Chris Judd with the same draft pick.

Nick Riewoldt is in a class of his own: brave, athletic, inspirational. But too often this year he has looked like a stand-out performer in a mediocre team instead of the star of a good one.

Playing with a harder edge and greater organisation under former Swans assistant Ross Lyon, St Kilda are looking forward. But three years after that seemingly definitive semi win, it appears time is passing them by.
 

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Fryman

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#2
Seems very harsh on us, and a bit of a love letter to the swannies. As he points out in his article the two teams have had very different runs with injury since 2004. If Paul Roos lamented Sydney's inability to warehouse draft picks, I'm sure Grant Thomas lamented Sydney's ability to go through a year without injuries.

"St Kilda have found not all early round draft picks are surefire champions, while the Swans have turned cast-offs into matchwinners. St Kilda's players were happy to be led by Thomas, while the Swans seized control of their destiny." This is just a lie. Grant's main philosophy as coach was empowering the players. He set the standard for the 15 other teams in this regard.

Sounds like Hinds was struggling to make his deadline and put out this puff piece to keep the editors happy.
 

JeffDunne

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#3
I wouldn't wipe my arse with that article.

Typical crap that's served up for the Syndey market. Not a mention of their cap concessions and how "economic considerations" have allowed them to sign numerous Saints over the years on the back of it. I'm surprised he even knew some of our players names, but I guess Sydney always have a short-list of names they'd like to target with their AFL endorsed (and funded) extension of the salary cap.
 

The Punter

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#5
Hinds perpetuating some of the great myths surrounding both clubs.

Sydney have J Bolton, McVeigh & Fosdike drafted early, as well as blue-chippers like Everitt & Hall who they paid top dollar for by trading away draft picks. And of course their much famed run with injuries.

And of course St Kilda with all their first rounders. Maguire, Montagna, S Fisher, L Fisher, Baker, Gilbert, Blake, Rix, Attard, C Jones & Milne. Maguire, Baker, Montagna & Gilbert were all in our best half-dozen on Saturday.

It feeds into a narrative Andrew Demetriou is screaming at the moment - draft picks aren't the panacea for all things wrong at the football club.

I'm still convinced that regardless of what happens between now and the end of the season, we will be uber-dangerous in 2008.
 
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