Analysis The Road To 2018...where do we stand??

[saint66au]

Just wondering others thoughts on this. The masterplan as outlined in 2013 (admittedly by Chris Pelchen who is no longer with us) has us contending by 2018. You take this as meaning pushing for Top 4

I doubt many would think we are at that stage now. Why? Personally I think its a combination of a few of our draftees from that era who have not gone on to be out and out guns (yet). Our young players are a slow burn, or in the case of Paddy, Billings and Freezer had injury issues. . Also, pretty sure that timeline had us with a FA gun mid..or two..by now. For whatever reason it hasn't happened so we are reliant on creating them from within. See above, that hasnt happened.

Where are we? I reckon we are a year, or two, behind. If we can push into the eight this year, then operhaps we are only a year behind schedule. Stagnate this year, and its two years behind ..at least.

 

[nitewalker13]

I think we are still couple of years away from premiership window.

We need to acquire couple of A grade players.

 

[gringo2011]

Now I'm thinking that Pelican might have been a monorail salesman. We slashed our list and got rid of stars to bring in a huge amount on new players and in the process deliberately bottomed out.

Unfortunately his timing wasn't what it had been when the Hawks and Saints did it when the priority picks and uncompromised drafts were available.

Bottoming out when GWS and GC were taking huge amounts of young players was not a great move in hindsight. Sipposs, Lee, White, Saad, Milera, Markworth, Murdoch, Saunders, Dunnell etc all came in and were moved on, we bought in guys like Wilkes, Delaney etc to bolster the list and paid quite a bit for Hickey. We blew the Goddard compensation completely.

We have improved recently and really only have one draft that I'd say looks like a real haul of talent and that was 2013 with Billings, Acres and Dunstan which we got the last two because we traded away Mc Evoy. The year after was so far a shocker with Paddy, Goddard and Lonie. All still have time but injury looks like it could kill that draft.

2015 we managed to get Gresham in a draft that was actually pretty weak with only Fiorini and Ryan Burton that are better so far. 2016 is looking like a bit of a miss more than a hit with Long our first pick who is looking shaky and Phillips who is a running machine but not sure what he's like yet. Battle might be the one redeeming pick up.

Last year so far looks promising but we have pretty limited evidence to start calling it yet.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Ask me again in 12 weeks.

Don't expect we'll be in premiership contention this year, but I've seen enough excellent signs from an individual POV this preseason to be confident that if the coaching group are able to put it all together enough, and we get a decent injury run, we'll improve again this year and that will probably mean we'll make the 8.

If we do, then we'll be much more attractive as a destination for those OOC/eligible for FA, and if we go as hard at some of them as it sounds like we might be, we could very well land someone who will make the difference and propel us into serious contention next year.

A lot of it depends on one of Paddy or Bruce really improving over the next year or two though, IMO, and someone really stepping up in that defensive forward role.

 

[Tyrian Loinstar]

Do we still have a magnificent war chest ready for at least one A-Grade Warrior?

Do we have the Kahoona's to spend that big? Personally I have my doubts. 2 x B+ established players more like it

 

[hayes]

We'll see if anyone emerges this season but for now I think we're behind because we're a few A grade mids short of where we need to be. There's a few reasons for that but that's our biggest problem ATM as pretty much all other positions are covered IMO.

 

[JG22]

Basically no chance we make top 4, these types of goals/predictions are often embarrassing for clubs.

 

[Yabadoo22]

Before the year started I thought we had finally built up some reasonable depth but the more I look at it the less talent I see.
I still think we need to hit the draft this year with another top 10 pick to try add another superstar along with a free agent. Ideally we need someone who screams a grade superstar. We need a gun small forward midfielder like Ian hill or Isaac ranzinke or however you spell it. Sam walsh is supposed to be a gun wingman in the Lachie Whitfield mould so he would fit the bill also. I know it’s early days but it’s hard to rank our top 5 emerging stars in terms of how good they will turn out.

1- Billings- needs to keep improving but will be a star

2- clark- based on pontential could be the best of the lot.

3- coffield- huge potential wait and see

4- Gresham- massive talent, can he take his game to another level?

5- acres- highest ceiling out of everyone imo but still a lot of work to do.

 

[nitewalker13]

Do we still have a magnificent war chest ready for at least one A-Grade Warrior?

Do we have the Kahoona's to spend that big? Personally I have my doubts. 2 x B+ established players more like it

Well if we dont have enough $$ then we can always borrow from

 

[Nutsngum]

I think this forum has whipped itself into a frenzy of negativity, close mindedness and short sightedness based on two practice games.

As Aussierulesrules said, ask again halfway through the season for an actual idea of where the team stands. Right now its entirely conjecture.

 

[gringo2011]

I think this forum has whipped itself into a frenzy of negativity, close mindedness and short sightedness based on two practice games.

As Aussierulesrules said, ask again halfway through the season for an actual idea of where the team stands. Right now its entirely conjecture.

I think they brought it on themselves though. They were pretty casual and a success starved fanbase got skittish when they pick and choose when to go hard. Sydney can take the JLT easy every year because they have been finalists most years for the last 15 years. When we haven't done much since 2011 we would take winning a raffle as a sign of optimism for the future. If we lose anything we take it the other way, especially against Carlton and Melbourne who are two clubs in the same position as us and both looked like they gave more %$#@.

My Melbourne mates are pumped for the coming season because of their preseason and my brother is strutting around because Carlton beat a bottom 8 team from last year in a practise match so it's not just us.

 

[Saintbloke]

I think they brought it on themselves though. They were pretty casual and a success starved fanbase got skittish when they pick and choose when to go hard. Sydney can take the JLT easy every year because they have been finalists most years for the last 15 years. When we haven't done much since 2011 we would take winning a raffle as a sign of optimism for the future. If we lose anything we take it the other way, especially against Carlton and Melbourne who are two clubs in the same position as us and both looked like they gave more %$#@.

My Melbourne mates are pumped for the coming season because of their preseason and my brother is strutting around because Carlton beat a bottom 8 team from last year in a practise match so it's not just us.

Looking forward to our 100% turn around in Round 1..pretty cunning by Richo to make the team look lethargic and poorly skilled in the first two JLT matches.

 

[nitewalker13]

Its not about negativity, but if you see the same mistakes again and again from the last year or year before, then we as a supporter gets frustrated.

Lets hope we improve our skills and ball movement from the round 1.

We all love our saints but sometimes we get frustrated and we share our thoughts here.

I hope saints prove me wrong and reach finals this year. It will be the beginning of the new era.

 

[plugger66]

I sit.

 

[Joffaboy]

Premiers or sack the coach and board

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[mufti15]

Having our 2 bookends in Goddard and McCartin not get on the park for 3 years hadnt helped. 60 odd games into them and we could well be top 4

 

[Moral Decay]

There's a whole bunch of unanswerable questions, what if's.
Some of them about what has happened, how would we look if Hickey, Longer, Armitage, Freeman, Paddy, Dempster and Goddard hadn't been injured for extended periods of time, reality is they have and we've had to change planning, drafting, trading, selection and development around these events, we have no idea how good we would be if these were established in their roles or still playing to a high level in their established role.

Reality is they all have question marks over them. And we probably wouldn't have Brown, Logan, Steele, Battle, Marshall and Clavarino on the list if they had all stood up. It doesn't mean we've given up on them, just that plans have to change, because life is like that, also we don't know who we would have got if those injures hadn't occurred.

Other parts dealing with the future, what have we done over the preseason and will the changes work. I've been very bullish about what the club has done in the off season, changing coaching roles and game plan, getting Henry Playfair in, Richo being more positive and letting the reins loosen a little, getting our goal kicking sorted, the club sat down and said ok what's going wrong and what changes do we have to make to improve, then doing it. Will it work, I have no idea but I have hope.

Then changing the leadership group, letting Roo and Monty go, using our picks on Clark and Coffield instead of Kelly or Fyfe (ok we didn't have much choice about that), I think that both will be better than Kelly, but no one can be sure.

Can Paddy Goddard, Battle, Freeman, Sinclair, Billings, Steele, Dunstan, Gresham and Acres deliver on the talent they have shown? Can any of White, Rice, Phillips, Paton, Doulton, Long or Connelan actually make an AFL footballer of themselves. I think the talent is there, I like what the coaches are trying to do, but I think 2020 is the year we will know if the choices we made this off season will work. 2018 will give us a better idea but that is all.

 

[Baldur]

On present form, where we were in 2016. A fit Steven,but no other A graders.

A number of players may step up & propel us forward or they may not.

 

[STK2020]

To many question marks about our best 22 atm , but still heading the right direction .

 

[sunny3193]

There's a whole bunch of unanswerable questions, what if's.
Some of them about what has happened, how would we look if Hickey, Longer, Armitage, Freeman, Paddy, Dempster and Goddard hadn't been injured for extended periods of time, reality is they have and we've had to change planning, drafting, trading, selection and development around these events, we have no idea how good we would be if these were established in their roles or still playing to a high level in their established role.

Reality is they all have question marks over them. And we probably wouldn't have Brown, Logan, Steele, Battle, Marshall and Clavarino on the list if they had all stood up. It doesn't mean we've given up on them, just that plans have to change, because life is like that, also we don't know who we would have got if those injures hadn't occurred.

Other parts dealing with the future, what have we done over the preseason and will the changes work. I've been very bullish about what the club has done in the off season, changing coaching roles and game plan, getting Henry Playfair in, Richo being more positive and letting the reins loosen a little, getting our goal kicking sorted, the club sat down and said ok what's going wrong and what changes do we have to make to improve, then doing it. Will it work, I have no idea but I have hope.

Then changing the leadership group, letting Roo and Monty go, using our picks on Clark and Coffield instead of Kelly or Fyfe (ok we didn't have much choice about that), I think that both will be better than Kelly, but no one can be sure.

Can Paddy Goddard, Battle, Freeman, Sinclair, Billings, Steele, Dunstan, Gresham and Acres deliver on the talent they have shown? Can any of White, Rice, Phillips, Paton, Doulton, Long or Connelan actually make an AFL footballer of themselves. I think the talent is there, I like what the coaches are trying to do, but I think 2020 is the year we will know if the choices we made this off season will work. 2018 will give us a better idea but that is all.

I see you can do lucid and cogent too.

 

[DGontheQT]

Having our 2 bookends in Goddard and McCartin not get on the park for 3 years hadnt helped. 60 odd games into them and we could well be top 4

Clavarino and McCartin are coming , but we need some guns in the midfield to help achieve that.

 

[Moral Decay]

I see you can do lucid and cogent too.

In your presence I am an amateur
I seriously struggle with too many words, I can see what I want to say but getting the words lined up..............
So I really appreciate it when people get it right.

 

[Macgruber]

I still think our most important player is Hickey. He’s better than Longer. 2016 when he was up and running we were a better side.

Longer is a good ruckman but around the ground he’s pretty much useless. Where Hickey can mark in defence and link up well out of it.

If Hickey can’t recapture that form. Our only option is for Marshall to play as a forward/ruckman. Even if he can deliver some quality bursts thru out the game. Along with Longers ruckwork. Maybe.

Outside of that we need an injury free and firing Jake Carlisle to be a challenger. Ditto for Billings/Steven

 

[Mowman]

I still think our most important player is Hickey. He’s better than Longer. 2016 when he was up and running we were a better side.

Longer is a good ruckman but around the ground he’s pretty much useless. Where Hickey can mark in defence and link up well out of it.

If Hickey can’t recapture that form. Our only option is for Marshall to play as a forward/ruckman. Even if he can deliver some quality bursts thru out the game. Along with Longers ruckwork. Maybe.

Outside of that we need an injury free and firing Jake Carlisle to be a challenger. Ditto for Billings/Steven

If Hickey is our most important player we are in a world of trouble

 

[Jade Buddha]

So to summarise the sentiment on a few threads recently
Regarding St.kilda:
Have recruited poorly coz we only choose good character and couldn’t see all the stars that were available at our picks
Are not coached well coz we are too conservative and won’t play the “talented kids”
Have only one game plan and nothin else
All other teams below us have better lists and will go past us
Choose when we will turn up in practice matches and are casual
Have a dud list that have under achieved and have poor skills

Have I missed anything?

Sounds great bring on season 2018