We need Grant Thomas back

[Danger Mouse]

So many holes that no amount of sewing could ever fix. Other clubs have passed us by and thats that. I'd even say we are playing no better then Freo if not worse although the ladder doesn't reflect it.

Only 3 teams we can beat hands down is Carlton, Essendon and Melbourne. This coming from a side that were challenging hard for a flag under Grant Thomas a couple of years ago.

Saints are in a disaster right now. Beating Melbourne last week proved nothing. As one of there posters on here pointed out, we beat 22 witches hats and in reality a good side would of beat that side last week by 170 points.

I hate to say it and point out the obvious but this club needs Grant Thomas back as the title says. I was a huge critic of him in some regards, slandering him as much as anyone but i'm man enough to admit i was wrong. One way or another he got the boys motivated and playing finals football.

Isn't that what a coach is supposed to do? Ala Malthouse and Matthews....

We are in real danger of becoming a bottom 4 side and staying there.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Well. I'd rather be losing but kicking 20 goals every week than losing and kicking sub 15...

Grant wasn't a good coach, any dimwit could hav taken the Saints to a prelim in those years, a good coach would have won the flag.

But yeah, I'd rather him at the moment...

 

[Gavin Excell]

Tomas cops a caning from all and sundry it seems but at least St Kilda played with passionn under Thomas.

 

[MilneyLoves2Snap]

____ off, Grant Thomas will never come back so stop crying.. Ross Lyon is fine its the players that are out of form.. you can not win the melbourne cup on a donkey! We played woeful and only lost by 27 points to a team that downed the hawks by about the same..

 

[makemytime]

Maybe just look for a coach with a stronger sense of offense rather than tempo footy cause it is just killing us at the moment

 

[mailman4]

im with milney, all this crap about sacking coaches when u go bad gets u no where. if players play s**t then there's very little a coach can do, im not saying RL is good but id rather have 1 coach for 10 years than have 10 coaches in 10 years.

 

[Danger Mouse]

im with milney, all this crap about sacking coaches when u go bad gets u no where. if players play s**t then there's very little a coach can do, im not saying RL is good but id rather have 1 coach for 10 years than have 10 coaches in 10 years.

I understand your point, i really do. Although under Thomas, the players went out there and wanted to win. Now the players are running around like they hardly care and on top of that, the players skills are aweful especially around goal. Does Ross Lyon take no responsability for this?

 

[goodie23]

Don't you realise Grant Thomas is the cause of many of our problems? We recruited King and Gardiner to try to fill in the hole that Thomas made. We have next to no kids in the 21-23 age bracket because of mistakes made on his and Butterss's watch.

People have been glamourising his abilities because we made the preliminaries during his reign and because of the slide afterwards, but he simply wasn't a good coach. He was given a list coming into its prime, a good mix of young talent and hard bodies but tactically he was a muppet. He got along with the players well, but that's just about all he had going for him

 

[AndyD]

You don't go back to the past to move forward into the future.

 

[ChrisFooty]

Sheedy?

Grant Thomas may have not been a good coach, but it looks like Ross is worse.

 

[sauce_head]

It is not time for a new coach, but it is time to reset the goals for the rest of the season. I will be pretty angry if we finish 9th again. I typically laughed at Richmond for finishing there, I hope we do not turn into them.

We just need the players to take a more attacking role. We have very little power to hurt people when get behind, where are the weapons?

We badly need a focal point that can kick straight and for the midfield and forwards to get their structure in order. I mean what bloody forward structure can not accomodate Gehrig in the forward line because he can not run out of the forward 50?

The players need to work and cover for each other. Put simply, the players work ethic needs to rise and they need to follow the coaches instructions. If they can not grasp the game plan, then that is the fault of the coach. He needs to incentivise them to follow a plan that, to be brutal, can not be considered very good fun or aesthitically pleasing. It is another block in the way of playing football that resembles soccer, not satisying when you see our recent rivals across the bay playing the game in a way that makes players want to get invloved work and get instant gratification.

Small steps take you to the top, the start is getting the players to take those, perhaps by declaring 10 no-trumps, rather than lay down misere. I know what I have preferred to see.

 

[dan0z]

if you remember correctly our downhill slump started when grant thomas was still coach..
in his last 2 years our performance in the first half of the year was very ordinary/ tardy and we gave it a squirt in the second half of the year..
we are not much different now, except we dont have hamill or g train up forward. instead roo and kosi..

imo we have some great players but lack real depth which forces us to field players who arent up to afl standards. imo l fisher, blake, milne, raph, should not be playing afl football, that and kosi, shnieder, monty, roo, gram, in poor form makes us looks slow and weak..
also not one bit of x factor in our team. when was the last time we seen one of our guys dob one from the boundry under pressure or charge out of the centre square and kick one from 55..

 

[sauce_head]

if you remember correctly our downhill slump started when grant thomas was still coach..

also not one bit of x factor in our team. when was the last time we seen one of our guys dob one from the boundry under pressure or charge out of the centre square and kick one from 55..

Very true re GT. Although he would have won with better injuries. Now not even injuries are a vaild excuse, they are not too bad except at CHB.

However we have one x factor, whoch is Milne. He is up to it, you just should never have tpo rely on a player like that. We need that more from Dal.

 

[sauce_head]

Sheedy?

Grant Thomas may have not been a good coach, but it looks like Ross is worse.

Not Sheedy. He underacheived with the Essendon lists he had.

Pagan? Might get accountability in? Too old though.

 

[olmate]

We need a not long retired player

a player that didn't have silky skills but was a hard nut that could read the play

We need Glen Archer as coach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[_Interpol_]

So many holes that no amount of sewing could ever fix. Other clubs have passed us by and thats that. I'd even say we are playing no better then Freo if not worse although the ladder doesn't reflect it.

Only 3 teams we can beat hands down is Carlton, Essendon and Melbourne. This coming from a side that were challenging hard for a flag under Grant Thomas a couple of years ago.

Saints are in a disaster right now. Beating Melbourne last week proved nothing. As one of there posters on here pointed out, we beat 22 witches hats and in reality a good side would of beat that side last week by 170 points.

I hate to say it and point out the obvious but this club needs Grant Thomas back as the title says. I was a huge critic of him in some regards, slandering him as much as anyone but i'm man enough to admit i was wrong. One way or another he got the boys motivated and playing finals football.

Isn't that what a coach is supposed to do? Ala Malthouse and Matthews....

We are in real danger of becoming a bottom 4 side and staying there.

No, no no.. Once again, GT achieved nothing in 5 years. And you want to reward that?? Injuries or not, we got to 2 prelims and couldnt finish them off. THIS IS THE WHOLE PROBLEM WITH THIS CLUB, if anyone does something that remotely resembles success, we try and give them everything. Lyon is fine, for once we need to look at the list and not the management

 

[Axcellence]

1. Can everyone just breathe some air and admit Grant Thomas was good? Good enough to the 2nd longest coach of St Kilda behind Allan Jeans?
2. For the people who claim, he couldn't finish it off with premierships - can you guys tell me the name of another St Kilda coach besides Allan Jeans who did?

I will agree straight away - GRANT THOMAS HAD FLAWS.... again, in bold.... GRANT THOMAS HAD FLAWS.

Can everyone just repeat behind me as well, ROSS LYON HASN'T SHOWN MUCH! Come on, you can do it.

Bullshit!

I still remember people talking about Stan Alves... and how he was sacked. Grant Thomas is no different.

Geelong was a mess and the board chose a public review and stayed with a reasonably successful coach and changed around the edges, reduced Thompson's sphere of influence and got him just to do the coaching.

St Kilda saw flaws and chose a cloak and dagger process and got rid of a reasonably successful coach and replaced him with an unproven coach who has shown little to date. It was interesting to note that even Paul Roos always spoke about impact of losing John Longmire rather than Ross Lyon.

One set of people looked at the fruits of a tree, and changed the landscaping, fertilisers and did some pruning.

One set of people looked at the fruits of a tree, and tore it away from the ground and replaced it with a new seed and claimed it would spring the sweet fruits!

That's the long and the short of it.... Do whatever everyone... bicker, pontificate, hurl slangs at each other... but that's the long and the short of it... and irrespective of which view you take, all of us are poorer for it.

 

[Axcellence]

if you remember correctly our downhill slump started when grant thomas was still coach..
in his last 2 years our performance in the first half of the year was very ordinary/ tardy and we gave it a squirt in the second half of the year..
we are not much different now, except we dont have hamill or g train up forward. instead roo and kosi..

imo we have some great players but lack real depth which forces us to field players who arent up to afl standards. imo l fisher, blake, milne, raph, should not be playing afl football, that and kosi, shnieder, monty, roo, gram, in poor form makes us looks slow and weak..
also not one bit of x factor in our team. when was the last time we seen one of our guys dob one from the boundry under pressure or charge out of the centre square and kick one from 55..

You do realise that in the last few years, under Thomas, they had a lot of injury issues? Like Penny going missing, Lenny Hayes out for the year.... and so on. Did we know at the end of 2005 that Hamill might play only 1 game more? Who knew that Aussie would take an early retirement?

Oh, and which decent ruckmen were available for trade? Was Steven King available then? Was Michael Gardiner available during GT years? Did GT not try and recruit Cox before he really ramped it up? Did St Kilda not chase McDonald from Brisbane Lions before he chose to stay?

 

[Sainters66]

It's pretty simple. WE"RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH...........................

 

[just a line monkey]

Grant thomas could not get the job done.
Ross will, in time!
The problem is not in the coach but the ever- underacheiving recruiting department. To recruite so many pea hearted punces (fiora) to top up a so called premiership team is a joke.
Time to build a sructure around a solid tight knit team who play for one another with passion and not fashion for what it has become.

 

[biscay]

Who on our list have improved under RL?-not many if any .Dont believe GT is the answer but this is some of the worst football i have seen from a saints side for many years,no one can argue with that.I have sat on the fence over RL now i have seen enoughRemember this is a top 4 side pre season ,surely ever expert cant be that wrong

 

[ChrisL#12]

GT is not the answer. Simple as that. But having said that RL is a joke. We won't win any games playing this style of footy. It's obvious to anyone that the players are sick of the game plan. We are not Sydney, so stop trying to pretent that we are Ross. He has to go, this season is getting embarrassing. We were beaten by 5 goals, sure, nothing too bad on the scoreboard. But we played like we should've been beaten by 15 goals. We were a pathetic rabble in the 2nd and 3rd terms. First quarter was good and once again we kicked on in the 4th when the game was over. I am getting very tired of seeing that moron Lyon up in the coaches box smiling when we are getting beaten. It's as if he doesn't care. Make a play for Connolly or Daniher, anyone will be better than RL.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Grant thomas could not get the job done.
Ross will, in time!
The problem is not in the coach but the ever- underacheiving recruiting department. To recruite so many pea hearted punces (fiora) to top up a so called premiership team is a joke.
Time to build a sructure around a solid tight knit team who play for one another with passion and not fashion for what it has become.

How do you account for all of our players playing worse than they used to, if it is not related to their training/coaching. At the moment I am convinced that we can take any list and turn it to S***

What objective evidence is there to suggest that that RL will get the job done. And how could he sit through that third quarter without changing something?

 

[ChrisL#12]

Not Sheedy. He underacheived with the Essendon lists he had.

Pagan? Might get accountability in? Too old though.

You idiot. Sheedy underacheived did he? And Pagan. The reason we got Ross Lyon was for accountability and that decision really worked out for everyone didn't it?

 

[just a line monkey]

How do you account for all of our players playing worse than they used to, if it is not related to their training/coaching. At the moment I am convinced that we can take any list and turn it to S***

What objective evidence is there to suggest that that RL will get the job done. And how could he sit through that third quarter without changing something?

There is no evidence , but i think a team and a coach can evolve together (brisbane lions & leigh matthews, geelong & bomber thompsom).