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Con Gorozidis wrote:Well what can you say. Great group of players but a team first ethic.
Even the stars don't act like stars. Lingy as skipper. There is no denying them.
3 flags from 4 gfs. Equals the lions effort.
Brilliant effort! Too true!
The saints need to dig deep. I don't give a rats what anyone thinks, I believe we still have the cattle. A tweak here and there and we could see ourselves with that mongrel bloody cup next season! Believe me, we will challenge for it!
When they created LENNY HAYES (in the shadow of Harvs) they forgot to break the mold (again)- hence the Supremely Incredible Jack Steven!!
Correct meher b...we lost 2 years learning Ross's game plan. I really respect that Scott did not throw the baby out with the bath water at Geelong. Hope our new coach does the same. I am tired of waiting.
I don't know about Lynch... he hasn't played many games to be fair, but unlike say Siposs or Cripps he hasn't shown anything in the few games he has played to suggest he has what it takes.
The cats are fantastic, drafting is the difference between them and us. In 2001 we got Ball #2, X Clarke # 5, Dal #13, Matt Maguire # 21, they got Bartel#8, Kelly#17 and S Johnson#24. I recall the Saints were deciding between Johnson and Maguire. I know injuries have effected our picks but this was the draft that could really have made a big difference to our history, especially if we picked Judd and Bartel instead of Ball and X Clarke. The good thing is we got Dal and lso Monty @ #37. Too many what ifs for the Saints. We need to pick the right coach, draft well from now on and give it a big shake in the next 2 years.
nw7 wrote:The cats are fantastic, drafting is the difference between them and us. In 2001 we got Ball #2, X Clarke # 5, Dal #13, Matt Maguire # 21, they got Bartel#8, Kelly#17 and S Johnson#24. I recall the Saints were deciding between Johnson and Maguire.
to be fair Matty suffered severe concussion one year and that Broken leg was horrendous with 6 operations and something like 3-4 weeks in hospital and his recovery wasn't complete- nerve damage meaning the broken bones in his feet re occured regularly..
as with N Brown from Tigers- never the same.
Our skill level is very bad (particularly this year). In many games this year we just butchered the ball. If there wasn't so much butchering going on then I think we would have been right up there with the top bunch.
Hopefully the new coach will know something about skills as well as hardness and a will to win.
Also actually having goal kicking practice would be good.
asaint wrote:Correct meher b...we lost 2 years learning Ross's game plan. I really respect that Scott did not throw the baby out with the bath water at Geelong. Hope our new coach does the same. I am tired of waiting.
I think if the board believes we have another crack left in us it will appoint a coach that keeps a lot of the remaining list and just tweaks the game plan. If it doesn't we will get a rebuilder. Malthouse stole Ross's GP so may be a good choice or Rob Harvey has the inside story and would be a more seamless transition if we are still in challenge mode.
asaint wrote:Correct meher b...we lost 2 years learning Ross's game plan. I really respect that Scott did not throw the baby out with the bath water at Geelong. Hope our new coach does the same. I am tired of waiting.
I think if the board believes we have another crack left in us it will appoint a coach that keeps a lot of the remaining list and just tweaks the game plan. If it doesn't we will get a rebuilder. Malthouse stole Ross's GP so may be a good choice or Rob Harvey has the inside story and would be a more seamless transition if we are still in challenge mode.
Not sure if it's possible but some sort of list tweak is required if we want to be the best....
Season 2024 is where RTB is showing the footy world his grasp of the modern game.
Goose might be a valuable contributor at Lions, but I don't think we're gonna be on the right track if we make decisions based on sentiment. The team has a lot of motivation and hunger, and our new coach needs to be as cunning and as tough and as intelligent as Chris Scott to get the best out of the Saints list and drive us towards a top 4 finish in 2012.
I reckon even though the Cats players are complimenting Scotty in public, he probably layed down the law to all their blokes at the start of the year, and he knew there had to be tweaking of the list with an injection of youth. He knew that the fear of being dropped and the inclusion of a lot of younger guys in the team was evidence that if you didn't pull your weight in this team, then you would not play. Passengers were strictly not allowed. Basically a lot of guys not only love to get out there and get a game of senior footy but it also affects their overall paypacket doesn't it? Once it became clear that his team was firing on all cylinders, then he probably had to sit down with his match committee and work out who they thought would be in their GF line-up if they made it. I heard him talk about Tom Hawkins in july or August and I thought hmmm; Scotty wants this bloke to play finals. I reckon it was at that time that he already made his mind that he wanted this kid to play in his GF line-up. I reckon he may have wanted the speed of Menzel and Christenson and Duncan too. I reckon that's where Ross also failed us. He didn't plan things well enough when we were firing on all cylinders and he probably didn't have a plan to win the GF with a line up that was planned and a line-up that had been managed well enough to be in tip top shape in September.
MB and BM were commenting on Saints V Cats evolution around 2004 - 2006. One of the first things that Ross Lyon did that perhaps changed the hardness of the team, was when he dropped Milney and Dal in the same week. It was a shock to us all and the media applauded him for his courage and we thanked him for being a tough bast#rd because, not only did we win that game, but it also scared the crapola out of the senior players and they knew that if they didn't perform, then they could be next. It changed the way the list viewed the coach and I think it gave Ross a lot of confidence to back his judgement from then on.
Perhaps, as is the case with coaches and players at many clubs, the coach starts building relationships with his senior group and he back his stars if they play a few bad games in a row, instead of doing the tough things. Tough words are simply not enough and coaches that don't rotate enough of the senior list and select players on reputation rather than on form are bad coaches. The fact that Ross didn't inject more players into the seniors lineup in 2009 and 2010 and didn't provide enough opportunities to younger players, leads me to believe that he may have seemed a tough prick, but in fact he had lost some of his hardness and this was a weakness to the detriment of getting the best out of each and every player. Sure we have blokes with hearts as big as Lennys and we have blokes that worked their asses off for their coach until they were exhausted, but the problem with being afraid of losing is that you will end up losing on the biggest stage and losing an opportunity to get into the record books.
Hats off to Scotty. He is one very intelligent guy.
