Ok some Post Draft /Trade Thoughts...

[saintsRrising]

STRATEGY ONE - THE LONG TERM

With a swag of kids plus Saad and Milera we have a swag of players which when added to the good good group of kids taken last year should provide a solid foundation of players if developed properly.

Off-field the new development focus has been quite stunning when compared to our two previous coaches who mainly focused on the main 22.

While youth has been a clear focus some strategic thinking has been done to really work on some St Kilda weaknesses in lack of pace and footskills. this was also the favour last year, ad so with two solid years of good picks relative to where the players were taken should see good improvement in the Saints team over time in these areas.

There is now a large pool of mids and flankers.
Future KPP and ruck may be a bit tin though. Can Stanley and Ferg develop? If they can, then all good. If not...then yes we lack depth here. Big Ben is set to carry a lot on his should for fora while.

STRATEGY TWO - STILL HAVING A CRACK IN 2012/13

While youth has been a priority, some deft picks should see some fresh blood straight into the 22 to address some immediate deficiencies.


Saad: With his speed and athleticism looks to be a good pick-up to contrast wit the smarts of Milne and Schneider. Milera is a smokie..

Beau: With Zac gone, it was shaping up that the talents of Fisher or Gilbert may have to be used to plug Full Back. Beau ooks to be an excellent show of slotting into Zac's boots to play a solid role at FB leaving Fisher and Gilbert free to play more damaging roles.



Lenny and Gwilt: both MIA late in 2011. If they can come back to the team with good form in 2011 it will make a major difference.

The Class of 2011: Siposs, Cripps, Ledger....will also be putting pressure on for regular games in 2012.


OVERALL

Well early days yet. But Pelchen looks to have had a deft touch so far at making over our list to date. 2012 will have the same core, but with some handy improvements. Over time some reasonable kids should filter through into the seniors. The Saints of the future will be quicker and have better footskills. But will they also be good footballers? time will tell....

[Verdun66]

Put this in another thread....but this is what I think.


The fact that Kevin Sheehan had 2 of our picks in his top 30, and we had our second pick at 35 is a plus.

Tony Elshaugh's summary was strong on character....very strong on character actually. I think this is important. A no-di**heads policy has to be right. Maybe one or two guys who people seemed surprised were passed over had character concerns. Fair enough.

Also 2 (maybe 3?) left-footers which continues Pelchen's Hawthorn policy of recruiting left-footers. Blokes who hit targets more often.....according to research.

Sounds pretty good to me. Not sure what else the doom-sayers are looking for.

[saintsRrising]

Yes I think the trend is in the right direction...with good drafting decisions relative to the picks we had.

[mad saint guy]

I'm quite happy with our intake so far. I believe we have three picks in the rookie draft, I hope one is a readymade ruck option. If McEvoy goes down then we're left with nothing but pinch-hitters to take the role in Kosi, Blake, Stanley and possibly Lever. I'd love to see us take a mature giant like Currie or McCauley. I'm also pro-Fev but I don't see that happening. Just add in another couple of highly skilled mids/forwards and we've got a decent batch of kids who we can hopefully fast-track to make up for woeful recruiting over the past few years.

[Hammer]

Like all the players we picked up but really did think we'd take Grigg at 37.
Obviously the selection guy's have their reasons so I'm happy to go with it.

[paddy]

I think that with the sub rule, and lots of young players, it is essential that we have good midfield/flanker depth.

With the high probability for young players to get hurt we will want to rest our youngsters at regular intervals.

So good move, I think, in bolstering our midfield stocks with seb.

[spert]

As long as we get strength and height in the backline, and pick up some natural forwards, I'm happy.

[gringo]

Add Kosi missing the preseason and start, Roo and Gram playing sore, the further development of Steven, Mac and Armo.

I expect Polo to improve and Cripps to be a regular in 2012 as well.

[clarky449]

Im starting to look forward to 2016 when all these players mature.

[bobmurray]

Im starting to look forward to 2016 when all these players mature.

or start being delisted.....

[Con Gorozidis]

Chuck in Stanley and Simpkin for improvement in 2012 and we might just be ok.

[Con Gorozidis]

Chuck in Stanley and Simpkin for improvement in 2012.

[BigMart]

I have no problem with the potential ability/talent of the kids we drafted (for the picks we had) reality is, no one for certain can with complete confidence forecast their success.....the players names were not really an issue...

I do however wonder about the types of players....

With Paine, Elton, Talia overlooked at our mid-picks turn out....It would be frustrating due to our hole in the list we now have....

bit like Darling being overlooked for a mid in 2010 or Reiwoldt/Frawley being overlooked for a mid in 2006......or worse still Buddy being overlooked for mids in 2004....

a KPP who can play is like gold in the draft....and almost every teams most IMPORTANT player is a KPP

even
overlooking Bolger, Bosely, Dobosz with late picks may be regretful.....

obviously I would have preferred a KPP or two.....nothing against the kids drafted, but

We have mids....young and old
We have utility flankers.....young and old
We have ruckman.....young and old

We lack young KPP's.......NO DOUBT

[SainterK]

We lack young KPP's.......NO DOUBT

Honest question, how many do you need?

[Dr Spaceman]

Not singling any one out here.

But in the vein of regular comments such as "if we're relying on Zac Dawson to win us a flag were in big trouble" or "if we're relying on Tommy Walsh to win us a flag were in big trouble".

If the posters on Saintsational/Big Footy etc know more about recruiting and the recruits than the highly qualified, highly paid staff at Linen House, we ARE in big trouble.

But I happen to think we're in good shape and the blokes in charge know what they're doing.

[bobmurray]

Not singling any one out here.

But in the vein of regular comments such as "if we're relying on Zac Dawson to win us a flag were in big trouble" or "if we're relying on Tommy Walsh to win us a flag were in big trouble".

If the posters on Saintsational/Big Footy etc know more about recruiting and the recruits than the highly qualified, highly paid staff at Linen House, we ARE in big trouble.

But I happen to think we're in good shape and the blokes in charge know what they're doing.

Your probably right..

I tried to quantify that by checking how many flags we've won......

[Dr Spaceman]

Not singling any one out here.

But in the vein of regular comments such as "if we're relying on Zac Dawson to win us a flag were in big trouble" or "if we're relying on Tommy Walsh to win us a flag were in big trouble".

If the posters on Saintsational/Big Footy etc know more about recruiting and the recruits than the highly qualified, highly paid staff at Linen House, we ARE in big trouble.

But I happen to think we're in good shape and the blokes in charge know what they're doing.

Your probably right..

I tried to quantify that by checking how many flags we've won......

Well the guys currently in charge haven't won any yet but I'm prepared to show them a little bit of patience.

[BigMart]

IMO - a back up at every position is a good start and then 2 developing kids at either end.....so IMO

12

This year
out
Walsh, Lynch, Cahill, Johnson, Lynch, Dawson

In
Wilkes

[SainterK]

IMO - a back up at every position is a good start and then 2 developing kids at either end.....so IMO

12

This year
out
Walsh, Lynch, Cahill, Johnson, Lynch, Dawson

In
Wilkes

However still have guys like Archer, Rhys, Ferguson, Siposs who will have to push out someone for a game.

[BigMart]

Arryn is certainly not a KPP......Rhys is a Ruck/fwd.....Archer and Ferguson are Rookies....

Current Back ups
Wilkes and Simpkin

[PJ]

I have no problem with the potential ability/talent of the kids we drafted (for the picks we had) reality is, no one for certain can with complete confidence forecast their success.....the players names were not really an issue...

I do however wonder about the types of players....

With Paine, Elton, Talia overlooked at our mid-picks turn out....It would be frustrating due to our hole in the list we now have....

bit like Darling being overlooked for a mid in 2010 or Reiwoldt/Frawley being overlooked for a mid in 2006......or worse still Buddy being overlooked for mids in 2004....

a KPP who can play is like gold in the draft....and almost every teams most IMPORTANT player is a KPP

even
overlooking Bolger, Bosely, Dobosz with late picks may be regretful.....

obviously I would have preferred a KPP or two.....nothing against the kids drafted, but

We have mids....young and old
We have utility flankers.....young and old
We have ruckman.....young and old

We lack young KPP's.......NO DOUBT

I see your point but I'm not convinced that we do have the mids (inside)at present

Lenny - just back from knee reco
Armo - worker but does not yet dominate play
Steven - gets the ball but can't kick it
Polo - back up but good hands inside
Jonsey - tagger

Ross should help this area. Seb that is

[saints66]

We do have a rookie draft to go and there are several promising key position types that are available.

[gringo]

Not singling any one out here.

But in the vein of regular comments such as "if we're relying on Zac Dawson to win us a flag were in big trouble" or "if we're relying on Tommy Walsh to win us a flag were in big trouble".

If the posters on Saintsational/Big Footy etc know more about recruiting and the recruits than the highly qualified, highly paid staff at Linen House, we ARE in big trouble.

But I happen to think we're in good shape and the blokes in charge know what they're doing.

But I saw someone suggest that we did badly because Emma Quale didn't rate some of ours as highly as we did. May be we should hire journos as our recruiters.

This Pilchard bloke hasn't selected one Saints player that has gone on to play 50 games. Sack the board.

[Dr Spaceman]

This Pilchard bloke hasn't selected one Saints player that has gone on to play 50 games. Sack the board.

Are you trawling for bites gringo?

[cwrcyn]

Someone else had posted that the quality of talls in this draft was quite poor beyond the first round. If that is true, then the club's strategy seems sound. I know many are concerned with our ageing taller players in Koschitzke, Riewoldt, Blake, and Fisher, but be also have ageing midfielders in DalSanto, Hayes, Montagna, Jones, and Peake.

Because of poor list management from 2006 to 2009, we find ourselves in a bit of a bind, trying to put together a succession plan for a large group of talls and midfielders who are 28 or older. Therefore, it is unfair to criticize the strategy employed in this draft by Elshaugh, Pelchen, & co.


Hopefully, next year's draft will provide more tall options for us, and if Goddard flies north to GWS (which is realistically a 50/50 bet), we may have some purchasing power to get the KPPs we need.








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