dal was a huge loss

[MCG-Unit]

He should still be wearing a Saints jumper plain and simple...bad for morale and supporters to just let players like that go.

Couldn't agree more. I would rather keep those classy players - even if the club seemingly 'wins' on the deal.....

[Enrico_Misso]

He should still be wearing a Saints jumper plain and simple...bad for morale and supporters to just let players like that go.

Couldn't agree more. I would rather keep those classy players - even if the club seemingly 'wins' on the deal.....

You might want to revisit those thoughts in 5 years when
- Dal has gone
- North are heading South
- and our "replacement" kids are firing!

[Con Gorozidis]

This kind of thread REALLY pisses me off.

Where were you all in 2010, 2011 and 2012???

There were plenty on here who knew our list and list profile was a bus fast careering off a cliff. But many were silent . Somehow hoping that somehow our our 09/10 stars would turn back the clock and resurge. For a few years we all hoped for a steady transition where we wouldn't need to bottom out and youngsters could transition upwards and gradually replace the old stars in an orderly way. This notion has LONG since passed us by.

But now after everyone knew the cliff was coming - 1-2 years after we smash over it - you still say - oh the old bus could still work if we just replaced a tyre or a steering wheel or a piston etc.

Get a grip!

We need a new bus!!!!!!!!!!

Crapping on about how great the old bus parts were is just embarrassing.

[Con Gorozidis]

He should still be wearing a Saints jumper plain and simple...bad for morale and supporters to just let players like that go.

Couldn't agree more. I would rather keep those classy players - even if the club seemingly 'wins' on the deal.....

If we hung on to the 09/10 squad and didnt try to replace them wed be bottom for a decade.
How would that be for morale and supporters???? please tell...

As pointed out - the reason we got so good in 09/10 is on the back of high draft picks and renewing our list.

[MCG-Unit]

He should still be wearing a Saints jumper plain and simple...bad for morale and supporters to just let players like that go.

Couldn't agree more. I would rather keep those classy players - even if the club seemingly 'wins' on the deal.....

You might want to revisit those thoughts in 5 years when
- Dal has gone
- North are heading South
- and our "replacement" kids are firing!

I hope all the kids turn out great players. I'm into loyalty both ways though, clubs expect players to be loyal.... Don't think these trades send a great message to younger up & coming players, knowing they might be expendable later.

How many clubs have kept players with only 2 or 3 years left rather than trade off for a younger version or a DP? Check out the ages of some of the players in these finals. Yet they generally seem to develop replacements while still contending.

I understand player movements will increase with FA - still, I can't stand watching Saints players who were at the club from 18 yo - now at the opposition.

[Con Gorozidis]

[

How many clubs have kept players with only 2 or 3 years left rather than trade off for a younger version or a DP? Check out the ages of some of the players in these finals. Yet they generally seem to develop replacements while still contending.

Agree wholeheartedly!
But we farked up from 2007-11 on that front.
Sadly we now have to pay the piper. Sadly part of that is losing awesome blokes like Dal.

But lets land the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs - EVERYONE involved at the club during our 'up' years. Not just Lyon. - cos he was too busy winning games - that was his job. But what were the other idiots doing if not looking at the future??? Just going to games and clapping and patting each other on the back? Complete f*cking idiots.

[remboy]

He should still be wearing a Saints jumper plain and simple...bad for morale and supporters to just let players like that go.

Couldn't agree more. I would rather keep those classy players - even if the club seemingly 'wins' on the deal.....

If we hung on to the 09/10 squad and didnt try to replace them wed be bottom for a decade.
How would that be for morale and supporters???? please tell...

As pointed out - the reason we got so good in 09/10 is on the back of high draft picks and renewing our list.

This is a good point. If we'd kept all of the same group together they'd all retire within two seasons of each other and leave us with an even bigger hole to fill.
Even Geelong are retiring two or three older players each year.

[saintspremiers]

[

How many clubs have kept players with only 2 or 3 years left rather than trade off for a younger version or a DP? Check out the ages of some of the players in these finals. Yet they generally seem to develop replacements while still contending.

Agree wholeheartedly!
But we farked up from 2007-11 on that front.
Sadly we now have to pay the piper. Sadly part of that is losing awesome blokes like Dal.

But lets land the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs - EVERYONE involved at the club during our 'up' years. Not just Lyon. - cos he was too busy winning games - that was his job. But what were the other idiots doing if not looking at the future??? Just going to games and clapping and patting each other on the back? Complete f*cking idiots.

Con for president.

[remboy]

[

How many clubs have kept players with only 2 or 3 years left rather than trade off for a younger version or a DP? Check out the ages of some of the players in these finals. Yet they generally seem to develop replacements while still contending.

Agree wholeheartedly!
But we farked up from 2007-11 on that front.
Sadly we now have to pay the piper. Sadly part of that is losing awesome blokes like Dal.

But lets land the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs - EVERYONE involved at the club during our 'up' years. Not just Lyon. - cos he was too busy winning games - that was his job. But what were the other idiots doing if not looking at the future??? Just going to games and clapping and patting each other on the back? Complete f*cking idiots.

I agree that it wasn't just Lyon who was to blame but I think our problems started earlier than that. Under GT's reign we picked the cream of the crop between 200-2003 but once we had that group I think we became too happy to top up. Using a second round pick for McGough, for example. We put all our eggs in one basket, recruiting to win a flag immediately and didn't put enough thought into the future.
This continued under Lyon. So by the time we got to 2011 we had gone through 7 years of recruiting less 18 than we needed for the future. Of course, if we'd won a flag I could accept it a bit more easily.

[mordiboyz]

Never been a fan of these types of trades and never will. Make no mistake, we have a history of doing this type of thing. It seems short sighted, undermines our future integrity and it is as short sighted as our drafting which got us in this position.

Yes we may get up the ladder a little quicker in a few years time, but I a worried about the damage in the long term. No one is safe in our holy grail to win a second premiership.

Wonder who is on the shopping list this year?

[saintspremiers]

Never been a fan of these types of trades and never will. Make no mistake, we have a history of doing this type of thing. It seems short sighted, undermines our future integrity and it is as short sighted as our drafting which got us in this position.

Yes we may get up the ladder a little quicker in a few years time, but I a worried about the damage in the long term. No one is safe in our holy grail to win a second premiership.

Wonder who is on the shopping list this year?

Probably only Monty.
I doubt they'll ditch Gilbo Armo or Steven. They are the only ones with currency.

[remboy]

Never been a fan of these types of trades and never will. Make no mistake, we have a history of doing this type of thing. It seems short sighted, undermines our future integrity and it is as short sighted as our drafting which got us in this position.

Yes we may get up the ladder a little quicker in a few years time, but I a worried about the damage in the long term. No one is safe in our holy grail to win a second premiership.

Wonder who is on the shopping list this year?

Probably only Monty.
I doubt they'll ditch Gilbo Armo or Steven. They are the only ones with currency.

They are also three of the few we've got in that age bracket. Can't afford to lose any of them.

[Bunk_Moreland]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

[Darth Vader]

Best final he's played, easily

Didn't see the game last night but heard he was good. Was he tagged?

[mordiboyz]

Best final he's played, easily

Didn't see the game last night but heard he was good. Was he tagged?

Hmmmm, looks like Saints didn't know how to get the best out of Dal...

[plugger66]

Best final he's played, easily

Didn't see the game last night but heard he was good. Was he tagged?

Hmmmm, looks like Saints didn't know how to get the best out of Dal...

I hope that is a joke because clearly it isnt true.

[saintspremiers]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Do you think finals in 2017 or 18 is likely?
I have my doubts, but even if it's not until 2020 that we next make the finals if we kept yesterday's heroes it we'd be bottom 4 in 2020.

It's very sad some supporters can't see the vision through the forest. It's a bit like pollies just focussing on the next 2 years not 5 to 10.

[plugger66]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Do you think finals in 2017 or 18 is likely?
I have my doubts, but even if it's not until 2020 that we next make the finals if we kept yesterday's heroes it we'd be bottom 4 in 2020.

It's very sad some supporters can't see the vision through the forest. It's a bit like pollies just focussing on the next 2 years not 5 to 10.

Maybe they can. I understand the move and think it suited both parties but maybe people just love the old stars. Surely there is nothing wrong with that. The way you speak about players, especially those who arent great players, is that they are just a piece of meet. I know the supporters I like more.

[8856brother]

Was clearly BOG IMO. Really influenced the game. Norths decision vindicated.

[6621104]

Yep, trading stars is dumb. No, Geelong has not needed to (they have moved on the support cast), BUT as Con has said, their support cast has currency as in a good team they still seem good players. Gwilt, for example, is as good as Hunt, yet most of us did not see a trade for him as likely (and it is now impossible). His short comings became clear as the quality around him dropped. Had we done better in the "up " period with trades then we may have been able to move players on to other teams with the classic "win/win" outcome.
Sadly we do not have the quality of fringe player at the moment to avoid having to trade our stars. I do not like it, yet watching Dal last night I was glad for him.

[saintspremiers]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Do you think finals in 2017 or 18 is likely?
I have my doubts, but even if it's not until 2020 that we next make the finals if we kept yesterday's heroes it we'd be bottom 4 in 2020.

It's very sad some supporters can't see the vision through the forest. It's a bit like pollies just focussing on the next 2 years not 5 to 10.

Maybe they can. I understand the move and think it suited both parties but maybe people just love the old stars. Surely there is nothing wrong with that. The way you speak about players, especially those who arent great players, is that they are just a piece of meet. I know the supporters I like more.

Look plugs you and I both know we have plenty of duds or likely duds on our list. That's pretty much a fact. And then we have the old proven crew. I don't understand why the likes of Sipposs and Lee are kept on. They are hacks IMO. I don't have to like all players on our current list. That may change in 5 years if Pelican does what he says he will.

[plugger66]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Do you think finals in 2017 or 18 is likely?
I have my doubts, but even if it's not until 2020 that we next make the finals if we kept yesterday's heroes it we'd be bottom 4 in 2020.

It's very sad some supporters can't see the vision through the forest. It's a bit like pollies just focussing on the next 2 years not 5 to 10.

Maybe they can. I understand the move and think it suited both parties but maybe people just love the old stars. Surely there is nothing wrong with that. The way you speak about players, especially those who arent great players, is that they are just a piece of meet. I know the supporters I like more.

Look plugs you and I both know we have plenty of duds or likely duds on our list. That's pretty much a fact. And then we have the old proven crew. I don't understand why the likes of Sipposs and Lee are kept on. They are hacks IMO. I don't have to like all players on our current list. That may change in 5 years if Pelican does what he says he will.

I know we have players who arent up to it but you just proved my point by calling these players duds and hacks. Sorry I dont like those terms for any players let alaone ours. keep it up though.

[skeptic]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Spot on IMO

[saintspremiers]

Dal is gone, get over it.

Con is spot on. Nothing to do with development, everything to do with recruiting, terrible terrible recruiting in the draft at that time.

Something like only Steven and Geary left on the list from that time.

Wouldn't have given a toss if we had won a flag, BUT we didn't and then our list fell to pieces.

We are going to be down at least 6-7 years by the time we reach the finals again (2017-2018), without the current strategy we would have been down for much much longer.

These moves aren't popular. Dal was a great Sainter, but Pelchan was not put in place to be popular.

Dal Santo was fantastic last night, but he would not be playing that type of football in the current Saints team. He has much more quality about him at the moment.

So whinge away and remain mediocre as we hang on to the only players we have with currency and be like Richmond and make the finals once a decade.
OR
Take your medicine and support our CURRENT players. I know what I'll be doing

Do you think finals in 2017 or 18 is likely?
I have my doubts, but even if it's not until 2020 that we next make the finals if we kept yesterday's heroes it we'd be bottom 4 in 2020.

It's very sad some supporters can't see the vision through the forest. It's a bit like pollies just focussing on the next 2 years not 5 to 10.

Maybe they can. I understand the move and think it suited both parties but maybe people just love the old stars. Surely there is nothing wrong with that. The way you speak about players, especially those who arent great players, is that they are just a piece of meet. I know the supporters I like more.

Look plugs you and I both know we have plenty of duds or likely duds on our list. That's pretty much a fact. And then we have the old proven crew. I don't understand why the likes of Sipposs and Lee are kept on. They are hacks IMO. I don't have to like all players on our current list. That may change in 5 years if Pelican does what he says he will.

I know we have players who arent up to it but you just proved my point by calling these players duds and hacks. Sorry I dont like those terms for any players let alaone ours. keep it up though.

Each to their own plugs.
I don't fraternise with the players or their mates like you do, and we have a terrible current list hopefully Pelican will cut a few more for this year.

[Darth Vader]

Best final he's played, easily

Didn't see the game last night but heard he was good. Was he tagged?

Hmmmm, looks like Saints didn't know how to get the best out of Dal...

That wasn't what I was suggesting, but he has always struggled with a hard tag and pretty much always got tagged when he played in finals for us. When North have Wells and Harvey in the team as they did last night, teams can't tag all three so one can get loose. Last night it was Dal. Glad he played well and I wish him well, but understand why we traded him. He was one of the few with currency.