the ansett-preseason-night-rubber trophy

[Dan Warna]

do you want st kilda to go all out for the win? do you want us to put our best 22 on the field and play for the win from day 1 round 1?

advantages: good early season exposure, prize money, minor boost to marketing and memberships, positive attitude set up for the season.

or do you want st kilda to use at least the first round possibly the second round for all our rookies and fringe players (charlie gardiner, CJ, geary, van rheenan, etc etc) to test their mettle?

advantages: gives us a preview of what the fringe is like, how well they'll go under match situations, what sort of form or potential are we looking at?

[Saints94]

Why not it sounds allright but it most

likely won't happen

[Oh When the Saints]

Whatever RL wants will happen obviously and he knows best.

BUT personally I would like to see us have a crack. I think with our favourable draw early in the season, it would do us good to be in some reasonable form coming in to Round 1.

Whether we actually win the thing or not I don't know, but I would like us to win a couple of matches just to find a bit of early form.

[Dan Warna]

TBH I want to see what some of the new guys bring to the team.

probably not the rookies with the exception fo mini, but the rest I want to see if the can cut it.

maybe 13 to 15 ' from the best 25 and a few from the back end of the list.

guys who probably need to be nursed through the season (FG, Banger, goddard, max) with PROVEN quality, and have nothing to prove in the preseason, can probably sit it out.

guys like lenny, reiwoldt, s. fisher etc etc of the younger brigade, who tend to be robust, I think should provide enough leadership and on field ability.

[saintly]

we won't be going all out to win as their is limited interchanges.

[yipper]

I think the Tiges will pretty keen to do well - give them some momentum going into the season. So, for this reason, I think we will have done well to get past rd. 1 of the NAB cup. The Tiges will field close to their best squad whilst we will most likely have a look at our list. Guys like M.Gardner will play, but so will Armo, Geary, Eddy, Allen, McQualter, Ferguson etc. There will be some talent out there - but I reckon the Tiges have more at stake than us for this game.

[HarveysDeciple]

Give the blokes with something to prove a run, like Gardiner and Gardiner, Ferguson etc etc.

You need to run form into the legs of everyone on the list, and my argument has always been that its best to do that playing on grounds such as telstra dome, and aami stadium rather then the east mildura cow paddock.

[Moccha]

Why bother with the pre season farce.

I doubt if any team will take it seriously except Carlton

[Dan Warna]

Why bother with the pre season farce.

I doubt if any team will take it seriously except Carlton

$$$, sponsorship and memberships.

[rexy]

I hope we have a real crack at it personally, good revenue raiser, great for sponsorship and would be good for the new admin and the coach to be able to say they have acheived something. Plus it may help to put a few sides on notice that they need to respect the Saints in 08.

[GrumpyOne]

I would like us to win a couple, otherwise we'll be shunted all over Australia playing meaningless games on sub-standard fields.

[Moccha]

Why bother with the pre season farce.

I doubt if any team will take it seriously except Carlton

$$$, sponsorship and memberships.

It's a fairy floss comp. Win the big one and the real revenue starts to flow in. Pre season comp should be treated as a practice comp, no more

[saintsRrising]

or do you want st kilda to use at least the first round possibly the second round for all our rookies and fringe players (charlie gardiner, CJ, geary, van rheenan, etc etc) to test their mettle?

Well essentially this option of your two....but not with ALL the rookies fringe players in the team at once.

As per our conditioning guys advice the likely "first 22" players who need a run should get a run....but I would be very keen for our fringe and rookie players to get a run.

I would give preference to the fringe over the rookies....as our current reduced injury list means that there isalarge pool of players to choose from.


Hopefully M Gardiner will be fit enough to get some much neede much practice.

Schneider as a full time mid too see if he can assume that role.....along with X....and Fiora as an inside mid.

I would like Geary, and Armo to get lots of game time.....as well as the more experienced Dempster and C Gardiner.

Back to our fringe.. L Fisher in the midfield.

Raph down back

Ferg as a forward


I would be very curious to see McEvoy in action...but if M gardiner needs the run then he should be preferred.



The like of Dal, Hayes, Banger could alternate matches and have lots of bench time.

[Otiman]

Playing a team full of rookies and first/second year players is not a good idea. You need to play a few at a time and see how they fit in with the structure of the team.

[fonz_#15]

i would prefer a look at our kids, and the fringe players who have something to prove.

i don't see the point in sending rooey, harvs, kosi etc out there because they are men who do not know how to go easy and will only be a chance of injuring themslves. our stars have nothing to prove, and thus should not be sent out there.

of course a little bit of money gained would be handy, but at the end of the day if we have our stars out during the season as a result of the mickey mouse cup, there is no point trying.

[mad saint guy]

Playing a team full of rookies and first/second year players is not a good idea. You need to play a few at a time and see how they fit in with the structure of the team.

Agree completely. Any senior player with an injury concern shouldn't be considered, but you shouldn't forget about the pre season cup completely. It can be a valuable tool to figure out the pecking order in the fringe and also to see if a couple of likely kids might be able to play a few senior games.

I would like to see us field a team consisting of roughly 14 regular players, 10 fringe players who will work hard to impress and 2 rookies/draftees who have had a good pre season.

Something like this...

B: Ferguson, Dempster, L.Fisher
HB: S.Fisher, Gilbert, R.Clarke
C: Geary, Montagna, Schneider
HF: C.Gardiner, Koschitzke, Birss
F: Milne, Allen, McEvoy

Foll: M.Gardiner, Armitage, Gram
Int: Baker, King, X.Clarke, Gwilt, Howard, Fiora, Dal Santo, Blake

[Otiman]

I would like to see us field a team consisting of roughly 14 regular players, 10 fringe players who will work hard to impress and 2 rookies/draftees who have had a good pre season.

Sounds good, but perhaps you could put bias aside and play Clint Jones. If he's as bad as you say, then we will want to identify it as early as possible.

[mad saint guy]

Sounds good, but perhaps you could put bias aside and play Clint Jones. If he's as bad as you say, then we will want to identify it as early as possible.

Right...forgot about him. Agree that it would be good to see if he can get his disposal under control with more game time (in the NAB cup of course),

[saintspremiers]

Why bother with the pre season farce.

I doubt if any team will take it seriously except Carlton

$$$, sponsorship and memberships.

It's a fairy floss comp. Win the big one and the real revenue starts to flow in. Pre season comp should be treated as a practice comp, no more

of course it is, spot on.

It's just glorified practice matches.

Dimwit should be looking at extending the season to at least 24 rounds and reducing the practice match series by 2 weeks.

Simple really!

[st_Trav_ofWA]

play the fringe leave the stars at home let the likes of mini CJ armo run the midfeild and give ferg a chance to show what hes got let bigmac have a taste of the ruck and float him in the forward line with gardy

[Otiman]

Why bother with the pre season farce.

I doubt if any team will take it seriously except Carlton

$$$, sponsorship and memberships.

It's a fairy floss comp. Win the big one and the real revenue starts to flow in. Pre season comp should be treated as a practice comp, no more

of course it is, spot on.

It's just glorified practice matches.

Dimwit should be looking at extending the season to at least 24 rounds and reducing the practice match series by 2 weeks.

Simple really!

It works well for teams who have been starved of any sort of recent success (us in 1996, 2004, carlton in recent times).

[TimeToShineFellas]

They should be trying to win every game that they play.

I don't care if its a Mickey Mouse comp in people's eyes.

imo half the people who say it doesn't matter on this forum are the kind of people that will get stuck into the team if it fails in the first NAB Cup game.....

Winning breeds a successful culture. Losing and accepting defeat brings a culture of mediocrity.

Bit sick and tired of embracing mediocrity around here - but I guess it's an ingrained mindset around here!

[rodgerfox]

Always like to win - however history tells us that the correlation between pre-season form and real season form is virtually non-existent.

Now that the rules are becoming vastly different between the pre-season nonsense and the real stuff, the significance of winning is similar to entering the club in a Gaelic footy comp.

They are almost two different games now.

[saint66au]

The new limited Interchange rule will changes things greatly...the sides who were going to field fuill sides and have a crack will now have to think twice about fielding senior players or players returning from injury. Until this rule was introduced I have a suspicion we might have put a pretty strong side out against the TIgers

I reckon it now might become a kinda default Under-23 comp for the first week at least

[CURLY]

It doesnt matter if its AFL or D grade amatures players need practise matches before the season starts. Id say what ever players are right to go theyll play to get some work into them no matter which team it is. Speaking to a player on Sat he said he prefered to play in all and that all clubs were serious about winning it, just that some clubs players are further advanced into there pre season had more available at the time.