even scummer supporters sticking the boot in failed to entice a reasonable effort out of this side ffs.....
"Saints prove the believers wrong
May 25, 2008
IF GEELONG is the classy reigning champion and Hawthorn the glamorous contender, the Western Bulldogs sentimental favourites and Collingwood Collingwood, why is it that St Kilda continues to be so talked and written about? It is the team about which everyone has a theory or diagnosis.
Actually, the question is rhetorical and the answer obvious: the media got it wrong and must explain it away. The Saints' prospects this year were vastly over-rated. Rather than being a premiership prospect, they are going to struggle to avoid a second consecutive season without an involvement in the finals. This is not how it was meant to be.
In this newspaper's pre-season supplement, 12 of 18 tipsters had St Kilda making the grand final; five tipped them to win the flag. Over at the other local daily, Mike Sheahan also succumbed to the euphoria and nominated the Saints as his premiership favourite.
Even Kevin Sheedy, who presciently suggested after two rounds last year that Geelong could win the flag, fell in. He said the Saints were a team capable of doing just as the Cats had: resurrecting in one season and climbing from out of the eight to a premiership. Who is one to question such hot form and authority?
Yet the form-line stated unambiguously that St Kilda was in decline: one kick short of a grand final in 2004, a more heavily beaten preliminary finalist in 2005, eliminated in the first week of the finals in '06, and out of the eight last year. This was nothing like Geelong's four year pre-premiership graph. The Cats were a youngish, improving team that stumbled badly in 2006 and were humbled, and hardened, by the experience. St Kilda has been on an inexorable slide and nothing has happened this year to suggest anything other than its continuation.
As a first-time coach, Ross Lyon is in the hottest seat in town. He took over a team whose reversing fortunes were not yet clearly established. Expectation remained high. It was assumed he would add a missing dimension to transform a contender into a champion. Not only has that not happened, but Lyon's attempt to stiffen St Kilda's defensive side has produced a less-attractive style.
It is erroneous and unfair, however, to judge Lyon on the basis that he inherited a premiership team-in-waiting. Perhaps, in opting to tackle the St Kilda job, he misjudged the potential of his cattle, but, gulp, he's not alone in that.
To assess St Kilda's current on-field circumstances, it's worth re-visiting that preliminary final night in September 2004 when, even amid the momentary heartbreak of a six-point loss to Port Adelaide, the future appeared to belong to the Saints. "Their time's going to come and I mean the big time," said Mick Malthouse on Channel Ten.
Of those who played that night, nine are no longer at the club. Neither is Aaron Hamill, who missed the match through injury. Among the other nine departed are grunt-men Andrew Thompson, Brent Guerra, Brett Voss and Stephen Powell, runners Heath Black and Aussie Jones, and tall defender Luke Penny. Grunt, run, and a tall defender: couldn't the 2008 Saints use some of that now?
Fraser Gehrig was a century goal-kicker in 2004, Robert Harvey had just turned 33 and was still close to his best, Luke Ball hadn't been debilitated by injury, Matt Maguire was fit and strong, while Nick dal Santo and Justin Koschitzke were playing as though there was no tomorrow.
Only Brendon Goddard and Leigh Montagna (who missed the game with an injury) have become consistently better players than they were then. With few exceptions, the 2004 St Kilda stars either were young, old, or rapidly ageing. The mix was never quite right to allow for steady development.
The loss of Hamill cut deepest. Not only was he another forward target, the Saints all walked half a foot taller when he was among them.
And what are the gains to account for these various losses? The answer is Shane Birss, Aaron Fiora, Michael and Charlie Gardiner, Steven King and Adam Schneider. Only Sam Fisher and Jason Gram of the rest of the 2004 list have shown appreciable improvement. The debits since that game against Port Adelaide have significantly exceeded the credits.
It's interesting that a team's prospects could have been so widely misjudged when its flight path has been one of steady descent. The search for explanations leads to the haunting presence of Grant Thomas. From the moment he succeeded Malcolm Blight, he was widely viewed as an interloper. Whatever the characteristics that caused so many to apparently will him to fail, Thomas managed to bring his St Kilda team together and for two exciting seasons have them on the brink of success.
One could surmise this meant that for the critics to be right, there had to be a premiership in this team. Whether they were right about Thomas, I don't claim to know. What has become glaringly apparent is that many got it wrong in their assessment of the 2008 Saints.
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....sadly the prick is right........
![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)