Where are we really at?

[Otiman]

Now, all teams have down weeks, but this performance against a bottom three side in junk-time of the season (some may invoke the word 'tank' here) stands as probably our most disappointing loss this season.

4 wins in a row, one against a 3rd placed side, one against a team who will likely knock us back out of the 8 again today, and one win against a team we were battling for 8th spot with, as well as a win over our nemesis in fremantle.

We were looking the goods, we dropped from $61 down to $13 for the flag, which is the price we were preseason.

However, the games we won, we still played 2 bad quarters. If we were to obtain a consistent form, would it be closer to the bad quarters, or the good ones? One would hope we can get some consistent form like the 3rd quarter against the Hawks.

We are still a reasonable chance at top 4, if we can learn from our loss to west coast as a sign to never drop our heads, never believe a game is won. Just like we learned from the Bulldogs game early in the year. It was when we came out, shut down the opposition in the first quarter, and then made changes to demolish them, that our form truly shines.

Perhaps Ross Lyon had the game already in the bag and decided to try out some new things, perhaps the players had the game already in the bag, with the Eagles injury, suspension, and desertion plagued list. I don't know. All I know is that we did not turn up to play over there in Perth. Perhaps we went over with a holiday in mind.

Our forward structure is still a huge issue. We have had good delivery and midfield support over the last month, but nothing beats two leading forwards and some good crumbers. It was the same down back without Max. No leadership there. Hopefully Max will be back soon, but in the mean time, responsibility can be taken by players with leadership potential to step up and show the way. Sam Fisher perhaps.

So, ranking us from 1st to 16th, at the present time, where are we at? I'm not talking about win/loss ratios. Who is above us, and who are we above?

[saintsRrising]

Where are we at????

We are at where we have been for years now.

We are like the girl with the curl.

When we are good we are very very good.

When we are bad ...we are very bad.



And you will never never know which we will be on any given day....though intestate expect the bad girl more often than not.

[rogerwa]

ranked about the same as last yr..8 9 10

stagnating ,no improvement at all

[Otiman]

What would you have said last week?

One game does not make a form line.

[makemytime]

after the cats dogs and hawks indefinitely, sydney and collingwood probably too but time will tell.

probably 8th... us having a top 4 chance is funny as i don't think we really deserve it

[skeptic]

i think we're right in the middle of rebuilding.

Since RL came he has been turning the list over (rightly IMO) and we've been doing it w/o completely bottoming out.

IMO we're 6th-12th side with a list that comprises 1/4 of good to excellent players, 1/4 good developing juniors, 1/4, 1/4 senior players that are inconsistent most of which won't make it, and 1/4 juniors that we're not sure about

we've got the cattle there to challenge the top sides at our best but we don't have the depth in key areas tp cover us when things go wrong. We need to play a lot of kids and lesser lights to devlop that depth and part of that involves us giving chances to players that aren't going to make it so we can continue the clean out

By doing this this year we know that:
King
Blake
Armitage
Eddy
Geary
Birss
McEvoy
McQualter
Dempster
Are definite required players for the time being at least

We know that:
Raph
C. Gardiner
M. Gardiner
Gwilt
L. Fisher
Are good enough to warrant at least 1 more season on the list knowing that if they don't step up, they will be replaced the moment a better player comes on the list

We know that:
Rix
Fiora
Ferguson
Schnieder
Have not looked up to it at all

And we know we have concerns with Xavier "I haven't got my body right in 6 years" Clarke and Steven "Is my best behind me and have others taken my place" Baker

[WayneJudson42]

9 - 8 as far as I can see, with 5 games to go.

Just a loss FFS. Let's throw the season away.

Get a grip, people. Let's revisit this at the end of the year.

[mick13]

After last weeks win we would have put ourselves 5th, now a loss to the Eagles and we're down arond 8-10th? This is exactly where we expected to be after the Cartlon game guys, it's just we lost the game we expected to win and won the game we expected to lose.

And many of us had us finishing 5th still with a loss to Hawks, (and even Collingwood?)

Chin up.

[thejiggingsaint]

We are "REALLY" at the position our results have said we should be at!!

Simple really!

The answer to our ladder position remains in OUR hands!!!!

[3rd generation saint]

Let's face it we are at we are always at, the place that frustrates our supporters the most.

Everytime we think we are going forward we make a giant leap backwards.

IMO we are good enough to be 4th and as I have asked before how is it that a team like Geelong who two years ago at this time we're very ordinary, suddenly and without any major additions to their list, become the most dominate team in the competition.

We will still probably make finals, and I can fantasise that we do something like my gridiron team the New York Giants and win the thing from a very low ranking position, but the reality is that we will at best make it to the 2nd week.

Now that can be considered a good season, but not a succesful season, this club has to visibly start showing a hunger to succeed.

Personally, I would like us to do very little trading this year, just delist who needs to be de listed and recruit via draft and recruit what we need.

I am not going to say who I think should be de listed, that will come at the end of the season, but I hope there are players who are being told now that if they don't perform, they're out.

The players who really want to stay will prove themselves, those who don't care well they will also show themselves.

[meher baba]

Good grief, what a load of exaggerated, melodramatic carry on I have read on the forum since last night.

It is never easy to beat the Eagles or the Dockers at Subiaco. Both teams have a huge home ground advantage there. Even when - as is the case this season - both teams are well down on form, you need most things to go right in order to beat them (and I'm afraid that the Dockers are going to be no pushover either).

Lots of things went wrong for us yesterday. We were missing a key player in Kosi, we lost another key player in Max early on, Dal was clearly feeling below par, Gram was injured, the umpires gave more than the usual number of home town decisions , Riewoldt didn't bring his kicking boots, Gardiner didn't work out at all well as Kosi's replacement, Schneider returned to his normal (non-existent) form for the Sainters, etc, etc.

So we lost. But, believe it or not, we are still the same side that stormed home over the Hawks the week before. We are still looking better than we have done for at least two years, Riewoldt, Milne and Lenny are in hot form, BJ and Bally are coming back to their best, Dempster, Eddy and CJ seem to be working out well.

It isn't time to give up on 2008 just yet.

I still reckon that, in the form in which we showed against the Hawks last week, only the Cats and perhaps Sydney would be likely to beat us.

I still don't rate the Dogs and the Hawks that highly. Nor the Pies, although they are dangerous in that they can turn it on at any time.

On collective talent alone, I reckon we are still one of the top 4 teams.

So, assuming that we can make the finals, we can certainly do some damage there.

This season is still alive!!

[3rd generation saint]

Never easy to beat the Eagles and the Dockers at Subi?

How come Richmond beat both of them by over 10 goals and before yesterday both teams had only won 2 games all season, the same as Melbourne.

Just about everybody beat them and if we are to be a genuine threat, we should beat them and beat them comfortably.

We blew it, plain and simple and the only way we can redeem ourselves is to absolutely belt Port next Sunday.

Yesterday, all the respect we had earned over the last month was flushed down the toilet.

[twirlyhair]

Never easy to beat the Eagles and the Dockers at Subi?

How come Richmond beat both of them by over 10 goals and before yesterday both teams had only won 2 games all season, the same as Melbourne.

Just about everybody beat them and if we are to be a genuine threat, we should beat them and beat them comfortably.

We blew it, plain and simple and the only way we can redeem ourselves is to absolutely belt Port next Sunday.

Yesterday, all the respect we had earned over the last month was flushed down the toilet.

I agree....saints supporters who indulge out team by letting them off for such a bad loss do the club more bad than good

[tweedaletomanning]

Never easy to beat the Eagles and the Dockers at Subi?

How come Richmond beat both of them by over 10 goals and before yesterday both teams had only won 2 games all season, the same as Melbourne.

Just about everybody beat them and if we are to be a genuine threat, we should beat them and beat them comfortably.

We blew it, plain and simple and the only way we can redeem ourselves is to absolutely belt Port next Sunday.

Yesterday, all the respect we had earned over the last month was flushed down the toilet.

I agree....saints supporters who indulge out team by letting them off for such a bad loss do the club more bad than good

Agree....we have way too many "back patters" as supporters...

NOONE should be content until the "job" is done....

People on here think that they are "real" supporters if they "blindly" follow and say oh well...there's always next week, or next year...

UNACCEPTABLE LOSS!!!

[marksnsparks]

Agree....we have way too many "back patters" as supporters...

NOONE should be content until the "job" is done....

People on here think that they are "real" supporters if they "blindly" follow and say oh well...there's always next week, or next year...

UNACCEPTABLE LOSS!!!

Wakey wakey....we have no involvement in any decision making process, so what the hell are supporters supposed to do? What can we do other than blindly follow as you put it?

All we can do is help turf the board out every 5 years, and that's got us far hasn't it?

All we can do is support and trust the coaching staff, players etc know what they're doing.

If you were religious, you'd be demanding to see proof God exists!