"Footy First" mantra bearing its first fruit.

[Otiman]

Much was said in an armwaving fashion throughout the campaign of the "Footy First" movement to overthrow Rod Butters and implement a Westaway/Burke/Thompson lead board.

More money would be spent on football related aspects of the club, with a focus on improving on field performances. Members would be better treated and informed.

Overall, I think we have improved, however it's the small things which we can see as fruit from the footy first tree.

1. Injuries: Freak accidents (Ball) and Injury Prone players (Gardiner, X) aside, we have had the shortest injury list of just about any club this year. A HUGE improvement which I was not expecting to see until 2009.

2. Player Development: Development of players such as Jones, Eddy, Geary McQualter, Birss, Gwilt, Allen, and Howard. These are guys who would probably have fallen out of the AFL system by now, if not for the persistence of our development staff. There is still a long way to go, as guys like Gilbert (coming good now) and Raph have gone backwards. Casey Scorpions are sitting in a top 4 position, with next to no recognisable VFL listed players at the start of the year. They were seen as a bottom 4 prospect.

3. Professionalism: There is an air of professionalism about the club now, that wasn't there when Rod Butters was running the ship. It's not entirely tangible, but I believe that it's there.

4. St. Kilda Members: I get reasonably regular SMS updates (B&F notice this week, contract signings), and the weekly email and team list have gone from being a farce, to a well put together publication. The addition of the saintscentral website (useless bigpond streaming technology aside) has been fantastic also. Membership packages including our scarves, and some really good quality merchandise (the Intra-Club jumpers are great). There is even a reasonably accurate injury list on the club webpage updated weekly.

I'm not sure what our financial situation is. I look forward to the AGM and Financial Report, but overall we are looking much more like a powerhouse club than a mickey mouse operation.

[esaint66]

Summed it up perfectly off the field it has been a good year, lets re-create that on the field.

[Huzzad]

Definately notice the difference. As for the team photos on the emails- they are using last years photos for some players, but I like what they have done. Some very good points made there. Hopefully this work pays off.

It is such a pitty about the bigpond. That thing is a joke. It either buffers ever 5 seconds (even on a great connection and trying the site on different computers at home, work or friends) or takes you to another site. Saints Central really need to fix this or tell bigpond to pull their finger out. You Tube has a better system, and it is free for godsakes. I'd hate to pay money for bigpond vids, I think I would be very dissatisfied.

[st.byron]

Definately notice the difference. As for the team photos on the emails- they are using last years photos for some players, but I like what they have done. Some very good points made there. Hopefully this work pays off.

It is such a pitty about the bigpond. That thing is a joke. It either buffers ever 5 seconds (even on a great connection and trying the site on different computers at home, work or friends) or takes you to another site. Saints Central really need to fix this or tell bigpond to pull their finger out. You Tube has a better system, and it is free for godsakes. I'd hate to pay money for bigpond vids, I think I would be very dissatisfied.

agree bigpond is uttter crap. Takes ages to load and spends more time buffering than playing. Even on my whizz bang work computer.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

not saying FF are doing a bad job personally i think we are going fin but....

1. Injuries: Freak accidents (Ball) and Injury Prone players (Gardiner, X) aside, we have had the shortest injury list of just about any club this year. A HUGE improvement which I was not expecting to see until 2009.

-this process was actually put into practice under the old regime FF are just fortunate to reap the benifits

2. Player Development: Development of players such as Jones, Eddy, Geary McQualter, Birss, Gwilt, Allen, and Howard. These are guys who would probably have fallen out of the AFL system by now, if not for the persistence of our development staff.

the recruitment staff are pretty much the same as the old boards time with those guys being picked up while RB was still at the helm

3. Professionalism: There is an air of professionalism about the club now, that wasn't there when Rod Butters was running the ship. It's not entirely tangible, but I believe that it's there.

Yes i will agree there are not silly outthere remarks or light shows and dancing robots anymore

[skeptic]

just get us a good home base and now

[markinUSA]

As an international person, I pay for bigpond, but the system has so many problems I basically don't use it. If it's not on Setanta, I don't watch the games... too many problems with Bigpond. I won't subscribe again. Cost a lot too!

[saintbrat]

and increase our membership,

[saintsRrising]

not saying FF are doing a bad job personally i think we are going fin but....

1. Injuries: Freak accidents (Ball) and Injury Prone players (Gardiner, X) aside, we have had the shortest injury list of just about any club this year. A HUGE improvement which I was not expecting to see until 2009.

-this process was actually put into practice under the old regime FF are just fortunate to reap the benifits

2. Player Development: Development of players such as Jones, Eddy, Geary McQualter, Birss, Gwilt, Allen, and Howard. These are guys who would probably have fallen out of the AFL system by now, if not for the persistence of our development staff.

the recruitment staff are pretty much the same as the old boards time with those guys being picked up while RB was still at the helm


:

As St Trav said 1/ and 2/ were largely put in place or commenced pre-FF.
Cerataianly the medical and conditionaing side of things were well under way...and our new recruite hired I think.

Also our NSW rookie coach and talent identifier was in place pre-FF

Jones was gained as part of the pre-FF increased recruiting spend assigned to WA ro identification and testing.

FF deserve credit for other things (ie sponosrship and STABILITY...) but not 1/ and 2/

[BAM! (shhhh)]

2. Player Development: Development of players such as Jones, Eddy, Geary McQualter, Birss, Gwilt, Allen, and Howard. These are guys who would probably have fallen out of the AFL system by now, if not for the persistence of our development staff. There is still a long way to go, as guys like Gilbert (coming good now) and Raph have gone backwards. Casey Scorpions are sitting in a top 4 position, with next to no recognisable VFL listed players at the start of the year. They were seen as a bottom 4 prospect.

This is the improvement I'm happiest to see. I think it is the single biggest factor in sustained success, and rarely has shortcuts. One bad move can stall it, but making it a successful program takes many good efforts.

I think the change in coaching at Casey has been important. I mean no disrespect to the old coach (Hutchison?), but from a Saints perspective, putting a Saints focus on things is important. Better injury results and continuity has doubtless made a difference here too.

Credit should go to Ross Lyon on McQualter. Having the courage to take the risk on delisting and extending a rookie list olive branch. COuld have gone wrong in seeing him succeed elsewhere, could have seen him be a waste of a rookie spot, but it's been a real wakeup call. He now does enough little things well enough to keep playing AFL, and from there, his talent should see him continue to progress.

I love that the rookie list is paying off. In games from the 2006 rookie draft, we're miles in front. We should take with a grain of salt before calling it genious, we entered the rookie game with an empty vessel in a good year, but as we'd expect Eddy to be elevated at years end, 3 players out of 1 rookie draft is exceptional work all round... and there's still Attard who may yet find his way onto the list (other picks being Wall, gone, and Van Rheenan, who I've got no idea on.)

It makes it much easier to be optomistic when young, improving players are putting their hands up. It keeps pressure on the senior guys, it builds our assett base if we decide to go to the trade table, and obviously it improves our depth. Very pleased with the improvement in this area of St KFC.

[chook23]

What about the package that was just received .................the saint/club gear etc

which contained information that was clearly designed to be given prior to or early season.

Receiving it now looks so unprofessional and almost worthless.

We have a long way to go in many areas.

[Pilgram]

all that needs to happen now is for archie to put the issue beyond any shadow of doubt and the rocket up frankston city council.

archie, mate, if you leave these things to council they'll do absolutely nothing champ and nothing will be done. all i have seen so far is a surveyor down there and one or two blokes with drawings. for christ's sake tell them that the plowmans road site is the 'only' site you're interested in and that the st. kilda footy club only want the plowmans road site:- cut down a few old pines .. the foundation is already half dug-out .. throw down some asphalt for a well-positioned carpark, voila! put the thing to tendor and build the bloody building so that we can all sit on our respective arse overlooking the bay and drink a nice cold well-poured beer to premiership success and the future of the saints as the peninsula club.

archie, get in touch with the council and let them know exactly what you want.

let them know that the plowmans road site is what you want and that you want to remove some pine trees so that you can develop the site into a glazed mansion overlooking the bay.

archie, put the rocket up them!

put the rocket up them and get the thing to tendor mate.

[GrumpyOne]

Yes i will agree there are not silly outthere remarks or light shows and dancing robots anymore

I miss the dancing robots......

[Pilgram]

i miss the blue vein cheese, the jatz crackers and the grapes *sigh*