Lyon needs to be our edge again in 2010..

[saintsRrising]

I largely slate our 2009 success down to Lyon, with a healthy helping hand from Misson and Co. Some here disagree of course. But for mine Lyon was our edge in 2009. Quite a few of our players are not worldbeaters, but as a cohesive combination Lyon made them into a lethal Anaconda like team that could strangle opponents.

2010 will be a challenging year for the Saints to stay at the top as Lyon's forward press and constant football pressure strategies will be aped by many if not all clubs in 2010.

The Saints will have an advantage in having longer to have mastered the discipline required, but this edge will have been narrowed substantially.

Some new teaks will be required as to stand still in a year when the Dogs are on the improve and the Cats are still likely to be thereabouts with other clubs snapping about, will be deadly.

I don't believe that the NAB is a great guide on this as Lyon is a huge "closed session" coach and I would imagine that these tweaks have largely been worked upon behind closed doors.

However one intended improvement has already come to naught with Lovett being Lovett, rather than becoming a St Kilda player.

Peake may still provide that desired pace injection, but the odds of him succeeding will be less that with Lovett.

Lyon is going to have to work hard with our development coaches to continue to grow some of our fringe youth: Ben, Geary and Armo look the main three.

Misson too is being called on again. Not just with the whole list, but with Jesse Smith in particular. A good result here could see a quality player injected into the team in the second half of the season...though he may be more a go for 2010. Getting Simth into the team could make that 1% difference which in a tight game may be the difference between winning and losing.

But for mine it will be Lyon and whether he can get the Saints to role out the best TEAM play for 2010 for I am not sure that talent wise we have the best list. so Lyon needs to drive and inspire the Saints to once again be the hardest working, most well drilled and disciplined TEAM in the competition sometimes winning games by simply being able to out-grind a quality opponent.

We may not as a team be able to out-skill the dogs, but we have to be able to outwork them.


With TEAM play being so important to our success in 2010 mature bodies and minds will be important and so selection might well favour such players.

However exceptions to this will be I believe:
* that Ben will be given ample chances to grow as a player to move past King
* that at least one young mid will be in our finals team. Armo, Steven and Geary all have their hands up. Eddy is still in the race too, but in 2009 his more mature body probably gave him the edge over them.

While the Saints motto is strength through loyalty.....our mantra in 2010 may be be triumph through perseverance.

A bit like the Survivor TV Show...the Saints need to Outplay, Outwit and Outlast our opponents.

[barks4eva]

Agree with your analysis as per usual!

It's amazing when you think about it, as an example a few years ago Clint Jones was a whipping boy who was the next cab off the rank to be delisted according to many on here!

Ross Lyon gave him a role as a midfield tagger and the transformation has been quite amazing!

This year will be much tougher, the game plan has been thoroughly analyzed by the opposition and it will be a much harder grind.

Our list is not that great, for mine in terms of sheer talent and skill the Dogs have us covered,

what we do have is a very good coach with excellent assistants who have managed to transform us into a very good team.

The coaching performance in 2009 was quite incredible and the way in which we restricted the opposition was unprecedented, never before in the history of the game has this ever been done to such great degrees.

We were desperately unlucky on that final day!

A new season, 10x6 day breaks more than any other club, the Dogs have 6x6 which is exactly the same as St Kilda last season, so already things will be tougher from that perspective!

I'm predicting about 15 wins and a top 4 finish after 22 rounds!

[fingers]

Good post and agree. I think you will see an evolution of our Saints footy. The press will be there but there will be an added dimension.

[Moccha]

Maybe they'll add the jerk after the press metaphorically speaking (the offensive element)

[yipper]

I think we will be a more attacking side this season. We will still be the masters of the defensive stranglehold as per 2009, but I believe Lyon will try and inject a more potent attacking element to our gameplan. He will do this by using Goddard forward more, Jones will play as a mid more often than not, and the likes of Geary will be asked to step up as run with / negating types on the opposition stars. There is no doubt we were holding back plenty thru the NAB cup series, and come next week - up will go the tempo, intensity and tackle count. I think they have been pleasantly surprised by the development of Stanley, and deliberately held him back on NAB final night. He will still be developed slowly, but there is no doubt he has added another string to the bow. And I firmly believe Jesse Smith will come back into our side in the run home to September that will provide the pace and skill we were looking for with Lovett. That will enable our team to be a very well balanced side going into September 2010.

[saintsRrising]

I think we will be a more attacking side this season. We will still be the masters of the defensive stranglehold as per 2009, but I believe Lyon will try and inject a more potent attacking element to our gameplan. He will do this by using Goddard forward more, Jones will play as a mid more often than not, and the likes of Geary will be asked to step up as run with / negating types on the opposition stars. There is no doubt we were holding back plenty thru the NAB cup series, and come next week - up will go the tempo, intensity and tackle count. I think they have been pleasantly surprised by the development of Stanley, and deliberately held him back on NAB final night. He will still be developed slowly, but there is no doubt he has added another string to the bow. And I firmly believe Jesse Smith will come back into our side in the run home to September that will provide the pace and skill we were looking for with Lovett. That will enable our team to be a very well balanced side going into September 2010.

Yes I agree that Lyon and our other coaches will have been working hard at attack...in part in response to last year...and in part as they will know that the forward press will be used against them more as well.

Kosi will be part of this as having two good contested marks in Roo and Kosi on the end of forward thrusts can bea handy edege as long as they are not the only avenues to goal.

[kaos theory]

I think Steven could add a key new demension to our on ballers this year.

Its unfortunate he got the injury in the first nab cup game, becuase people have forgotten about him, but he has the potential to add pace, skill, and goal kicking.

He could go ahead of armo, geary, eddy, peake this year.

Maybe Lynch can add something to the forward line this year...I don't expect anything from stanely, or the other younger players this year.

I don't think the dogs are more talented than we are. I wouldn't place much value on that nab game. We had lenny, sam fisher, and a couple of other key players out. Plus our attitiude & approach to that game was WAY down compared to the dogs. It was plainly obvious they were far more keen than we were about winning. The real season will be different.

[Waltzing St Kilda]

The Doggies MIGHT shade us a little in skill, but let's not get carried away (as numerous journos have) on the basis of the NAB cup. Carlton has looked unbeatable at times in recent pre-season campaigns.

I'd argue our skill level is underrated. So too our depth. And when we play true Saints Footy, it's usually the OTHER side than looks shallow and unskilled.

Our only real weakness, IMO, is the backline. But last year that same backline was the meanest in AFL history. So perhaps that, too, is more perception than reality.

[Milan Faletic]

It's amazing when you think about it, as an example a few years ago Clint Jones was a whipping boy who was the next cab off the rank to be delisted according to many on here!

Really! I'm glad I was off the forum during that era because I earmarked him from day 1 as a star. He just had the look, height and build, and looked like a Fisher or Gilbert when they first started at the Saints.

[Milan Faletic]

Our only real weakness, IMO, is the backline. But last year that same backline was the meanest in AFL history. So perhaps that, too, is more perception than reality.

More opinion than perception. I think the footy world outside of St Kilda have respect for our defence as well as our team, hence the premiership favourite status. It seems that our internal critics are more savage on our defence and team than the general footy community. Yer we lost to the Doggies. How did we go last year in the NAB Cup? Did anyone put money on 19 straight wins in the H&A season last year? Not bloody likely

[bigred]

Yeah...Statistically the best defence in what? 60 years?

Such a weakness.

[SainterK]

Thanks for the read, I also wanted to mention that I think the 'trademark' has been significant in the players steps forward in recent times.

While we don't know that much about it, we know it's a player driven initiative that has your peers evalutating your peformance each week.

Would be both confronting and motivating, and I really think through bits and pieces the boys have said through the media, that it's really left an impression with the players on our list.

While I give a lot of credit to Lyon for the gameplan, the roles, and the structures, I give a lot of credit to the guys for striving to better themselves.

[Bernard Shakey]

Thanks for the read, I also wanted to mention that I think the 'trademark' has been significant in the players steps forward in recent times.

While we don't know that much about it, we know it's a player driven initiative that has your peers evalutating your peformance each week.

Would be both confronting and motivating, and I really think through bits and pieces the boys have said through the media, that it's really left an impression with the players on our list.

While I give a lot of credit to Lyon for the gameplan, the roles, and the structures, I give a lot of credit to the guys for striving to better themselves.

Our boys are the same as every other team.
The club structure is the difference, hence the consistent reference to structures, whether it relates to the game plan or the club in general.

[vacuous space]

Our back six doesn't get nearly enough respect. The perception is that our forward pressure and our midfield makes them look good. That's definitely part of it, but even if you take out the midfield, the back six still did extremely well last year. Not only were we the least likely to concede an inside fifty, but we were also the least likely to concede a score from an inside fifty. You don't do that by hiding behind your midfield.

The AA selectors seemed to neglect that our defenders had less opportunities to get possessions, marks, spoils and rebounds than everyone else's did. Even before you take that into account, it's hard to believe the two Sams weren't in the team. Dawson had a great season, as did Blake. Compare Blake's numbers to Nick Maxwell's. Every player in our back six was a contributor. Goddard made AA as a part time defender, but he only moved back when Fisher and Gilbert started getting tagged.

I don't think we had a weak point last year. I think we were strong at every position and had enough depth to cover injuries. Yeah, we lost the GF, but we lost to a club that doesn't have many weak points either.

We might be a little more vulnerable this year, but that remains to be seen. Fisher's out, but Gwilt looks great so far. Dawson's clearly not in peak physical shape, but he's going to get help - and, hopefully, get fitter. I'm not going to take much out of preseason form. There have been plenty of preseason warriors over the years who did nothing once the H+A started (hi, Daniel Wells!). Things change when there are 4 points on the line. I have every confidence that our back six will be tough to beat again in 2010.

[saintsRrising]

Our back six doesn't get nearly enough respect. .

I agree. The sign of a good backline is not who stars (though we had the 2 Sam's and BJ ) but how the backline works as a unit. When a backman can rely on his team-mate to be there for him (whether it be to lean support, be third man up or to be ready to receive a quick relieving hanball) to ALWAYS be there for him, then your backline really starts to excel. It takes discipline and workrate and also the smarts to be the right spot at the right time.

One of our strengths last year was that Lyon managed to get our whole team including the backline working really REALLY well.

Even our much bemoaned missing "third tall" forward was in the end not a big issue as Mini played so well in his role.