Not a Good Sign?

[plugger66]

We've lost Roo, and it's hurting us.

But imo Grammy is hurting us too, but with both of them out it really hurts.

Grammy was 2nd in the comp for inside 50's last year having 5.7 a game, and Rooey despite being down the list he contributed on average 3.8 a game.

This year between them they were averaging 8.

So looking at this we'll go and take the best forward and the player who has the most forward 50 entries out of the top 5 clubs and we'll just imagine how they'd be fairing.

Cloke and Beams
Mooney and Chapman
Hill and Pavlich
Hall and Griffen
Judd and O'halphin
Goodes and Okeefe

There might be a few more form slumps if these guys were out for extended periods.

You want an honest answer. Except for Sydney and Freo and maybe Carlton i think the other would still have beaten Essendon fairly easily on Sunday.

[Leo.J]

We've lost Roo, and it's hurting us.

But imo Grammy is hurting us too, but with both of them out it really hurts.

Grammy was 2nd in the comp for inside 50's last year having 5.7 a game, and Rooey despite being down the list he contributed on average 3.8 a game.

This year between them they were averaging 8.

So looking at this we'll go and take the best forward and the player who has the most forward 50 entries out of the top 5 clubs and we'll just imagine how they'd be fairing.

Cloke and Beams
Mooney and Chapman
Hill and Pavlich
Hall and Griffen
Judd and O'halphin
Goodes and Okeefe

There might be a few more form slumps if these guys were out for extended periods.

You want an honest answer. Except for Sydney and Freo and maybe Carlton i think the other would still have beaten Essendon fairly easily on Sunday.

Your probably right... my point being that you take those guys out of their respective sides and they'd leave quite a hole.

Its not just the absence of Roo that is hurting us.

[dcstkfc]

We've lost Roo, and it's hurting us.

But imo Grammy is hurting us too, but with both of them out it really hurts.

Grammy was 2nd in the comp for inside 50's last year having 5.7 a game, and Rooey despite being down the list he contributed on average 3.8 a game.

This year between them they were averaging 8.

So looking at this we'll go and take the best forward and the player who has the most forward 50 entries out of the top 5 clubs and we'll just imagine how they'd be fairing.

Cloke and Beams
Mooney and Chapman
Hill and Pavlich
Hall and Griffen
Judd and O'halphin
Goodes and Okeefe

There might be a few more form slumps if these guys were out for extended periods.

You want an honest answer. Except for Sydney and Freo and maybe Carlton i think the other would still have beaten Essendon fairly easily on Sunday.

Your probably right... my point being that you take those guys out of their respective sides and they'd leave quite a hole.

Its not just the absence of Roo that is hurting us.

The problem is Roo is the best player in the league, and we are extremely Roo-centric. Yes we are in a form-slump, but we all know that the lack of Roo is the biggest problem, and that if he hadn't been injured we'd be 7-1.

[bigred]

Ross ran out of Minties in the box on the weekend.

Had to revert to some Allens Snakes.

This does not look good.

Questions need to be answered.

Heads should roll.

[saintsRrising]

This is a damning figure I think. It's the kind of figure that suggests your team doesn't have any improvement in it.


Thoughts?

Thoughts? Yes you are as happy as pig in mud when the Saints have a bad game.

Yes we have an older list. What is new?

The Saints have been heavy traders for a decade.

In fact even longer...I just had look at the team from Round 8, 2000 and even it have 5 players from other clubs in it. 6 if you count Thompson who from memory was involved in some way with the Doggies first before we later took him as a mature draftie on the second time around.

If you want to be critical of the list the biggest problem IMO is the several years just prior to Lyon taking over when there was real drought in producing new senior players (whether that be by trade or national drafts includng rookies).

[degruch]

Ross ran out of Minties in the box on the weekend.

Had to revert to some Allens Snakes.

This does not look good.

Questions need to be answered.

Heads should roll.

Could have been worse, there could have been Cornflakes in the box!

[markp]

[saintsRrising]

We've lost Roo, and it's hurting us.

But imo Grammy is hurting us too, but with both of them out it really hurts.

Grammy was 2nd in the comp for inside 50's last year having 5.7 a game, and Rooey despite being down the list he contributed on average 3.8 a game.

This year between them they were averaging 8.

So looking at this we'll go and take the best forward and the player who has the most forward 50 entries out of the top 5 clubs and we'll just imagine how they'd be fairing.

Cloke and Beams
Mooney and Chapman
Hill and Pavlich
Hall and Griffen
Judd and O'halphin
Goodes and Okeefe

There might be a few more form slumps if these guys were out for extended periods.

That is way too logical a post for this negative thred.

[The Fireman]

Depth..........

[degruch]

Depth..........

Crikey, a spare Roo and a spare Gram in the ressies? I think depth can only cover so much, rejigged gameplan to suit the available squad does the rest...that'd be our missing Plan B. Listening to RL's conference, sounds like a cunning plan is forming.

[The Fireman]

Depth..........

Crikey, a spare Roo and a spare Gram in the ressies? I think depth can only cover so much, rejigged gameplan to suit the available squad does the rest...that'd be our missing Plan B. Listening to RL's conference, sounds like a cunning plan is forming.

So we are a 2 man side?
I suppose that's better than a one man side.
If the side crumbles because of 2 players then we are in trouble.
Either we don't have enough depth or the Coaching staff can't adapt, which is it?
I choose depth.

[degruch]

Depth..........

Crikey, a spare Roo and a spare Gram in the ressies? I think depth can only cover so much, rejigged gameplan to suit the available squad does the rest...that'd be our missing Plan B. Listening to RL's conference, sounds like a cunning plan is forming.

So we are a 2 man side?
I suppose that's better than a one man side.
If the side crumbles because of 2 players then we are in trouble.
Either we don't have enough depth or the Coaching staff can't adapt, which is it?
I choose depth.

It's the latter for mine. It's got nothing with being a 2 man side, covering Roo and Gram is a tough job. I'm sure Geelong couldn't cover GAblett and Scarlett, the Dogs couldn't cover Cooney and Higgins, the Swans couldn't cover Goodes and O'Keefe, etc. without it affecting their game in a major way. Remove guys of this calibre, most teams would be tripped up.

We've been lucky (or rather, well managed) with injuries during our stellar run of late, of course there'd be a degree of stumbling to find our feet with these guys out of the side. 2-3 wobbly weeks is fine by me, if the rot sets in long term, I'd be distressed.

[The Fireman]

Depth..........

Crikey, a spare Roo and a spare Gram in the ressies? I think depth can only cover so much, rejigged gameplan to suit the available squad does the rest...that'd be our missing Plan B. Listening to RL's conference, sounds like a cunning plan is forming.

So we are a 2 man side?
I suppose that's better than a one man side.
If the side crumbles because of 2 players then we are in trouble.
Either we don't have enough depth or the Coaching staff can't adapt, which is it?
I choose depth.

It's the latter for mine. It's got nothing with being a 2 man side, covering Roo and Gram is a tough job. I'm sure Geelong couldn't cover GAblett and Scarlett, the Dogs couldn't cover Cooney and Higgins, the Swans couldn't cover Goodes and O'Keefe, etc. without it affecting their game in a major way. Remove guys of this calibre, most teams would be tripped up.

We've been lucky (or rather, well managed) with injuries during our stellar run of late, of course there'd be a degree of stumbling to find our feet with these guys out of the side. 2-3 wobbly weeks is fine by me, if the rot sets in long term, I'd be distressed.

agreed...but I'm worried.

[degruch]

Depth..........

Crikey, a spare Roo and a spare Gram in the ressies? I think depth can only cover so much, rejigged gameplan to suit the available squad does the rest...that'd be our missing Plan B. Listening to RL's conference, sounds like a cunning plan is forming.

So we are a 2 man side?
I suppose that's better than a one man side.
If the side crumbles because of 2 players then we are in trouble.
Either we don't have enough depth or the Coaching staff can't adapt, which is it?
I choose depth.

It's the latter for mine. It's got nothing with being a 2 man side, covering Roo and Gram is a tough job. I'm sure Geelong couldn't cover GAblett and Scarlett, the Dogs couldn't cover Cooney and Higgins, the Swans couldn't cover Goodes and O'Keefe, etc. without it affecting their game in a major way. Remove guys of this calibre, most teams would be tripped up.

We've been lucky (or rather, well managed) with injuries during our stellar run of late, of course there'd be a degree of stumbling to find our feet with these guys out of the side. 2-3 wobbly weeks is fine by me, if the rot sets in long term, I'd be distressed.

agreed...but I'm worried.

I'm deferring my stress until it becomes so overbearing I no longer care...otherwise, I'm strapping myself in for a bumpy ride. Hang tough Firey.

[rodgerfox]

Gram had 5 Inside 50s against Carlton.

[plugger66]

Gram had 5 Inside 50s against Carlton.

Fascinating.

[SaintSimmo]

To me stats mean nothing, its that passion that matters, at the moment i think it is lacking.

[SainterK]

Gram had 5 Inside 50s against Carlton.

I give up, what point are you making here?

[Red]

Improvement comes from the youngest 9 players that played on the

weekend. All 24 years or less and played an average of 45 games.

These guys will keep improving as they get game time, let alone guys like

Jones, Fisher learning a new position, Goddard only being 25.

I believe there is more to like than what the doomsayers would like to

believe.

[samoht]

26 shots should win you most games....however not coverting those shots into goals was the problem. I think those misses come down to poor form...

We missed shots of course .. but Essendon created space and ran the ball in better - as in more quickly and directly and consequently had easier shots from closer in and straight in front ...shots they weren't going to miss.

[rexy]

There is not a lot of improvement left in our senior group, there is however improvement between their best and what we saw against Carlton and Essendon, the age of the group is irrelevant when you are winning and from that i dont mean you have to win every week, what I mean is if you have the oldest list in the comp but are a genuine premiership threat then that is fine, once you are not competitive then you start to look at the age of your list so that you can try to get a group together that can be together for long enough to win a flag. Sometimes this is a big adjustment like we saw from Carlton and Melbourne, sometimes it is a tweak like we saw from Collingwood and like Brisbane are hoping for now.

Also important to remember that neither Carlton or Essendon are easy beats, both sides are finalists from last year and are young and developing sides, you only have to be off your game marginally to drop games, if 3 losses say so much about our ability to be a contender this year then what do the losses by Collingwood and Freo to us say about their hopes? Both lost to us without Roo and Freo without Gram too.

The current list is good enough to win a flag, whether we do or not will rely on our ability to place ourselves well in the 8 for a crack, our ability to play the right brand of footy at the right time of the year, and the ability of 22 guys to want it as much and execute as well on the last day in September, along with all that you may also need some luck with injuries, MRP, umpires and the bounce of the ball along the way. There is not as big a contrast between the ability of the top 12 clubs as many think IMO.

Is the age of our list a concern?, yes, it is for the future, we have many similar aged players and I am not sure we have enough quality to build a team around for say 2014, 2015, is it a concern now? no, IMO peaks and troughs are the way footy works, we have a window to win a flag which probably has about 3 years to go, we are well placed IMO to put ourselves in a place to have a go at that for the next 3 years.

[Saint Mik]

No one has mentioned the fact that we lost LB for nothing knowing we had AL coming in and then used the first round pick on AL knowing we had Tommy Walsh signed, both would be handy in the side right now but hey shyte happens.

This slump is just that, nothing to do with depth IMO hang tough everyone and we will come out the other side a better team come September.

Just hope Rooey can prove the critics wrong and get back and fire Rodan like.

Have faith and Carn the Saints.

[plugger66]

No one has mentioned the fact that we lost LB for nothing knowing we had AL coming in and then used the first round pick on AL knowing we had Tommy Walsh signed, both would be handy in the side right now but hey shyte happens.

This slump is just that, nothing to do with depth IMO hang tough everyone and we will come out the other side a better team come September.

Just hope Rooey can prove the critics wrong and get back and fire Rodan like.

Have faith and Carn the Saints.

You have mentioned depth with Lovett and ball gone. of course our depth isnt great. Our seconds is hardly loaded with experienced players which means not great depth. Yes plenty of young players but who knows if many or any can play.

[saintspremiers]

Got anything else negative out of the game RF. If you look close enough surely you will find more.

Don't worry plugger, Grant just wants his old job back.

Isn't that right "Roger"??

[saintspremiers]

No one has mentioned the fact that we lost LB for nothing knowing we had AL coming in and then used the first round pick on AL knowing we had Tommy Walsh signed, both would be handy in the side right now but hey shyte happens.

This slump is just that, nothing to do with depth IMO hang tough everyone and we will come out the other side a better team come September.

Just hope Rooey can prove the critics wrong and get back and fire Rodan like.

Have faith and Carn the Saints.

Can I have what you are on?

Is it legal???