A New Form Of Cowardice

[backit]

Well said Dan, he has done more good things for this club with his selfless attitude than some supporters here realise. He is a team player first and foremost, he is also away from footy a very intelligent and articulate person who is preparing for his life after footy.

He was been frustating early in his career but has developed into the consumate professional and does what he is asked to do each week. He will get beaten sometimes but will also win his own ball. No different from any other player in AFL is expected to do.

[Stillwaiting]

Jason Blake is pure guts, word cowardice and his name should not be used in the same sentance

[shmic_s]

He's a champion of a player even if he isn't a champion player.

Well said Dan.

[CeilidhSaint]

Ace - I used to respect your opinions, don't now.
Ridiculous.

[stinger]

well said mate......d w that is...

[snoopygirl]

pretty sure thats the same blake who had his back cracked for him by that sniper from Sydney/RIchmond who dropped his knees into his back (I forgot his name) lost a yard of pace and spent a year coming back from injury and I understand from an article several years ago, he plays every game with injections and 'manages his pain', never seen him squib, back out from a fight, back out from charging the ball, defending his team mates and his space.

I'd be surprised if he was in the top 15 players at st kilda for wage.

Since then he's been called weak, soft, incompetent, round 3 trade bait, delist material, crap, pathetic, etc.

Well done blake, I have been a fan of you for almost your entire career, and look forward to another few years of sterling courageous service for the saints.

And to be honest despite all the criticism of the blake, its first time I've heard him being called a coward...

I'd say he is in he top echelon of st kilda players who would stand in front of a steam train at full tilt to win a premiership, which is more than you can say for some over the past 30 odd years i've been watching football.

ALso I think he's in the top 3 or 4 for effective disposal off the ball, so even if its short passes, he's doing it effectively.

DO you want him on the wing? how about putting blake in as a ruck rover? the man goes where ever every coach has asked him to go and done it manfully.

He's a champion of a player even if he isn't a champion player.

Well said Dan. The guy had his back broken by Stafford & I think it was his first game back when he ran back with the flight of the ball to take the mark against West Coast. Think we were about 90 points up at the time.

[Cairnsman]

KNOOOOOOOOB JOCKEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!

[lennstar]

Cowardice in football is usually associaed with a lack of physical courage.
Jason Blake has proven on many times that he comes pack full of physical courage.

But their is another form of cowardice.


Players are trained not to kick to a contest.
Instead they are trained to kick the ball back or sideways to a free player.
However failing to kick the ball quickly and forward allows opponents to flood ahead of the ball.
The result is that later it is almost impossible to find an opponent free ahead of the ball.

Kicking the ball sideways only works if a chain of kicks ends up with a teammate on the wing on the opposite side of the ground running goalward.
But all too often the ball movement is too slow resulting in the ball being passed back whence it came or in a turn over.
This is not cowardice as it is what the players are trained to do.

But the cowardice is lacking the guts to accept responsibility for your kicking.
In the case of Jason Blake after a mark, he kicks the ball sideways or back without having even bothered to look forward to see if there is a free player ahead of him.
He is scared that if he sees a free player ahead of him and kicks to him, he may miss his target and be responsible for a turnover.
He has brought this form of cowardice to a new art form.

This week he had players free ahead of him but never saw them, a few sideways kicks later a fellow defender misses his target and the crowd groans as the turnover results in a goal.
That fellow defender then takes the crowd's rap for Blake's cowardice.

Am I the only one who noticed that St Kilda's goals of recent weeks have almost all resulted from the quick forward movement of the ball before opponents could flood ahead of the ball.

This is the worst post I have ever read on this forum. Our club does not need or want supporters like you. Your credibility is now non existent.

[bozza1980]

Ordinary call. Gee it's easy making decision from the Grandstand isn't it??

Reeks of "hurry up and kick it" followed by "who are you kicking too?" when it misses the target. Or the other one I love is "Kick it too so and so" regardless of the fact he is 80m away.

It is obviously a direction that our backmen work the ball out a certain way. Not that I beleive that a winning team has no room for improvement, but you are slagging a structure that has provided 28 wins from our last 34 starts.

With your displeasure at the way this current team goes about it's footy you must have been an absolute barrel of laughs when we won 13 of 76 from mid 99 to the end of 02.

[Beej]

Then, go to training, and call Jason Blake a coward and see how far it gets you.

I assume you'll be going to training then to tell Adam Pattison that naming him is pointless because a carbon rod would be more useful?

Let us know how that goes.

Seriously what is the deal with naming Pattison...

Carbon rod would be a better choice.

[dcstkfc]

Cowardice in football is usually associaed with a lack of physical courage.
Jason Blake has proven on many times that he comes pack full of physical courage.

But their is another form of cowardice.


Players are trained not to kick to a contest.
Instead they are trained to kick the ball back or sideways to a free player.
However failing to kick the ball quickly and forward allows opponents to flood ahead of the ball.
The result is that later it is almost impossible to find an opponent free ahead of the ball.

Kicking the ball sideways only works if a chain of kicks ends up with a teammate on the wing on the opposite side of the ground running goalward.
But all too often the ball movement is too slow resulting in the ball being passed back whence it came or in a turn over.
This is not cowardice as it is what the players are trained to do.

But the cowardice is lacking the guts to accept responsibility for your kicking.
In the case of Jason Blake after a mark, he kicks the ball sideways or back without having even bothered to look forward to see if there is a free player ahead of him.
He is scared that if he sees a free player ahead of him and kicks to him, he may miss his target and be responsible for a turnover.
He has brought this form of cowardice to a new art form.

This week he had players free ahead of him but never saw them, a few sideways kicks later a fellow defender misses his target and the crowd groans as the turnover results in a goal.
That fellow defender then takes the crowd's rap for Blake's cowardice.

Am I the only one who noticed that St Kilda's goals of recent weeks have almost all resulted from the quick forward movement of the ball before opponents could flood ahead of the ball.

This is the worst post I have ever read on this forum. Our club does not need or want supporters like you. Your credibility is now non existent.

Ace is entitled to an opinion, perhaps some dramatic wording but I for one as a moderator still want ace on board! He never doubted Blakey's physical courage, and whislt I disagree with the contention of the post, it is still well within the rules, whereas your direct abuse is not what we want lennstar. Please reconsider the way you speak to others, regardless of whether or not you agree with their opinion.

[Beej]

"A man's got to know his limitations"

Blake's not the most highly skilled footballer so if he doesn't fancy dropping the footy onto a 10c piece which may easily result in a turnover, then does the team really want him to risk it? Give it to somebody who's more comfortable with the footy in their hands and let them take that risk - at least it's calculated.

Whenever BJ or Dal are around, they will always get the footy if they're free, even if the player in possession has an opportunity to use it himself.

They know their roles, I imagine dissecting the opposition's zone with pinpoint accuracy wouldn't be part of Blake's.

[Dis Believer]

The OP is a f****** jellyfish !!

How dare you - a man that with no hesitation does EXACTLY as instructed by his coach with no thought for anything other than the desired team outcome, is exactly what strong teams are built around.

The guy went against monster ruckman for a number of seasons, and has been smashed from arssehole to breakfast time for our jumper.

Pull your head in wanker !!

Oh and a big thanks to Neil, who along with Bakes was at our little guy's Auskick last Saturday morning. They played the night before and were both there on a cold, damp morning, smiling, taking drills, chatting to the kids, signing all sorts of stuff for them and both were very clearly, stiff, sore and hobbling. Nothing unusual, just the normal after game stuff for AFL players given what they subject their bodies too these days, but were still great for the kids given the mornings less then cheery conditions and the post match soreness.

[samoht]

The OP is not stating that Blake is a coward - but that he is not a risk taker with his kicking - to the extent that he perhaps sometimes ignores a better forward option , almost automatically opting/defaulting to a sideways or backward kick.

Maybe a better choice of words not involving the word "cowardice" (but it's obviously not "a form of cowardice" as Blake's body is not on the line here when he's kicking - so I don't understand how some are absurdly interpreting it to mean that ) would have been advisable.

But we need to cut people some slack - the OP just expressed an opinion, maybe a little too enthusiastically, with a poor selection of words perhaps ... but the reaction by some to the OP was excessive.

We can all see that Blake has courage to burn, the OP does too stating in the first paragraph "he is packed with physical courage" ; Blake doesn't need defending in that regard - so less knee jerking please.

[noob]

i agree with the op. i've seen plently of times as soon as blake marks the ball his vision isnt any where near looking forward. thats why you'll never see saints get a massive score (or scoreboard pressure) because guys like him dont like to look forward then creating the opposition to flood back for a few seconds. Other that everything is fine.

[gringo]

The way we play when in a holding pattern is to always hit up a player not a contested situation. They are instructed to build up slowly and in bursts slam the ball forward. They called it tempo footy at Sydney. But we did it all last year to good effect. Having Rooey out means we find it difficult to find a realistic forward option in space.

Not cowardice- instruction. Sometimes better option are harder to see from ground level.

[sunsaint]

Cowardice in football is usually associaed with a lack of physical courage.
Jason Blake has proven on many times that he comes pack full of physical courage.

But their is another form of cowardice.


Players are trained not to kick to a contest.
Instead they are trained to kick the ball back or sideways to a free player.
However failing to kick the ball quickly and forward allows opponents to flood ahead of the ball.
The result is that later it is almost impossible to find an opponent free ahead of the ball.

Kicking the ball sideways only works if a chain of kicks ends up with a teammate on the wing on the opposite side of the ground running goalward.
But all too often the ball movement is too slow resulting in the ball being passed back whence it came or in a turn over.
This is not cowardice as it is what the players are trained to do.

But the cowardice is lacking the guts to accept responsibility for your kicking.
In the case of Jason Blake after a mark, he kicks the ball sideways or back without having even bothered to look forward to see if there is a free player ahead of him.
He is scared that if he sees a free player ahead of him and kicks to him, he may miss his target and be responsible for a turnover.
He has brought this form of cowardice to a new art form.

This week he had players free ahead of him but never saw them, a few sideways kicks later a fellow defender misses his target and the crowd groans as the turnover results in a goal.
That fellow defender then takes the crowd's rap for Blake's cowardice.

Am I the only one who noticed that St Kilda's goals of recent weeks have almost all resulted from the quick forward movement of the ball before opponents could flood ahead of the ball.

This is the worst post I have ever read on this forum. Our club does not need or want supporters like you. Your credibility is now non existent.

Ace is entitled to an opinion, perhaps some dramatic wording but I for one as a moderator still want ace on board! He never doubted Blakey's physical courage, and whislt I disagree with the contention of the post, it is still well within the rules, whereas your direct abuse is not what we want lennstar. Please reconsider the way you speak to others, regardless of whether or not you agree with their opinion.

I for one as a poster am staggered that Lennstars' post was singled out for "abuse" when it was the mildest response to the OP, who by the way has dished out far worse in his time.
Anyway back to the OP discussion, Blake does tend to go sideways on instinct, but to single him out is unfair. You could have the same discussion with goddard vs NDS, the former tends to look downfield as the first option whereas the latter tends to go the other way.

[Beej]

Cowardice in football is usually associaed with a lack of physical courage.
Jason Blake has proven on many times that he comes pack full of physical courage.

But their is another form of cowardice.


Players are trained not to kick to a contest.
Instead they are trained to kick the ball back or sideways to a free player.
However failing to kick the ball quickly and forward allows opponents to flood ahead of the ball.
The result is that later it is almost impossible to find an opponent free ahead of the ball.

Kicking the ball sideways only works if a chain of kicks ends up with a teammate on the wing on the opposite side of the ground running goalward.
But all too often the ball movement is too slow resulting in the ball being passed back whence it came or in a turn over.
This is not cowardice as it is what the players are trained to do.

But the cowardice is lacking the guts to accept responsibility for your kicking.
In the case of Jason Blake after a mark, he kicks the ball sideways or back without having even bothered to look forward to see if there is a free player ahead of him.
He is scared that if he sees a free player ahead of him and kicks to him, he may miss his target and be responsible for a turnover.
He has brought this form of cowardice to a new art form.

This week he had players free ahead of him but never saw them, a few sideways kicks later a fellow defender misses his target and the crowd groans as the turnover results in a goal.
That fellow defender then takes the crowd's rap for Blake's cowardice.

Am I the only one who noticed that St Kilda's goals of recent weeks have almost all resulted from the quick forward movement of the ball before opponents could flood ahead of the ball.

This is the worst post I have ever read on this forum. Our club does not need or want supporters like you. Your credibility is now non existent.

Ace is entitled to an opinion, perhaps some dramatic wording but I for one as a moderator still want ace on board! He never doubted Blakey's physical courage, and whislt I disagree with the contention of the post, it is still well within the rules, whereas your direct abuse is not what we want lennstar. Please reconsider the way you speak to others, regardless of whether or not you agree with their opinion.

I for one as a poster am staggered that Lennstars' post was singled out for "abuse" when it was the mildest response to the OP, who by the way has dished out far worse in his time.
Anyway back to the OP discussion, Blake does tend to go sideways on instinct, but to single him out is unfair. You could have the same discussion with goddard vs NDS, the former tends to look downfield as the first option whereas the latter tends to go the other way.

I tend to agree with dcstkfc on this one.

For lennstar to speak on behalf of the club and say that it does not need supporters like ace is a really snide thing to say and is worse than a post full of profanities.

Ace has in all probability supported the club for the better part of his life and is entitled to an opinion on whatever he wants concerning the club whether good or bad IMO.

[shmic_s]

Some of the attacks on Ace have been a bit harsh.
I hope that if he had his time again he would re-word his post.
He did have a point, just could've taken a different angle to it.

We're all saints supporters here, and Ace seems to be passionate supporter. He is entitled to his opinon and i'm sure he can see why people reacted the way they did.

[sunsaint]

over the course becuase i have expressed the views that
wanted Cousins at the Saints
> go barrack for Richmond
was disgusted with the Ball debacle
>go barrack for collingwood

It is a common threat to posters, and newbies tend to cop the threat more often than not

[IluvHarvey]

pretty sure thats the same blake who had his back cracked for him by that sniper from Sydney/RIchmond who dropped his knees into his back (I forgot his name) lost a yard of pace and spent a year coming back from injury and I understand from an article several years ago, he plays every game with injections and 'manages his pain', never seen him squib, back out from a fight, back out from charging the ball, defending his team mates and his space.

I'd be surprised if he was in the top 15 players at st kilda for wage.

Since then he's been called weak, soft, incompetent, round 3 trade bait, delist material, crap, pathetic, etc.

Well done blake, I have been a fan of you for almost your entire career, and look forward to another few years of sterling courageous service for the saints.

And to be honest despite all the criticism of the blake, its first time I've heard him being called a coward...

I'd say he is in he top echelon of st kilda players who would stand in front of a steam train at full tilt to win a premiership, which is more than you can say for some over the past 30 odd years i've been watching football.

ALso I think he's in the top 3 or 4 for effective disposal off the ball, so even if its short passes, he's doing it effectively.

DO you want him on the wing? how about putting blake in as a ruck rover? the man goes where ever every coach has asked him to go and done it manfully.

He's a champion of a player even if he isn't a champion player.

Post of the year!!!!

[Leo.J]

[BAM! (shhhh)]

Cowardice in football is usually associaed with a lack of physical courage.
Jason Blake has proven on many times that he comes pack full of physical courage.

But their is another form of cowardice.

...

But the cowardice is lacking the guts to accept responsibility for your kicking.
In the case of Jason Blake after a mark, he kicks the ball sideways or back without having even bothered to look forward to see if there is a free player ahead of him.
He is scared that if he sees a free player ahead of him and kicks to him, he may miss his target and be responsible for a turnover.
He has brought this form of cowardice to a new art form.

What would be your opinion of someone who:

- makes a raft of assumptions about a persons mindset with no idea as to their instruction.
- puts the cart before the horse in arguing conclusion before premise (in this case, sideways = bad, contest = good).
- Comes to a conclusion based on this.
- Then rants a disparaging personal attack on the internet.

[bigred]

Then, go to training, and call Jason Blake a coward and see how far it gets you.

I assume you'll be going to training then to tell Adam Pattison that naming him is pointless because a carbon rod would be more useful?

Let us know how that goes.

Seriously what is the deal with naming Pattison...

Carbon rod would be a better choice.

Having another shot eh Beej.

Obsessed much?

[Moods]

I reckon Ace is too arrogant to withdrawal his comments, but his silence since making the comments are deafening....

On the positive side though, nothing unites a supporter group more than an unfair attack on one of their own. On second thoughts nice work Ace, I have rarely seen a thread this long be such in agreeance. Very honourable of you to take the hit to unite the SS board