Are we heavy loading?

[older saint]

After watching last night i thought back to last year and had a look back to try and see a pattern. Last night to me was a team which looked tired and not switched on. About this time last year , perhaps a week or 2 later the same thing happened. It probably wasn't as noticable as the team was playing better football and the competition was not as even through the middle rung of teams.

This seaon has been interupted with game style and approach to the game has changed. What will hold us in good stead i believe is the team has now developed 2-3 different game styles. We are struggling a little to implement a third or forth one from my perspective at the moment a mix of pre roo injury and post roo injury.

Call me a fool but i think RL is a good poker player and holds back the odd ace for when it really matters. The lack of effort last night was inexcusable heavy loading or not but as said before Premierships are not won in July and 4th is as good as 1st come the first week of September.

The main concern to me is a small quick defender so I would like to see if Miles could play that role and if not perhaps Geary or Peake needs to do that role.

[widereceiver]

You may be crazy but if they are not training the bejeezus out of them, we are toast and it'll be 1998 revisited

[SainterK]

I think we are, other things for certain that makes me think we are currently in 'september ready' mode.

We have decided to play an underdone Roo and Gram, for the sake of run into their legs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gardiner has not rested forward for over a month now and spends more time on the bench

Dal, CJ and perhaps Goddard (?) seem to have had a rotational rest

Kosi wasn't rushed back from a rolled ankle, and Raph has not been rushed back but is instead working on his conditioning to ensure he is 100%

Gram went for surgery to fix a niggling injury while out with his hamstring.

The players just seem listless, impatient and flat about the H&A seeason.

[chook23]

I think we are, other things for certain that makes me think we are currently in 'september ready' mode.

We have decided to play an underdone Roo and Gram, for the sake of run into their legs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gardiner has not rested forward for over a month now and spends more time on the bench

Dal, CJ and perhaps Goddard (?) seem to have had a rotational rest

Kosi wasn't rushed back from a rolled ankle, and Raph has not been rushed back but is instead working on his conditioning to ensure he is 100%

Gram went for surgery to fix a niggling injury while out with his hamstring.

The players just seem listless, impatient and flat about the H&A seeason.

bit of denial in your post to the current problems

[Buckets]

Lyon on 3AW hinted to the fact that they had done some extra loading during the week. So you could be onto something!

[SainterK]

I think we are, other things for certain that makes me think we are currently in 'september ready' mode.

We have decided to play an underdone Roo and Gram, for the sake of run into their legs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gardiner has not rested forward for over a month now and spends more time on the bench

Dal, CJ and perhaps Goddard (?) seem to have had a rotational rest

Kosi wasn't rushed back from a rolled ankle, and Raph has not been rushed back but is instead working on his conditioning to ensure he is 100%

Gram went for surgery to fix a niggling injury while out with his hamstring.

The players just seem listless, impatient and flat about the H&A seeason.

bit of denial in your post to the current problems

I have made plenty of posts about our current problems, even created a thread about an alarming over reliance on Roo again, this was in response to the vibe of a potential heavy loading that was raised in this thread?

[Finna]

Maybe we are loading and it could explain something.

Having said that if you really think that's what's going on for us right now then you need to Wake Up!

We have a few issues at the moment and it ain't f****** loading.

[saintnick12]

Lyon on 3AW hinted to the fact that they had done some extra loading during the week. So you could be onto something!

Yep, caught some of the interview and certainly hinted that they had done some altitude work, and worked them hard and building. Certainly made it clear that it was no excuse for our output though

[Thinline]

We are loaded heavily with passengers presently, that's for sure.

[saintnick12]

We are loaded heavily with passengers presently, that's for sure.

Certainly are. I shouldn't laugh, for its very serious, but your quote made me laugh. Sometimes gotta find the humour in these things.

[jonesy]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

[SydneySainter]

Rubbish excuse. Justifies nothing!

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

Spot on.
Although there is every chance we are in a heavy training schedule, but if you want to know where we're at, you just need to look at Ross' reactions. Especially last night. If everything was going to plan he'd have been cool as a cucumber and he was far from that. Unless he's very, very good at acting. And if you believe that, you probably also believe that losing the GF last year was also part of his master plan.
Things are not going well, or at least weren't, up until the start of the last quarter last night. If they go on like they ended last night, then we'll be back on a good track pretty quickly.

[SydneySainter]

Things are not going well, or at least weren't, up until the start of the last quarter last night. If they go on like they ended last night, then we'll be back on a good track pretty quickly.

We kicked six goals to four when the game was over. Wouldn't draw much confidence from that.

[saintsRrising]

Only thing the players are heavily loading on is egos and getting ahead of themselves.

Coach summed it up....our players turned up expecting and easy game and refused to work hard...and got royally spanked as a consequence.

Hardest working team will triumph in Sept.

Hayes is like Banger, or Max....when they leave the field at the end of the game you knew that they game their all.

About 20 of our players could not claim that last night.

[older saint]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

Not making excuses as i said last nights lack of effort was terrible, however unlike some I remove the emotion and irrational thoughts and try to see whether there is a logical explanation for the change in performance.

Not sure we are in loading but seems to be a possible reason for things as opposed to some of the rubbish here of drop him, sack him, trade him .... who only a month ago when we beat Geelong was love him, keep him etc etc

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Things are not going well, or at least weren't, up until the start of the last quarter last night. If they go on like they ended last night, then we'll be back on a good track pretty quickly.

We kicked six goals to four when the game was over. Wouldn't draw much confidence from that.

I would, because they played very well and actually attacked, in that time. And scored. Something they haven't been doing much lately.
And the game wasn't over. If Peake had kicked that soccer goal from 1m out, we would have been under 30 points down, from memory, with about 15 min of match time left. We were on a major roll at that point and the Essendon fans around us were getting worried, as their players and coaching staff would have been, because they've been notorious this year for conceding large numbers of goals in a row.
At that point we looked like scoring almost every minute, so 5 in 15 minutes, against them, especially, was far from out of the question. This group believe they can win from almost anywhere, so for them the game was certainly not over. Especially against a team like Essendon, who would most likely panic if we got close.
Essendon may have not been going full pelt, early in the last, but neither were we in the earlier quarters. Would that mean Essendon can take no confidence from how they played in those 3? If they can take confidence form the first 3, we can take confidence from the last, because, no matter what, we played well.

[dcstkfc]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

Spot on.
Although there is every chance we are in a heavy training schedule, but if you want to know where we're at, you just need to look at Ross' reactions. Especially last night. If everything was going to plan he'd have been cool as a cucumber and he was far from that. Unless he's very, very good at acting. And if you believe that, you probably also believe that losing the GF last year was also part of his master plan.
Things are not going well, or at least weren't, up until the start of the last quarter last night. If they go on like they ended last night, then we'll be back on a good track pretty quickly.

Could it be that after two years of intense footy for no ultimate reward the players are simply waiting for September to really find their A-game. Hope so.

[noob]

It's just amazing though we actually played well when we knew we couldn't catch up. It was like oh well might as well try something different we already losing and it actually worked. I'm not sure if essendon were just cooling it down because they were up so much but our input was sort of a little better. We got about 8 goals in 35 minutes from straight direct footy of footy.. the 80 minutes we only got 3. It happens far too much, that we seem to want our goal plays perfect.

[saintnick12]

Could it be that after two years of intense footy for no ultimate reward the players are simply waiting for September to really find their A-game. Hope so.

I hope you are right. We need to find that A game and find it quick. We've been there abouts for years, since 2004 - yet haven't managed to get the big prize. Last year was such an improvement and this year has been such a year of disappointments, yet we are still 3rd and in with a chance. Our best is still good enough against anyone, we just have to find it again.

[True Blue Sainter]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

This.

So what if we're heavy loading? The EFFORT wasn't there. The INTENSITY. These things aren't affected by how much training we've done during the past few weeks.

Abysmal.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Clutching at straws.

Let's not make excuses,the last month has been pathetic,not just last night.

Put on a replay of most of last years games and watch the difference in appetite for the contest to this years. The attack on the ball and contest is miles apart

Spot on.
Although there is every chance we are in a heavy training schedule, but if you want to know where we're at, you just need to look at Ross' reactions. Especially last night. If everything was going to plan he'd have been cool as a cucumber and he was far from that. Unless he's very, very good at acting. And if you believe that, you probably also believe that losing the GF last year was also part of his master plan.
Things are not going well, or at least weren't, up until the start of the last quarter last night. If they go on like they ended last night, then we'll be back on a good track pretty quickly.

Could it be that after two years of intense footy for no ultimate reward the players are simply waiting for September to really find their A-game. Hope so.

I've been thinking that for much of the year, so I hope so, but it's a dangerous game to play. Momentum is very important. If we think we're just going to flick it on like a switch in round one of the finals, against either Geelong or Collingwood, who will have much more confidence and momentum (if things don't change in the meantime) then we'll almost certainly be playing an elimination final the week after.

[SaintSimmo]

I think we are, other things for certain that makes me think we are currently in 'september ready' mode.

We have decided to play an underdone Roo and Gram, for the sake of run into their legs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gardiner has not rested forward for over a month now and spends more time on the bench

Dal, CJ and perhaps Goddard (?) seem to have had a rotational rest

Kosi wasn't rushed back from a rolled ankle, and Raph has not been rushed back but is instead working on his conditioning to ensure he is 100%

Gram went for surgery to fix a niggling injury while out with his hamstring.

The players just seem listless, impatient and flat about the H&A seeason.

Spot on i reckon.

[saintspremiers]

Until we are locked into Top 4, it all bullshyte talking about getting ready for September.

Finish outside Top 4, and we are farked.

[markp]

Lyon on 3AW hinted to the fact that they had done some extra loading during the week. So you could be onto something!

Yep, caught some of the interview and certainly hinted that they had done some altitude work, and worked them hard and building. Certainly made it clear that it was no excuse for our output though

He didn't 'hint' at either... he stated outright that they loaded the players up during the week and did some altitude training.