Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
Wayne42 wrote: ↑Mon 11 Jul 2022 5:20pm
The more injuries the Saints have and the more players held over as Emergencies when the Saints and Sandy play on the same day weakens Sandy's team.
The Sandy players that don't play at Sandy on game day due to a lack of available spots get farmed out to other leagues due to the VFL doing away with their reserves teams.
That has to affect the development of those Sandy players who go off and play levels below the VFL.
I was reading some interviews with Sandy players and they were talking about how their team changes every week and how they have to do their best to gell with a revolving door of teammates.
Mr Batchelor has a tough gig.
Some really good points, but all the other clubs have those same disadvantages in that respect though.
Not potting the coach, rather just questioning the wisdom of our current alignment with another club, which doesn't appear to be bearing fruit.
WellardSaint wrote: ↑Sun 10 Jul 2022 6:04pm
Not sure this is relevant
Players returning to the seniors and really struggling is relevant, I think.
Who?
I don't like to name individual names on a fan site unless it's positive as I don't like to ever pot a St KIlda player. My point is that players tend to not come into the seniors and appear ready to play at the highest level, and that includes some players with immense talent and who I have the highest respect for.
I would like to see the players in the reserves being developed into AFL standard players and at the moment I am not seeing that. I am no expert but players tearing it up at Sandy who get a senior call up and look all at sea is not a great advertisement for our reserves.
I guess what I was getting at is, is that distinctly a Sandy issue?
B.M wrote: ↑Mon 11 Jul 2022 7:36pm
Reserves never go well if the seniors have key injuries
That’s the case in any level of competition
With a full list at the start of the year, when the seniors were winning Sandy looked very good
BTW
In a stand alone team - who fills up spots when we are short of players?!
44 on the list
22+1 in the seniors
1 or 2 emergencies
6 to 8 injuries (on a good week)
That leaves 12-14 in the reserves!
Most weeks we would need 8-10 fill ins - where do they come from?
Agree BM, but other VFL teams supplementary players seem to be a level above Sandringhams. They have no key defenders/forwards and no decent mids. Basically if the Saints dont have a full list fit Sandringham are rubbish.
Hate to be right, but a couple of players go out with covid protocols and in come some players who have been playing down at Sandy and struggle yet again.
Whereas the Dogs bring in players from their reserves and they are ready to go.
This alignment is a big reason we are struggling right now. We cannot develop players to the same level as other teams. The players don't come prepraed and have the required urgency in their play when they are in the senior team.