Positives from the Tigers game.

[saintspremiers]

The crowd size was excellent. Nearly 30K. Maybe the freebee offer helped a bit?

[plugger66]

Happy with Savage , Longer, Minchington, Delaney, Shenton, Milera and Webster(though he should be on ball or forward of centre)..all will improve. Stanley did a few good things, but just needs to be consistent and do it more often. Negatives to me are from a coaching perspective- team again not switched on at first bounce, game lost again in first quarter. Terrible midfield structure with no defensive strategies obvious, allowing opposition mids clear path through centre area at ball ups, and general clearance work is appalling.

I will say it again. I have watched AFL for a long time but I still dont see how a supporter knows its a terrible midfield structure. Maybe the players just arent good enough at the moment. Can you tell me how they structure up now at stoppages and how they should? And how does all our coaches get jobs if you can see the structure is all wrong?

Spert you are going to be complaining for at tleast another year and half because of 2 things. We will probably get worse before we get better and AR will still be coach until the end of next season.

Certainly nothing to do with structure. As Richo said in his post match press conference, too many blokes were getting sucked into the contest to try and win the footy. Just looks horrible when we don't win the ball and there are 3 or 4 opposition players on the outside putting the afterburners on. Fixing little things like that with more communication and awareness with the players on field will go along way to ensuring we are in games for longer.

Thats exactly right and losing lenny next year will make things even worse. You have picked up exactly the reason you need experience on the ground. We surely will not Joey go as well next season. Players will not learn with those players gone.

[The Fireman]

Lenny will be a huge loss...his toughness in close and his skillful delivery afterwards will be sorely missed.

[Fluttz]

Happy with Savage , Longer, Minchington, Delaney, Shenton, Milera and Webster(though he should be on ball or forward of centre)..all will improve. Stanley did a few good things, but just needs to be consistent and do it more often. Negatives to me are from a coaching perspective- team again not switched on at first bounce, game lost again in first quarter. Terrible midfield structure with no defensive strategies obvious, allowing opposition mids clear path through centre area at ball ups, and general clearance work is appalling.

I will say it again. I have watched AFL for a long time but I still dont see how a supporter knows its a terrible midfield structure. Maybe the players just arent good enough at the moment. Can you tell me how they structure up now at stoppages and how they should? And how does all our coaches get jobs if you can see the structure is all wrong?

Spert you are going to be complaining for at tleast another year and half because of 2 things. We will probably get worse before we get better and AR will still be coach until the end of next season.

Certainly nothing to do with structure. As Richo said in his post match press conference, too many blokes were getting sucked into the contest to try and win the footy. Just looks horrible when we don't win the ball and there are 3 or 4 opposition players on the outside putting the afterburners on. Fixing little things like that with more communication and awareness with the players on field will go along way to ensuring we are in games for longer.

Thats exactly right and losing lenny next year will make things even worse. You have picked up exactly the reason you need experience on the ground. We surely will not Joey go as well next season. Players will not learn with those players gone.

You think Lenny won't go on? It probably would be the best for him to finish up this season, not be one of those blokes who plays on and can't impact or gets injured then regrets going on the last season. Don't want him to finish up though, he has been such a champion of the club and game.

[Enrico_Misso]

The crowd size was excellent. Nearly 30K. Maybe the freebee offer helped a bit?

Yes, to almost but not quite break even against a Melb team with a huge supporter base really shows what a fantasticly well set up stadium Jihad is!

[plugger66]

The crowd size was excellent. Nearly 30K. Maybe the freebee offer helped a bit?

Yes, to almost but not quite break even against a Melb team with a huge supporter base really shows what a fantasticly well set up stadium Jihad is!

Dont see how the set up of the stadium has to do with us making money or not. More to do with the silly deal.

[skeptic]

Jones experience was pretty vital

[plugger66]

Jones experience was pretty vital

Still trying to suck me in on that. Wish you could answer that basic question regarding our coaches you have been happy with and who you think have done a good job with the club. By the way if you are suggesting that CJ didnt help the side because we lost and experience isnt important then there is no point in playing any go 30 years and over.

[Dave McNamara]

The crowd size was excellent. Nearly 30K.

So we nearly won't have to pay out any money to Dockedlands for this home game...

[skeptic]

Jones experience was pretty vital

Still trying to suck me in on that. Wish you could answer that basic question regarding our coaches you have been happy with and who you think have done a good job with the club. By the way if you are suggesting that CJ didnt help the side because we lost and experience isnt important then there is no point in playing any go 30 years and over.

Yep not suggesting that at all. I just don't believe in playing those that aren't performing well. I understand with younger players that by playing them more then they could improve... However the closer u r to 30, you need to be performing...
Hayes, Roo, Dempster, Monty etc despite fluctuations in form are still reasonably cemented in the top 22. CJ however, for those reasons that I previously mentioned which you are selectively ignoring, simply doesn't cut it. I have no issue playing him but he's not playing well for a senior. I'd rather put games into Curren or Saunders when they're struggling so they can work through it... I just cannot fathom the logic of playing CJ at a subpar standard.

As for the coaches thing, i actually really liked RL... I thought from about mid 2010 onwards (though i wasn't as vocal about it back then) that his team selections started to get bizarre... Then 2011 onwards i found his team development approach to be really illogical and somewhat dumbfounding.
I still think he's a good match day coach and i think he was one of the best leaders our playing group ever had but he has a bias about him that IMO makes him quite flawed as a coach. This messiah thing ppl have with him really bothers me as well... His W/L ratio is really skewed by the fact that he's not had to coach teams not vying for a flag and hence I think he's overrated.

SW was harder to pick. He started off well enough but out of everyone i just couldn't make sense of what he did on game day. Seemed Very erratic. As it turned out, he was just as erratic off-field. What made me wonder though was i actually liked what he was doing with the list.

AR i actually quite like so far. His demeanour, the stuff he says, the way he is with the fans etc. as of late, i've found some of his moves hard to u/s though i get that he doesn't have much to work with

[thejiggingsaint]

I like the culture that Alan Richardson and his coaching panel are building at the St Kilda football club. I know some folk have criticised the "video reports" from AR, but I like 'em (not the results aspect however!) Why don't folk just settle in for a rough ride for the next season or two, accept it as a necessary part of the rebuild and SUPPORT the club and it's players to the best of our ability? Don't worry, this guy (AR) is no mug, and once he's got this season done and dusted we WILL see the beginnings of the resurgence (albeit in small steps) of the club we all love. Honestly, I've never felt more confident of anything! This bloke, is the goods!

[Saint wagga]

I agree with thejiggingsaint...it seems that the club knows it, the media know it, and the rest of the footy world knows it...we are in total rebuild mode, and perhaps still haven't quite bottomed out (Although i reckon this middle patch of the this year was the 'bottom')...the club seems to have installed excellent people into crucial positions of structure...our fairly recent history shows we are generally more of a club of flood or drought as opposed to the Richmonds, Carltons, Bombers, even Doggies...Loved that stat that showed we were had the best average ladder spot over a ten year period...sustained success, which unfortauntely wan't matched by sound planning and structure in place...but it's done and dusted now...paraphrasing Paul Keating, this is the bottoming out that we not so much needed, but really just couldn't avoid given our list...But geez, i'm licking my lips in anticipation of our rise up the ladder and getting pay back on some of the teams that are currently treating us with disdain (Yes that's you Hawthron and Geelong!!) Father time will catch up with their lists sooner rather than later...

[thejiggingsaint]

Saint wagga I love your work! Good on you my fellow Sainter! Go Saints! ( to hell with the rest! )