team sheet

[3rd generation saint]

Well spinner, you obviously aren't interested in winning a premiership.

Sometimes tough decisions need to be made in order to break the status quo and messages sent.

As I said I believe that it was a choice between Montagna and Dal Santo to be dropped and dropping Dal would have the biggest impact.

Everybody here including me has been pleading for RL to do something, to make changes and when he does something big by dropping a below par performing marqee player we all scream, "oh don't drop our favourite player".

NDS has been picking up soft kicks all year, he has not progressed to the super player he could be.

Now under normal circumstances, you would drop Blake, Gwilt etc long before you would even consider dropping NDS, but this is not a normal circumstance, something had to be done to try snap this team out of it's lethargy.

Unfortunately, the injection of youth is something that should have been done 2 years ago and be a constant process.

The simple fact is that you should always be in a constant state of rebuilding your team, why do you think Geelong cleaned out Gardiner, Playfair and King?

They did it to make room in their salary cap and inject more youth into their premiership team.

Don't forget they won everything last year, including the Rising Star award for Selwood.

Hell we have had one nomination in 2 years which was Gilbert last year.

Now as I said I am no RL fan, personally after looking at the profiles of those who went for the job, Guy McKenna was a much better candidate to me than RL.

It is very likely that this move may blow up in RL's face, but if it works and NDS comes back into the side and plays blinders than we will all have to admit that RL actually did something right.

Even if NDS plays tonight, which is the consensus with some here, plays the best game we seen from him for the year and continues that form, then he still did the right thing because it showed NDS and others that they will be dropped if they don't perform to expectations and they wont get a game simply because of a name.

[meher baba]

Seriously....



However, I think the idea of dropping Dal is totally insane. Some posters are talking as if this was a normal approach taken towards star players who are a bit out of form. Bulldust!!

Players of NDS's class get dropped about as frequently as I get to participate in threesomes with supermodels.

.

MB....Dal was basically dropped last week.....at half time. He had a chance then to follow instruction and blithely chose not to.

NDS was not doing what the coach wanted and so he was put into the back line along with Milne.

He ignored his instructions...and the very strong hint of being in the backline itself and remained lose and accountable.

Not even the best player can stay in the team if they refuse to listen to the coach and act on instruction.

Look, I've read and considered this line of argument from yourself and a number of other posters on here. But, if it is indeed true that Lyon was trying to send NDS a message after half-time by playing him back, I am even less reassured than I was.

I actually think NDS has looked more like his old self over the past few weeks than he has for quite a while.

He has played up the ground more, contributed more, and looked to have loosened up a bit and to be actively looking for opportunities rather than playing in the rather hesitant way that he - and much of the rest of the team - had been playing. In a way, Dal seems to have been applying Westaway's rather odd golfing analogy, and has started to relax and not think about it all too much.

What you seem to be suggesting is that Lyon doesn't like this version of NDS, and would rather see him trying to play the same sort of game that the likes of Schneider and Jones are playing. If so, Lyon is an even worse coach than I thought he was. This isn't even the Sydney Swans-style anymore: it's something worse. Roos doesn't ask Goodes or O'Loughlin to play "accountable" football. Doesn't Lyon want to see any creativity on the field at all? Are we moving towards the approach of the German soccer team: 10 robots plus a creative striker who spends most of the game running around waving his arms in the air, but who is expected to be (and, with typical German efficiency, generally is) unerring when he does get a rare opportunity to put the ball in the net?

That isn't team sport, it's chess. And if Lyon is trying to be a chess master, he sure ain't no Kasparov!!

[BAM! (shhhh)]

the season is over we all knew that 2 weeks ago so RL would rather play a guy who gives 100% over a guys who doesnt ,even if the guy who doesnt give 100% is better then the guy who does, he wants the team to start doing the basics like playing for eachother and leaving nothing in the tank he wants players who are playing to their max potential . ive always said if a player of the skill of dal played with the effort and heart of Blake we would be looking at the first 5time brownlow medalist !!!

I sure didn't know the season was over 2 weeks ago. My calendar must be messed up, or I'm losing time - I'm still stuck in June!

The Saints next 3 games are Freo, North and Carlton. 1 should win game, and then 2 teams in the same part of the ladder as the Saints. If ever there was a chance to gain some momentum, or truly earn a write off, it's the next 3 weeks.

I really don't think the Blake over Dal comes down to "giving 100%", I'd suspect it's more likely that it's got to do with following instructions and being a willing role player... something the Blake, Dempster, Jones crowd do week in week out as a matter of course.

He'll be back in 6 weeks once he's re-trained himself at Casey as a tagger.

[Hard at it]

Seriously....



However, I think the idea of dropping Dal is totally insane. Some posters are talking as if this was a normal approach taken towards star players who are a bit out of form. Bulldust!!

Players of NDS's class get dropped about as frequently as I get to participate in threesomes with supermodels.

.

MB....Dal was basically dropped last week.....at half time. He had a chance then to follow instruction and blithely chose not to.

NDS was not doing what the coach wanted and so he was put into the back line along with Milne.

He ignored his instructions...and the very strong hint of being in the backline itself and remained lose and accountable.

Not even the best player can stay in the team if they refuse to listen to the coach and act on instruction.


And don't trot out that nonsense that he is an attacking player and should be allowed to run free. Just look at his "shot" on goal stunt when he had several unmarked team mattes to pass to.

Dal has been playing Dal-rules...rather than as a team mate for a while.


Dropping him to caset should give hima huge kick up the arse that he badly needs.

It was only a few weeks back that he was prattling on that the Saints would win a GF basically by the grace of justing hanging around. GF are only won by hard work...they are earnt...not given.

NDS has sublimes skills...but simply does not apply himself enough to be the truly elite player that he could be.

Good post SrR.
Dal Santo is not being dropped because he is lacking in ability, he is being dropped because he takes his position in our line up for granted. He has an abundance of natural talent as we all know, but he plays for himself, has been unaccountable and lazy all season. Dal Santo lost his place in the team i believe on the back of an insipid 2nd half last week. Dal Santo gave me the impression as though he thought he was above playing in the backline. To be playing in the backline and to be standing 15-20m off your man at a centre bounce is a disgrace. Dal Santo needs to learn that there is no I in TEAM, and on the odd occasion he may have to sacrifice his own game a little, and show some accountability, rather than just worring about seeing himself somewhere near the top of the stat sheet in the paper the next morning

Exactly. Dal Santo was like a spoilt child when he was thrown into the backline last week. He was sent to the backline to be taught a lesson, but to then be standing 15m off Jarred Moore, deep in defence, just as we looked like getting back into it is unacceptable.
Lyon leaving him as an emergency tonight though is idiotic, he has sent a message by dropping him, but if he comes in as a late change tonight he will look foolish.

[rodgerfox]

I wish more players stopped listening to what was coming from the coaches box.