Gosh we were good

[SaintWal]

Just watching the Rd5 2004 clash against Adelaide over there.

Our tackling was nothing short of ferocious. The commitment and backing of each other was seomething else.

Toughness- There was no Hamill or Baker playing in this match but the likes of Powell, Guerra, Thompson, Black, Voss. This is something that I personally think we are sadly lacking at present in our line up,genuine toughness, most of the guys mentioned would be terribly slow in the current game however they may not be out of place as it is my belief that good teams create their own style of football and then the rest of the sheep follow except for one or two teams who begin to forge their own style as well.

If you follow the above then you look at the years for premierships.

2001-2003 Brisbane - Team, Team, Team, Tough, hard, skilful football
2004 PA - Run
2005 Sydney - Team, Team, Team, Boring as crap but not seen before. Taking accountability to a new level
2006 WCE - Hard Run but with a defensive accountability similar to Sydney
2007 Geelong - Team, Team, Team, Hard Running Skilful football
2008 ? IMO Geelong or the Hawks. Geelongs game is all about team and Clarkson is getting the Hawks to that same level.

Back to the game-
A good reminder of how good Luke Ball was and Matt Maguire, they will get back to their best, Bally is getting there week by week.

The confidence of the running players to break at appropriate times, Black, Jones, Goddard and Dal Santo.

The ability of the group to fight back when down.

No Tempo bloody football. How many times this year have I seen teams travelling well until a player holds the ball above his head and tells the other team "we're putting the cue in the rack for the rest of the quarter" example - Freo end of second quarter last week.

This team, this year, can be a contender but boy they need to look in the rearview mirror a bit to see why a lot of the same players in 2004 are only a shadow of their former self in 2008.

End of Novel

[joffaboy]

And still we failed to win a flag in 2004.

Typical romantic embrace of mediocrity.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

And still we failed to win a flag in 2004.

Typical romantic embrace of mediocrity.

disagree entirely...all teams that become flag winners show a bit for a few years as the new kids on the black, have a season or two where things look a bit shaky...then full potential that was so obvious back in the younger years is realized

we have failed up until now...failed every year bar one of our existance...the group of players here right now have the ability to create a second year of non-failure...

[bigcarl]

.the group of players here right now have the ability to create a second year of non-failure...

agree. but they'd want to get moving.

[Iceman234]

Watched a few random bits and pieces of games from the streak the other day.

My God we were tough as nails at the footy and at the ball carrier - we fairly smashed them.

We weren't dirty, we just wanted to destroy anyone who had OUR ball.

Bally was just sensational back then, and I see him getting better and back to that each week. But he'll never kick that far again and needs to model himself on Harves' 20 metre specials.

Goose, it's a confidence thing, but I'm glad to see him make it through each week.

Roo, Harves, Max are still the same as they were in 2004, but maybe more passionate.

Many more just need to sit and watch and see the steely grit displayed then.

I deliberately didn't mention the other blokes because they're not part of the current team.

Current players need to watch and bloody well learn from them.

We were hard, attacking and damned good.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

.the group of players here right now have the ability to create a second year of non-failure...

agree. but they'd want to get moving.

i dislike looking at history however its a valuable tool when discussing this...the power, lions, cats, eagles all had a bad year or two...it was obvious the talent and the potential was there

they all won flags

as a community we know our best 22 on its day can beat anyone convincingly...give it time...

[bigcarl]

i dislike looking at history however its a valuable tool when discussing this...the power, lions, cats, eagles all had a bad year or two...it was obvious the talent and the potential was there

they all won flags.

only thing is that none of the above swapped coaches midstream.

that doesn't mean it can't be done, but it's got to come from the players imo

[Saints Premiers 2008]

i dislike looking at history however its a valuable tool when discussing this...the power, lions, cats, eagles all had a bad year or two...it was obvious the talent and the potential was there

they all won flags.

only thing is that none of the above swapped coaches midstream

lions did

made finals for a few years, looked promising, finished near the bottom, sacked the coach, appointed matthews, the rest is history

[Iceman234]

i dislike looking at history however its a valuable tool when discussing this...the power, lions, cats, eagles all had a bad year or two...it was obvious the talent and the potential was there

they all won flags.

only thing is that none of the above swapped coaches midstream

Can't be bothered looking but someone would have stats on their previous two or three years win/loss ratio's, attack/defence ratios and ladder possies of all those teams - whether they built up gradually with the occasional slip, or were at the top of the tree and slipped out of the eight (I know Cats did).

But that means nothing because this is 2008, and the Saints are an entirely different team to those teams who have achieved the ultimate success.

We are a team that has its own style of play (even though it’s not the game plan that the coach is telling the playing group to play to).

So we need to start playing 2008 football, not Lions, Swans, Eagles, or PA premiership football.

Geelong won in 2007 with fast attacking football.

At the moment, yes it’s only round 6, but the Cats, Dogs and Hawks appear to be playing 2008 premiership football.

And we are playing 2005 premiership football. Well we are trying to.

If this current style of football is not “the game planâ€

[Little Dozer]

And still we failed to win a flag in 2004.

Typical romantic embrace of mediocrity.

Typical poor response from so called Saintsational Legend.

[spert]

It was a pleasure to see us play all that good footy in 2004, but the opposition coaches soon sorted the weaknesses of some of our players out, and in the end of the day, it all came to nothing -no flag for all that effort.

[rodgerfox]

It was a pleasure to see us play all that good footy in 2004, but the opposition coaches soon sorted the weaknesses of some of our players out, and in the end of the day, it all came to nothing -no flag for all that effort.

Do you still really think that is why we didn't win the flag in 05 or 06?

[cwrcyn]

MEDIOCRITY????????????

One kick away from a Grand Final?

I'll take that mediocrity any day, especially RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

[spert]

Well Rodgerfox, I had better consult the Saints list of excuses for not winning a flag..it's a long list, longer than any other club's list I can think of.