Yes we lost, BUT

[LENNY LEADS THE WAY]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

[Otiman]

The final score flattered us.

[The Fireman]

hahahaha..ok now let's be serious, will we improve or go further backwards in 2009.

[saintsrus]

Another positive is Gardiner, he did well today

[evertonfc]

We were smashed, and more of this blind optimism will ensure we overlook the problems that are right in front of us.

[Stillwaiting]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

And thats the same excuses we have been using for 40 years, wake up

[Cairnsman]

Riewoldt should step aside immediately.

[matrix]

We were smashed, and more of this blind optimism will ensure we overlook the problems that are right in front of us.

damn friggin straight.

top four side?....
who we made look quite ordinary in the first quarter.
until eade change it around and yet again...lyon had no answer for...

"just bomb it in long boyz.....roo and koz will do the rest"

we will finish 10th or lower if we arent careful

[rixxo]

straight up we are no better than melbourne or carlton 10 years of this with Ross Lyon may as well take up supporting lawn bowls seriously if we dont start performing we will become one of the poorest teams in the league We should move to the gold coast .A loss is a loss so we better start gettin used to alot more .Roo should go definately not worth the pay check he gets .Ross if you read any of these posts you should be ashamed of yourself and your team .

[Stillwaiting]

We were smashed, and more of this blind optimism will ensure we overlook the problems that are right in front of us.

damn friggin straight.

top four side?....
who we made look quite ordinary in the first quarter.
until eade change it around and yet again...lyon had no answer for...

"just bomb it in long boyz.....roo and koz will do the rest"

we will finish 10th or lower if we arent careful

well we should start tanking and get the no 1 pick, then maybe we dont need to tank to get it

[Saintschampions08]

We were smashed, and more of this blind optimism will ensure we overlook the problems that are right in front of us.

damn friggin straight.

top four side?....
who we made look quite ordinary in the first quarter.
until eade change it around and yet again...lyon had no answer for...

"just bomb it in long boyz.....roo and koz will do the rest"

we will finish 10th or lower if we arent careful

Yeah right thats it.

It had nothing to do with how abysmal their kicking was during the first quarter, which then ... surprise surprise ... improved unlike ours.

You can't blame Lyon for that.

What did you want him to do, get the ball to our other forwards? Milne and Schneider? Oh wait...

Maybe he should have kept Ferguson up at Full Forward, would have done really well with his whole 2 touches.

[matrix]

no but bombing it forwrd didnt work did it?

how about hitting a bloke on the tit as he leads out from the 50.

no..lets bomb it forward, let it come to a contest, hit the deck and then let their numbers run it out and score doing exactly the OPPOSITE to what we were doing.
ie....run it down, create space and hit a leading target.

EXACTLY what they did last time.....

[meher baba]

We lost easily to a team to whom, according to my recollection, we did not lose in 2005, 2006 or 2007.

We lost to a team which finished below us last year and which, like Geelong in 2006, seemed to most observers to be going backwards (I recall that, at the start of the season, I was one of the very few posters on here who picked the Bulldogs even to make the top eight in 2008).

We lost to a team which we beat at the beginning of 2007 with broadly similar player line-ups.

The Bulldogs improved rapidly during 2005-06, and yet we were far enough ahead of them to have their measure quite easily. The only substantial difference to their current list is the addition of Aker. Like us, they have lost key players (Smith and Grant) and have other stars who are approaching the end of their careers (West and Johnston).

Otherwise, it is a question of substantial development by Eade and the club generally of a group of younger players who started behind our group of draftees of the 2000-02 period and have now moved beyond us.

As we saw last season when they lost a lot of players to injury, the Dogs arguably have a weaker overall list than us.

Like us, they play a variety of keepings off, coralling and tempo football. But they play it with a passion, pace and precision that we haven't seen at our club since the second half of 2006.

Like our performance in the first game against the Bulldogs this season, which totally sickened me, today was another benchmark game which shows how quickly we are going backwards.

Some of you might wish to continue to keep your heads in the sand and pretend that the events of September 2006 didn't have a fair bit to do with our decline (and please note that I did not say that everything that is wrong now is due to the replacement of GT by RL).

I don't know how you keep it up, but good on you.

I'm just going to reach for the bottle of wine in the cupboard and drown my sorrows.

[Saintschampions08]

no but bombing it forwrd didnt work did it?

how about hitting a bloke on the tit as he leads out from the 50.

no..lets bomb it forward, let it come to a contest, hit the deck and then let their numbers run it out and score doing exactly the OPPOSITE to what we were doing.
ie....run it down, create space and hit a leading target.

EXACTLY what they did last time.....

We have, and i'm not exaggerating, 4 players who can hit someone on the chest 8 out of 10 times.

Goddard,
Dal Santo,
Harvey,

and then when you add up Birss, Montagna, Hayes and Ball, you get your 4th.

Did you think, maybe part of the reason they were, and keep, bombing it in, is because they can't kick?

[rixxo]

More like we just cant play football at the level thats required these days .

[matrix]

no but bombing it forwrd didnt work did it?

how about hitting a bloke on the tit as he leads out from the 50.

no..lets bomb it forward, let it come to a contest, hit the deck and then let their numbers run it out and score doing exactly the OPPOSITE to what we were doing.
ie....run it down, create space and hit a leading target.

EXACTLY what they did last time.....

We have, and i'm not exaggerating, 4 players who can hit someone on the chest 8 out of 10 times.

Goddard,
Dal Santo,
Harvey,

and then when you add up Birss, Montagna, Hayes and Ball, you get your 4th.

Did you think, maybe part of the reason they were, and keep, bombing it in, is because they can't kick?

nope...they can kick..i never said we cant kick. never even mentioned anyone that couldnt kick.....
question i want to know is why OH why are we constantly bombing it in the 50?
somehow i dont think the players just decide to do this on the spur of a moment thing...
look how easily they did it (again)...and look how easily we didnt (again)
not looking for an argument...just want to know why we are playing this style

[Saintschampions08]

Some of you might wish to continue to keep your heads in the sand and pretend that the events of September 2006 didn't have a fair bit to do with our decline (and please note that I did not say that everything that is wrong now is due to the replacement of GT by RL).

Their is no doubt that RL isn't a supercoach, or even a good coach as his record shows.

But the irritating thing is the misconception that we'd be better off if we'd still had GT, or picked another coach, or a more attacking coach.

We were going backwards in '06, we went backwards in '07 and now we're just continuing the trend.

RL, GT or Santa Clause couldn't have done much better. Not with this group of players.

[Spinner]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

Get a clue.

[danners]

our problem:

WE DO NOT WANT TO GO IN HARD.

we dont want to put pressure on them, instead we zone off in the midfield and let them get the ball and get clean kicks into the forward line.

[matrix]

i dont like to get into the whole who was the better coach debate...god damn theres enough of that on here sometimes its not funny...

BUT

i do think that the players seemed to respond and really want to play for GT...more of a personal thing.

then again, this year is totally diff to the previous ones.
how would we have gone against the dogs cats or the hawks this year under GT???
in all honesty it prob wouldnt be much better imo....
but really, we cant compare can we, total dif year against total diff teams.

only worry about the here and now....and what we have.

[3rd generation saint]

Yes and if we keep losing we will eventually end up with the prize this club seems to cherish most because it accepts defeat to easily.
The Wooden Spoon, and we are the masters of winning that.
Question, do you know the 1990's was St.Kilda's second most successful decade why?
Because we got to a Grand Final and didn't win a wooden sponn for that decade.

[StSteven]

I was there, I was disgusted at the lack of effort, I was embarassed and I am convinced that there are players that should be sent back for weeks, Milne is firts in line.

They do not play at AFL intensity or skill. We are a long way behind the middle pack.


I give up!!!!! No more games for me this year. It hurts too much.

I agree Roo is an average player. Great mark. That's all. I cannot believe he is fit.

They are not team players. Dal Santo flash but no chaase or tackles.....hell why should I even bother analysing them. The dream is over for a long time.

[Life Long Saint]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

But we have only beaten one team above us on the ladder...Sydney. And they will smash us next week. Port Adelaide will go ahead of us tonight and you can add them to the list of teams that have beaten us and made us look soft.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

The fact is that we have only troubled Collingwood of the teams above us that have beaten us.

The Bulldogs, Geelong, Port Adelaide and Brisbane have killed us all over the ground.
Gee, even the Tigers killed us everywhere but the scoreboard.

WE ARE SOFT, SOFT, SOFT.

It's amazing really. We are playing defensive footy but not stopping opposition goals, accountable footy but letting the opposition tear us apart.

We are being poorly coached as we are either failing to deliver the game plan or not willing to execute it. Either way, the coach is out of touch with the entire playing group.

The sign of a strong game plan is that it still works when the pressure is on. Where does ours go? It's a beauty against the sides that don't apply that pressure but it stinks up the whole Telstra Dome when we play a side that actually goes in hard for the ball.

[brown-coat]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

Great stuff Lenny.

More delusional posts from you are just what the stkilda community needs now. Everythings fine , Raph Clarke is a great player etc etc.

[ratismeat]

We lost to a top 4 team today.

We lost to a team who showed the hawks up last week.

If Brad Johnson kicks a goal after the siren against the roos they would be top of the ladder right now.

We are good enough to mix it with the best we lost by 5 goals and didn't take our chances early we could've won this so we can compete with the best.

I'm so frustrated and so annoyed and hurting so bad and not looking for ecuses just trtying to find some positives in theses very dark days.

Worst post I've read today, by a country mile. Today was a BIG game which I thought we would lose - but I thought we would be bruised, angry, that it would be contested and fierce. It was in fact weak, boring, and an absolute clinic on how to look like a bunch of amateurs. With a few exceptions, who seem to be exceptions every week, this was SH!T.