Your thoughts on win/loss and rotating players in 2010

[SainterK]

Hypothetically speaking of course, what are you wanting to see next year...

Do you want to see the boys burst out of the blocks again, working early to achieve the best possible ladder position come finals?

Are you looking at a more measured approach, with perhaps some of the more senior players having rests for niggles if required?

As good as 2009 was for pretty much knowing by going to watch the Saints you were about to spectate a win, just how many are you willing to let through if it may mean being better prepared for finals footy?

[Beej]

Get our skates on early positioning ourselves for a top 2 spot.

Mid-season lull.

Finish the season playing our best football of the year.

[SainterK]

Get our skates on early positioning ourselves for a top 2 spot.

Mid-season lull.

Finish the season playing our best football of the year.

Come on, how many losses are you prepared to sit through for the greater good?

[Con Gorozidis]

well looking back over the last decade. and lee matthews is very simple on this. what matters is being the champions of 4 weeks of september. being the champion of the august is worth zilch.

yes u have to get there. but september is all that counts. so take each week as it comes on its merits. but if players are tiring or have wear and tear injuries. rest them.

[bigcarl]

wrap up a top two spot and then, if necessary, rest up a few niggles.

make sure we hit september with momentum.

[SydneySainter]

Hypothetically speaking of course, what are you wanting to see next year...

Do you want to see the boys burst out of the blocks again, working early to achieve the best possible ladder position come finals?

Are you looking at a more measured approach, with perhaps some of the more senior players having rests for niggles if required?

As good as 2009 was for pretty much knowing by going to watch the Saints you were about to spectate a win, just how many are you willing to let through if it may mean being better prepared for finals footy?

Sometimes you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Get off to a flyer and cement your top four spot, but risk slipping out of form at the wrong end of season.

Or take it slow, hit your straps at the right time but risk still battling it out for a top four spot come Round 22.

I say get off to the best possible start and if you're in that good a form, lock in your top four spot, then rest any players that NEED resting and re-group just before finals...which is pretty much what happened this year, though maybe they'll time the player's rest a little earlier. But in regards to resting players, I know there will be plenty who say 'rest up now and if we get a loss or two, then so be it, it's September that counts'. But the moment we get a loss from resting players, the doom and gloom threads will start again.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

As for resting playing

[dals_da_bomb]

no one like to watch there team lose during the home and away season.
Last year was a fantastic year for us sainters, everyone talking that we are unstoppable, notcopig any crap from work mates, enjoying the weekends, liking the paper headlines, but after then Grand Final it means nothing to me.

I wanna see a competative h&a season, real contests, i wanna see the team want it. It irrelavant if we win 22 and lose the gf.

im trying to think of a number of wins for the h&a season but i just cannot put any importance on it now. It doesnt seem to be a reflection for grand finale day.

so ill stay with 18-20 wins, top 3 on ladder. but pedal down in the finals.

[saint66au]

lee matthews

Who?

[Eastern]

Hypothetically speaking of course, what are you wanting to see next year...

Do you want to see the boys burst out of the blocks again, working early to achieve the best possible ladder position come finals?

Are you looking at a more measured approach, with perhaps some of the more senior players having rests for niggles if required?

As good as 2009 was for pretty much knowing by going to watch the Saints you were about to spectate a win, just how many are you willing to let through if it may mean being better prepared for finals footy?

Learn from mistakes (if any) of 2009 and go that extra step in 2010 !!

[meher baba]

I would expect us to be good enough to coast through the H&A a bit more than we did this year.

I reckon the other clubs collectively are set to be even weaker next season: Luke Ball didn't nominate Collingwood as the only other club he'd be prepared to be traded to because he liked their colour scheme!!

Along with us, Geelong, Dogs and Pies will all be there or thereabouts again next year IMO. As things stand right now, only Brisbane and Hawthorn look like serious threats to change the shape of the top 4 next year.

Essendon and Carlton ended the season looking like improvers, but both have now subsequently traded away key players and - while they are both good shots to make the final 8 - they don't look like top 4 teams to me. Adelaide will compete strongly with them for positions in the 8, but they are also not a top 4 team either IMO.

I reckon the other 7 clubs are way off. If any of them make the 8 (West Coast and the Roos are the best chances IMO), that will be a great achievement.

So we shouldn't have to struggle too hard to make the top 4: basically, we need to do enough to keep ahead of Brisbane, Hawthorn and one of Dogs or the Pies (ie, to make sure we don't have to play the Cats in our first final).

As long as no interstate teams make the top 2 and we avoid the Cats in the first final, it doesn't make any difference whether we finish top 4 or top 2.

So if I were Lyon, I'd be looking to ease into 2010 a lot more than we did this year. Sure, it's a minor risk, but the core of our team has shown in 2005, 2006 and 2007 that it can turn at half way in a season a fair way back and storm home to a top 4 finish (well, but for sirengate, it would have been a top 4 finish in 2006).

We need to learn to play the H&A games with the same sort of swagger that Geelong has: "we're easily the most talented, we've got nothing to prove, if you get a jump on us early we're good enough to run over the top of you in the last quarter", etc.

It'll work fine, as long as we have another season like this one in terms of injuries to essential players. We started 2005 with the same sort of confidence and swagger, and then Riewoldt got injured in game 1 and we were playing catchup thereafter.

[Quixote]

I would start by not taking too much for granted.

[ThePunter]

Remember, we sort of eased into this year.

Our draw included three games in the first four at Etihad Stadium against teams visiting from interstate. We played a half against Sydney, and not much more against Fremantle. We were up for the two games in Adelaide certainly, but the Crows game was a struggle for the most part, with the Saints kicking away late. Suddenly we were 5-0, the Doggies and Collingwood were struggling, so we ended up 7-0, and headed for our first "rough" patch of the season. In fact, our only other prolonged excellent patch of the season was Round 13-19.

[Milan Faletic]

Get our skates on early positioning ourselves for a top 2 spot.

Mid-season lull.

Finish the season playing our best football of the year.

Come on, how many losses are you prepared to sit through for the greater good?

Agree with OLB about mid season lull. I think anything above 16 and 6 would be good. Ideally 18 and 4 would almost guarantee Top 2. If we were lucky enough to have 4 Victorian teams in the Top 4 then Round 1 of the finals would be in Melbourne like this year. As long as we are 10% - 15% better prepared than 2009, we will be in good shape.

[saintsRrising]

First thing is to NOT get ahead of ourselves.

First thing is to concentrate on winning EACH week.
Next is to qualify for the finals...then the top 4...and then the top 2.

If we have top 2 locked in....then you can worry about resting players.

[saintdooley]

sydney in sydney rd 1...might as well lose that game and get it out of the way. then start our run from rd 2

[aussiejones]

This year was absolutely fantastic.........we were there till the very end.

So , the key to 2010 is "risk slipping out of form at the wrong end of season." Player management and LUCK with injuries.

Also IMO alternatives to kick it to Roo. Our forward lines against good teams is our achilles.

[borderbarry]

Re Rotating Players....A Senior Squad for Rucks, Mids. Fwds, Defenders. Each play in each squad plays at least one game before the mid year break, and another in the second half of the year.
In each squad I would have all the players who played in the finals, plus,
Ruck.. McEvoy and Stanley
Mids.. Lovett, Armitage, Steven.
Fwds.. Lynch. Heyne. Walsh.
Defs.. Peake, Simpkin. Maguire
Not sure which group to put Geary and Dempster in.

[samoht]

I'd like to see promising young players like Geary reach their peak and bring their best form at the business end of the season - rather than provide some great games early on and then drop off dramatically/inexplicably, as he did this year .

Same with Montagna - who was still good but who dropped off markedly at the business end.

Whereas Goddard, Fisher and Dal Santo peaked at the right time.
I can't see why everyone can't perform like them and Riewoldt -
Riewoldt was great throughout the year even under duress with his sore knee in the finals, when he had every reason to drop off, but simply refused to.

[DWOODROW]

Firs5t thing is to NOT get ahead of ourselves.

First thing is to concentrate on winning EACH week.
Next is to qualify for the finals...then the top 4...and then the top 2.

If we have top 2 locked in....then you can worry about resting players.

Very Ross Lyon like. You sure you havn't been hanging around him in the off Season.

[ThePunter]

I really think Geary will have a coming out party this season. Fourth year at the club, starting to reach the size one needs to get through a long season.

Armitage and Steven already have the talent, and should hit the ground running.

McEvoy will be hugely better for his 11 games this year.

None of those four played in the Grand Final.

[SainterK]

Interesting views, I realise it's all hypothetical and it will depend on the coaching staff's approach to 2010.

However, I personally think that they will be looking more seriously at rotating and providing more opportunities to our current and new depth players so there is an important word come finals....

Choice

[SainterK]

Bump

Looking at the fixture, and all the 6 day breaks, it confirms that I would like to see more rotating of players and resting if a player doesn't quite come up.

[Bernard Shakey]

Don't flirt with form.

The Launceston game obviously cost us the premiership.

[SainterK]

Don't flirt with form.

The Launceston game obviously cost us the premiership.

I can't tell if you are being serious or not Bernard?

[StSteven]

RL likes to mimic Cats. Do it again only better.