Blake confirmed as staying for 2013

[mad saint guy]

Watters just said on SEN that they have informed Blake he will get another contract as of today. Looks like his career really did hinge on getting Brown.

[Teflon]

Dissapointing in a way

Love Blake but we are really saying 2013 we will tread water.

Would've thought a plan B outside of Brown was thought out - Browne is hardly AA material

[saintbrat]

http://www.saints.com.au/news/newsartic ... fault.aspx

[stinger]

if blake's staying...a couple of others are for the chop.....raph and who else...ledger, winmar, webster or ray.....

[Saintersss]

if blake's staying...a couple of others are for the chop.....raph and who else...ledger, winmar, webster or ray.....

Ray? Surely if he was going they would have traded him to the Dees. Not to mention he has a contract.

Ledger also has surely shown enough to stay on the list.

[BelfastSaint]

Watters said he valued Ray too highly to let him go for a cheap pick to Melbourne .... so he will be playing next year for the Saints.

[Con Gorozidis]

WOW!

I wouldnt like to be CJ or Raph right now

[oh when the]

Why didn't Ray play more games if Watters values him highly

[BelfastSaint]

Why didn't Ray play more games if Watters values him highly

Watters said he was unhappy about some of the aspects of Ray's game in the first half of the season and had told him there were a few areas he needed to work on.
He said Farren took those things on board,worked on them, and consequently had a much better second half to the season.

[supersaints]

Happy for the Blakester
Best club man we have ever had, after being de listed and re listed last year then this good on him . My guess is that he is still insurance , if we can pick up a ready made full back in the draft he will just fill in when required.
Who knows may even get two brownlow votes next season!

[loris]

Happy for the Blakester
Best club man we have ever had, after being de listed and re listed last year then this good on him . My guess is that he is still insurance , if we can pick up a ready made full back in the draft he will just fill in when required.
Who knows may even get two brownlow votes next season!

And he was playing rather good footy this year until he was injured. Filled in holes when needed (ie Macca out )very admirably. Very reliable insurance policy is Blake.

[The Redeemer]

Well we have now gone officially backwards after not getting a key back and Blake remaining on the list.

Frigging hell as much as I admire the way he has tried his guts out over the his career, he should not have been on the list this season let alone next.

[evo]

OUT OF CONTRACT
Raphael Clarke - Unrestricted Free Agent -
Jason Blake - Unrestricted Free Agent
Tom Ledger
ROOKIES
Tom Curren .
Jackson Ferguson
Warrick Andreoli
Sam Dunell
Darren Minchington
Cameron Shenton
Jordan Staley
Senior list is 38 and Rookie list is 4 next year do the math, some deep culling coming I think.

[cwrcyn]

Happy to see Blake stay on. Had he not been injured in 2012 perhaps people wouldn't have been so prepared to write him off. He's 31, not 33, so I'm confident he can still make a valuable contribution.








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[SaintPav]

It's not ideal but Blake is staying because we have holes in our list. It needs to be spelt out to some of the simpletons on here. I can think of at least two who have posted on this thread.

[mad saint guy]

It is disappointing that we didn't get a true key defender, but Blake will do a better job than just about anyone we could get from state leagues. Remember that he was a regular, and fairly decent CHB from 2007-2010.

[St Chris]

And means we have 12 months to develop a kid into a key back, either Staley, Lever, Markworth etc or someone we pick up in this draft.

A lot of successful key backman at AFL level have played their underage footy as forwards, so who knows....

[bigcarl]

Remember that he was a regular, and fairly decent CHB from 2007-2010.

Yep, Blake chb. We may have to go with Fisher for fb

[The Redeemer]

Remember that he was a regular, and fairly decent CHB from 2007-2010.

Yep, Blake chb. We may have to go with Fisher for fb

Well this ain't good.

Perhaps we need to play slightly more defensive next year in order to have a few more bodies clogging the backline.

We have major pace forward of center so the counter-attack certainly is not the problem.

I would vote playing more defensive knowing that we can play attacking when needed and score quickly.

[mad saint guy]

Remember that he was a regular, and fairly decent CHB from 2007-2010.

Yep, Blake chb. We may have to go with Fisher for fb

I'd rather we put some faith in Simpkin to do that role and keep Fisher as the elite rebounder he is, rather than the pretty good full back he would be. Simpkin had his first injury-free year in 2012 and did a damn fine job in his first real crack at AFL footy. If he keeps up this level of improvement and puts on a couple of KGs then he could well become a regular FB. He's 1cm taller than Max and has a very similar defensive style.

Though it still wouldn't surprise me if we went for Hartigan in the draft and played him at FB.

[kosifantutti]

Gotta love the Blake.

Are the Brownlow markets open yet?

[bigcarl]

I'd rather we put some faith in Simpkin to do that role and keep Fisher as the elite rebounder he is.

Do you think Simpkin is tall enough and strong enough to take on the monster full forwards?

I think he's perfect for that role ... if he had a few more centimetres. He may grow into it, hopefully.

[bergholt]

And means we have 12 months to develop a kid into a key back, either Staley, Lever, Markworth etc or someone we pick up in this draft.

Markworth is only 189cm. He won't be a key back any more than Siposs or Winmar will.

[BigMart]

And what does that say?!

[plugger66]

And what does that say?!

Theres no bones in ice cream?