Will History Repeat?

[Saint wagga]

If i'm not mistaken, our beloved saints got off to an equally bright start in season 2014 being 3 wins two losses after 5 rounds, with a seriously big upset win over the dons in round 5! People were getting pumped (yours truely included) and starting to believe that the forwarned 'season we had to have' wasn't going to be too bad...

what followed was a massive losing streak and thrashing after thrashing during the depths of the winter months...

So, 12 months on and after a bright win against the suns on that dew soaked oval up at the Goldy that started the rot in rd 1 2013, i'm just going to keep the cue in the rack and see how the next couple of months pan out before getting too optimistic...pumped after a win sure...but thinking we may have bottomed out and potentially sneak a 7 or 8 win season...i'm not sold just yet.

Not poo pooing the positivity, just want to get a read on weather people think we've made serrious inroads in the short offseason, in terms of depth, conditioning, team balance? Certainly the emergence of Bruce, the discovery of a couple of hidden draft gems, some more high end talent and more senior players available with a better injury profile are big positives, but will that help us to more than a couple of wins?? only time will tell i suppose.

[plugger66]

Split Enz says no.

[Saint wagga]

Split Enz says no.

funny

Seriously though - whats your view?

[plugger66]

Split Enz says no.

funny

Seriously though - whats your view?

I have no idea to be honest. I thought we needed to win the first to maybe get 5 or 6 wins. We lost that and won away at the GC which is hard to do. I will take a rain check and tell you in 2 weeks time. Collingwood are just going and have injuries and the Blues are going terribly. We need to win at least one of those because it gets harder from there. I still think it will probably be a long year but hopefully if we keep our intensity up then anything could happen.

[Stephen Theodore]

In an earlier thread I thought 1-3 wins for the season. Sincerely hope I'm wrong and we can sneak half a dozen, but I reckon that'd be tops.

[FQF]

Going off the first 2 rounds alone, I think the following teams are beatable.

Melbourne
GWS
GC (obviously)
Collingwood
Carlton
Brisbane
West Coast (possibly)

Before the season started I would have included WB on that list, but they've been excellent. I wouldn't have had Brisbane or Collingwood.

[Saint wagga]

Going off the first 2 rounds alone, I think the following teams are beatable.

Melbourne
GWS
GC (obviously)
Collingwood
Carlton
Brisbane
West Coast (possibly)

Before the season started I would have included WB on that list, but they've been excellent. I wouldn't have had Brisbane or Collingwood.

It;s funny how 2 weeks can change so much of our thinking. I actually thought the blues could be dangerous if they had a good run with injuries to their best players. Thought both GWS and GC would make big inroads this year and leave us in the shade. Thought Melbourne would also start making big inroads...i guess if there's something to be learned from our season last year, it's a long long home and away season, time for teams to hit a hot patch and pinch a few wins unexpectedly, but also, the comp is so cut and thrust these days, sometimes, good old fashioned luck and getting a few teams just at the right or wrong time can make a big difference, for us between a 2-3 wins season or a 5+ wins season

[saintbob]

It probably will, we're a long way off being ultra competitive every week.

IMHO we'll probably only win 4-5 games, and I'd like to space them out a bit better this year rather than have 3 after 5 rounds and then have to wait until the end of the season to get another one.

But having said that there would be nothing better than knocking the Pies off this week, especially as I'm coming over with a heap of Collingwood supporters.

[4ever_saint]

I think for the sake of our rebuild (which is about long-term reward, NOT short-term relief) we can't eclipse 5 wins this season.

5 wins or less will give us a priority pick.

I want us to be competitive, but not at the sake of our future. We still need a few more elite midfielders to round out our list.

[FQF]

At this stage of the season, we can be pretty confident that we might have 95% full strength side in the next month or so.

If players like Webster, Joey and Gilbert return successfully from injury and guys like Paddy, Acres, Eli and maybe Goddard and McKenzie deservedly push themselves into the team, we will have our strongest and most talented side possible (minus Ray and Ross). We didn't come anywhere close to this last year.

With that in mind, I think that on our day (albeit the rare days like vs Freo or vs GC) we can seriously challenge any other bottom 8 side.

I am hoping for 5 wins minimum.

[FQF]

I think for the sake of our rebuild (which is about long-term reward, NOT short-term relief) we can't eclipse 5 wins this season.

5 wins or less will give us a priority pick.

I want us to be competitive, but not at the sake of our future. We still need a few more elite midfielders to round out our list.

Could not disagree more.

[plugger66]

I think for the sake of our rebuild (which is about long-term reward, NOT short-term relief) we can't eclipse 5 wins this season.

5 wins or less will give us a priority pick.

I want us to be competitive, but not at the sake of our future. We still need a few more elite midfielders to round out our list.

I doubt we have any hope of a priority pick if we win more than 3 games. Probably have no hope even if we won one game. Just win as many as we can.

[FQF]

I think for the sake of our rebuild (which is about long-term reward, NOT short-term relief) we can't eclipse 5 wins this season.

5 wins or less will give us a priority pick.

I want us to be competitive, but not at the sake of our future. We still need a few more elite midfielders to round out our list.

I doubt we have any hope of a priority pick if we win more than 3 games. Probably have no hope even if we won one game. Just win as many as we can.

+1

[remboy]

Agree with most of the above views. Having a lot of you g players means our performances will probably be inconsistent for a while longer. If we coukd get last weeks effort every week we'd win 6-8 games but it probably won't happen.
Not to worry, the best thing we can do is to get games into the players that are going to be the next 200 gamers.

[Bluthy]

I was just thinking today that some of the hype around Fridays game is getting a bit out of hand. Its like people think we are the next Port Adelaide ready to explode with quality young players when we are really at least 2 years off that. The football world is becoming increasingly Goldfish like in it basing everything on the last game. We are smashed by a quality Hawks outfit in a praccie match and we are a shocking team. We play very well against a GC team learning a new game plan and being all over the shop and suddenly we are brimming with unstoppable young talent. I still think it will be 3 or 4 wins as the season takes it toll on young and old bodies. If we can stop the 100 point blowouts I would be content with just a few wins with lots of games into the young players and them bonding a bit more.

Richo does seem to engender really good buy in from all players and you can't underestimate that. It usually takes a coach at least one full season at a club before the players really start getting the game plan so hopefully we will be a bit more consistent this year and not let it all go to hell in matches when teams get a run on.

[bigcarl]

if we keep our intensity up then anything could happen.

Such positivity

[bergsone]

Still reckon we missed badly last year,Armo,Fisher,Geary,Gilbert,Steven,etc for long periods,couldnt settle a side with youth around just Roo,Joey.This year if we can maintain a solid core of expierence,with good young talent coming through,we can compete with most sides.How many wins?............Take as many as we can

[Bluthy]

Still reckon we missed badly last year,Armo,Fisher,Geary,Gilbert,Steven,etc for long periods,couldnt settle a side with youth around just Roo,Joey.This year if we can maintain a solid core of expierence,with good young talent coming through,we can compete with most sides.How many wins?............Take as many as we can

My problem with this is we actually have a lot of different objectives this year. We want to get games into the young players so that when Fish, Dempster, Roo, Joey, Ray etc go we are not full of inexperienced kids. We also need to be testing out everyone on the list to determine who may have to go - players like Saad, Curren, White, Saunders will get games in the ones to see if they are worth persisting with. We will also put players in different positions to see what they can do and where they may fit best. It all leads to an extremely chopping and changing line up that is hard to get a lot of cohesion. That's the nature of rebuilds - they are not straight line directions like the top teams trying to win as many games as possible for a top 4.

[howlinwolf]

I think it will repeat actually. Except with a sweet twist at the end.
This will take the form of our fall from grace in 2000 and then the full rebuild in 2001 with high draft picks followed by serious tilts 3+4 years later.
So standby for 2018 as we build a bigger display cabinet !
It looks very similar to me.

[Jacks Back]

I think it will repeat actually. Except with a sweet twist at the end.
This will take the form of our fall from grace in 2000 and then the full rebuild in 2001 with high draft picks followed by serious tilts 3+4 years later.
So standby for 2018 as we build a bigger display cabinet !
It looks very similar to me.

What? The display cabinet?

[spert]

Well if we want to make the finals, we will have to beat a few teams including the Collingwoods

[Griggsy]

If we get to 5 ill be happy, no chance of a Priority pick unless we only win 2, maybe 3 but it would take some convincing.

Besides, Priority picks shouldnt be needed anymore because of the free agency system. We have a bundle of cash and can aquire a skillful player without much of a gamble.