Saints unveil new academy

[Gershwin]

Sounds bloody brilliant!
Well done Saints - ticking all the boxes for me.

[Moorabbin Man]

It appears the Board has rallied after their recent c**k ups, things may be looking promising. May be they've learnt and responded?

[saintbrat]

ST KILDA coach Scott Watters has unveiled the club's radical new football academy that will see the Saints bolster their notoriously undermanned player development team by 400 per cent and invest unprecedented resources in VFL partner Sandringham.
With Dean Laidley set to join Watters in coming days as part of the Saints' assistant coaching team, the club has also poached Claremont's WAFL premiership coach Simon McPhee to coach Sandringham and play a key role in the new player academy to be based at the club's Seaford home.

The remodelling of both welfare and development has also been a target of new Saints football boss Chris Pelchen, who described the revamped coaching and development program at the Linen House Centre yesterday as ''one of the biggest turnovers I've seen in football''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/s ... z1c6CxqFnD


About bloody time. Maybe Ross did St Kilda a favour after all!

Image what we would do if we had some money

This must kill all those haters in the Media who turn everthing little thing about St Kilda into Doom and gloom

so on would and up would

indeed Onward and upward

all the media must be at the races- Saints and sandy announcements went out at 6 am this morning and NOTHING in either online paper
caught on the hop...

speaking of which did anyone get a'small paper with the Paul Amy article this morning?>

[St Lenny]

This really is Exciting
A fantastic move by the club IMO. My opinion of Scotty just gets better after hearing that this is his idea.
This is a total revamp by the club. List to have another 6 or so fresh kids. It is going to be great!

St Kilda website says this has been in the making for months - so likely Pelchen's baby but feeling is Watters had similar vision in his presentation/interview.

What I like about this is the motivation factor it will have on the senior players.

The structured development program for our young guns will impact upwards into the senior group.

Wonder if any unlisted players will participate in the academy.

If this has been in the making for a few months. That would indicate that someone at St Kilda saw a gap in our development and that is why Pelchin was hired. We know Ro$$ wasnt happy with that and quite probably didnt like the idea of the academy.

But this is fantastic for us and I see it as an idea that other clubs will copy.

[SaintSimmo]

If this has been in the making for a few months. That would indicate that someone at St Kilda saw a gap in our development and that is why Pelchin was hired.

Paul Hudson possibly?
He is our development manager...would make sense

[borderbarry]

What players will be attending the Academy? Will it include players not on our list, but that we are interested in?

[Unforgiven]

Looking forward to Goddard and others tweaking their body shapes, still can't believe he doesn't even have a bicep vein.

Bj could be doing 5kg dumbell curls for all I care. When your football smarts are good enough to make 90% of the competition look silly, athletic prowess means little.

[Spud]

About bloody time. Maybe Ross did St Kilda a favour after all!

Couldn't agree more...you can add Sandy to the list as well

It's great..Lyon had some Positives, but man, the Negatives were mammoth..

Exactly

[8856brother]

I hope it's run better than the Police Acadamy. Those guys were all crazy

[HitTheBoundary]

I hope it's run better than the Police Acadamy. Those guys were all crazy

As part of the academy they're also opening a Blue Oyster Bar at Seaford - for team bonding.

[saintly]

really excited about the whole idea. well we now know where part of the AFL increase is going to. Am very happy about this.

[saintly]

most impressive.

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

its unique to AFL,

but if it works, every other club will follow next year!

[saintly]

This really is Exciting
A fantastic move by the club IMO. My opinion of Scotty just gets better after hearing that this is his idea.
This is a total revamp by the club. List to have another 6 or so fresh kids. It is going to be great!

St Kilda website says this has been in the making for months - so likely Pelchen's baby but feeling is Watters had similar vision in his presentation/interview.

What I like about this is the motivation factor it will have on the senior players.

The structured development program for our young guns will impact upwards into the senior group.

Wonder if any unlisted players will participate in the academy.

If this has been in the making for a few months. That would indicate that someone at St Kilda saw a gap in our development and that is why Pelchin was hired. We know Ro$$ wasnt happy with that and quite probably didnt like the idea of the academy.

But this is fantastic for us and I see it as an idea that other clubs will copy.

Do you remember when the saints said that they were having a 1 day long term strategy day ! maybe thats probably when it started. when lokking at how badly the list development has veen and what was going to happen in 2 years time when some of the stars would be fading, and little new players coming through, maybe they realised that something had to be done quickly and decisively. and so they have!!

good on them!!!! very excited about this.

[joffaboy]

The remodelling of both welfare and development has also been a target of new Saints football boss Chris Pelchen, who described the revamped coaching and development program at the Linen House Centre yesterday as ''one of the biggest turnovers I've seen in football''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/s ... z1c6CxqFnD


About bloody time. Maybe Ross did St Kilda a favour after all!

Love it.

All the bellyaching about our board and its "mismanagement" of finances but you never get these same people asking what is being done with the money.

Footy First to the letter, four years on.

I think it is also a great idea. Obviously needed after our cracks at the flag fell short, we need to rebuild and put alot of effort into our kids coming through.

As for Admin finance mismanagement. So spending more means they are absolved of the absolute mess they have made?

This is an astute move and will be money well spent (hopefully), but what has it to do with the mess this board has made over the past four years.

lost major sponsors, lost money hand over fist while going through the most successful time of the clubs AFL history.

The previous admin had the same contract at Etihad and mad multimillion dollar profits.

now for the first time in history we are getting handouts from the AFL like paupers like North and the Bulldogs. yes we have received equalisation funding before, but never to the huge handouts we will get over the next three years.

Because they do one thing right, they are absolved by the economic ignoramouses

No wonder this club has been a rabble and laughing stock of the AFL for a100 years with this under educated reactionary attitude.

Dont worry Andrew Demetriou and the AFL will continue to bail us out, but expect to lose more good people from the club as properly run clubs like Essendon and Freo take our peopel by offering more money.

How do they get all those funds? dunno, maybe by competent Admin and sound fiscal business systems and process in place?

Drrrrrrrrrrr

[ace]

The academy could correct their junior coaches' failures to teach the young kids to kick with their wrong foot. The academy could also teach Riewoldt and Jones to kick with one foot.

[ace]

The previous admin had the same contract at Etihad and mad multimillion dollar profits.

now for the first time in history we are getting handouts from the AFL like paupers like North and the Bulldogs. yes we have received equalisation funding before, but never to the huge handouts we will get over the next three years.

Maybe when St Kilda, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs have finished buying the Docklands stadium for the AFL, the AFL will allow these clubs to use the ground at competitive rates.

The owners of the Docklands stadium have to recover the construction cost and interest payments of the ground which eventually becomes an AFL asset for free.
They recover these costs over time by adding a hefty premium to the ground rental agreements with these clubs.

I wonder whether Eddie Maggotpie will say thankyou to St Kilda when his club becomes part owner of an asset to which his club made no purchase contribution.

[joffaboy]

The previous admin had the same contract at Etihad and mad multimillion dollar profits.

now for the first time in history we are getting handouts from the AFL like paupers like North and the Bulldogs. yes we have received equalisation funding before, but never to the huge handouts we will get over the next three years.

Maybe when St Kilda, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs have finished buying the Docklands stadium for the AFL, the AFL will allow these clubs to use the ground at competitive rates.

The owners of the Docklands stadium have to recover the cost of the ground which eventually becomes an AFL asset. They recover these costs over time by adding a premium to the rental agreements with these clubs.

Understood. However they were doing this when the previous administration was at the Saints, and admin that didn't have multiple GF apprearances (with all that extra money from those).

This admin came out and said they were going to spend, spend, spend. Gotta give it to them, they were true to their word, its just that they didn't account for the lack of revenue.

So in essence they maxed out the credit card, after 100 years of debt was paid off by the previous admin.

I find the Etihad excuse lame. yes it is a poor return in comparision to MCG or Skilled, but it has been so since 2000.

Maybe this admin may have been a bit more dilligent in their reckless spending.

First thing they tried to save on was the coach .

Thankfully for us RL moved on.

[ace]

Dont worry Andrew Demetriou and the AFL will continue to bail us out, but expect to lose more good people from the club as properly run clubs like Essendon and Freo take our peopel by offering more money.

Maybe Andrew Demetriou will do this because he witnessed how the AFL lied to and then dudded St Kilda, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs but not Essendon.
Former Essendon player and president Ron Evans was also AFL Chairman.
On behalf of the AFL he "negotiated" a special deal only for Essendon with the then boss of the owners of Docklands stadium - former Essendon player and president Ron Evans.

Corruption is considered sound business practice for local companies in all third world countries, but you have not convinced me that it is "proper".

[joffaboy]

Dont worry Andrew Demetriou and the AFL will continue to bail us out, but expect to lose more good people from the club as properly run clubs like Essendon and Freo take our peopel by offering more money.

Maybe Andrew Demetriou will do this because he witnessed how the AFL lied to and then dudded St Kilda, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs but not Essendon.
Former Essendon player and president Ron Evans was also AFL Chairman.
On behalf of the AFL he "negotiated" a special deal only for Essendon with the then boss of the owners of Docklands stadium - former Essendon player and president Ron Evans.

Corruption is considered sound business practice in all third world countries, but you have not convinced me that it is "proper".

Hmmm corruption. You've won the argument because you have decided that the negotiations was corrupt.

Explain how we got subsidised for the first three years (where we made losses) but after that, when the subsidies were gone, we made profits, had a positive cash flow, and were debt free?

Right up until this mob took over. Sorry Ace nice conspiracy theory, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

[ace]

Dont worry Andrew Demetriou and the AFL will continue to bail us out, but expect to lose more good people from the club as properly run clubs like Essendon and Freo take our peopel by offering more money.

Maybe Andrew Demetriou will do this because he witnessed how the AFL lied to and then dudded St Kilda, North Melbourne and the Bulldogs but not Essendon.
Former Essendon player and president Ron Evans was also AFL Chairman.
On behalf of the AFL he "negotiated" a special deal only for Essendon with the then boss of the owners of Docklands stadium - former Essendon player and president Ron Evans.

Corruption is considered sound business practice in all third world countries, but you have not convinced me that it is "proper".

Hmmm corruption. You've won the argument because you have decided that the negotiations was corrupt.

Explain how we got subsidised for the first three years (where we made losses) but after that, when the subsidies were gone, we made profits, had a positive cash flow, and were debt free?

Right up until this mob took over. Sorry Ace nice conspiracy theory, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

Attendances at St Kilda games were way down this year.
The result of a pathetic on field performance in the first half of the season.
That pathetic start also undermined the drive for new members and even deterred membership renewals.
But the big downer for this administration has been Seaford.
Costly and a poor option forced on them by the Kingston council no longer wanting an AFL club.

[Legendary]

The other thing that allowed the previous administration to make massive profits was the millions of dollars LESS they spent each year on the football department ...

[tweedaletomanning]

This really is Exciting
A fantastic move by the club IMO. My opinion of Scotty just gets better after hearing that this is his idea.
This is a total revamp by the club. List to have another 6 or so fresh kids. It is going to be great!

St Kilda website says this has been in the making for months - so likely Pelchen's baby but feeling is Watters had similar vision in his presentation/interview.

What I like about this is the motivation factor it will have on the senior players.

The structured development program for our young guns will impact upwards into the senior group.

Wonder if any unlisted players will participate in the academy.

If this has been in the making for a few months. That would indicate that someone at St Kilda saw a gap in our development and that is why Pelchin was hired. We know Ro$$ wasnt happy with that and quite probably didnt like the idea of the academy.

But this is fantastic for us and I see it as an idea that other clubs will copy.

Do you remember when the saints said that they were having a 1 day long term strategy day ! maybe thats probably when it started. when lokking at how badly the list development has veen and what was going to happen in 2 years time when some of the stars would be fading, and little new players coming through, maybe they realised that something had to be done quickly and decisively. and so they have!!

good on them!!!! very excited about this.

WOW!! We are SO lucky that we have an admin that dedicates a WHOLE DAY for our long term future. Other clubs don't spend more than hour..

Boy this admin is good.....

[saintbrat]

now for the first time in history we are getting handouts from the AFL like paupers like North and the Bulldogs. yes we have received equalisation funding before, but never to the huge handouts we will get over the next three years.

given about half the competition is getting the handouts Including the almighty pies who make atleast 2 mill a year it is more about distribution of funds generated than handouts.

getting to a premiership game costs money - winning would make money - Losing DOES not make money-- did you or anyone else here BUY any extra merchandise because we were IN the game?
so any preprepared events and merchandise,( and yes some may have had to be ready- you can't buy the tees if not prepared eariler- (see cats after this year) and staff being on duty during weeks that maybe out of contract costs money...

yes there are and will be questions about the deficit BUt wholehearted bagging of the admin must be looked at subjectively, Funding a greatly improved Football and recruiting department as they said they would- Takes money.

supporters and sponsors dropping off due to percieved difficulties does not increase income...

and find us a coal/oil/diamond mine to invest time in getting as a sponsor.