Watters has "appetite for change"...

[philtee]

Very informative article from The Australian today...answers a few questions about
our manpower shortages...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/a ... 6316878874

[Stillwaiting]

Good article, need to be wary of to many kids at once though, need some mature bodies in the team

[Dr Spaceman]

Not sure which words are Pelchen's and which are the journo's.

Apparently Pelchen states that Siposs might need to impress in the VFL before earning a promotion to the AFL while at the same time Jack Newnes name is mentioned as a possible debutant on Sunday.

Can only assume CP means Siposs has to impress that he's over his injury rather than that he deserves senior selection. Because although Newnes has potential, I'm not aware of him demanding selection with his 2 VFL performances to date.

[westcoast]

Lets hope that are actually sincere this time about an "appetite for change", they showed none of that at the selection table for Round 1

[Dr Spaceman]

Lets hope that are actually sincere this time about an "appetite for change", they showed none of that at the selection table for Round 1

Cripps, Stanley, Milera.

They were a little bit peckish

[Buckets]

Lets hope that are actually sincere this time about an "appetite for change", they showed none of that at the selection table for Round 1

How many games have Steven, Stanley, Milera and Cripps played again?


What do expect a GWS type line out?

[saintspremiers]

Perhaps Raph could go on the LTI for Dunnell?

[White Winmar]

Perhaps Raph could go on the LTI for Dunnell?

I was thinking exactly the same thing, saintspremiers.

[kosifantutti]

Lets hope that are actually sincere this time about an "appetite for change", they showed none of that at the selection table for Round 1

How many games have Steven, Stanley, Milera and Cripps played again?


What do expect a GWS type line out?

It was the oldest Round 1 team we've put out in the last 15 years. That's as far as I checked.

[WinnersOnly]

Well he also had his chance to make change happen and that didnt appear. We had the same players making same mistakes using what appeared to be the same game plan. I wonder if Mr WATTERS has the 'metal' to do the job or is he just full of media fluff similiar to Terry Wallace. I worry that Dean Laidley is his right hand man because from what we have seen of him he is a dour boring individual who is hardly likely to inspire anyone!

[plugger66]

We do love to blame coaches when we lose. RL was great until last year and he stuffed up the list and now Waters who was great for 4 months is maybe no good either. i think people need a accept that we are going down because our stars are getting old and due to the draft and salary cap and worst of 3 years of poor recruiting we are struggling. It happens whether MM RDB or god coached us.

[Old Mate]

Lets hope that are actually sincere this time about an "appetite for change", they showed none of that at the selection table for Round 1

How many games have Steven, Stanley, Milera and Cripps played again?


What do expect a GWS type line out?

It was the oldest Round 1 team we've put out in the last 15 years. That's as far as I checked.

Our core group have naturally aged a year. It's going to take time for the age demographic to change, once a few older guys retire and some young players become permanent fixtures. You can't expect it to happen over one season. Next year will probably be the same. At a guess it won't be until 2014 that we become one of the younger teams in the league.

[bigcarl]

With an appetite for change, new St Kilda coach Scott Watters said after Sunday's loss that in terms of contested possession "We will find players to change that".

I like it

[Buckets]

We do love to blame coaches when we lose. RL was great until last year and he stuffed up the list and now Waters who was great for 4 months is maybe no good either. i think people need a accept that we are going down because our stars are getting old and due to the draft and salary cap and worst of 3 years of poor recruiting we are struggling. It happens whether MM RDB or god coached us.

To be fair Plugger, you yourself agree that Lyon didn't do nearly enough to promote the young brigade of players.

But for some on here to suggest that Watters needs to throw out the baby with the bath water is just ridiculous! We had 4 players who combined had a total of less than 50 games!!!! We currently have the greatest batch of players over 25 with the most experience in the established teams and the greatest inexperienced bunch of players under 25 of the established teams. For those suggesting that we play ALL of the young blokes - do you actually realise that we would not win a game against anyone...well maybe GWS.

Watters will no doubt make changes and that is needed but it needs to be a gradual blooding of players. We do not have the ability to be the GWS of Melbourne and expect it not to have an effect on
A. Standings on the ladder
and
B. Off-field financially.

Give it time and Watters will sift through the so called dead wood and make the call on those he believes that are no longer required 22 players.

I expect to see 2 changes this week\

Out : Polo - Suspended
Ray - Omitted

In : Ledger -
Sipposs - If cleared to play, if not then Wilkes to play in the forward line. ( I get the feeling he was drafted on his skills as a forward last year in the WAFL.

[Buckets]

Well he also had his chance to make change happen and that didnt appear. We had the same players making same mistakes using what appeared to be the same game plan. I wonder if Mr WATTERS has the 'metal' to do the job or is he just full of media fluff similiar to Terry Wallace. I worry that Dean Laidley is his right hand man because from what we have seen of him he is a dour boring individual who is hardly likely to inspire anyone!

Lol no Watters isn't good enough. He didn't coach multiple flags in the WAFL in the space of 4 years. Didn't help coach as an assistant in the Pies flag in 2010 either. Game plan is entirely the same. And you have the nerve to claim that under your watchful eye McEvoy is the worst tap ruckman in the league.

Did you really watch the game at all on Sunday? To say that nothing is changed is misinformed and naive. As some on here have already stated. When we got on a run in that second quarter the team looked at playing a surge type brand of football. The players have been used to player Lyon Footy of the past 5 years. Don't expect things to miraculously change over night. It will take the team time to fully get used to the game plan.

[gringo]

Watters despite every thing is a rookie afl coach he will be learning on the job like Ross did. I'm not as concerned by senior players ages it is the deficiencies we are carring at the moment that need patching.

Our defence was the best in the AFL not so long ago now we have some holes. Losing Gwilt, Gram and Raph who can all rebound from defence and the loss of Zac mean we have shoved the line back and exposed ourselves elsewhere. Simpkin needs to come on quickly, we need some rebound run from Cripps. Otherwise we have Goddard, Gilbert and Fisher with lots of responsibility and losing their ability to provide flair coming out.

The ruck looks really shaky and needs a backup, we almost need to just say Kosi is the second ruck and get him into the centre bounces with Mcevoy around the ground and as the drop in backline cut off. Rhys can pinch hit and play forward and Wilkes could go through the forward line as well.

Lenny needs to build up to match fitness so needs some of the others like Steven and Armo to take some clearances, they possibly need to be told to be more selfish and not defer to the Lenny, steal your own ball. He won't be there for ever we need them to get better. Steven should rest forward and get some run into Ledger who can swap with him to keep fresh and same with Milera, rotate and be unpredictable.

We can improve with some tinkering and unfortunately or fortunately we have easy games early while still trying to work on things. If we lose a few it will hurt us long term but at least we're not getting smashed out of the water and confidence should still be up.

[crippa2sipa]

Well he also had his chance to make change happen and that didnt appear. We had the same players making same mistakes using what appeared to be the same game plan. I wonder if Mr WATTERS has the 'metal' to do the job or is he just full of media fluff similiar to Terry Wallace. I worry that Dean Laidley is his right hand man because from what we have seen of him he is a dour boring individual who is hardly likely to inspire anyone!

Lol no Watters isn't good enough.
...
Don't expect things to miraculously change over night. It will take the team time to fully get used to the game plan.

Can't believe people are happy to delude themselves with the "new game plan" excuse.
Watters - as Nicky Dal has made clear - "hadn't come armed with ideas that the team was trying to understand... [The changes are] not drastic ones but just little things here and there".
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

[8856brother]

Perhaps Raph could go on the LTI for Dunnell?

Was Raph bitten by a shark? He missed all pre season and still 7 weeks away

[Spinner]

Poor Clarke. Just can't take a trick.

Will really struggle to have a good season after being injured for so long....

[St Igmata]

Watters wont ever be a career coach IMO.
Hes on a hiding to nothing

[gringo]

This is awesome he's the first coach since, well Ross Lyon for us to be calling for his head with in the first few months.

[jays]

good read imo

[Junction Oval]

An interesting article in the Australian and not far off the mark.

I didn't like the look of our NAB efforts. Round 1 either. Next week is an opportunity for some team tinkering. Let's see whether we can actually see something new!

Here's hoping

[whiskers3614]

Appetite for change doesn't mean 15 changes week1'
give the bloke a few weeks to feel his way around.
Didn't slash my wrists over Saints in the '80s not about to start now!

[Richter]

How many games have Steven, Stanley, Milera and Cripps played again?


What do expect a GWS type line out?

It was the oldest Round 1 team we've put out in the last 15 years. That's as far as I checked.

Our core group have naturally aged a year. It's going to take time for the age demographic to change, once a few older guys retire and some young players become permanent fixtures. You can't expect it to happen over one season. Next year will probably be the same. At a guess it won't be until 2014 that we become one of the younger teams in the league.

The team we put out was an average age of 26.8. The next oldest was Geelong at 26.0 and below that 25.3.
We had 9 players who had played under 100 games. Next came the Hawks with 11, then Geelong with 12.
Average number of games played per man was 120, Geelong around 100, Hawks just under.

(Stats from footywire)

These figures confirm that Watters' team selection was nowhere near as youth-focussed as most of us thought before the game.

IMO there is room for 2 more newbies at the expense of two of the mid-range battlers for next week...

OUT: Polo and one of Ray, Peake, Jones
IN: Ledger and one of Winmar, Ross, Saad

That would reduce our average age to just over 26 yo, average no. of games to around 110 and increase the number of players with under 100 AFL games under their belt to 11. Which would still leave us top in all of those 'experience' stats.