Our massive percentage

[bergholt]

This is a weird season. Thanks to four teams being completely uncompetitive, there are currently four teams outside the eight with a percentage above 100 - Freo, Saints, Carlton, Richmond. For the last four years no team has missed the eight with a percentage above 100, and before that there was usually one or two.

And our percentage is over 120. No team has ever finished outside the eight with a percentage of 120. The closest was Richmond in 1996, with a percentage of 117. They destroyed Fitzroy a couple of times but lost to the eventual premiers in the last round while the Hawks scraped over the Dees to limp into eighth.

In fact, since the comp went to the final five in 1972 no team has ever missed the finals with a percentage this high. The last time it happened? 1968, when we finished in fourth ahead of Richmond (again) in fifth, in a year in which none of Fitzroy, North or Footscray won more than five games. Richmond's percentage was 123, though ours was 136. Geelong's in third was 107, but they thumped us by 44 points in the semi thanks to Doug Wade's five goals.

Weird season. It's going to keep being strange like this until GCS and GWS haul themselves up to dominance, at the expense of weak teams like Melbourne, Footscray, Port and St Kilda.

[borderbarry]

It has seemed weird to me that we keep having these huge wins, yet lose to teams like Port Adelaide and North.

[matrix]

that port loss is going to bite us in the ass in a few weeks

port are a rabble
how on earth we dropped that dolly ill never know

[White Winmar]

I'd gladly swap our massive percentage for the extra 4 points we missed against Port. We all said that loss would cost us in the long run and it probably wil.

[saintDal]

We got Port at the worst possible time. First game of the year, at their home ground with probably their best team on the park. If we played them now we would probably smash them.

[magnifisaint]

New coach new game plan. It can take teams the best part of a season to adapt to a new coach and a new game plan. I think the SAints have done better than expected with Watters so I can't understand how some can say we should have beaten this team or should have beaten that team. According to Lyin we should have seen the end of an era. Thank god he left cos we're better off without him.

[Stephen Theodore]

New coach new game plan. It can take teams the best part of a season to adapt to a new coach and a new game plan. I think the SAints have done better than expected with Watters so I can't understand how some can say we should have beaten this team or should have beaten that team. According to Lyin we should have seen the end of an era. Thank god he left cos we're better off without him.

Agree, and doing my predictor ladder this morning, we could still make the eight with two more losses, and a 12-10 finish.

We are no where near done and dusted for the next 5 years as some of the doomsdayers on here would believe.

[Old Mate]

Losses to Freo, Port and Tigers really hurt us. A win against the Swines would have made up for one of those losses. Really need to beat the Pies this week cos North will get another easy 4 points and Freo are 50/50 against an injury ravaged Eagles. Don't wanna fall 8 points outa the 8.

[BringBackMadDog]

It has seemed weird to me that we keep having these huge wins, yet lose to teams like Port Adelaide and North.

Why do you include Nth? Along with Hawthorn and Sydney they are in cracking form at the moment and would beat most sides

[plugger66]

New coach new game plan. It can take teams the best part of a season to adapt to a new coach and a new game plan. I think the SAints have done better than expected with Watters so I can't understand how some can say we should have beaten this team or should have beaten that team. According to Lyin we should have seen the end of an era. Thank god he left cos we're better off without him.

Adelaide and Geelong.

[Old Mate]

It has seemed weird to me that we keep having these huge wins, yet lose to teams like Port Adelaide and North.

Why do you include Nth? Along with Hawthorn and Sydney they are in cracking form at the moment and would beat most sides

Agree with this. North won't lose again before the finals IMO. I even like their chances against the Pies at Jihad.

[saintspremiers]

It has seemed weird to me that we keep having these huge wins, yet lose to teams like Port Adelaide and North.

Why do you include Nth? Along with Hawthorn and Sydney they are in cracking form at the moment and would beat most sides

Agree with this. North won't lose again before the finals IMO. I even like their chances against the Pies at Jihad.

Not according to Stephen Theodore.

He must know something no one else does.

[70s sainter]

I blame our port Adelaide loss to being too unprepared at the start of the season due to a very average per season. Players not getting a run then when they are about to play a game ess decide not to show up . If we miss this years eight it will be by one game and ironically ess could get in , in eighth spot .

[Moods]

We got Port at the worst possible time. First game of the year, at their home ground with probably their best team on the park. If we played them now we would probably smash them.

Exactly

[battye]

We got Port at the worst possible time. First game of the year, at their home ground with probably their best team on the park. If we played them now we would probably smash them.

Exactly

No excuses. They were a rubbish team then and they are a rubbish team now. We lost to them because we were even worse on the day.

[Dan Warna]

we lost a lot of close games by less than 2 goals. had we won 1/2 of our 2 goal games we'd have 2 or 3 more wins <shrug>

[thejiggingsaint]

Richmond. Simple as that! losing that game with Kosi missing that "gimme" (among other glaring misses by the Saints forwards) has put us under the pump. Having said that, its there to be played for (a spot in the 8) and we can still do it! I'm not giving up on it till its certain we're out of the hunt!

[Scollop]

We copped Richmond in ripping form as we did North Melbourne...Would've been nice to play Richmond without Martin...even Tyrone Vickory was playing well that day ffs

We had our chances in matches against Richmond, Port, Swans, and Freo and we were competitive for 3 quarters against the Hawks. We could actually be peaking at just the right time, but our massive percentage doesn't help us if other teams also keep winning...problem is we've got to rely on both North and Freo stuffing up

[Old Mate]

We copped Richmond in ripping form as we did North Melbourne...Would've been nice to play Richmond without Martin...even Tyrone Vickory was playing well that day ffs

We had our chances in matches against Richmond, Port, Swans, and Freo and we were competitive for 3 quarters against the Hawks. We could actually be peaking at just the right time, but our massive percentage doesn't help us if other teams also keep winning...problem is we've got to rely on both North and Freo stuffing up

IMO the Bombers are cert. to miss. Tough draw and they're getting flogged on a weekly basis. North and Freo play each other which gives us an opportunity to overtake the loser. We obviously must keep winning tho. I feel we've left our run too late. It's a tough ask winning all but one of the remaining games. Even the Blues will be tough cos that match looks like shaping their chances for finals as well.

[SaintPav]

If we can't beat Carlton and one against either the Cats or Pies, what is the point of even making the 8?

[Jacks Back]

Our percentage is the best from 7th down but it will count for nought if there is a draw from the those teams vying for that 7th & 8th spots (or if we draw).