Year Zero

[samuraisaint]

http://www.saintsblog.net/2013/07/a-shaft-of-light/

Well written, and I was certainly surprised by just how well we played at times.

[I Love Peter Kiel]

Yeah great work by this writer.
Yes, why does it have to be so hard to be a Saints supporter?

[Griggsy]

We are on our way to making the core group of the rise. We still need to find our next superstar (or 2) in the upcoming drafts.

Don't see the writers point on the expansion clubs taking youth because every other club has experienced that and we were closer to the top at the time. There is stilll 6 other spots for finals after those 2 clubs.

[ThePunter]

That's me.

My point about the expansion teams was a bit of a throwaway one, but with two more teams the talent is spread thinner and a meteoric rise up the ladder through the draft is tougher.

[gringo]

I think we already have a few potential superstars. Wright would be my guess at the next A grader but Sam Gibert said yesterday that Seb Ross and Jack Newnes were the best of the kids in his opinion. I think Saunders looks like he has the X factor to become a star too. We haven't even seen what White can do and I seriously think Lewis Pierce is a genuine ruckman and will be a gun long term. He can tap a ball into the mids hands- you don't see many that can these days.

[gringo]

We are on our way to making the core group of the rise. We still need to find our next superstar (or 2) in the upcoming drafts.

Don't see the writers point on the expansion clubs taking youth because every other club has experienced that and we were closer to the top at the time. There is stilll 6 other spots for finals after those 2 clubs.

Ironically it's the best time in about 4 years to bottom out as the expansions took all the elite talent for that time.

[samuraisaint]

Respected what he had to say about us keeping some of our superstars during the rebuild - Roo, Hayes, Dal, Joey, Chips and Milney, plus Kosi of course. Hopefully Schneider's body will be up for one more season next year after a full pre-season. He could prove invaluable in keeping us competitive in 2014.

[mr six o'clock]

To build a great side , the main thing you need is luck !

You have to be lucky with your early draft picks .
you have to be lucky with your later draft picks.
you have to be lucky with your rookie selections .

And finally if all this talent comes together you still need a little bit of luck to go all the way !

Finishing down the bottom doesn't guarantee you sucess in years to come , just look at the blues , they've got more top 10 and number 1 draft picks than we ever got , yet have only just been making finals , there supercoach has taken them backwards , maybe next year they'll be back on top , but things change in footy so fast , there time like the saints may have already passed !

[Zed]

would like to see some stats analysis on how Ball, Dal, Monty, BJ fared in say their first 20 games as far as possessions go versus Newnes, Webster, Ross, Wright, Murdoch & Saunders. I seem to recall Ball made an impact on the stat sheet almost from the start but Monty and Dal not so much.

[BigMart]

Dal had 25 in his second game... Possibly even got votes. First year 18 games or so... Second year missed three moths with Quad

Joey played very little early... Broke ankle year 1 and missed 12 weeks ... Broke into side consistently in 2005 really

Ball rising star in his first few games. Did not play year 1 due to school. Was excellent straight away, RU B&F year 2

Maguire was well ahead of schedule playing 16 in his first year 2002 and was serviceable at CHB

Xavier Clarke played 18 year 1 with promise rising star nomination

Goddard played 18 year 1 but struggled with consistency at times, was a contributor only on first 3 years

Raph... Just a few in Y1.... A very good year 2 in 2005... Then downhill