Former Saints player Robert Eddy goes nuts on Twitter!!!

[saintbob]

WTF????

If I was Robert Eddy I would be forever grateful to Ross Lyon, because Robert Eddy would not have gotten a game on any other AFL list!!

[Con Gorozidis]

It is a bit of a myth that we only lost 09 because of the 'toe poke'. Geelong were doing all the attacking in the last qtr and had the ball in their half almost the entire last 15 mins. We were just hanging on for grim death. I am not sure Hayes or NDS even touched the ball in the last bit. See for yourself.

[Sawf]

It is a bit of a myth that we only lost 09 because of the 'toe poke'. Geelong were doing all the attacking in the last qtr and had the ball in their half almost the entire last 15 mins. We were just hanging on for grim death. I am not sure Hayes or NDS even touched the ball in the last bit. See for yourself.

Have not been able to bring myself to watch even one minute of '97, '09 or '10 - will have to take your word for it, Con!

[saintspremiers]

Unfortunately, most of the blokes I mentioned had injuries and went down like flies in the last games of the season and the first final.

I remember that nightmare of a game against Freo in which we lost after the siren, they scored about 6 goals directly from free kicks and we lost Kosi, Goose and Penny during the game when we'd lost Fisher the week before. Goddard ended up at FB against Pavlich.

The following were injured for the '05 prelim

Hamill
Koschitzke
Penny
X.Clarke
S.Fisher
L.Fisher
Peckett

Replace the likes of Raph Clarke, Fiora, Guerra, Ackland and a teenage James Gwilt with those guys and we'd have our second flag. Unfortunately we just didn't invest enough resources into strength and conditioning and injury management in the GT era. Imagine if we put the same emphasis on it back then as we do now and we waltzed into the 2005 prelim with a 22 like this

B: Hudghton, Penny, Voss
HB: Fisher, Maguire, Jones
C: Dal Santo, Hayes, Baker
HF: Hamill, Riewoldt, Montagna
F: Milne, Gehrig, X.Clarke

Foll: Koschitzke, Harvey, Ball
Int: Powell, Thompson, Peckett, Goddard

Food additive 621 (MSG) even if we had half of those outs playing the flag would've been ours!

[BigMart]

Who would you replace Ackland with and why?

He finished 8th in the b&f in 05

[Con Gorozidis]

Remembering Rob Eddy does raise some interesting points about how the game has changed in the last 6 years.
Back then Lyon was considered an innovator. The team was thought of as a machine with 22 parts. Each part playing a role and performing a function.
Eddy was supposed to tackle and harass and know where to run and how to fill holes at certain times. HIs role was a 'space filler' and he had limited ability to do much else.

But these days everyone is expected to perform those 'blue collar' tasks anyway. Even Stevie J is expected to do everything Eddy did. Someone figured out that good players should also be doing these blue collar jobs as well as their normal jobs. So these days most coaches just pick their best 22 players and then demand all 22 know when to press, when to fill space, where to run etc. So the Lyon 'philosophy' has been superseded.

Maybe he can re-invent himself and go again with a new philosophy but that is yet to be seen.

[Con Gorozidis]

B: Hudghton, Penny, Voss
HB: Fisher, Maguire, Jones
C: Dal Santo, Hayes, Baker
HF: Hamill, Riewoldt, Montagna
F: Milne, Gehrig, X.Clarke

Foll: Koschitzke, Harvey, Ball
Int: Powell, Thompson, Peckett, Goddard

That is an unbelievable side. Penny was an out and out gun. A great shame he was lost to the game to injury.

[Con Gorozidis]

It is a bit of a myth that we only lost 09 because of the 'toe poke'. Geelong were doing all the attacking in the last qtr and had the ball in their half almost the entire last 15 mins. We were just hanging on for grim death. I am not sure Hayes or NDS even touched the ball in the last bit. See for yourself.

Have not been able to bring myself to watch even one minute of '97, '09 or '10 - will have to take your word for it, Con!

It has taken me this long to face it

[skeptic]

Remembering Rob Eddy does raise some interesting points about how the game has changed in the last 6 years.
Back then Lyon was considered an innovator. The team was thought of as a machine with 22 parts. Each part playing a role and performing a function.
Eddy was supposed to tackle and harass and know where to run and how to fill holes at certain times. HIs role was a 'space filler' and he had limited ability to do much else.

But these days everyone is expected to perform those 'blue collar' tasks anyway. Even Stevie J is expected to do everything Eddy did. Someone figured out that good players should also be doing these blue collar jobs as well as their normal jobs. So these days most coaches just pick their best 22 players and then demand all 22 know when to press, when to fill space, where to run etc. So the Lyon 'philosophy' has been superseded.

I may not be an AFL player or coach... Heck outside of the odd Saintsational game I haven't played footy since high-school but even I can see how simplistic and idiotic a concept like that is.
It's inconceivable to me that a long term footy guy like Lyon could legitimately subscribe to this or similar ways of thinking.

The problem for mine with RL as a coach is more in line with an Armitage vs Eddy/McQualter debate
You have a guy with a higher ceiling of talent vs guys that are more capable of completing roles that you need done right now.

Lyon took the latter option everytime. Even now at Freo, he seems unfamiliar with the concept that you play younger players not because of what they are right now, but because of what you think they can develop into. Great coaches don't give up on players that have limitations, a poor attitude etc... They find a way to turn it around.