I'm not convinced about Al....

[Johnny Member]

Do you ever hold people accountable Satch?

I like your posts, but come on now be serious, make a big call.

Why isn't he under any real pressure, why should he be exempt?

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

[Griggsy]

1 of those teams has been rebuilding since 2005. Think people expect them to come good at some point, finished above 10th once since the 04 grandfinal.

[Johnny Member]

1 of those teams has been rebuilding since 2005. Think people expect them to come good at some point, finished above 10th once since the 04 grandfinal.

I honestly can't see us coming good at all unless we get another 4-5 good players in the team.

Unfortunately, the big crop that came into gehter a few years ago aren't showing much. None appear to be world beaters, and only a few appear to anything other than mediocre/average footballers.

The Curren's, Templeton's, Billings', Webster's, Saunders' and even the Newnes' and Dunstans' just aren't good enough players for us to improve to the level that we all hoped we would have.

Realistically, only Stevens, Armitage, Hickey, McCartin and Gresham have displayed something to suggest that they are of the quality required to play in a top 4 team for us in the future. Maybe Goddard too.


To be fair, next year is really when I expected to see the genuine improvement from us though. The above guys still really need to get toward the 50 game mark before they're realistically expected to show that big leap in improvement that you get with teams.

I thought this year would be a train wreck - which I saw as a positive as we need to get some more talent from the draft. We've actually exceeded my expectations thus far.


I actually think it's our system and process that has got us over the line and made us competitive this year - despite the clear lack of talent on the park. So I'm definitely not turning the focus to the coach. Absolutely not at this stage.

[Sainternist]

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

Jesus, this is a very harsh (and pessimistic) view. I hope you are just overreacting to yesterday's result. Extreme lack of talent? Have you not seen the improvements since 2014? Have you even been watching the Saints play since then?

90% of the team are under the age 25 years of age. Come on, they need time to mature. Alan Richardson has basically been given the task of transforming boys to men. Cut us a little more slack, mate.

[WellardSaint]

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

Jesus, this is a very harsh (and pessimistic) view. I hope you are just overreacting to yesterday's result. Extreme lack of talent? Have you not seen the improvements since 2014? Have you even been watching the Saints play since then?

90% of the team are under the age 25 years of age. Come on, they need time to mature. Alan Richardson has basically been given the task of transforming boys to men. Cut us a little more slack, mate.

Acres, Minch, Eli, Lonie, Sinclair, revolving door in and out, unable to provide consistency.
Backline relying on old stagers who can't compete and get outmarked time and time again. Carlisle was a gamble that backfired, and Lee not coming on.
Huge holes everywhere.
Doggies and Blues leaving us behind.

[magnifisaint]

Do you ever hold people accountable Satch?

I like your posts, but come on now be serious, make a big call.

Why isn't he under any real pressure, why should he be exempt?

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

How do you explain the 4 wins we have fluked?

[Johnny Member]

I already explained it.

[Sainternist]

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

Jesus, this is a very harsh (and pessimistic) view. I hope you are just overreacting to yesterday's result. Extreme lack of talent? Have you not seen the improvements since 2014? Have you even been watching the Saints play since then?

90% of the team are under the age 25 years of age. Come on, they need time to mature. Alan Richardson has basically been given the task of transforming boys to men. Cut us a little more slack, mate.

Acres, Minch, Eli, Lonie, Sinclair, revolving door in and out, unable to provide consistency.
Backline relying on old stagers who can't compete and get outmarked time and time again. Carlisle was a gamble that backfired, and Lee not coming on.
Huge holes everywhere.
Doggies and Blues leaving us behind.

What malarkey! Lonie, Sinclair, Minchington, Templeton, Acres are all barely 20 years of age.

Granted, the backline has looked particularly brittle against the stronger teams, but has still been quite serviceable. Yes, that area needs to be strengthened.

What a gross exaggeration about Carlton leaving us behind. Of course the Bulldogs are ahead of us! We didn't really start our rebuild properly until 2013 or even 2014.

Huge holes everywhere? More hyperbole! Have you even watched the Saints play this year? Sounds like another knee-jerk reaction to yesterday.

[st.byron]

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

Jesus, this is a very harsh (and pessimistic) view. I hope you are just overreacting to yesterday's result. Extreme lack of talent? Have you not seen the improvements since 2014? Have you even been watching the Saints play since then?

90% of the team are under the age 25 years of age. Come on, they need time to mature. Alan Richardson has basically been given the task of transforming boys to men. Cut us a little more slack, mate.

Acres, Minch, Eli, Lonie, Sinclair, revolving door in and out, unable to provide consistency.

Crickey the expectations on blokes who are 21 or under in a team missing a hardened core group in the 25 - 30 bracket. Give them time

[WellardSaint]

Crows beat us by 46 last yr.
WCE twice beat us, 56 pts and 97.
Look at us this year.
Those 2 have gotten better, and we are worse.
AR loves trotting out numbers, those numbers tell a sorry tale.

[Sainternist]

Crows beat us by 46 last yr.
WCE twice beat us, 56 pts and 97.
Look at us this year.
Those 2 have gotten better, and we are worse.
AR loves trotting out numbers, those numbers tell a sorry tale.

Mate, you've been living in WA for too long.

[Johnny Member]

We have an extreme lack of talent.

And unless something drastic happens somehow, it will get worse in the next year or so.


I still think our list is dire.

Jesus, this is a very harsh (and pessimistic) view. I hope you are just overreacting to yesterday's result. Extreme lack of talent? Have you not seen the improvements since 2014? Have you even been watching the Saints play since then?

90% of the team are under the age 25 years of age. Come on, they need time to mature. Alan Richardson has basically been given the task of transforming boys to men. Cut us a little more slack, mate.

Acres, Minch, Eli, Lonie, Sinclair, revolving door in and out, unable to provide consistency.

Crickey the expectations on blokes who are 21 or under in a team missing a hardened core group in the 25 - 30 bracket. Give them time

Hang on.

Aren't people wigging out cause we're getting thrashed?

[evo]

We are obviously 6-8 players short of being a top 8 side. Most of our younger brigade seem to be solid workmen at best with little in the way of star quality, so pouring more games into them will probably mean that they will be ordinary players with fifty games to their name. Our imports however seem to be going well e.g. Bruce, Hickey, Weller, Savage etc. We have to do more trading IMO because the draft alone does not seem to be working for us.

[BigMart]

Can we stop using age as an excuse... We aren't the youngest team going around, we weren't even as young as the crows

I'd rather accountability than excuses

[prwilkinson]

I thought Richo looked a little rattled in the press conference straight after the match. As if he'd been discussing with the assistant coaches in the box that none of these players listened to a single f*&king thing they'd said during the week. Are they even buying into what we're trying to teach?

[WellardSaint]

Crows beat us by 46 last yr.
WCE twice beat us, 56 pts and 97.
Look at us this year.
Those 2 have gotten better, and we are worse.
AR loves trotting out numbers, those numbers tell a sorry tale.

Mate, you've been living in WA for too long.

AR is a huge fan of numbers. "-22 clearance, -170 disposals, -35 inside 50..."
All that I've done is show some other numbers for comparison.

[Scollop]

Can't teach an old dog new tricks. Maybe also the tail is wagging the dog as it always has at St Kilda

[Devilhead]

Can we stop using age as an excuse... We aren't the youngest team going around, we weren't even as young as the crows

I'd rather accountability than excuses

The Crows oldest player was Betts at 29 - we had Riewoldt - 33, Dempster - 32, Montagna - 32

Crows had 13 players between the ages of 24 and 29 - that key middle aged group with 7 - 12 years experience

Saints had 9 players in that age group - 4 less - which is significant amount in terms of players on the park that are close to their peak age

Of course there is no excuse for not bringing effort but just looking at the age spread of each squad absolutely shows that the Crows should be deep in their window - a window that is likely to open for us in the next 2 to 3 years once we get a few more players into that important 24 to 29 age spread - also once we throw in some A-grade talent (thanks to Salary cap space) we too will soon enough be smacking sides by 12+ goals once our younger players gain more maturity and experience

[BigMart]

So until you turn a certain age ... You can't compete?

Age isn't really a great factor if you have real talent... Unless effort is holding you back

Cripps is young ... Should he not be playing as good as he is??

[Con Gorozidis]

Can we stop using age as an excuse... We aren't the youngest team going around, we weren't even as young as the crows

I'd rather accountability than excuses

The Crows oldest player was Betts at 29 - we had Riewoldt - 33, Dempster - 32, Montagna - 32

Crows had 13 players between the ages of 24 and 29 - that key middle aged group with 7 - 12 years experience

Saints had 9 players in that age group - 4 less - which is significant amount in terms of players on the park that are close to their peak age

Of course there is no excuse for not bringing effort but just looking at the age spread of each squad absolutely shows that the Crows should be deep in their window - a window that is likely to open for us in the next 2 to 3 years once we get a few more players into that important 24 to 29 age spread - also once we throw in some A-grade talent (thanks to Salary cap space) we too will soon enough be smacking sides by 12+ goals once our younger players gain more maturity and experience

Getting A-Grade talent isnt just a matter of clicking your fingers and saying 'shazaam'.
Also while I am generally a fan of the age profiling of lists - just having the right age profile isnt a guarantee in itself. You just have to look at Richmond to see that.
Richmond have 21 players on their list in the core age group. Most of those have between 50 and 200 games.

[Johnny Member]

Can we stop using age as an excuse... We aren't the youngest team going around, we weren't even as young as the crows

I'd rather accountability than excuses

Teams historically improve dramatically when the large chunk of their list has played 100 games. Even more so when thryve played most of those games together as a group.


Up until that point, consistency in effort and execution is always an issue. Always has been.

[magnifisaint]

I already explained it.

Where??
If we have a extreme lack of talent, explain how we won those 4 games??

[samuraisaint]

We've won 4 games so far this year, probably 2 more than I thought we would win up to this stage of the season when I saw the fixture last year. I had us down as winning 7 games this year, and if you look at our remaining games we should still be able to win our share of games in the second half of the season.
Carlton at Etihad - win
Cats at Etihad - gallant loss
Suns on the Gold Coast - win
Essendon at Etihad - win
Melbourne at Etihad - win
Bulldogs at Etihad - loss - hiding
North at Etihad - 70 point loss
Carlton at MCG - 50/50
Sydney at Etihad - 100 point loss
Richmond at MCG - gallant loss
Brisbane at Etihad - huge win - 70 points plus.

We could and should win 8 games - could even be 9 wins for the year, but that's highly unlikely.

There are so many question marks over so many of our fringe players though, but having said that, they couldn't be too bad because Sandy won at Geelong yesterday and Sandy has been performing well this past couple of seasons. I'm backing Richo because we played poor opposition the two weeks before the Crows and I don't think the team were prepared and ready for the physical pressure Adelaide put them under from the get go. We'll know early on if we're going to beat Carlton, because we'll show our intent early. If we can put the pressure on early we'll go a long way to winning the match. We do that and we're back on track majorly.

[ROLS-LEE]

We've won 4 games so far this year, probably 2 more than I thought we would win up to this stage of the season when I saw the fixture last year. I had us down as winning 7 games this year, and if you look at our remaining games we should still be able to win our share of games in the second half of the season.
Carlton at Etihad - win
Cats at Etihad - gallant loss
Suns on the Gold Coast - win
Essendon at Etihad - win
Melbourne at Etihad - win
Bulldogs at Etihad - loss - hiding
North at Etihad - 70 point loss
Carlton at MCG - 50/50
Sydney at Etihad - 100 point loss
Richmond at MCG - gallant loss
Brisbane at Etihad - huge win - 70 points plus.

We could and should win 8 games - could even be 9 wins for the year, but that's highly unlikely.

There are so many question marks over so many of our fringe players though, but having said that, they couldn't be too bad because Sandy won at Geelong yesterday and Sandy has been performing well this past couple of seasons. I'm backing Richo because we played poor opposition the two weeks before the Crows and I don't think the team were prepared and ready for the physical pressure Adelaide put them under from the get go. We'll know early on if we're going to beat Carlton, because we'll show our intent early. If we can put the pressure on early we'll go a long way to winning the match. We do that and we're back on track majorly.

Like your optimism but I cant see us beating Carlton this week. Love to be wrong but missing fish and now probably McCartin now not. Melb and gold coast aren't walk overs either.

[ROLS-LEE]

We are obviously 6-8 players short of being a top 8 side. Most of our younger brigade seem to be solid workmen at best with little in the way of star quality, so pouring more games into them will probably mean that they will be ordinary players with fifty games to their name. Our imports however seem to be going well e.g. Bruce, Hickey, Weller, Savage etc. We have to do more trading IMO because the draft alone does not seem to be working for us.

I agree.

I also think our selection panel has a lot to answer for. Against WCE and now Crows, two teams with power forwards we have Gilbert and Dempster on them.
What about bring in Lee and Delaney. Yes they are not our future but it makes a nearly a 100 point thrashing to maybe a 30point loss.
What's our plan for our back line if Carlisle doesn't come on?