Can Longer save Richo's hide??

[thejiggingsaint]

Time to put out the call for Michael Rix? he does Rock Rux!

[desertsaint]

Supporting the Saints from round 1 1979 to now i've just accepted we are a small club and likely that will never change. Just staying in the competition is a good reason to smile, let alone how relatively successful we've been in the afl era. I don't need us to win flags, albeit i'd love to see one, and was pretty gutted in 09. That was the grand final we should have won and failed. But what a great year until then. So i don't generally overestimate the club or the players and don't generally bag them as a result. I guess i'm like a charlie brown - giving lucy a chance every time, knowing the ball will be ripped away - but having fun anyway, and hey, one day just maybe?

[WellardSaint]

F*** me dead! I just listened to richos pressed and he thought Billy was good last week!! He also basically blamed our entire 3rd quarter annihilation against Melbourne on centre bounce!! No wonder Hickey has been banished to the 2's!! I'm just flabbergasted that anybody, let alone the senior coach thinks Longer was anything but useless last week!! And for the last stinking time...he's not aggressive!! He got pole axed by Blicavs, Zac smith was much better than him, these would have to be two of the least physical rucks around. His 'physicality' is a complete myth, he just isn't tough and isn't intimidating to other afl players!! Strewth rant over!

I blame all of the coaching staff, and Jamie Cox.
They insist on playing guys who belong in the VFL- like Glbert, who makes 2 good spoils or tackles in a game,
does a lot of 1%; but add up the one % together and we get a total far short of acceptable.
The coaches can't get the best out of Bruce. Thinking he can be a ruckman?
- Fantastic 2015, 2nd year blues in 2016, so far this year- big efforts and work with absolutely poor returns.

The "Brains Trust" haha can't get the best out of Membrey, great 2016, this year got drowned by Bernie Vince, of all people, and is like a ghost this year.
My new nickname for Membrey is "Casper".

They had months to prepare for new ruck rules, and what did they do? Not sure, but it ain't working.

The club is failing miserably. Only improvement from 2016 is actually taking on West Coke and almost winning- seems the travel hoodoo is no longer a hoodoo.

Wait till they go to Adelaide, we'll see if the Perth game was an aberration.

[Bluthy]

[Our previous generation hung around the bottom of the ladder for ages, loaded up on quality and picks and hey presto we made prelim after prelim, 3 grannies and almost 2 flags. You need quality, you need elite players.

Semi Final 1998.....10th 1999.....Spoon 2000.....15th 2001.....15th 2002.....11th 2003.....Prelim 2004
vs.
Elim Final 2011.....9th 2012.....16th 2013......Spoon 2014.....14th 2015.....9th 2016......????? 2017

It's time to make winning more important. One of the reasons we played in GF's in '09 and '10 was that we had a winning culture with that group of players, they'd had 5 solid years of winning more than they lost. It's time to get that belief into this generation.

Yes so in a comp of 16 teams, sixth bottom, bottom with priority picks, second bottom, third bottom, fifth bottom - that is where we loaded up on the elite talent that set us up for a decade at the top. We've had pick 1, 3 & 5. That probably isn't the basis of a dynasty. You proved my point. Well done.

[Playon]

Why because we want to try both young rucks out and see how the different styles go? Thats actually clever. Its a laugh how precious people are about certain players. Are we going for a flag this year and I missed it? Or do we still have a lot of experimenting to do. Me thinks the latter. We need to know what we have, and haven't got, on our hands with certain players.

I see your point but we still need a win tomorrow, and that's first priority

Priority I thought was to try and make the finals this year. I was never expecting anything much above 8th btw and would be delighted if we can somehow sneak into the eight.

Winning is not the first priority - it never should be at our point in the rebuild. You start tightening up this early we aint gunna get a strong squad. We can play pretty fast and loose at the moment. Richo's desire for wins over development has been a huge issue for our young players. His old pants backline last year and taking Shneids off the rookie list has held our young turks back. I weep for our future. Small weeping at the moment, but could get bigger.

Of course winning is a priority, that is if you want the club to improve. If we are to attracts FA's or out of contract players.We need to be a destination club. If we were to sit there and wallow around near the bottom of the ladder or even out of the eight it becomes harder for us to appeal to new players. Its also bad for membership and sponsors.

Yeah sure we experiment giving games to players that have earn a chance via the vfl just as every other club does. But we need to win to improve, Its a long way back via the draft, just ask Melbourne or we could become the next Richmond

Pull your head out of your arse. FA's want to come to clubs that are doing things right. Our previous generation hung around the bottom of the ladder for ages, loaded up on quality and picks and hey presto we made prelim after prelim, 3 grannies and almost 2 flags. You need quality, you need elite players. "Wallow around the near the bottom" - stupid thing to say. That is how the system works. We've been down the bottom but still have drawn new players. WAnt a lot of members - win a flag. That what gets them and keeps them. Lyon's best 25 didn't work - he should have experimented more.

Winning is not the be all and end all. YOu gotta be smarter than that dumb approach. That approach is starting to make our list look like lacking enough high draft picks to win a flag.

Abuse because I don't agree with you? I didn't know you were so delicate. In the future Ill wait until you get past page 3 of AFL for Dummies.

If you think any coach of any team that finishes 9th on the ladder and after 5 rounds doesnt have winning as a priority and gifts players games for developement, you have NFI.
Currently we are trying to find the right mix and dropping players that aren't performing and giving games to players that are. Why? To try and win.


Our previous generation was generated using bottom picks with concession picks and a gift from Carlton giving us BJ
Which btw requires you to be on the bottom of the ladder.

Try to get a grasp on what happens in modern footy, concessions picks are virtually gone, there is now a thing called free agency, pick 10 doesn't mean pick 10 anymore thanks to player academies, there are additional new clubs who still have an excess of picks to use, trading can now go into a future year.
Players leave clubs basically because of.. They leave for opportunity, they leave because they're not happy at their current club. they leave for a better contract,
they leave because they want to win a flag.
Nat Fyfe if he was to leave Freo would have the choice to go to any club he wants, do you suppose he'd pick one of the bottom 4 clubs?

If we were to finish 13th would be as attractive to an high profile OOC player as if we'd finish in the top 8?

Memberships? Is that when you're buying yours after we won a flag? But back to the point, Do you suppose our membership drops if he finish near the bottom of the ladder? Of course winning is important for memberships,

Hell You can blame Richo and Ross Lyon for everything

Normally I don't read your over-bloated factually incorrect posts, but this one was a bit shorter than the rest so I didnt just skim over it. I wont make that mistake again,

[SuperDuper]

McEvoy keeping them in it

Hickey wouod have smashed him too

[saintsRrising]

Longer just cannot run with Ben and Ben has made the most of it to be the Hawks best player.

[Otiman]

Longer's last game for us today unless he picks up in the second half. We look more potent with Gilbert in the ruck.

[saintspremiers]

Longer just cannot run with Ben and Ben has made the most of it to be the Hawks best player.

What a surprise. Well, clearly it is to Richo not the rest of us.

Fortunately, Robbo, Browny & Jakey in deerfense will help get us over the line. Hawks are owned up forward.

[Goose is king]

Billy was our only player beaten on the day

[Bluthy]

Billy was our only player beaten on the day

bulls***. You are just trying to justify the longer hate. He held off big strong McEvoy and gave us good use at ball ups. Jesus credit where it is due. People get so stuck on their opinions they refuse to lose face by admiting they were wrong.

[Bluthy]

McEvoy 26 hit outs,. LOnger 36. CAse closed.

[SuperDuper]

Billy was our only player beaten on the day

bulls***. You are just trying to justify the longer hate. He held off big strong McEvoy and gave us good use at ball ups. Jesus credit where it is due. People get so stuck on their opinions they refuse to lose face by admiting they were wrong.

what?

Clearly Billys inability to follow McEvoy around the ground cost us and kept the Hawks in the game in the first half

I thought Billy was quite good in the first half last week

He struggles to carry the load as the sole ruckman though... has not got the tank

[Toy Saint]

Some posters on here kinda lack a fundamental understanding of football, Longer gave us 1st use multiple times and we won the game by 75 points. And for the Gilbert haters, I thought his contribution as 2nd ruck allowed Josh Bruce to dominate up forward.

Sure McEvoy was more mobile, so what! Mumford and Sandilands are not real mobile either but geez they are both major assets to their teams.

And next week we face Mumford, the man mountain. He's almost certainly crush Hickey.

[WellardSaint]

Some posters on here kinda lack a fundamental understanding of football, Longer gave us 1st use multiple times and we won the game by 75 points. And for the Gilbert haters, I thought his contribution as 2nd ruck allowed Josh Bruce to dominate up forward.

Sure McEvoy was more mobile, so what! Mumford and Sandilands are not real mobile either but geez they are both major assets to their teams.

And next week we face Mumford, the man mountain. He's almost certainly crush Hickey.

Nailed it here,
agree on all your points

[BigMart]

Bruce plays 90% forward every week?

[Spinner]

Some posters on here kinda lack a fundamental understanding of football, Longer gave us 1st use multiple times and we won the game by 75 points. And for the Gilbert haters, I thought his contribution as 2nd ruck allowed Josh Bruce to dominate up forward.

Sure McEvoy was more mobile, so what! Mumford and Sandilands are not real mobile either but geez they are both major assets to their teams.

And next week we face Mumford, the man mountain. He's almost certainly crush Hickey.

Nailed it here,
agree on all your points

Exactly.

The quality of our clearances where the best I've seen in years. Longer did a tremendous job for a young player against an experienced beast.

Worry about the midfield chasing easy kicks and marks. Longers first job was to win the ruck and support the mids. The rest of his game will come.

[borderbarry]

Only Holmes on our list could do a better job on Mumford than Longer.

[BigMart]

5 possesions, no kicks and one mark... not a great game. McEvoy played pretty well.

He was good at stoppage, but he can't just be that

And Hickey is terrible at stoppage, but ok around the ground

We have two halves of a great ruckman

[wally]

GWS play 2 ruckmen could we?

[Goose is king]

Nice to see how some think our clearances were due to Longer and not the absolute dominance of Steven, Stevens, Ross and Steele. I'm not a Longer hater and at 23 I reckon only Grundy is younger and better than him. But please, McEvoy took the points

[White Winmar]

Some posters on here kinda lack a fundamental understanding of football, Longer gave us 1st use multiple times and we won the game by 75 points. And for the Gilbert haters, I thought his contribution as 2nd ruck allowed Josh Bruce to dominate up forward.

Sure McEvoy was more mobile, so what! Mumford and Sandilands are not real mobile either but geez they are both major assets to their teams.

And next week we face Mumford, the man mountain. He's almost certainly crush Hickey.

Let's hope Mummy's spear tackle on Libba earns him a week's rest.

[Toy Saint]

Only Holmes on our list could do a better job on Mumford than Longer.

Longer was an early draft pick, and unfortunately Holmes just doesn't understand the game.

If we measured Longer and Holmes by their trade value, Longer would probably be worth a 2nd round pick....and Holmes probably wouldn't be picked up if he was delisted.

Longer is still young and could easily be amoungst the top 5 ruckmen in the competition in the next year or two.

[Spinner]

5 possesions, no kicks and one mark... not a great game. McEvoy played pretty well.

He was good at stoppage, but he can't just be that

And Hickey is terrible at stoppage, but ok around the ground

We have two halves of a great ruckman

Don't want to mention the hitouts? That's weird - surely relevant for a ruckman.

Maybe you want to compare tackles as well, or frees for perhaps?

Longer was great, second game in two years. Young, developing. Destroyed the middle. He's progress for his age and experience that he showed in this game is great.

[mullet]

Some posters on here kinda lack a fundamental understanding of football, Longer gave us 1st use multiple times and we won the game by 75 points. And for the Gilbert haters, I thought his contribution as 2nd ruck allowed Josh Bruce to dominate up forward.

Sure McEvoy was more mobile, so what! Mumford and Sandilands are not real mobile either but geez they are both major assets to their teams.

And next week we face Mumford, the man mountain. He's almost certainly crush Hickey.

Let's hope Mummy's spear tackle on Libba earns him a week's rest.

Im not sure it was a spear tackle and I'm really sure he will be playing next week. Unlike Toby Greene who has to be the biggest (smallest) crock head going around. Has he got small mans syndrome or what