Beginning the Media - toward 2018 - Richo (HS - 18 nov)

[saintbrat]

Richo interviewed by Robertson
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/t ... fdf00976c8

looking at where he is at and moving forward

taking on the challenges from the players

Asked if he overloaded players emotionally at times, he said: “At times, and I’ve done a bit of work with a person this pre-season about this is the way I present.

“Part of the feedback from the players on the first to fourth-year camp was the reviews at times can be a bit negative.

“When you just miss out on finals, I’ve tended to focus on what’s not working as opposed to what is working. The feedback from the players is I’ve got to get the balance right.”

At the All Blacks “captain’s run’’ in Auckland, Richardson noted how the players, not the coaches, conducted the session.

At St Kilda, a captain’s run would include assistant coaches Adam Kingsley working on stoppages, Danny Sexton on ball movement and Aaron Hamill with the forwards, with Richardson in the middle of the ground with the whistle.

“I walked away from that session with the All Blacks and thought, ‘It just makes sense’,” Richardson said.

“Because on game day when South Africa does something differently, the All Blacks players have to do it. It takes me five minutes to get a message down — it’s too late. That will be big focus in pre-season.’’

On Sunday, the coaches and the leadership group, and four-gamer Ben Long, 20, head to Darwin for a leadership camp. The message will be clear: This is your team now.

Perhaps they will also ponder who they are and whether they are coming or going as a football team.

“We know we have work to do, but I’m really bullish about where we’re at, I really am,’’ Richardson said.

[saintbrat]

2nd article online
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/t ... a214e8178f

ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson is buoyed by the fitness of forwards Paddy McCartin and Maverick Weller after ­indifferent 2017 seasons.

Small forward Weller has shed 8kg and is now weighing in at 83kg. And No.1 pick McCartin ran a PB in the 3km time-trial on his return to pre-season training.

That’s expected from most young AFL players. But it’s with whom he ran it that pleased Richardson.

Hard nut Weller played 18 games for 11 goals this year and carried an ankle injury for much of the last two-thirds of the season.

“He wouldn’t want me to make excuses, so these aren’t excuses, these are reasons,” Richardson said.

“He was performing really strongly for the first four or five games and then got a very bad ankle injury and he shouldn’t have played, and we’ve had that conversation.”

Weller felt he needed to play after being promoted to the leadership group after one season at the Saints.

“His intent wasn’t a selfish one,” Richardson said.

“He’s a tough bloke. He’s gone from 91kg, and he’s now at 83kg and he’s flying.

“He’s very much motivated by what happened last year and he wants to do something about it.”

[loris]

I rest my case. I always said, and Big Mart ( oh how I miss BM’s contributions to the site these days) also agreed. Weller bulked up too much last season, hence lost flexibility & endurance.
I was surprised Weller went down that muscled bound track, because before the last pre-season, I read an interview, where he said he had a tendency to bulk up too much if he over did the weight training and he was looking to get a balance between strength and endurance. Well he certainly didn’t get the balance right last season, he over bulked up to detriment of his game.
He looked like walnuts stuffed in a condom.

[magnifisaint]

I rest my case. I always said, and Big Mart ( oh how I miss BM’s contributions to the site these days) also agreed. Weller bulked up too much last season, hence lost flexibility & endurance.
I was surprised Weller went down that muscled bound track, because before the last pre-season, I read an interview, where he said he had a tendency to bulk up too much if he over did the weight training and he was looking to get a balance between strength and endurance. Well he certainly didn’t get the balance right last season, he over bulked up to detriment of his game.
He looked like walnuts stuffed in a condom.

It depends on whether it was a small condom or not.

[magnifisaint]

Richo interviewed by Robertson
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/t ... fdf00976c8

looking at where he is at and moving forward

taking on the challenges from the players

Asked if he overloaded players emotionally at times, he said: “At times, and I’ve done a bit of work with a person this pre-season about this is the way I present.

“Part of the feedback from the players on the first to fourth-year camp was the reviews at times can be a bit negative.

“When you just miss out on finals, I’ve tended to focus on what’s not working as opposed to what is working. The feedback from the players is I’ve got to get the balance right.”

At the All Blacks “captain’s run’’ in Auckland, Richardson noted how the players, not the coaches, conducted the session.

At St Kilda, a captain’s run would include assistant coaches Adam Kingsley working on stoppages, Danny Sexton on ball movement and Aaron Hamill with the forwards, with Richardson in the middle of the ground with the whistle.

“I walked away from that session with the All Blacks and thought, ‘It just makes sense’,” Richardson said.

“Because on game day when South Africa does something differently, the All Blacks players have to do it. It takes me five minutes to get a message down — it’s too late. That will be big focus in pre-season.’’

On Sunday, the coaches and the leadership group, and four-gamer Ben Long, 20, head to Darwin for a leadership camp. The message will be clear: This is your team now.

Perhaps they will also ponder who they are and whether they are coming or going as a football team.

“We know we have work to do, but I’m really bullish about where we’re at, I really am,’’ Richardson said.

Can you post the whole article

[saintbrat]

2 page spread and a secondary article in Mid November is good media

[SaintPav]

You can access the content using a search engine.

[saintbrat]

Or $2.40 at the milk bar or supermarket

[magnifisaint]

Or $2.40 at the milk bar or supermarket

wtf?

[Darth Vader]

Was bleeding obvious Weller was unfit last year. It’s a cliche to say “once they’re out there they’re assumed to be 100%”. Players play injured all the time for all sorts of reasons and it affects them differently. Armo in 2016, Jack and Weller this year. He has the right attitude - he’ll be good.

[skeptic]

Two thoughts...

1. Whoever let Weller play injured should be shot. Gave us nothing, destroyed his reputation, kept a developing player out. SHOCKING decision making.

2. We kicked one goal less and what was it? 64 behinds more than last season. OMG!!! We could have been premiers.

[magnifisaint]

Two thoughts...

1. Whoever let Weller play injured should be shot. Gave us nothing, destroyed his reputation, kept a developing player out. SHOCKING decision making.

2. We kicked one goal less and what was it? 64 behinds more than last season. OMG!!! We could have been premiers.

Now that's what you call kicking arse!

[minneapolis]

Or $2.40 at the milk bar or supermarket

Hi Bratty,

no Milk Bars here in Beijing.

[saintbrat]

take the headline
'St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has no doubts about where the Saints are heading'

and paste it into a search engine- The allowed ones in China-- shouldn't be anything needing censoring in the article

and yo should be able to find a link

it is actually a safety for the Site to NOT paste whole articles- because every now and again the copyright agents get whiff , we have been reminded several times over the history of SS .

[saintbrat]

but another snippett

There’s still room to move in that space and there’s no greater example of Richmond into Essendon games this year. But our method improved. Our understanding of our method improved.’’

The method is not dissimilar to the rest: Play on your terms, defend close to goal, strong and efficient in and out of contests and maximise opportunities.

“If you ask our fans, they’d say we work hard but we don’t get the reward, which is a pretty good assessment,” Richardson said.

“But as our individuals grow, we’ll get more bang for a our buck in terms of becoming more efficient in our play.”

Goalkicking mesmerised the Saints to the point of them being haunted. This season they kicked 271.299. The season before it was 286.237. Fifteen fewer goals and 62 more behinds this year.

It was a major issue and arguably cost the team a finals spot, and Richardson was moved to make an urgent appointment — former Hawks sharpshooter Ben Dixon as goalkicking coach.

“The goalkicking was as bad I’ve seen,” Richardson conceded.

The Port Adelaide loss in Round 21 is remembered for Patty Ryder’s masterful tap to Robbie Gray, who kicked the winner. What Richardson remembers is his team kicking 3.12 to three-quarter time.

“It was a heartbreak,” he said.

It was the kind of heartbreak that fuels footy clubs.

“We’re either learners or losers,” Richardson said.

“Look, we’re here to win a flag. We’re not here to play finals, or just for people to play AFL footy. We’re here to win a premiership and you need those learning experiences.

“The Tigers, and I’ve heard Dimma (Damien Hardwick) say it, that after three pretty strong seasons, last year was a massive learning for them. These are Dimma’s words, not mine, and we can see the results they got this year.

“Those moments really help, they burn in the players’ gut, in the footy clubs’ gut.”

Richardson is a curious figure. He’s not a chest-thumper or headline maker. He doesn’t make promises or deliver big statements. And he wouldn’t this week when asked about playing finals in 2018.

[saintwill66]

Great article, I thought Jack Sinclair was a big improver this year, but would not have classified him as 'elite", but Championship Data prove that he is.

There's an interesting analogy to Bucks retiring in 2008 and the Pies winning a premiership in 2010, and I have long considered that Riewoldt, for all his importance to the team for so many years, and despite the fact that he arguably played some of his best games in 16/17, was never going to be part of our next shot at a flag.

I also like the fact that we have one of the youngest teams in 2018, and a strong group aged 21-24 - get another 20 games into this group and you can expect considerable improvement in their performance.

St Kilda's recruitment in the past 4 years has been outstanding, especially in building up a very strong midfield - Ross, Steele, Dunstan, Acres, Billings, Gresham, Sinclair, Stevens, if they all hit their straps it will be hard for Steven and Armitage to force their way into the team. Should Nathan Freeman finally become fully fit that adds additional pressure on the selectors.

Combine this line of thinking with the stat that we had over 60 more shots at goal in 2017, then it can be argued that the Saints will definitely play finals in 2018.

The only note of contention I will add is that I remain pessimistic about on-field leadership under Jarryn Geary - I am happy to be proven wrong because he may well perform better now that he is no longer under the shadow of Nick Riewoldt, but I would welcome the promotion of Jack Newnes to the captaincy as he is a much better player (rated "above average" by CD) and is their most consistent player every week.

[skeptic]

Good post Saintwill,

People will say I’m being ridiculous but...
We had Melbourne on the ropes in round 1 at 1/4 time
We had Geelong and WCE on the ropes and failed to deliver a knock out punch
We also shouldn’t have dropped the game vs Port

And despite the fact that we were pitiful vs Essendon, we were still in the games into the 3/4 quarter and if we played half as good as we were capable, we would have easily beaten them too.

That’s 5 games that we should have and were in a position to win. That actually puts us on top of the ladder. We pbly still don’t win as I reckon we can’t beat Adelaide, Syd and Rich at the MCG put still.

We’re close I can sense it.