It breaks my heart

[tony74]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

[skeptic]

FWIW, I don’t think anyone thinks the club, coach, admin, players etc aren’t trying or giving less than 100%

Most have concerns that one of more aspects of the club atm between the admin, football department, coaching team and players simply aren’t good enough.

[The_Dud]

How many shots at goal do the players have at training every week?

If it’s anything under 500 then they’re taking the piss.

[congorozides]

Give it a rest.
You treat fans like morons and dumbos.

The joke is well and truly on you. You arent at all bright and the people working at the club are nowhere near as smart as they think they are and you think they are. Most of them are downright thick.

Time you woke up to it.

It is transparent what you are doing now - trying to shift blame on to the players and off the coaching staff.

Rats on the Titanic.

Poor form tony. Poor form.

<warning for demeaning a poster / club officials>

[bigcarl]

I actually thought we showed a bit tonight.

De Goey’s six straight was the difference between the sides.

We are badly missing a physical presence in the forward line. Bruce would have been handy for his abilities to to crash packs - or Carlisle for his marking.

Those are the sorts of things that can turn it around.

[congorozides]

The current staff are NOT the club.
The staff can and should be replaced.

The club will go on.

[Teflon]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

Tony appreciated your frankness
Skeptic is right
The reality is our club Admin down are not good enough
We've lost our way, become overly AFL compliant and simply to nice and not ruthless. Even in that our inability to see where football was and is going with recruitment of skilled players under pressure. Tonight I watched a team of largely triers move the ball forward 'hoping' the end result would be a goal.
Players lack the basic necessary skill at the top level under pressure and as a result have no confidence.
We need a full club overhaul Admin to boot studder and people need to go.

[stonecold]

How many shots at goal do the players have at training every week?

If it’s anything under 500 then they’re taking the piss.

You talk about me being stuck in the 80's, fair dinkum, no-one is allowed too many shots on goal anymore (thanks to the fitness/sports science gurus), I agree with you, but for f*** sake, get up to speed, it just doesn't happen that way anymore!!!!!

[tony74]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

Tony appreciated your frankness
Skeptic is right
The reality is our club Admin down are not good enough
We've lost our way, become overly AFL compliant and simply to nice and not ruthless. Even in that our inability to see where football was and is going with recruitment of skilled players under pressure. Tonight I watched a team of largely triers move the ball forward 'hoping' the end result would be a goal.
Players lack the basic necessary skill at the top level under pressure and as a result have no confidence.
We need a full club overhaul Admin to boot studder and people need to go.

Yep, It’s happening as we speak. I just want people to know how hard everyone is trying.

[noddy04]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

Thankyou Tony for giving us an insight into what the boys and everyone else at the club are feeling. I am 63 years old born and bred south aussie and i have supported the Mighty Saints for 53 years. I and my wife and 2 sons have been full paying club members for 26 years. We have spent 1000s of dollars travelling to Mdelb to watch games over the years even travelling 800 round trip to watch a trial game. We absolutely love our club and our players. I dont give a rats what some of these supposed supporters on here say I and my family will always have the players and the clubs back. We have had worse years before and come out of it . Nothing would give me more pleasure than another premiership and i believe we will get it in the next few years. People GET BEHIND THE CLUB AND PLAYERS and stop bagging them all the time. I know there are supporters that go to every game around the country and i dips me lid to them. I do not miss a game with the saints playing even if it means my sons wedding or Harry and whatshername. I will be front and centre next week against Richmond and hope like heck we can win....FORTIUS QUO FIDELIUS

[The_Dud]

How many shots at goal do the players have at training every week?

If it’s anything under 500 then they’re taking the piss.

You talk about me being stuck in the 80's, fair dinkum, no-one is allowed too many shots on goal anymore (thanks to the fitness/sports science gurus), I agree with you, but for f*** sake, get up to speed, it just doesn't happen that way anymore!!!!!

I know it doesn’t happen that way anymore.

But it should.

Especially when our goal kicking is at historically low levels.

And if they’re not doing everything in their power to fix this, the single biggest problem with our team, then they’re really just taking the piss.

I don’t care if they have a slightly higher chance of doing a hamstring, if forwards can’t kick a goal then there’s no point them being on the park anyway.

[one point]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

Tony appreciated your frankness
Skeptic is right
The reality is our club Admin down are not good enough
We've lost our way, become overly AFL compliant and simply to nice and not ruthless. Even in that our inability to see where football was and is going with recruitment of skilled players under pressure. Tonight I watched a team of largely triers move the ball forward 'hoping' the end result would be a goal.
Players lack the basic necessary skill at the top level under pressure and as a result have no confidence.
We need a full club overhaul Admin to boot studder and people need to go.

Yep, It’s happening as we speak. I just want people to know how hard everyone is trying.

What overhaul is happening?

[ss1986]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

Tony appreciated your frankness
Skeptic is right
The reality is our club Admin down are not good enough
We've lost our way, become overly AFL compliant and simply to nice and not ruthless. Even in that our inability to see where football was and is going with recruitment of skilled players under pressure. Tonight I watched a team of largely triers move the ball forward 'hoping' the end result would be a goal.
Players lack the basic necessary skill at the top level under pressure and as a result have no confidence.
We need a full club overhaul Admin to boot studder and people need to go.

Yep, It’s happening as we speak. I just want people to know how hard everyone is trying.

Business, sport and life in general is littered with triers who never make the cut...

Sometimes they need to realise they arent good enough and be shipped off for more capable people.

It’s the attitude of disdain to the ‘plebs’ as I put it that puts so many of our club’s admin offside with the supporters.

They need to vacate immediately. They being every single board member and the senior coach.

And a change of captain while we are at it.

[Scollop]

No one is giving up.

A few fans have

I've never seen a match day thread go for just 3 pages. Saints supporters totally losing interest in the team. We are sick of excuses. If the heirachy doesn't make some statements soon, there will be members/sponsors and supporters losing hope and losing faith.

It is obvious that the decisions in the last 4 years have failed. We need a culture of accountability and we need a new coach now

[skeptic]

No one is giving up.

A few fans have

I've never seen a match day thread go for just 3 pages. Saints supporters totally losing interest in the team. We are sick of excuses. If the heirachy doesn't make some statements soon, there will be members/sponsors and supporters losing hope and losing faith.

It is obvious that the decisions in the last 4 years have failed. We need a culture of accountability and we need a new coach now

I think the match day thread may be more to do with the forum outage than anything else...

[Enrico_Misso]

Well It breaks my heart to see a side that we all expected to burst into the top 8 this year, serving up Muppet Football.

I would be even more pissed off if I thought the players weren't hurting too.

But that doesn't answer the questions ...
Q1) Why can't we hit even easy targets with our field kicking and goal kicking?
Q2) Why after 9 rounds of this rubbish have we seemingly done nothing to fix the problem?

[saintspremiers]

Well It breaks my heart to see a side that we all expected to burst into the top 8 this year, serving up Muppet Football.

I would be even more pissed off if I thought the players weren't hurting too.

But that doesn't answer the questions ...
Q1) Why can't we hit even easy targets with our field kicking and goal kicking?
Q2) Why after 9 rounds of this rubbish have we seemingly done nothing to fix the problem?

Ok so we have Lethlean - he’s our person from the outside looking in.

tony said there will be change and I can verify that is the plan also. I’m assuming it’s significant from the little I know from an ITK.

tony - why (or when) will the club make some public statement to this effect?

[nw7]

Tony 74, if you are connected to the Club please pass on the message that we are sick and tired of being treated like morons by the Club. Hearing the President speak yesterday hurt more than the loss to Collingwood. If our Presidents message is accurate and he truly believes everything is on track and accepted the presentations made to the Board by the Footy Department we are in big trouble. The List needs work, the coaches came into the season with a flawed game plan and overrated our abilities, after the North game it has been one excuse after the other . I am not doubting effort and that players and coaches are hurting I know they would be. I'm doubting the club leadership to improve us moving forward if they truly believe if we play to our abilities we can match it with anyone when we cant win a game, cant execute basic skills, cant kick for goal, keep picking players that just aren't up to standard week in week out, don't develop our players as well as other clubs and when we have great opportunities at draft time pick the wrong players. We have a fantastic opportunity to use the rest of the season to improve, I want to hear them say we are going to use the rest of the season to improve our skills, give players on the list a go, improve our game plan and fitness and that players and coaches are on notice that what's occurring is not acceptable. We can then hit next season full on and accept what we are working on this season. If you don't truly acknowledge the problem you cant deal with it and fix it. The message from the club tells me they are in denial, not that they are capable of setting us on the right path from this time on.

[David-Lee]

Thanks for sharing your perception of how hard the team is working and how passionate they are to succeed.

The issue is that hard work + passion = effort. That's why you are speaking a fallacy.

Effort alone doesn't equate a win but it does show in the statistics.

We are very very poor in 1%'s. We are very poor in tackling and so many other areas.

To not assign fault with the coaching team when last year our efforts were substantially better means one thing....a boogie man came to every players house and scared them so bad they lost their capacity to play skillfully....losing confidence is one thing but from game 1 we looked woeful. How do you lose confidence before the season starts? Because in training you know in your gut the team being started and the coaching strategy is weak.

[rodgerfox]

I am absolutely doubting the players' effort.

Absolutely I am.


Not all of them. Some put it all on the line. However some were clearly not giving everything last night.

Billings. Again.
Gresham.
Ross.
Steele.

More than once, these guys shirked contests and/or we're going 3/4 pace at a contest.

If Richardson can't see that, and thinks they are all giving 100% and we just need some luck to turn it around - he's off his nut.


I'd also argue that no matter how hard they keep practising whatever it is that they're practising, they will merely get better at being bad.
Their strategy is flawed. It's not working. It's been 5 years and whatever it is that Richardson is trying to get them to do - doesn't work.

His coaching seems to be the equivalent of 'pressure' and 'stong' and 'competitive'. No strategy, technique or method though.

[portosaint]

No one is giving up.

A few fans have

I've never seen a match day thread go for just 3 pages. Saints supporters totally losing interest in the team. We are sick of excuses. If the heirachy doesn't make some statements soon, there will be members/sponsors and supporters losing hope and losing faith.

It is obvious that the decisions in the last 4 years have failed. We need a culture of accountability and we need a new coach now

This. This is the frustrating part. Not one statement has been made this year from those in charge. None. No one has been held accountable. Just flogged the same horse over and over and over and expected crap to turn around. We are irrelevant minnows, and this way of running things ensures we stay that way.




Oh, by the way.... Things quite often are as they seem. Pay me several hundred k a year and I will "bleed" every day of the week too.

[bigred]

Despite all that effort.

There is no way known that this is acceptable. We have players that are being gifted games and are not being held to account for the performance. Repeatedly.

People need to be held accountable or we may as well just shut up shop.

[wolfpup]

OK, I’ll lay it on the line right from the start. I’ve been St.Kilda my life and as somebody who is within the four walls ( so to speak) I can talk with knowledge, experience and inner sanctum know all. But this spiel is passion. Don’t ever any of you suggest that this team and club is not playing for the coach, the club or it’s supporters. I witness them not on tv, not on the seats but raw. I know what they give. I know the energy, enthusiasm, the will to succeed.
What they have not is the skill/ confidence to execute. Whether they will come in time I as much as anyone cannot answer that.
But don’t ever, ever think that this team is not giving everything for their supporters and coaches. They are bleeding and so am I.
Apologies for the rawness. I love this club and so do all the representatives that front every day and every week. There’s very few clubs in the world with the longevity of St.Kilda F.C. No one is giving up.

i am not doubting anything you say tony.
after being very disappointed with the games earlier in the year (especially north game, we were only 16 points down 1/2 way through the last quarter and we just gave up ffs), i have been replaced by a numbness and realization that we dont have the cattle, or dont have the cattle to play our current gameplan. I cant make a read of where we are going as our injurys began to take toll after our geelong game so am not sure having a full side would have impacted our year (maybe freo and pies game would be closer).

so basically i cant work out where we are at as a side. i was certain we were finals bound. we seem to be losing every game between 30 and 50 points and simply can not kick more than 10 goals a game. do we need a rebuild? would an injection of say gaff, sloan and wallis make a difference next year? is it better to rebuild or persevere with our players as they will come good.

i will always support and love the saints, i am just bit confused as to where we are going. if we are to rebuild i would grit my teeth and accept it, if injuries are to blame i would accept that, if we are targetting a degoey at 3mill a year and going all 80s carlton in 2019 i would accept that as well.

i would rather be crazy passionate supporter than a numb supporter.

[iwantmeseats]

Coach MUST go before end of year.
And then a vast clean out after that.
Then...look at the players.

[PADDLEPOP1001]

I understand where everyone is coming from on
this topic because it is obviously breaking everyone’s hearts,I think 5 years is enough for a coach to show us his wares,at this stage it just seems that our game plan(whatever that is) is not good enough & the coaching moves on game day are stagnant or don’t make sense (Ross to full forward last night had me scratching my head)there for 10 mons than off the ground.Its time for our board to make a statement & the one made during the week by our president was piss poor so if we don’t change I’m not sure where we go .I think the supporters at least deserve an honest explanation because if you look at the fixture we could be 13/1 and surely things will get ugly if we get to that stage .Leadership is needed NOW from all across the club but most of all we should start using Warne,Banna,Fox,Maxwell people who are successful & passionate to help the club out of this rut!