This is the most hopeless stkilda team I have ever seen

[bigred]

First three of the year I believe.

I was only a kid and can remember it quite well.

[Enrico_Misso]

The thing about the 80s is that it was before the draft and enforced salary caps.

But for the last 3 decades we have had a national draft and salary cap system that has no intrinsic biases.
So all things being equal each club should have on average the same level of long term success.

The reason why some clubs are more successful than others is
- they are smarter in their recruiting
- better in their development of player skills
- have a better gameplan
- have coaching staff that can inspire the players
- have a bit of luck

Our record on these 5 factors is
- FAIL
- FAIL
- FAIL
- FAIL
- FAIL

Time for CONSEQUENCES

[Con Gorozidis]

The reality is the club has been run by a cabal of snake oil salesmen and spivs these last five years.

People really need to wake up to reality and smell the coffee.

[Crossy66]

We were so much worse in the 80's.

Oh my goodness we were worse.

Correct. One year we lost three in a row by 100+

This ain’t nothing compared to early-mid 80s.

The thing is that even in the dark years of the eighties, the saints stood for something, atleast we had some hard nuts that had a go and as supporters i think we were happy with that. Names like, Joffa, Burns, Frawley, Barker, Robbie muir, Lockett, Winmar, and later on the Burke, Loewe, Harvey etc.
I think the Saints of 2018 ore just" beige" and not fun to watch.

[samuraisaint]

And it's a different era. The grounds are better, the game is more congested. The teams are heavily coached. The teams are much more even.
I used to go every week back in the day too, and remember the late 70s to late 80s as a frustrating period to go to the footy. We were really terrible a lot of the time, and if you rocked up to a game at Princes Park or Victoria Park, Windy Hill, etc you knew you were on a hiding to nothing.
But we had characters playing for the club, and coaches like Mike Patterson, Graham Gellie and Daryl Baldock. The players would eat steak, eggs and chips smothered in salt and tomato sauce after training before team selection on Thursday nights, they'd have pleasant Sunday mornings when everybody would smoke their heads off and drink beers. We were probably lucky to make it through those times, but we did. I remember the crowds growing in the late 80s when Lockett, Winmar, Frawley, and Barker were at their peaks, and then in the early 90s Moorabbin was so jam packed you had to get to games super early to get a spot where you could actually see the game. But that was alright because we had the reserves and Peter Everitt was playing in them then.
But now in a supposedly more even era, with the draft and a salary cap, we are going into round 13 with only 1 win, and it is very disappointing. Not that we didn't win tonight, I didn't expect us to really, but that the game was over by midway through the first quarter, just a week after we gave West Coast an 8 goal head start. I would have thought we would have gone about things a but differently in the lead up to tonight's game, but once again the intensity at the beginning of the game just was not there. This has been a feature of St. Kilda's games since 2013 and I'm surprised that this issue has not been addressed.

[Enrico_Misso]

Most of the first half Richo played a 7 man defence at each centre bounce.
But cannily, he had them positioning themselves in spots the ball never went to!

[saintadamski]

The bottom line is...
I'm not saying I am excusing Richo but no coach could win with:
- Savage
- Newnes
- Weller
- Steele
- Lonie
- Sinclair
- McCartin
- Hickey
- Billings (not playing tonight)

These players must be traded (no one would want them) or delisted

The true rot to this club is list management and recruiting - Ameet Baines and Tony Elshaug have brought this club to its knees

Also Jack Steven should be a running wingman - not an inside mid

In fact we don't actually have any really good mids - Petracca and Bontempelli were passed up for Billings and McCartin... duds

[realdeal]

Bruce
Carlisle
Geary
Roberton
Acres
Gilbert
Long
Stevens

All unavailable all would make a difference

Pretty sure all have played in a number of losses..

[mad saint guy]

Swans appear to have a limitless supply of players who just step up and become A grade players.

It helps that the AFL keeps gifting them top-5 picks they haven't earned. We finished last in 2014 and Heeney, who has arguably been the best player out of that draft, wasn't available to us. Cost Sydney pick 18. Mills cost them a pile of trash picks.

Another one on the way this year in Blakey.

You know any club can bid on these players right? We could have bid on Heeney at pick 1 if we thought he was worth it and Swans would have to find picks to match.

Heeney was drafted under the old system where you simply have to use any pick in the same round as when a bid is made. Melbourne bid on him at pick 2 and since Sydney's first round pick was 18 that's what they used to 'match' the bid

They changed the system after that farce but Sydney still managed to get MIlls (after Melbourne bid on him at pick 3) using picks 33, 36, 37 and 43. So they essentially pick 2 and 3 for pick 18, 33, 36, 37 and 43.

[Sainternist]

Agree with OP. Something's gotta give pretty soon or otherwise we'll be going the way of Fitzroy. A likely scenario could be a merger with GCS. Then the AFL can start seriously looking into getting the Tasmanian team people have been shedding crocodile tears over. If this happens, I'll no longer support an AFL team. The only thing I want out of following this competition is to witness an elusive St.Kilda premiership.

[Tommyj]

How can you people call yourselves true Saints supporters what you going to fly to tassie I very much doubt it. I hope you bookmark all the crap you post. Things will change they always do then you can go watch cool hand Luke and suck eggs

[Devilhead]

We had a pretty young side out there tonight and the Swans get there nice cushy academy selections

That said - Lonie Weller Newnes are not up to it - make the easy call and delist

[Sainternist]

How can you people call yourselves true Saints supporters what you going to fly to tassie I very much doubt it. I hope you bookmark all the crap you post. Things will change they always do then you can go watch cool hand Luke and suck eggs

I've been buying a membership every year since I was 10 years old. I've attended all the games in town this year. Does this not constitute a true Saints supporter? Pretty much everyone is a true Saints supporter in this forum. You wanna dispute this? I will argue my part until your ears start to ring, my friend. We are all loyal to the bloody core and sick and tired and fed up to the back teeth of the absolute gutless and witless displays this team has been displaying for all 12 rounds of this season. If you don't feel the same way, well, please tell me what drugs you are on, because I think I could use some myself.

[sks023]

We were so much worse in the 80's.

Oh my goodness we were worse.

Correct. One year we lost three in a row by 100+

This ain’t nothing compared to early-mid 80s.

So you have gone to the mid 80s to find a worse team , YIPPY!

[stevie]

I remember as a kid celebrating Barks taking a huge speckie and it would be in the front page of the Sun the day after another 80 point hiding. That was all we had to cheer for. And back then I would enjoy watching the finals as there was never a chance of the Saints making them lol.

Now I refuse to watch many finals and certainly not the GF if we aren’t involved. That stemmed from losing the 05 PF

[CURLY]

Hard to listen to commentators pump up Sydney and how great they’ve been. If we had the AFL assistants they do we’d have stayed in the finals for ten years as well.

[Vazelos]

Can someone that knows the AFL system back to front please clarify if Swans stil have a different platform to the Vic clubs or has it changed.
Academy picks- how does that work? Etc
I hear the Swans are super professional and so much smarter than the rest of Victoria the heartland of football...
It makes me want to puke it seriously insults my intelligence....
AFL is a billion dollar business underpinned by TV revenue and the NSW TV market is paramount to them pulling in big $$$.
It’s the reverse for NRL with Vic that’s why you don’t see where Swans or Storm out of the finals ever because the code ensures it does any happen.
Best coaches, IP, players etc all go there.
Tribunal... Hall and Goodes has a license to go around and do as they pleased a Swans jumper always got leniency and stil does.
AFL in their arrogance screwed up on the Gold Coast it doesn’t work there with any code and never will.
GWS will take decades to get any traction.
That why he Swans are vital to them.

I was talking to a Port recruiter the other day and he said when we go for a free agent we have only Crows to compete against when it’s a go home player but you guys have 9 clubs.

[oh when the]

The guy next to me last night summed it up pretty well
Sydney an organised club Saints unorganised.

[CURLY]

The guy next to me last night summed it up pretty well
Sydney an organised club Saints unorganised.

Easy to be organised with the AFL gifts they receive.

[1966]

Supporting the Saints in the early 80s was tough but we had hope.
Lockett, Frawley, Owen and then Winmar gave us something to look forward to. We also had Trevor Barker who bled red black and white. Throw in Cunningham, Burns and Elphinstone and we had some quality.
I don’t see anything now.
Team is soulless and club stands for nothing.
Finnis, Lethlean and Richardson are not St Kilda people. Just like Bain’s they are AFL career people.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Bring in St Kilda people now just like in the 80s when we bright back Doc.

[Cairnsman]

This is purely an observation and just a reality of being a Saints supporter. But isn't it interesting how us Saints supporters are able to throw up this debate of "is this the most hopeless Saints team", and with arguably a record number of player generations and eras to compare against. With possibly only two player generations and eras to compare against at the GF end of the scale, those being the 2004-2010 era versus the 66 era.

Whereas say for many other teams it is the inverse of our club's culture.

Please dont construe my observation as one being from a bitter and twisted supporter, it's quite the opposite actually, this thread made me chuckle. I mean I get it and understand the basis for it, but it's one of the perverted pleasures I derive from being born into this club. I just accept who we are and what it is that makes us.

Happy Sunday folks. I'm off to mow the lawns and damn it I'm going to enjoy doing so.

[saynta]

Supporting the Saints in the early 80s was tough but we had hope.
Lockett, Frawley, Owen and then Winmar gave us something to look forward to. We also had Trevor Barker who bled red black and white. Throw in Cunningham, Burns and Elphinstone and we had some quality.
I don’t see anything now.
Team is soulless and club stands for nothing.
Finnis, Lethlean and Richardson are not St Kilda people. Just like Bain’s they are AFL career people.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Bring in St Kilda people now just like in the 80s when we bright back Doc.

Have to agree with you about letting non saints people run the club. Don't see it happening to the same extent elsewhere.

[spert]

Heads need to roll- and quickly. Sumner and the board are directing this club and they have failed miserably.

[SydneySainter]

How can you people call yourselves true Saints supporters what you going to fly to tassie I very much doubt it. I hope you bookmark all the crap you post. Things will change they always do then you can go watch cool hand Luke and suck eggs

I hope you're right, but look at the reality - so much debt, a failed rebuild, a team with no star players and barely any A graders, no FA's want to go near us and we're handcuffed to a coach who is breaking records for woefulness for the next two seasons.

There are still 10 teams in Victoria and the AFL has it's sights set on expansion, not continually propping up the ailing Vic clubs and no amount of money the state government allocates to further develop Moorabbin will change that.

Just don't be surprised if we apply to the AFL for a bail-out and they say no. Barring a wealthy fan writing a big fat cheque, we may be screwed.

[chico2001]

80's were bad but we rejoiced in that in a sick type of way and made cult hero's out of some of them....it was different then.....some people even loved "jack"Daniels. What a rampaging midfielder he was, would tackle until he couldnt do it no more and then break away from packs and kick long into the forward line...................... Would murder Weller, Lonie and others.