Wooden Spoon or 17th in 2019

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

I love how the doom and gloomers completely ignore the ladder predictions of this season, but make predictions themselves for next year.

[DJ Higgins]

Based on what we all saw this season, 17th is fair as who is going to be worse than us?

Carlton will improve big time Mitch McGovern, Alex Fasolo, Will Setterfield, Nic Newman and Sam Walsh (most likely). You cant say that looks like a team that wont improve, plus Curnow getting a year older and help for Cripps in the midfield are all pluses

GCS have 3 top 6 picks at this point but lost their best players so I think we will beat them depending on who they draft. But first years players are kids playing against men so they will take some time to get going

Brisbane. Lost Beams but got Neale and got a few handy other players but no high draft pick. We may beat them but 50/50

St Kilda. What have we done. Lost a below average Ruckman which is a positive but we haven't replaced him with anyone, and there is no one better in the wings. If anything our terrible Ruck performance is now worse. The Outside run we desperately need was addressed by......?
One area we have a lot of average players is the inside midfield so we recruited another ex legend mid in Dan Hanners. This may be more a long term strategic move with non tangible benefits; culture, work ethic, discipline but cost a lot
On a plus we have pick 4 still. This will be a 2020 impact pick for me. I.e. I expect little from first year players but they may show glimpses of skill. Now if we trade pick 4 or use it to pick up King I may get banned from SS due to my expletive filled post that will follow

[degruch]

Carlton will improve big time Mitch McGovern, Alex Fasolo, Will Setterfield, Nic Newman and Sam Walsh (most likely). You cant say that looks like a team that wont improve, plus Curnow getting a year older and help for Cripps in the midfield are all pluses

They'll need to improve big time to get to 17th!

[Cairnsman]

I just can't wait for the 2019 season to start already. I want see how our number 4 DP goes already. I want to see how our number 7 and 8 DPs go, especially Coffield. I want to see how DH looks in RW&B. And really looking forward to seeing Roberton and Bruce back. Gee we missed those guys, I missed them. I'm super super keen to see how Josh Battle goes, I'm looking forward to seeing if Bruce plays a different role with Battle, Paddy and Membery holding up the forward line. Looking forward to see if Gresh can take it to a another level. Benny Long, as Bruce would say "Delicious".

Heaps of talent in the side, heaps.

Who gives a rats toss about predictions of ladder postions by media personalities trying to create some revenue for Rupert.

Just want 2019 to start already.

[Whiskey]

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-17/cry ... redictions

Read through this. This is why you don't worry about ladder predictions and this was done in mid March.

Not one person picked West Coast to make the 8. Only 1 for Collingwood and they had them at 8th.

Do not write off the Saints season. We could easily get back to a similar 16 and 17 win loss ratio.

Ted, you're either a club plant, or in needs of meds...or both?

reasons for finishing bottom:

Coach: Alan Richardson

Senior Playing Group:
Newnes
Geary
Armitage
Dunstan
Billings
Savage
Longer
McCartin
Lonie
Brown

Upside: Weller now finally gone

17th or 18th is the go

Gee thats some poor players listed there. If management were fair dinkum 4 or 5 should have been moved on. Most are average, theres 2 or 3 that are rubbish. This is why i cant see any improvement happening. We really do tolerate mediocrity far too well.

[Schillaci]

Bottom 4 for sure and 17th entirely plausible.
Gold Coast and Carlton will be cellar dwellars too.

[chico2001]

Bottom 4 for sure and 17th entirely plausible.
Gold Coast and Carlton will be cellar dwellars too.

Carlton seem to have done ok in the draft so would expect improvement from them. Lions are well coached and have a couple of good big men. There is not much between the bottom 5 sides Suns don't have much and the WB still have a few very good players. This all means the pressure is on the saints coaching staff and players to improve at least 75% next year i.e win 6,7,8 games

[saintspremiers]

I love how the doom and gloomers completely ignore the ladder predictions of this season, but make predictions themselves for next year.

I love it how you ignored the fact that only one person in the predictor last year had us making the eight.

Loris was right

[Schillaci]

Bottom 4 for sure and 17th entirely plausible.
Gold Coast and Carlton will be cellar dwellars too.

Carlton seem to have done ok in the draft so would expect improvement from them. Lions are well coached and have a couple of good big men. There is not much between the bottom 5 sides Suns don't have much and the WB still have a few very good players. This all means the pressure is on the saints coaching staff and players to improve at least 75% next year i.e win 6,7,8 games

Carlton were like witches hats this year. I'm sure they'll improve on that. 16th beckons. They're a young list with few genuine stars.
GC are a shambles and we will be doing well to win 6-8 games based on 2018 and our inability to land some big fish in their prime.

[bergsone]

6-10,lock it in,this year was just too bad to be true

[saintadamski]

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-17/cry ... redictions

Read through this. This is why you don't worry about ladder predictions and this was done in mid March.

Not one person picked West Coast to make the 8. Only 1 for Collingwood and they had them at 8th.

Do not write off the Saints season. We could easily get back to a similar 16 and 17 win loss ratio.

Ted, you're either a club plant, or in needs of meds...or both?

reasons for finishing bottom:

Coach: Alan Richardson

Senior Playing Group:
Newnes
Geary
Armitage
Dunstan
Billings
Savage
Longer
McCartin
Lonie
Brown

Upside: Weller now finally gone

17th or 18th is the go

Gee thats some poor players listed there. If management were fair dinkum 4 or 5 should have been moved on. Most are average, theres 2 or 3 that are rubbish. This is why i cant see any improvement happening. We really do tolerate mediocrity far too well.

That's exactly right

Absolutely none of the main usual suspects (apart from Weller) moved on or traded

This team will do much the same in 2019...until Richo's eventual demise in around round 6-7

I will be happily proven wrong...but I doubt I will be.

What do you think of that Ted Theodore the club plant?

[Yorkeys]

Another key factor will be whether A. Richardson can reinvent himself as a coach and motivator. It will be a challenge for him, especially as he seems to have been given almost unfettered coaching and selection control for several years; but I bet he gets all the support, heart to hearts and tutorials needed. I also guess the club has a plan b to mitigate the effects if AR does not improve markedly and adjust well to the new environment.

[Zed]

No speed. Crappy foot skills
Topping up with 2 or 3 A graders like Shiel or others won’t fix this
Need to replace about 10 players in our current best 22.
Minimum 5 year rebuild.

[WellardSaint]

When all the players vote for Geary as Captain, that says they don't want to take charge nor be accountable, and shows they just want their $600k and not worry about being any good.
Mediocrity Through Disloyalty is the new motto

[iwantmeseats]

Easily.
And the year after that.
Comparing the saints to the pies or eagles is a joke.
Those teams would have more talent than us NOT in their senior
Sides.
Team is stuffed. Admin is stuffed.
Same ole same ole.

[gringo]

100% correct, CG only team worse - and by a bit. Carlton improve with McGovern and better younger players get bigger and more experience - Curnow, Cripps, Dow, .

We add back Robbo and Bruce ( CHB?) and Hannebery (injury concerns).

With respect to both of these will make us better but not much - Brisbane, Freo and WB all improved much more than we did in this time.
Not to mention coaching/game plan issues.

17th is fair and likely

Freo get Hogan who has a navicular injury and lose Lauchie Neale their second best player. I wouldn't think they all of a sudden improve a lot. Brisbane get Neale but lose one of their leaders in Beames. We should finish around 8th to 12th in reality unless we have another injury prone year.

[degruch]

Easily.
And the year after that.
Comparing the saints to the pies or eagles is a joke.
Those teams would have more talent than us NOT in their senior
Sides.
Team is stuffed. Admin is stuffed.
Same ole same ole.

No-one compared us to the Eagles or the Pies FFS. Go get a membership you sad sack.

[bigred]

Will finish 9th on percentage.

[WellardSaint]

Easily.
And the year after that.
Comparing the saints to the pies or eagles is a joke.
Those teams would have more talent than us NOT in their senior
Sides.
Team is stuffed. Admin is stuffed.
Same ole same ole.

No-one compared us to the Eagles or the Pies FFS. Go get a membership you sad sack.

i happen to concur with Mr Seats.
And I rang the club and renewed my interstate membership.

In 2018, it got me one game for free in Perth, and the other I paid for.
2019, will they come to WA twice again, or just once?
Don't know, but my $$ is essentially a donation.

You folks in Victoria get to see them every home game, so your $$ is value for money.

[chico2001]

Easily.
And the year after that.
Comparing the saints to the pies or eagles is a joke.
Those teams would have more talent than us NOT in their senior
Sides.
Team is stuffed. Admin is stuffed.
Same ole same ole.

No-one compared us to the Eagles or the Pies FFS. Go get a membership you sad sack.

i happen to concur with Mr Seats.
And I rang the club and renewed my interstate membership.

In 2018, it got me one game for free in Perth, and the other I paid for.
2019, will they come to WA twice again, or just once?
Don't know, but my $$ is essentially a donation.

You folks in Victoria get to see them every home game, so your $$ is value for money.

Been there done that....so have many others

[Saintmatt]

Did anyone predict West Coast and Collingwood to make the GF?

Did they even predict them to makd the 8?

The Saints list is alot better than our position last year. Alot better. We will surprise alot of people, including our own supporters.

I have a prediction.

You will change your nickname around mid season next year

Oh...and also I agree with Nicky Dal

Shameful prediction by Nicky Dal and a bit harsh as Joey stated. Even worse when you consider that Dal is the senior coach of our next generation players.

Maybe he just wants the players to prove him wrong.

NO - I think it's just called honesty and I don't have a problem with that. For some time, we've known our development is poor. And mid-year - that was confirmed by Dal (an employee of the club who now works with our academy players) that this was the case when he said that players drafted to St K don;t have the same opportunity to get the best out of themselves as those drafted to other clubs. What a horrible opinion from an insider to have to confront. Roo couldn't disguise his disdain any less if he tried for our coaching program throughout the season until later in the year when he simply stopped commenting on St K as it was unhelpful to all. Joey kept talking about moving Paddy to CHB etc. All of this is an indictment on the people that presently 'lead' our club.

I don't think in any way shape or form do Dal, Joey and Nick take any pleasure in potting our players and club it's just, it's very hard to posit a contrary position if it's so glaringly obvious.

[degruch]

Easily.
And the year after that.
Comparing the saints to the pies or eagles is a joke.
Those teams would have more talent than us NOT in their senior
Sides.
Team is stuffed. Admin is stuffed.
Same ole same ole.

No-one compared us to the Eagles or the Pies FFS. Go get a membership you sad sack.

i happen to concur with Mr Seats.
And I rang the club and renewed my interstate membership.

In 2018, it got me one game for free in Perth, and the other I paid for.
2019, will they come to WA twice again, or just once?
Don't know, but my $$ is essentially a donation.

You folks in Victoria get to see them every home game, so your $$ is value for money.

Been there done that....so have many others

Yeppers...me too, 10 years worth of donations, didn't hurt that much to be honest. Actually attending the countless 80-100 point thrashing hurt more!

[Flagless]

Our key weaknesses from last season haven't been addressed (at least in the trade window) and that is pace and elite ball use by foot. Our mid field apart from Steven is slow and one paced and their foot skills are horrid. Adding Hannebery does absolutely nothing to address that as he is slow (and wont get any quicker at 28) and is poor by foot. Unless there is dramatic improvement from some of the youngsters we will be bottom 4 again. Only some luck with injuries will determine whether its 15th or 18th

Hannerbry isnt poor by foot.

You must watch different footy to me, his disposal efficiency the last two last seasons has been very average, however i suspect that is because he has lost a yard of pace and now doesn't have the time to deliver the ball like he did when he was 24-25. That isn't going to improve as he gets older and those suspect groins get sorer. i hope I'm wrong but I think its a terrible decision

[Crossy66]

100% correct, CG only team worse - and by a bit. Carlton improve with McGovern and better younger players get bigger and more experience - Curnow, Cripps, Dow, .

We add back Robbo and Bruce ( CHB?) and Hannebery (injury concerns).

With respect to both of these will make us better but not much - Brisbane, Freo and WB all improved much more than we did in this time.
Not to mention coaching/game plan issues.

17th is fair and likely

Freo get Hogan who has a navicular injury and lose Lauchie Neale their second best player. I wouldn't think they all of a sudden improve a lot. Brisbane get Neale but lose one of their leaders in Beames. We should finish around 8th to 12th in reality unless we have another injury prone year.

Agree with this. I reckon 10th is about right

[samuraisaint]

I thought we recruited for depth at the expense of star power. Well, this year we had significant injuries and this theory was well and truly put to the litmus test, and we really got exposed for a lack of skill and a real lack of key defenders coming through. No way would we have re-contracted Brown if we had any young full backs at Sandringham stepping up to the plate.
There needed to be more of the regular players traded and more of the assistants let go - did I hear right that we have kept on our goal kicking coach for next season? If so, then wow; just wow. I would like an ITK to explain how this is happening (if this is correct).
The game plan needs a complete overhaul - an absolute joke if there ever was one. As does team selection. I mean, the ruck situation at our club is an excellent example of this; we have had five ruckmen at the club, and in the last two rounds of 2015 not one of them actually played because of injury and form. This year Pierce only played because Holmes was gone, Hickey and Longer were injured, and Marshall turns out to be a better option as a forward. And fair enough too, because the guy's form at Frankston certainly warranted it.

The reality is though, that any team suffering injuries will struggle to win games consistently, and at least a lot of players got a chance they may not have got otherwise.
My main concern is player development though. Our players skills - especially in the forward line and our transition in to the forward line is very bad, and has not improved since 2015. In fact, if anything it is actually getting worse. Hard work is one thing - but we need the right people in coaching and mentoring roles.