Huns view on how many games we will win in 2019

[saynta]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au


"TAB Over/Under: 8.5

GAMES WON IN 2018 — 4

Gilbert Gardiner says: UNDER

Hard to trust the Saints after last season. St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has the cattle to win 9+ games but after four successes last season it appears a bridge too far despite the arrival of Dan Hannebery.

Chris Cavanagh says: UNDER

Coming off just four wins in 2018. Dan Hannebery addition should help, as well as an easy draw, but five extra wins looks unlikely.

Liam Twomey says: UNDER

They’ve added Dan Hannebery, who will no doubt give the Saints some class and leadership. But is he worth five extra wins? They will have a soft draw but 2020 will be the year the Saints rise.

[WellardSaint]

Well, everyone has an opinion.
Pure speculation.
It's like trying to pick a winner of a horse race,
so many variables.
Nobody expected WCE to win the flag, or Tigers the year before, or the Doggies, etc.

[dragit]

6 - 8

[DJ Higgins]

In still not sure who we are going to beat. Suns ok and maybe a game against Carlton and Brisbane by t can't see many more victories

[mr six o'clock]

In 2019 if we play similar to 2018 but find some way to kick goals instead of points we will win alot more games .
We won't challenge for the flag but we'd be a chance for finals .

[prwilkinson]

I wonder how many ‘experts’ tipped West Coast to win the 2018 flag before the season started.

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

I wonder how many ‘experts’ tipped West Coast to win the 2018 flag before the season started.

Only 1 expert out of 21 from memory actually picked them to even just make the 8. Lol. Pretty sure that was from the AFL website just before the season started.
Collingwood had very little love also.

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

If we have a good year we could win 9-10 games. Someone will drop and have a s*** year like us.

[WellardSaint]

In still not sure who we are going to beat. Suns ok and maybe a game against Carlton and Brisbane by t can't see many more victories

Agreed.
I don't see those 3 teams having more improvement than us,
we've done some tweaks in coaching staff and squad, so we'll do a bit better,
so have they- so they won't surpass us.

I don't expect us to improve much more than the other clubs, they will improve
at least as much as we do.
So 2019 will see us not overtake anybody.
We may have one or two shock wins where a mid-rung team takes us lightly,
like how we beat the Dees, but seriously, I don't think we can make a leap.

[sainter104]

i think well win somewhere around 14 to 20 games. Top 4 big chance and may even take hope the cup, which is obviously half full to overflowing from my perspective .... GO SAINTS !!!!

[desertsaint]

the outlook is so bleak i'm leaving oz.
will be back for our premiership in 2020!

[samuraisaint]

In still not sure who we are going to beat. Suns ok and maybe a game against Carlton and Brisbane by t can't see many more victories

Yep - Suns, Carlton and Brisbane - 5 wins
Melbourne, Fremantle, maybe Giants. Always potential for an upset, particularly in the back half of the season.

Can see maybe 9 wins. No more than that.

[Devilhead]

There have been some positive list and coaching changes so I am expecting an increase in positive results

If the injury gods smile down on us then 10 to 14 wins

[WellardSaint]

There have been some positive list and coaching changes so I am expecting an increase in positive results

If the injury gods smile down on us then 10 to 14 wins

10 wins is 'pleasing' and could be achieved if they 'coach strongly'

[axcellence]

In still not sure who we are going to beat. Suns ok and maybe a game against Carlton and Brisbane by t can't see many more victories

Yep - Suns, Carlton and Brisbane - 5 wins
Melbourne, Fremantle, maybe Giants. Always potential for an upset, particularly in the back half of the season.

Can see maybe 9 wins. No more than that.

I wouldn’t put Melbourne in the list with May as a recruit and Lever returning from ACL.

I keep wondering though about Sydney and Hawthorn. Surely getting Hanneberry from Sydney should give us some tactical advantage. Saints weren’t far away from Hawthorn either, except for some of their stars individual efforts. Not sure which GWS will turn up when Saints play them.

[DJ Higgins]

Thin line between being positive and a bit delusional. We still have a terrible ruck situation, one genuine outside mid, a coach with no plan b and terrible skills. I hope we improve big time but 10 wins. Tell him he's dreamin'

[ace]

Our biggest win for the season is likely to be the spoon.

[degruch]

In still not sure who we are going to beat. Suns ok and maybe a game against Carlton and Brisbane by t can't see many more victories

Yep - Suns, Carlton and Brisbane - 5 wins
Melbourne, Fremantle, maybe Giants. Always potential for an upset, particularly in the back half of the season.

Can see maybe 9 wins. No more than that.

I wouldn’t put Melbourne in the list with May as a recruit and Lever returning from ACL.

I keep wondering though about Sydney and Hawthorn. Surely getting Hanneberry from Sydney should give us some tactical advantage. Saints weren’t far away from Hawthorn either, except for some of their stars individual efforts. Not sure which GWS will turn up when Saints play them.

I tend to agree with 'ax' to be honest...about 9. Freo have added some crackers, so not sure they'll be easy to knock off...you can replace them with the Bulldogs in your estimations though. Melbourne lose Hogan (3-4 goals a game) and gain May...maybe even? They're soft anyway, I'd still edge towards us.

I think we're gonna need more than Hanna to make up for the serial 10+ goal spankings we get from Sydney, but I can see us knocking off the Hawks some day soon...there's usually only a few free kicks the difference. Will be interesting to see what happens to the Giants this year...yes they have a ton of talent still, but geez they been gutted lately, without replacing with the calibre of their losses.

[samuraisaint]

I was I who predicted 9 wins.
Hawks will have Sicily and Wingard next time we play them. Sure we've gone close to beating them, but then so have everybody else. They are the masters at getting over the line when it matters. One win over Hawks since 2009 says we won't.

Still confident of us getting over Melbourne next season though. Lever wasn't setting the world on fire when he was playing, and exposed form over 14 seasons says we're a real chance.

[evertonfc]

It would have to take an unbelievable change in attitude, application and skill for us to win more games next year.

Because we have huge deficits in these three areas, I can't see where we'll improve more than the competition to get ahead and crack the top eight.

I hope I'm wrong, but it would require a fundamental transformation in both individual players and the collective group. That's a really tricky thing to execute.

Unfortunately, all the above has been allied to approximately 15 years of sub-par drafting. We've been effectively held up by picking up the scraps of free agency and trading.

I don't see a lot of raw hunger in our under-22 group. The lack of leaders has a lot to do with this, too. Nobody is setting an example of daily desperation to improve. It's created a fairly breezy, bruise-free atmosphere. It's good times down there. Cruise into the gym, do a few sprints, throw up a few pics on Insta about 'hard work', etc.

Hearing Billings speak today more or less reinforced that. In his own words, not much has changed from last year during pre-season.

Honestly, seems like the club is pretty chilled out about the whole situation - which is fair enough, they all get paid, regardless.

[samuraisaint]

It would have to take an unbelievable change in attitude, application and skill for us to win more games next year.

Because we have huge deficits in these three areas, I can't see where we'll improve more than the competition to get ahead and crack the top eight.

I hope I'm wrong, but it would requirement a fundamental transformation in both individual players and the collective group. That's a really tricky thing to execute.

Unfortunately, all the above has been allied to approximately 15 years of sub-par drafting. We've been effectively held up by picking up the scraps of free agency and trading.

I don't see a lot of raw hunger in our under-22 group. The lack of leaders has a lot to do with this, too. Nobody is setting an example of daily desperation to improve. It's created a fairly breezy, bruise-free atmosphere. It's good times down there. Cruise into the gym, do a few sprints, throw up a few pics on Insta about 'hard work', etc.

Hearing Billings speak today more or less reinforced that. In his own words, not much has changed from last year during pre-season.

Honestly, seems like the club is pretty chilled out about the whole situation - which is fair enough, they all get paid, regardless.

There has been speculation, rumour, and, yes, innuendo, that a lot of people around the club have been getting by just doing the bare minimum.
No idea if this is true or not, but this is what I have heard.

[MC Gusto]

2 - 8 wins

Could be horrible, could be fair to middling

Won’t be anything more

[Yorkeys]

Crystal Ball (not D. Trump's friend) images: sponsors and AFL will demand a minimum of 8 wins and bookies are rarely wrong in these sort of bets, they have us very short for game one, so they are thinking only 7 more from 21 (AR's general ave.). We will get even handed umpiring in the one game in the West and we have a benign draw. Younger players will get a fairer go at selection and hopelessly out of form older players won't get the armchair ride AR gave them last year. Crystal thinks we can win 10 and when AR gets the boot once the win loss ratio is clearly not going to reach 50% we might even look a chance for the finals with a strong finish, but just fall short. We can win in China and Townsville using brute force in the second game to overwhelm the Suns. The wild card is how all the available talent is going to be shoe horned into the side and play team footy with a brake being AR's narrow view of where various talents should play. Battle as a defender? were we so rich with goal kickers last year or are some other guys simply incapable of playing in defence. Actually I'd be ok with 10 wins if they included several against top 8 sides. Billings has to be strong at it from game one or his contract negotiations will become moot - great talent but mate get tough, you could win us a few games on your own. Oh damn that last part was just a flaw in the glass.

[evertonfc]

There has been speculation, rumour, and, yes, innuendo, that a lot of people around the club have been getting by just doing the bare minimum.
No idea if this is true or not, but this is what I have heard.

Look, I'd be lying if I hadn't heard it from multiple sources.

We all want to work in comfortable environments and that's certainly what's been allowed to grow at St Kilda. In fact, I'd say it's been encouraged by the board and executive.

However, the problem with that is when you exist in a performance-driven industry. If you're giving 80%-90% of your best, you'll get pretty much that return.

That's a problem in the ultra-competitive AFL world, where 99% effort is enough to get you well beaten.

I've been lucky to have been exposed to high performance sporting environments all over the world and I can't believe how our club has diverted towards this model.

Well, I can believe it - it fits with Finnis, Richardson and the AV Jennings ex-pres, who wanted a non-confrontational model of performance (hint - not my words).

I do understand the utility of this model but it's not appropriate for a club that actually needs to create a self-fulfilling culture of performance and, more importantly, an expectation of performance.

Splitting the jargon: when you walk inside the club, you know the next every training session is the most important one of your life.

We have an absence of that. Watched training a lot this past year and was flabbergasted by the half-baked efforts and lack of accountability [especially after an error, like a stray kick or handpass]. That mentality really played out on game day. I was surprised that it wasn't noticed more broadly.

[axcellence]

Evertonfc has rightly punctured the pre-season hope.

Really, all the pre-season hype is:-

1. Ratten
2. Hanneberry
3. Weller isn’t there so can’t be picked
4. Well, if Richmond can do it, so can the saints
5. Beign draw means that saints can push for 8-10 wins.

So, Richmond was a good team with Dusty, Cotchin and Riewoldt in it. They had multiple finals and then had 1 bad year. They got some good players in for the top picks they got, recruited a Rioli and also got the bottom 6 draw to ease things in for 2017.

Saints are getting the same mercy draw like Richmond, so Saints can get to 8-11 wins (according to a lot of posters). Just speaks volumes to how much the list is stuffed and how ordinary the coach is.

I know 1 thing - you could always buy a ticket to see Riewoldt, but despite Hanneberry, there isn’t a Saints player worth buying a ticket for.