Training - 17/12/2018

[Cairnsman]

You could be the best chess player in the world, but if you start the game minus your queen, if your queen is taken away - an average chess player will beat you.
I would beat Kasparov if he were to start the game without his queen.
It's not an even playing field - it never is - and our coach is playing minus the queen, crudely speaking (and he especially was in 2018).

Being an avid chess player the worst analogy ever
If Richo = minus the queen, doesn’t it stand to reason that if we sack him for a better coach we would immediately get better?

But further to the point... I doubt you could beat Kasparov even without his Queen because if he’s a better player (which no disrespect but he pbly is) then he’ll likely be able to overcome the deficiency over time by consistently making better moves.

There is no argument that better players will result in a better outcome but surely the same logic applies to having a better coach too. Especially if as you have said our coach = minus a queen

I like your circular reasoning where you've assumed that Richo is a poor coach so you can support that conclusion.

To be honest...
everything here is rather farcical. Especially my response. The chess analogy just tickled my fancy

I could have used my usual go-to analogy with the jockey (Clarko) on a champion racehorse (the above-average Hawk list) vs a jockey (Richo) on an also ran (our average list).
But I thought I'd change things up this time with chess.

Circular reasoning = mindset, professional sport and education departments are investing more and more in this field of knowledge which essentially deals in the principles of how to overcome the debilitating human trait that is being anchored to a specific mindset. Carol Dwerk is the world's pre-eminent knowledge base in the mindset space and has produced some fascinating reading material on the subject. Her work is used by our government in education and AFL clubs.

This site produces some exemplary insights into anchored mindsets, I hold St Byron up as exhibit A, apologies and special mention to the other great examples but are too many to all be mentioned.

I can't wait for round 6.

[outside66]

Isn't Slaters role part time? Does anyone know how part time?

Just a few hours a week or is he there frequently?

2 days a week

[samuraisaint]

It's more likely that Richo's gameplan and overall coaching had reached its use by date and his win loss ratio over an extended period of time is the best indication that he's not cut out for the caper as a head coach. The expectation within the footy club at the start of 2018 and the message to fans was that we were going to be top 8 contenders. We didn't just fall short...we failed miserably.

All the signs regarding on field performance in 2018 (as well as anecdotal evidence of lacklustre training standards) relate to poor management of the playing group and overall poor coaching.

A Game Plan only work if you have a strong enough and talented enough list to impose it.
The opposing teams also have game plans, and if they have more talented lists, they will get theirs to work and negate yours.
It's as simple as that.

You could be the best chess player in the world, but if you start the game minus your queen, if your queen is taken away - an average chess player will beat you.
I would beat Kasparov if he were to start the game without his queen.
It's not an even playing field - it never is - and our coach is playing minus the queen, crudely speaking (and he especially was in 2018).

Our decline in 2018 ... (compared to the 2 prior seasons where we were running at approx. 50% win/loss).
It's more likely to do with the wholesale injuries and the hard draw - plus the fact that other teams have been recruiting better than us, year after year.
We missed out on players we needed - for instance, in 2014, we missed out on players like De Goey, Brayshaw, Petracca - who are rated as either elite, or players with X factor - any one of them would have been great,
while our number 1 pick/forward has been sitting on the sidelines for most part - and is averaging under a goal a match. Petracca is also averaging about a goal a match - and he's not even a fulltime forward.

You need to nail these picks.

We turned over something like 34 players in 2018 - which is considerably more than any other team.
And we don't have the depth, I mean we've had 6 or so ruckmen on our list, in recent years (some have come and gone)- which one of them is elite or close to elite? - while other teams have a Grundy.
That's all you need - one elite ruckman. We've had 6 recruiting chances and we got each one wrong. Normally it's 3 strikes and you're out - our illustrious recruiters have had 6 strikes.

We have multiples of average players - and the ones that win the ball, our ball magnet/midfielders, don't have the elite foot skills to hurt.
Our recruiters have not helped us - and this year again, we have drafted yet another forward "who will take time" - when we could have drafted an elite-skilled midfielder who would have had an immediate impact.

It's not just the coach (I mean, we've had 3 coaches in 7 years, we can't keep scapegoating them and turning a blind eye to everything else that is definitely going wrong)
- there's a lot of factors at play - and it's never an even playing field (and this was especially the case in 2018).

Spot on. +1. The ruck situation is a prime example of our recruiting AND player development AND coaching since the end of 2013. We traded a ruckman (McEvoy) many pointed to as possible captain material, and who has now played in multiple premierships. In that time we have recruited five ruckmen. Two of whom are now gone, one to the reigning premier, but whom we couldn't help to reach his full potential. He may become the next Big Ben McEvoy. The three remaining include a mature age recruit from North Ballarat and a long term prospect who until the second half of the season was playing at the wooden spoon VFL team. Both of these prospects acquitted themselves well enough in trying circumstances, but neither announced themselves as the next Everitt or Ditterich, and we did lose the last six games on the trot, and only one of those games we were competitive in. They are still unproven.
The other ruck we have is quite possibly not always in our best 22 anymore, depending on who our opponent have rucking on any given week. This is an indictment of the development of these guys, not the players. And this is why the ruck situation is systematic of the problems we've had since the end of 2013, because that is when we went in to rebuild mode.

[samuraisaint]

Funnily enough, yesterday morning after posting the previous comment I walked down to the shops and saw nine other than the great Geoff Sarau at the local bakery!

[Gordo']

mordi mate, ffs, a flowering big thank you for your post and observations.

ffs!!! what staggered you from last season's training, flowering staggers me also mate!!! ffs, beggars flowering belief.

I have been watching a lot of the saints training sessions in the last 12 months.

Last year I was staggered by what was happening. Groups just standing in circles handballing to each other and then breaking from the groups to take a few pot shots at goal. It seemed really unorganised and quite unacceptable.

ff flowering s i'm really really flowering pissed off pissed off by this flowering soft@#^# routine. how the f could that flowering crap have been allowed to go on for a whole flowering season!?! un flowering believable, ffs!!!

and how the f is the man where 'the buck stops' still the choach???

$500k payout??? keeping this incompetent flowering drummer boy chown (i mean chown) is costing our club flowering way more than flowering $500k ffs!!!!


i'm flowering sorry, but ffs, anyone who is flowering defending we all know flowering whom after having this pointed out to them, is flowering not a true St Kilda person! ffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<warning for using the term The Cho Within the The Choach>

hey mate, if that's the case, then you might need to slightly reword your 'final ruling'. ffs, currently nothing flowering there about not being allowed to use the term 'the choach'.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=96662#p1768498

speaking of da choach, last off-season it was all that flowering mud of the kokoda trail. this year, he's flowering mountain climbing.

[Gordo']

ffs, i had some down time between gigs, so thought i'd flowering well go and have a look at training for my flowering self. well, ffs!!! i thought drummer boy ratten was meant to be running training now. doesn't flowering well look like it to me. at least though, what they're doing is certainly flowering 'innovative'.

[derby Street]

ffs, i had some down time between gigs, so thought i'd flowering well go and have a look at training for my flowering self. well, ffs!!! i thought drummer boy ratten was meant to be running training now. doesn't flowering well look like it to me. at least though, what they're doing is certainly flowering 'innovative'.

For flowering FS

[mordiboyz]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I'm a bit concerned that we are starting a week after everyone. I hope the hard training that I witnessed was not a one off.

I'm also getting a bit sick of the social media onslaught showing our players in Bali, Europe, Byron .... etc etc. If I had put that sort of performance in, I'd be waiting until I showed a bit of form before boasting about how good I look.

I'm looking forward to a good 2019 though.

[Gordo']

popped down to training again. ffs!!! more 'innovation' choach???