The Biggest Blunders Since 2008

[older saint]

McEvoy for Savage and Dunstan(drafted)

[oboe]

Cazaly to South Melbourne in 1920 for nothing.

Ian Stewart for Billy Barrot.

[The Barometer]

I’d have kept Harvey on the list... he was still playing well enough

Imagine the 09 GF...
Out - Dempster and McQualter as defensive forwards... in Harvey and Cousins instead. We’d have won by 15 goals

Harvey would have done the job

Wasn't Cousins used by Ross as motivation for the side to improve? Whose to say if we had of brought in Cousins the rest of the list would have more complacent and not worked as hard thinking Cousins would do what was required to take the next step. Which might be what we are seeing now - finalists last year, add a quality midfielder in Crouch, and now we aren't seeing the team work as hard...

[saynta]

Cazaly to South Melbourne in 1920 for nothing.

Ian Stewart for Billy Barrot.

Russell Greene to the Hawks for a stale muffin and a slightly used franger.

[B.M]

Do you reckon guys like L Hayes and N Riewoldt would ever be complacent?

Or more to the point, accept others being mediocre

And that’s without Ross overseeing the motivation of the group.

[skeptic]

I’d have kept Harvey on the list... he was still playing well enough

Imagine the 09 GF...
Out - Dempster and McQualter as defensive forwards... in Harvey and Cousins instead. We’d have won by 15 goals

Harvey would have done the job

Wasn't Cousins used by Ross as motivation for the side to improve? Whose to say if we had of brought in Cousins the rest of the list would have more complacent and not worked as hard thinking Cousins would do what was required to take the next step. Which might be what we are seeing now - finalists last year, add a quality midfielder in Crouch, and now we aren't seeing the team work as hard...

Respectfully I just don’t buy that

Am not a huge Lyon fan and think he’s very overrated BUT his ability to connect and motivate his team has always been beyond question and if it wasn’t Cousins not coming... I’m sure he would have found other ways to motivate them

I reckon this Cousins motivation story has really gotten legs over the years but I’d better my bottom dollar that the club spoke about it for a fortnight at most and moved on

And then you have BM’s answer below that sums it up succinctly as well

[The Barometer]

I’d have kept Harvey on the list... he was still playing well enough

Imagine the 09 GF...
Out - Dempster and McQualter as defensive forwards... in Harvey and Cousins instead. We’d have won by 15 goals

Harvey would have done the job

Wasn't Cousins used by Ross as motivation for the side to improve? Whose to say if we had of brought in Cousins the rest of the list would have more complacent and not worked as hard thinking Cousins would do what was required to take the next step. Which might be what we are seeing now - finalists last year, add a quality midfielder in Crouch, and now we aren't seeing the team work as hard...

Respectfully I just don’t buy that

Am not a huge Lyon fan and think he’s very overrated BUT his ability to connect and motivate his team has always been beyond question and if it wasn’t Cousins not coming... I’m sure he would have found other ways to motivate them

I reckon this Cousins motivation story has really gotten legs over the years but I’d better my bottom dollar that the club spoke about it for a fortnight at most and moved on

And then you have BM’s answer below that sums it up succinctly as well

Yeah that is a fair enough response and agree he would have had other motivations for the team. Successive GFs are testament to that. This story was talked about a few times so I was playing the contrarian and can see that the story can grow legs the profile of cousins and how close we got would add to the story.
At the time I wanted us to draft Cousins, but thought it was the right time for Harves to go.
Re BMs post, it’s naive to think sportspeople don’t become complacent, obviously professionals less so, stars less so, and great leaders less so. That’s why they are pros, stars, leaders. I’m not potting any player - it was a question and a hypothetical. Interestingly BM mentioned Ross, this must be a situation where coaches do matter.

[whiskers3614]

Lyon and Misson re Luke Ball!
The idiot administration that permitted the trading in of Lovett despite his previous patterns of bad behaviour!
Allowing the tail to wag the dog re Watters' dismissal!

[Teflon]

Lyon and Misson re Luke Ball!
The idiot administration that permitted the trading in of Lovett despite his previous patterns of bad behaviour!
Allowing the tail to wag the dog re Watters' dismissal!

Agree re Watters Admin should never have let the players oust him and stepped in much earlier and sacked him themselves
Guy was a Dermott Brereton flog clone

[skeptic]

Cazaly to South Melbourne in 1920 for nothing.

Ian Stewart for Billy Barrot.

Cazaly still stings

[Ghost Like]

Acres to Fremantle, up there with Cazaly & Stewart.

[saynta]

Acres to Fremantle, up there with Cazaly & Stewart.

Yep. f****** dumb, dumb, dumb and so f****** unnecessary. Freo were going to part with Hill anyway and Blake wanted to stay at the saints.

[bangaulegend]

Acres to Fremantle, up there with Cazaly & Stewart.

Yep. f****** dumb, dumb, dumb and so f****** unnecessary. Freo were going to part with Hill anyway and Blake wanted to stay at the saints.

Yep so f---ing dumb apparently they told him his prospect of playing senior footy were pretty slim & should seriously consider the option of moving to another club

[saynta]

Acres to Fremantle, up there with Cazaly & Stewart.

Yep. f****** dumb, dumb, dumb and so f****** unnecessary. Freo were going to part with Hill anyway and Blake wanted to stay at the saints.

Yep so f---ing dumb apparently they told him his prospect of playing senior footy were pretty slim & should seriously consider the option of moving to another club

Well, that confirms he was forced out. Bet he would get a game with us this week. We played Dunstan last week FFS.

[Impatient Sainter]

Thats our fabled history - basically a litany of recruiting and club administration errors. You have to wonder why so many of us remain loyal to this basket case of a football club?

[Wayne42]

Acres to Fremantle, up there with Cazaly & Stewart.

Acres is not in the same class as Cazaly and Stewart.

Acres is a good ordinary footballer, i think.

[seano1]

Bringing in guys that are gone while trying to be like hawks a fail giving away draft picks for hacks , a fail .
Coaches continuing with the same just kick it high to a crowded forward line for our tall guys to try and out mark each other ....why not spread out allowing our tall timber to be one on one ,Are we now staring down at our clubs demise and another rebuild if we survive. For a club that has some pretty intelligent people on the board we sure make some f$&king dumb decisions

[magnifisaint]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

[suss]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Trout set the club back 10 years, particularly with that move. Billings over Bont was another stuff up but less obvious I suppose.

[The_Dud]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Yeah that Petracca kid goes alright

Is there anyone left still defending that decision?

[SaintPav]

This decision is getting worse by the week.

Fu.ck you Trout.

[Shaggy]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Yeah that Petracca kid goes alright

Is there anyone left still defending that decision?

I will.

I don't have a problem with the logic for going with Paddy. It was a bit of the box but Petracca apparently did not want us.

You may not think it is important but I would never take on an employee who thinks they are doing me a favour. Paddy's attitude is great. He has proved his determination even if he cannot prove his ability due to his concussions. We will never know how good he could have been. But his commitment is amazing.

I know if I was a boss at the saints at the time I would not have taken Petracca either . You want people who are grateful not disrespectful.

[B.M]

Petracca was and is a better player

It is that simple

With selection #1 you take THE MOST elite talent.

[SaintPav]

Basically.

At worst, if he wanted to leave, it would have given us leverage.

[suss]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Yeah that Petracca kid goes alright

Is there anyone left still defending that decision?

I will.

I don't have a problem with the logic for going with Paddy. It was a bit of the box but Petracca apparently did not want us.

You may not think it is important but I would never take on an employee who thinks they are doing me a favour. Paddy's attitude is great. He has proved his determination even if he cannot prove his ability due to his concussions. We will never know how good he could have been. But his commitment is amazing.

I know if I was a boss at the saints at the time I would not have taken Petracca either . You want people who are grateful not disrespectful.

He looked pretty respectful accepting his medal for BOG tonight. I don’t know where it was said that he didn’t want to come to us. As I understand it, he was pissed that we didn’t select him number 1. He should’ve been. It was singularly the dumbest decision of the past ten years made at this club and we have made some doozies.