I like your language there Vort, but I don't think it is easy to be cynical. I think it is easy to be optimistic and delirious. We are all over joyed, and you should be too, or should have, until Max went down. (And what were they doing having physical contests at this stage anyway?) But moving on,Vortex wrote: ↑Fri 16 Dec 2022 10:35amReiterating what SP says in the post below yours, it's hard not to be cynical, we have 150 years of continuously stuffing up with administration and coaching, and if it's not already obvious, I'm not buying in until I see results, enough of swallowing the spin on false dawns.skeptic wrote: ↑Fri 16 Dec 2022 10:09amLike yourself I align with part of what you say. With RL, I just can’t fathom that they sacked Ratts after signing him without a replacement lined up. I mean imagine how foolish do we look if he says no and we end up with an inexperienced first timer.Vortex wrote: ↑Fri 16 Dec 2022 8:01amThere's a bit in what you say that I align with, definitely something fishy about the appointment, typical St Kilda management circus stuff. I'm a Ross fan so no problem there, he was well suited to the list he had with us last time, he is going to have to reinvent himself to be suited to this current list, millennials and zoomers won't tolerate Ross 1.0 one little bit. He needs to learn how to be a hugger and he needs to be flexible and defier to others for expertise....those attributes don't sound like Ross do they.skeptic wrote: ↑Thu 15 Dec 2022 5:38pmThis is it.Teflon wrote: ↑Thu 15 Dec 2022 4:39pmThat’s 1 way to look atsamoht wrote: ↑Thu 15 Dec 2022 7:44am You can look at it this way too ....
After Freo made the GF ... and it obviously takes a strong list to do that ... his last 4 years only yielded 33%.
Not good.
It suggests the playing list got him into the GF ... not the other way around.
At the end of the day, Lyon had 4 years to right the ship, but failed miserably.
Richo didn't have a strong list to work with.
Others have suggested the list he had at Freo wasn’t as good as Saints yet his uncompromising style lead to a club challenging (within 15 points but for bad kicking) of a flag
After that (line at Saints) the list peaked
The rebuild took too long
Bell came in and ran out patience
Really depends how you want to spin
Vortex already working on how long till he gets sacked and he hasn’t coached a game yet
Funny thing is….I’m yet to hear ANYONE argue we shoulda kept Ratten OR offer a better candidate than Lyon who was available at the time???
Just pathetic Shyte canning of the club for making the hard call in sacking cuddles, bringing in decent assistants, strong head coach and well respected footy boss..,
It’s all about having a bet each way “oh I like Ross…but think the club is stuffed..”
odd fence sitters
I’m in!
Oh and in case anyone forgot ….Richo had 6 years….just let that sink in….
I think RTB’s tougher critics like myself are fairly aware of that particular fact.
As you’ve no doubt already heard me express… I’m think the circumstances around him getting the shot are very fishy but it’s really really hard to make a case that he’s not an upgrade on Ratts.
Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons… something like that.
I don’t know if he will be successful or not… but he has enough runs on the board to get the opportunity to show he’s evolved and the reality is that whilst development has been a query for him in the past, the Saints list right now isn’t good enough to challenge without natural improvement/development for the mid tier.
A successful Saints team in 2024 (or whatever) requires guys like Clark, Coffield, Gresh, Jones, Paton, King, Higgins, Wood etc to consistently play like the players we know they can be + some of those developing kids to go from showing promise to great players.
Surely he’d have to know that.
Im not a fan but I think he’s got some talent in the coaching caper and is more than capable of changing it up a bit.
And yes I just can’t bare another candidate that clearly has no clue.
All premiership teams have more than a coaching legend and therein lies my greatest skepticism, it's the scaffolding around a coaching legend that StKilda is hopeless at, absolutely terrible at it, as proven over 150 years. The odds aren't in the club's favour to get it right this time but as always we watch and hope things work out this time.
Fatigue has set in with most of the rusted on so it won't take much for things to turn pair shape quickly.
The assistants to me are harder to read.
Harves has done an apprenticeship over 10 years, has consistently been employed and stands up as a quality appointment in his own right.
Enright and Hayes are 1-2 year old assistants that have good raps and I don’t mind either being on the team/recruited.
Goddard is more interesting as this is his first venture into coaching but the suggestion has always been that he’s quite knowledgeable and everyone needs to start somewhere.
There’s a concern that the majority here played under RL and perhaps could be under his thumb or unable to challenge him… but the flip side of that is that there’s also a lot of value in having a team of people that know each other and work well together.
It’s a gamble in some respects but it’s the type of decision that really is driven by the coach and they live and die by the result.
I lean into the logic of what cwrcyn posted earlier… IMO RL needs someone around that’s not entirely under his spell and can stand up to him and demand change when it’s obvious what’s happening isn’t working. Maybe this group of assistants can do that? The perception will be out there though without another established strong/experienced personality in the coaching group.
Contrary to what you’ve said… I’m not entirely sure the whole Lyon 1.0 style not working concern is that valid.
The myth of RL has grown so big over the years so as to encompass the idea that all who played under him liked him and excelled under his tutelage.
That simply has never been the case. Version 1.0 saw a number of players improve drastically after he or they left (Steven, Armitage, Geary, Dempster, McEvoy, Lynch to name a few) with Steven famously saying that Watters said more to him in a month that RL did in his entire reign.
Whilst not overly vocal… a number of players have certainly given off the impression that they disliked RTB… Ball and Hudghton come to mind.
Point that I’m making is that in terms of getting his message across and getting the best out of everyone… RTB will have to continue to do what every other coach has too. That is tailor his approach to suit the needs of the individual player while keeping control of the whole group.
It’s a tough job becomes some need to be pushed, others nurtured but again… you live and die by those results.
I’ve always maintained that RTB 1.0s overvaluing of the value of his role players across 08-10 is what saw guys like Steven and Armitage stagnate whilst the Eddy’s/McQualter/Peake etc played underwhelming games in GFs.
Has he learned that lesson? Who knows
The scaffolding around Ross is where success hinges, interestingly Luke Hodge said recently, and before his North appointment, that Clarko succeeded at Hawthorn because there were strong anchors in the club who mentored him, that's the scaffolding around Ross that I have mentioned, from what I can see Ross will only answer to Bassett and clearly Bassett doesn't get down into the weeds much.
Ideally we receive a huge amount of luck and Ross gets off to a great start and builds from there, the alternative will provide the media with a field day.
1) There is no Version 1 of Ross, Version 2..etc., in a technical sense, that we can talk usefully about. We just don't know. We can talk about eras loosely.
2) You can't delineate Ross from the assistants and claim who is responsible for a,b,c etc., although it will be rhetoric that RTB and all coaches use with the press - just tactics
3) Similarly, you can't delineate and 'cut off' Ross's influence when he left. Under Watters and even Richo, RTBs influence continued via Joey and Roo, etc. Even GTs too.
4) Our 150 years mean little now in discussions - although it is fun and part of our fan rights. We earnt it, it's our right as suffering fans. But come on, what happened in 1892 doesn't really make a difference to whether the RTB thing will work or not
5) Assistants will be trying to impress RTB too. If RTB doesn't rule the roost, he is not the head coach, simply. Then, they would need to do a revolution. We read about Damian Hardwick changing his ways and being conciliatory and devolving the power or whatever language they use, but he is still the boss.
6) Luck is important, but so is club status. Speaking of Hardwick, Richmond has 14 home-and-away games at the MCG!! If that is not a massive advantage, then what the...??