Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
LUKE BALL St Kilda
IT IS a massive year in the career of the 23-year-old Saints midfielder. Injuries have restricted him, as they have Chris Judd and Luke Hodge, the two young men he shared top billing with in the famous 2001 national draft. The bottom line is that the other two are way ahead of him six years down the track. Judd is a superstar, Hodge is a star and Ball is neither. To be, Ball has to build a bigger motor and kick more goals.
This was the first thing I read in The Age this morning.....I then threw it onto the table, and didn't read anymore.
What a joke. Ironically, the title is 'crunch time for a cluster of stars'....going by his portrayal, Ball shouldn't even quality for the list.
If you look up the word "contradiction" in the dictionary - you will see a big picture of Robert Walls. Oddly enough you can find his photograph under a number of cuss words also.
The people that continue to pay him & keep him employed are the ones I'm perplexed by.
THe Press continually try to put the saints name players down ........and in the next breath they comment on our fantastic "list" ............ then how the window has closed or is closing ......pointing to ageing players.
Its all so bloody predictable ......they just recycle their own crap.
Which is exactly why we should avoid the HS , AGE , Australian.
So Saints lets just show them this year by wiping the floor with every team..........and march on to a well deserved flag.
aussiejones wrote:THe Press continually try to put the saints name players down ........and in the next breath they comment on our fantastic "list" ............ then how the window has closed or is closing ......pointing to ageing players.
At the moment it seems to be the opposite. Most articles on us are going on about how we're finally injury-free, our ruckmen will dominate, we're the ones who can beat Geelong, the board has found a cure for cancer and every other team is scared of us...this is all before we play a single home and away game. Either the press are looking to excite and get money from all the bandwagon supporters that hopped on in 2004, or they're just setting us up for a huge fall as soon as anything goes wrong.
savatage wrote: The people that continue to pay him & keep him employed are the ones I'm perplexed by.
not to mention our own supporters who pay him too much heed.
he keeps throwing out bait & some people keep taking it.
is that clever?
I'm not sure if you're directing this at me or agreeing with me so let me just clarify that I've never paid heed to Robert Walls or much of what any "critic" says.
I'm just commenting on the original point made in this thread. Why anyone would think an outsider knows more about our club than a die hard supporter is beyond me - just because they're paid to be "expert" doesn't mean that have any expertise.
The only expertise Robert Walls has is how to get fired.
Robert Walls raises the issues of how good a player performs and where he was selected in the draft.
I am an engineer.
When I went for my first job my academic results may have been taken in to account to compare me with other applicants, but once employed only my relative performance ever mattered.
No-one every enquired after my academic results thereafter.
Luke Ball can only be compared with other players in the club and competition.
His performances are his performances, his draft selection makes no difference to his performances.
He should be compared to Riewoldt and to Ferguson and should be judged, paid and retained based only his relative performance.
The question of whether my employer should have employed me or someone else is only relevant when assessing the people who recruited me.
The question of Luke Ball's draft selection at No2 is only relevant when judging the performance of the recruitment staff.
Luke Ball at his best is easily better than Hodge, but right now he isn't because of his very annoying injury. I think most have forgotten his '04 and '05 seasons, which is a shame because he was a huge part of our success in those years.
People under value Ball who I think is a great player with great leadership a tough customer, consistently wins the hard ball lays tackles.
Dont forget Judd got an arm chair ride with Dean Cox in the ruck and Kerr feeding out the ball. Also I want to see how well he dominates at Carlton. Yes he is a superstar and has been one of the greatest players to watch but we have to wait and see how well he recovers from the groin injury.
I have no problem with what Walls has written. Luke is a good player, without being great. In 2004-5 he showed the potential to be great. We know that he has been cruelled by his groin injury, but at the time being it doesn't look as if the potential that he showed in those first years is coming to the fore.
Let's hope that he can have an injury-free year and start to dominate like he used to threaten to do.
Hird... The unflushable one is now... just a turd...
