Time to Start Again.

[MadSaintFan]

Todays loss hurt as much as any of the worst Ive viewed as a saints fan. Im starting to realise that our predictions for this season have been totally over estimated. There are problems at our club that are going to take a long time to rectify.

We've over estimated our lists ability: I will exclude 4 players from this - Ball, Hayes, Fisher and Hudghton. They are as good as any going around but we fall away terribly. Our fringe players arent up to standard and our 'best' players perform inconsistently. The only reason I stayed at todays game was purely because these 4 blokes looked like they were 110% commited to this club.

Riewoldt cannot be played as a forward nor should he be Captain. Sorry, I cannot question his commitment, but he just destroys the team by missing simple shots and not leading the team appropriatly. His body language today was poor, Id suggest his not fully fit, and his leadership was non existant.

Koschitzke needs to pull his finger out. Im tired of this talk of him 'living up to his potential'. Someone needs to wake this kid up to the fact that until now hes done nothing for this club. Nothing.

Milne and Schnieder are front runners. When everythings going well they kick their goals and look good. But against top 8 teams they go missing. Maybe thats their role, but the AFL game has changed. Every position must contribute, and thats why you'll find players like Gehrig and Lloyd no longer have a role in the game because they cannot defend.

Montagna goes missing when the game is to be won, Leigh Fisher hasnt come on as expected, Dal Santo gets plenty of junk-time posession, Blake tries hard but disposal under pressure is no good, Clint Jones is the same.

I could go on, but the point is obvious. As soon as opposition teams put the slightest bit of pressure on we crumble. Our gameplan falls away, the players look confused, and their skills breakdown.
Im starting to come of the opinion that we need to turnover the list and start again. Im reaching the point where trading Riewoldt for high picks is looking like a positive step. This team will not reach premiership glory and the sooner we wake up to this fact the sooner we can start again.

[cwrcyn]

Category 1. The Good

Riewoldt 25
Hayes 28
Goddard 23
Montagna 24
S.Fisher 25
Ball 24
Dal Santo 24
Harvey 36
Hudghton 32
M.Gardiner 29
Baker 27

Category 2. The frustrating, but talented

X.Clarke 24
Gram 24
Maguire 23
Koschitzke 25

Category 3. Mature age, but on the fringe (or played out of position)

Birss 24
R.Clarke 22
L.Fisher 23
Schneider 23
Ferguson 24
King 29


Category 4. Mature age with severe limitations

Rix 26
Dempster 23
C. Gardiner 24

Category 5. Young, show something, but a long way to go

Armitage 19
Geary 19
Gilbert 21

Category 6. Young, untried, but indications are positive

Allen 20
Steven 18
McEvoy 18

Category 7. Young, but unlikely to be anything higher than B-grade

Gwilt 21
McQualter 21


Now, when you break down the list like this, you can see that we have too few in categoy 1 and categories 5 and 6.

We can do domething about categories 5 and 6 by trading players in categories 2, 3, & 4. However, this needs to be highly selective and we may need to carry some frustrating players for another couple of years

You are right, our list has been overrated (by me and many others), and it's time to make REALLY HARD decisions about its composition. We need to bite the bullet and focus on youth for the next two national drafts. The problem is that when these guys mature, the players in category one will be retired or in their late twenties. So, in effect, we'll have only 5 or 6 good players, almost no mid-aged quality players and lots of kids. Sound scary doesn't it? Almost as scary as holding on to those frustrating types fro another few years, by which stage we'll have an aging team of some good, and some not so good, and very few talented youngsters coming through.

Which one is scarier? I say the latter.

So for Ross Lyon, I say sharpen the guillotine now, or face a worse scenario in 2011 (if he's still coach).

[MadSaintFan]

I agree with most of your categorys. And to be honest the coaching staff at the end of the year will go through the same process.

Until we get ruthless we will continue to fall behind other teams.

For mine, if the Clarke brothers are traded I would not be uhappy. Xavier just doesnt have a body to stand up to the rigours of AFL footy and Raph is just not up the standard fullstop.

Until Maguire gets his body 100% right then Ive taken him outve calculations.
M. Gardiners not in the good category yet but I think hes showing abit.

Harves has to retire at the end of the year. I love the great man, but if we're being honest we need youth in the midfield. Hes a legend, but even he would know a flag is as far away now as ever. Gehirg will obviously go as well.
There are some changes that need to be made.
This is my team for the rest of the year as I would have them:
FB: Geary Hudghton S. Fisher
HB: Goddard Koschitzke Gram
C: Montagna Ball Riewoldt
HF: Schnieder Allen Armitage
FF: Milne Ferguson Birss
R: M. Gardiner Hayes DalSanto
I/C: McEvoy Harvey Dempster Howard Baker X.Clarke L.Fisher etc.

I know none of you will like Kossie playing CHB or Ferguson playing FF, but I'll give you my thinking behind it. Kossies best football was played at CHB and to get some form I think he can play that role for the 2nd half of the year. Ferguson to play lead up FF who can takle and work hard defensively. Allen has to be given a chance along with McEvoy. Riewoldt to play wing in the Richo-role. He cannot kick goals, but just let him roam free - who could man up on him?
Want to see Armitage Gram and Geary given consistent time in the middle, and Howard given game time.

[Teflon]

Madsaint/CW I like your thinking but Kossie aint EVER gonna be a CHB. Hes to slow to keep up with anyone and a decent CHF would run round him ALL DAY.

Kos is a concern.

[Stephen Theodore]

MadSaintFan wrote:
Dal Santo gets plenty of junk-time posession,

Jeesus, thats a bit rough, he had 18 possessions uptil half time. I certainly wouldnt call the first half junk time. Look elsewhere !

[MadSaintFan]

You may well be right Teflon.

I may also be living in dream land. But I just have to see some changes before seasons end. I need some light at the end of the tunnel!

[MadSaintFan]

Stephen Im abit harsh on Dal - but only because I want him to dominate games like I think he should.
Ive named him solely but really I refer to most of our midfield as a unit. At the moment they are just playing in patches.

[SaintWodonga]

Yep get the broom out!

We are far too slow & most of our good player go missing in action.

The 2 bought in the team today were useless & both should never play for us again.

[cwrcyn]

Right now we need to find out who can play out of those at Casey. I think you can put a line through Gwilt. Rix is an obvious out, as is Fiora.

At season's end we will probably see the end of:

Gehrig
Harvey
Hudghton
Rix
Fiora
Gwilt
C.Gardiner

Tradeable commodities are:

X.Clarke

We have to hang on to Maguire as we have very few Key position players on the list.


For Now:

Allen and Howard must come in soon and be given time to learn the caper, probably at the expense of Schneider and Dempster. Keep Ferguson and Geary in the team and shift L.Fisher back to the back pocket where he has played his best football (eg rounds 1 - 14, 2007)

Sadly, I have never seen so many players go backwards in such a short time as I have recently. PLay the youngsters and get REAL about where we are. We have performed terribly against quality teams and I can't see us playing worse againsts them with some young and inexperienced players in the mix

[dcstkfc]

Sadly, I have never seen so many players go backwards in such a short time as I have recently. PLay the youngsters and get REAL about where we are. We have performed terribly against quality teams and I can't see us playing worse againsts them with some young and inexperienced players in the mix

kudos

[barkers heros]

I agree with most of your categorys. And to be honest the coaching staff at the end of the year will go through the same process.

Until we get ruthless we will continue to fall behind other teams.

For mine, if the Clarke brothers are traded I would not be uhappy. Xavier just doesnt have a body to stand up to the rigours of AFL footy and Raph is just not up the standard fullstop.

Until Maguire gets his body 100% right then Ive taken him outve calculations.
M. Gardiners not in the good category yet but I think hes showing abit.

Harves has to retire at the end of the year. I love the great man, but if we're being honest we need youth in the midfield. Hes a legend, but even he would know a flag is as far away now as ever. Gehirg will obviously go as well.
There are some changes that need to be made.
This is my team for the rest of the year as I would have them:
FB: Geary Hudghton S. Fisher
HB: Goddard Koschitzke Gram
C: Montagna Ball Riewoldt
HF: Schnieder Allen Armitage
FF: Milne Ferguson Birss
R: M. Gardiner Hayes DalSanto
I/C: McEvoy Harvey Dempster Howard Baker X.Clarke L.Fisher etc.

I know none of you will like Kossie playing CHB or Ferguson playing FF, but I'll give you my thinking behind it. Kossies best football was played at CHB and to get some form I think he can play that role for the 2nd half of the year. Ferguson to play lead up FF who can takle and work hard defensively. Allen has to be given a chance along with McEvoy. Riewoldt to play wing in the Richo-role. He cannot kick goals, but just let him roam free - who could man up on him?
Want to see Armitage Gram and Geary given consistent time in the middle, and Howard given game time.

I suggest every StKilda supporter looks at footage from 05/06 season and then tell me if Raf Clarke can play or not. He is being played in the wrong position like a lot of other players we have. Goddard only went back when we had backline injuries and somehow has been left there for two years. Surely he can do the job of a Cooney or Judd in the middle?

[To the top]

To "start again", we start around this in my view:-


Montagna Gilbert (To be identified)
Gram (To be identified) S. Fisher
Hayes Goddard Riewoldt
X. Clarke Koschitzke (To be identified)
Steven Allen Ball
M. Gardiner Dal Santo (To be identified)

Armitage, McEvoy, R. Clarke (To be identified)

So we need 2 potential key defensive players, a mid-size attacking option who loves a goal, a quick roving type mid-fielder and another mid-fielder.

I would like to have a look at Howard to see if he has the credentials, maybe releasing Montagna to the roving mid-field position.

A bit hangs on McEvoy, Steven, Allen, Armitage and Howard.

But you get kids coming straight from Under 18's competition, and these kids have all had a year or two past that competition - bearing in mind that I have a view that they stagnate in the VFL because of the weaker standard of that competition.

[cwrcyn]

If Armitage, Geary, Gilbert, McEvoy, Steven, and Allen don't come up to scratch, then we're in a very dire situation indeed.

If four of the six become good regular players, we'll be in reasonable shape, otherwise we'll be scracthing around to plug gaping holes.

Failure to select quality at this year's draft will condemn us to a Richmond-like situation of the past 10 years.

[sainters man]

I recon we have to trade a big name for draft picks, its a case of short term pain unfortunately