Tapered Training

[Leo.J]

Is this the reason for our poor form?

Or have we lost our way at the worst possible time?

From what I have seen our form could be explained by tapered training,,,

Opinions anyone?

Facts are welcome too...

[bigcarl]

we lost because we didn't didn't convert inside 50s into goals. we had many more inside 50s than them and five more scoring shots.

riewoldt and kosi were okay, but we needed more from the crumbers and gwilt and mini.

not having hard in and unders lenny OR bally hurt us as well.

the umpiring went against us and we struggled to come to terms with the swirling wind, which made every kick a bit of a lottery, north, not being as dependent on their tall forwards, dealt with it better than us and took their chances in front of goal.

[Bernard Shakey]

Tapered training, what rubbish.

Resting players, then bringing them back en masse has flirted with our form and intensity.

Hopefully we get it all back together in the next 2 weeks.

[Leo.J]

we lost because we didn't didn't convert inside 50s into goals. we had many more inside 50s than them and five more scoring shots.

riewoldt and kosi were okay, but we needed more from the crumbers and gwilt and mini.

not having hard in and unders lenny OR bally hurt us as well.

the umpiring went against us and we struggled to come to terms with the swirling wind, which made every kick a bit of a lottery, north, not being as dependent on their tall forwards, dealt with it better than us.

I hope you're wrong, because if it's that simple we are in real trouble when we come across a decent side while playing as we have over the past couple of weeks

[bigcarl]

we lost because we didn't didn't convert inside 50s into goals. we had many more inside 50s than them and five more scoring shots.

riewoldt and kosi were okay, but we needed more from the crumbers and gwilt and mini.

not having hard in and unders lenny OR bally hurt us as well.

the umpiring went against us and we struggled to come to terms with the swirling wind, which made every kick a bit of a lottery, north, not being as dependent on their tall forwards, dealt with it better than us.

I hope you're wrong, because if it's that simple we are in real trouble when we come across a decent side while playing as we have over the past couple of weeks

the tapered training may well be a factor, too. i hope it is. we certainly looked flat.

[vacuous space]

I'm about as inclined to put it down to voodoo, TBH. If we're going to flirt with form on account of getting our VO2 max levels to optimum level, then I'd suggest some people within the club have their priorities wrong. I doubt they do. Misson didn't run Sydney into the ground - they won their last four in 05 and three of their last four in 06.

I think we're suffering a bit from winning 19 in a row, locking up top spot and having a few nothing games to finish the season. The will to compete just isn't there. This team has bigger fish to fry and everyone knows it. North and Essendon are in a very different position. I am very confident that the moment finals roll around, St Kilda will be as hungry and desperate as ever. Right now we're not. I think it has a lot more to do with the calendar than our training program.

[Bernard Shakey]

I agree with you vacuous space, but regaining that hunger can sometimes not be as simple as it seems.

[SaintWodonga]

I think David Misson knows what he is doing. Bulldogs ( a few weeks ago) were reported to be doing tapered training. They are now playing good footy.

Let's hope we start to peak in 2 weeks time.

[xander]

I'm about as inclined to put it down to voodoo, TBH. If we're going to flirt with form on account of getting our VO2 max levels to optimum level, then I'd suggest some people within the club have their priorities wrong. I doubt they do. Misson didn't run Sydney into the ground - they won their last four in 05 and three of their last four in 06.

I think we're suffering a bit from winning 19 in a row, locking up top spot and having a few nothing games to finish the season. The will to compete just isn't there. This team has bigger fish to fry and everyone knows it. North and Essendon are in a very different position. I am very confident that the moment finals roll around, St Kilda will be as hungry and desperate as ever. Right now we're not. I think it has a lot more to do with the calendar than our training program.

Just on the sydney part weren't the swans fast finishers anyway for those years? I remember often they would take a while to get going in a game and then storm home and i thought a similar thing happened in those seasons.

Also i agree with you about us having bigger fish to fry but if we dont go into the finals with a decent win we could very easily struggle without momentum & confidence. We can't just decide to start playing like a top team come finals time we have to build up to it imo

[Leo.J]

The first it was mentioned was when Rooey was on the couch after the Dogs game.

From memory he said it had just begun...and from then on we've been very average, well average compared to our lofty pre-august standards.

Since then we were lucky to beat the Swans by a kick, looking really flat.

Then we went to Tassie, resting 1/3 of the side, which if the 'tapered training' theory is correct, it would account for our best performance over the last month, as we brought in fresh legs.

Then over the last two weeks we've lost by a kick each week.

Looking at our performances, our lack of form could be explaines by TT as our strengths through out the year have been, tackling, intensity, and our ability to zone, and strangle sides defensively. All of these require a team to be fit and disciplined, especially our defensive aspects as it requires alot of tackling and running to cover space.

So if we are already spent going into a game it would make it alot harder to play our game style effectively.

Misson so far has been on the money with our training, lets hope that if we are TT, that it hasn't flirted too much with our form leading into the finals.

[lefty]

Reason we lost was because we got belted in the midfield for the entire first half. Midfield was the biggest let down of the day. Needs to be looked at, kanga's kept handpassing back out of the middle time after time, and we didn't do anything about it.

Secondly, we dont seem to be able to hit a handpass to the chest, seem's to go to our feet far too often.

Thirdly, there wasn't that flare/tackling/chasing aspect, players were just lazy guarding space and not covering their oppenent. We played the v.slow boring kick/stop type game, nothing like a few weeks ago thats for sure.

C.Jones looked tired and kept cramping.
S.Dempster was poor, imo his spot is in question, needs to deliver.
F.Ray tried and had some glimpses.
Z.Dawson was poor, kept holding/bare hugging his oppenent, lucky to not have a fair few free's against him. I'd prefer Max.
Schnider tried but got on the bad side of the umpire
Kosi was good
Roo was good
R.Clarke was v.good (probably the best for us today)
S.Fisher was ok but not damaging
J.Gram was ok, poor kicking boot again.
S.Gilbert was v.good
S.King, dont think he did anything imo?
Gardiner didnt have much influence.
Milne was good
McQualter was good
Gwilt tried.
Montagna was ok
Dal was ok
Goddard was ok
Blake was v.good (always suprises me this guy )
Armo had a v.solid 2nd half, seems like the only hard engine in the midfield
S.Baker, didnt really see him

[Leo.J]

I'm about as inclined to put it down to voodoo, TBH. If we're going to flirt with form on account of getting our VO2 max levels to optimum level, then I'd suggest some people within the club have their priorities wrong. I doubt they do. Misson didn't run Sydney into the ground - they won their last four in 05 and three of their last four in 06.

I think we're suffering a bit from winning 19 in a row, locking up top spot and having a few nothing games to finish the season. The will to compete just isn't there. This team has bigger fish to fry and everyone knows it. North and Essendon are in a very different position. I am very confident that the moment finals roll around, St Kilda will be as hungry and desperate as ever. Right now we're not. I think it has a lot more to do with the calendar than our training program.

Just on the sydney part weren't the swans fast finishers anyway for those years? I remember often they would take a while to get going in a game and then storm home and i thought a similar thing happened in those seasons.

Also i agree with you about us having bigger fish to fry but if we dont go into the finals with a decent win we could very easily struggle without momentum & confidence. We can't just decide to start playing like a top team come finals time we have to build up to it imo

In 2005 Sydney were sitting around equal 4th with 5 weeks to go, so they had no guarantees of making the top 4, and had they dropped a game or 2 they would have been no guarantee to play finals, so TT would n't have been an option for them.

At the half way mark of 2005 the Swans were around 8-9th, in 2009 we were undefeated, we were guaranteed a top 4 finish at round 16.

IMO it would have been a decision that would have been made early in the season, but we would have only gone with it if we were certain of a top 4 finish come the later rounds...

Geelong and the Dogs were in similar positions, who knows only time will tell.

[Leo.J]

BTW I have noticed that the boys have been training with fleecy tops under their training tops with september weather conditions in mind...

They are purely thinking about September ATM, so tapered training or not, their H&A season is done, they're focused on finals... we may not see the real Saints until then.

[vacuous space]

We can't just decide to start playing like a top team come finals time we have to build up to it imo

I actually think we can and probably will. I doubt we'll be at our best next week. There's no way the players will approach Melbourne with a finals type intensity. We could play the Sandy team and I don't think it would make an enormous difference. When the real challenge rolls around I expect our players to suddenly regain that something that's been missing for a while. I expect it from Geelong too. I'm not going to predict a win for either, but I think you'll see both teams suddenly looking a lot more like the teams that met in round 14 than the teams we've seen since.

[Legendary]

I tend to agree.

Essendon in 2000 are the closest example for us to follow.

They had a closely fought game against Carlton in Round 20, where they got over the line in the last quarter - Kouta got injured.

Then the loss to the Dogs in Round 21 and didn't look too flash.

Then in Round 22 Collingwood, who had only won 7 games for the year, pushed them hard and almost beat them in a very close game. The Bombers looked ordinary.


In the Qualifying Final against the reigning premiers they kicked 31 goals and won by 120 points. They were on fire, and after looking flat and quiet for three weeks, they played arguably the best final in history.

[matrix]

milne was good??
king didnt do anything?

wow
harsh

[lazy]

I am wondering if there is a comparison between the Saints and the Cats in these last few rounds. Both sides have looked flat and both sides have had 1st and 2nd sewn up with several weeks to go. Third and fourth have had no such luxury and so both us and Cats have had the ability to up the traiining load leading into the finals without fear of losing our starting positions in the finals. I have a view that from next week or the first week of finals the game day performance will sharpen dramatically, as it also will for the Cats.

[Winmarvellous]

Let's just hope we don't go the Crows route from a few years back. I remember them doing this "tapered training" (the first time I'd even heard of it) and they were never the same. Were absolutely on fire, changed up their training and never recovered. Fingers crossed...

[ausfatcat]

Let's just hope we don't go the Crows route from a few years back. I remember them doing this "tapered training" (the first time I'd even heard of it) and they were never the same. Were absolutely on fire, changed up their training and never recovered. Fingers crossed...

Everyone in the finals does it and has done it for at least 8 years+, the saints and cats to a lesser degree have been able to do this more so thou due to their ladder positions.

[saintsRrising]

Let's just hope we don't go the Crows route from a few years back. I remember them doing this "tapered training" (the first time I'd even heard of it) and they were never the same. Were absolutely on fire, changed up their training and never recovered. Fingers crossed...

Crows tapered in 97.

Dons in their last Premiership year.

It is not new.

[MC Gusto]

Everybody take a deep breath. What a difference a good nights sleep does.

The training, whether it be tapered or player loading or what ever else you want to call it is happening and is in full tilt. Look at the doggies (they started earlier) and had shocking losses to West Coast and another...we and geelong are in taper mode.

Have a little faith in the admin. They know what they are doing.

It is all about September.

Get a hungy on the sainters for the flag you won't get odds this good for the rest of the season...


GO YOU MIGHTY SAINTS

[Leo.J]

Let's just hope we don't go the Crows route from a few years back. I remember them doing this "tapered training" (the first time I'd even heard of it) and they were never the same. Were absolutely on fire, changed up their training and never recovered. Fingers crossed...

Do you remember what year that was?

I do remember it happening just can't remember the year and I'd like to investigate it.

[Sainterman]

Everybody take a deep breath. What a difference a good nights sleep does.

The training, whether it be tapered or player loading or what ever else you want to call it is happening and is in full tilt. Look at the doggies (they started earlier) and had shocking losses to West Coast and another...we and geelong are in taper mode.

Have a little faith in the admin. They know what they are doing.

It is all about September.

Get a hungy on the sainters for the flag you won't get odds this good for the rest of the season...


GO YOU MIGHTY SAINTS

Yep, this!

[Winmarvellous]

It was around 2006 or thereabouts I think. Went into this loaded training routine (Craig's first or second year at the helm) about round 18, and crashed and burned.

[ausfatcat]

It was around 2006 or thereabouts I think. Went into this loaded training routine (Craig's first or second year at the helm) about round 18, and crashed and burned.

EVERY TEAM DOES IT FFS AND HAS DONE IT FOR MANY YEARS



Tappering doesn't mean you win it just helps, and if everyone is doing if you don't you are behind the eight ball.