Just doesn't feel like our year

[evertonfc]

I felt like this on Friday night after the game and usually the feeling is gone by the next morning. But it's set in this time and I can't find my way around it: I just don't think we're good enough.

Perhaps, I hope, we're having the same blip that Geelong experienced last year when they were toweled up by Carlton and Brisbane late in the season.

But I don't see it. They were a bit deflated mentally, but they still had all the required tools for premiership success.

Do we? I don't think we do.

The last three weeks has rammed home to me how suspect we are when we come up against hungry, slick opponents. We looks slow. We look vulnerable.

I'm certainly not saying we can't win in it - that would be foolish. But I just feel that the players we have might not be able to take us all the way this year.

The one saving grace is that competition has not improved since last year and that the one team that has - Collingwood - is a team we all believe we can beat.

I'm sure the players are trying their best but in recent weeks they've looked fatigued, lacking in enthusiasm and unable to execute. I also feel that we've become so reliant on the system that individual players are gradually becoming incapable of performing match-saving acts. It's like we've beaten the life and creativity - often a sixth gear - out of players and replaced it with a machine.

Can we turn it around? Is it as something as simple as a change in mentality? Or, as I am coming to believe, do we actually lack the cattle?

[midas_touch]

Agreed. Try as I might, i just cannot picture us wining the flag this year.

[evertonfc]

Agreed. Try as I might, i just cannot picture us wining the flag this year.

Maybe all we need is someone to photoshop an image of it...

[saintsRrising]

I don't know. Right after the Cats game it felt very much like our year.

[boneless23]

We looked bloody close when we kept Geelong goaless for a half about a month ago.

We will bounce back....I am certain of it.

[evertonfc]

I don't know. Right after the Cats game it felt very much like our year.

It did feel good but this is my worry: was that our high point of the year?

They went through a flat spot last year but always had the tools to bounce back and had players who'd done it before.

Kinda feel we're relying on unreliables...Kosi firing, Roo recovering, Dawson holding down FB, Milne kicking goals in finals, players not butchering the ball under pressure. Feels like one too many variables...?

[sainter#4]

i didnt feel like it was our year right from last trading period.

lose ball...

then lovett...

so i tried to make a comparison with how the eagles won their flag when they had all that s*** with benny and the drugs going on..

then roo went down.

then we lost a few....

but the positives came back as we started winning.as soon as geelong fell i thought could we do it?

then bakes got bent over by the mrp and it wasnt pretty.

then roo came back and i thought it will be ok again..

and now this..

[maverick]

Kinda agree with you, but we have two matchwinners that can change the game into our favour that need to impose themselves more and make the 2010 finals their own.

BJ and Roo.

While they are both there I will never give up

[Fearless]

Give it a rest you guys. No-one said it was easy. This where we stick together and pursue the possibility.

Have strength comrades.

[kosifantutti23]

I don't know. Right after the Cats game it felt very much like our year.

It did feel good but this is my worry: was that our high point of the year?

Maybe half time of that game was the high point of Geelong's year.

[SainterK]

It's time, I have to bring out the pictures again don't I Everton?

Just try telling these guys that it's not their year

[dcstkfc]

It's time, I have to bring out the pictures again don't I Everton?

Just try telling these guys that it's not their year

Thanks for that

[WinnersOnly]

Wait another couple of weeks before we right of 2010 - things can change quickly !

[noob]

last year i was confident and look what happened. doesn't look likely but as long as were in the finals god knows what saints footy will show up

[vacuous space]

July certainly didn't feel like our month. Fortunately it's over and the meaningful games are still a month away. You're only out of form until you find it again. We've still got plenty of time to peak at the right time.

[Spinner]

Hasnt been our year since the week of the Grand Final....Hopefully things turn back around that week 2010!

[IluvHarvey]

I don't know................. I am fairly confident.

[Mark]

As footy fans we all know anything is possible. High flyers can be beaten and underdogs can win. The only way to ensure a flag is to be in the Grand Final, and be in front at the end. Don't have to be the best team
all year, just the best team on the day (Hawthorn 2008) or have a bit of luck and help from the umpires (Geelong 2009). I will not give up hope

[saint3d]

How did last year feel?

[WinnersOnly]

The team on top of the ladder at Round 18 has only won 3 of the last 20 GF's and they were three dominant sides Essendon, Lions & Cats 2007.

What if Geelong loose to Collingwood & Bulldogs all of a sudden we will be in 2nd spot.

Dont throw it in just yet SAINTS....

[Legendary]

Too early to tell yet.

For example, what if we win our next 4 games by an average of say 6-7 goals?

That would sow up 3rd spot, and depending on results we might even finish second.

If we entered week 1 of the finals coming off 4 straight wins and finishing clear in 3rd spot with a double chance, would that change people's perspective?

It's too early to say ... two of the last three weeks have been worrying, but then again 2 more weeks and we could see two 60-point victories to the Saints.

Things can change quickly in footy, or they can stay the same for a long time.


Next 3 weeks are crucial.

[Teflon]

I don't know. Right after the Cats game it felt very much like our year.

Kinda feel we're relying on unreliables...Kosi firing, Roo recovering, Dawson holding down FB, Milne kicking goals in finals, players not butchering the ball under pressure. Feels like one too many variables...?

Arent these the same variables we had in these same areas in 09?

Kosi,Milne in big games, Dawson over Max......all the same questions yet we got within a kick and if not for ordinary goal kicking.....

The BIGGEST issue for me lies not in the personnell - thats largely the same. The iss I see is that hunger.....intensity has been missing this year for mine.......can you turn that on like a tap 4 weeks out?

I see now Collingwood are all talk bout their "system" - I still reckon their list has holes you can drive a truck through......its a funny thing confidence, hunger.....at one stage not that long ago people were lauding us for our depth......

In the words of Paul Kelly:

"They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn....and in the hour of greatest slaughter....the great avenger has been borne........"

(sure hes rabbitting on bout some cricketer........but you get the drift....)

[Griggsy]

Agreed, That same horrible feeling in my gut from after the GF has returned the last month, it's like im nervous and edgy 24/7.

I know we have the guys that can win on that final day, thats not my issue. We know they have the talent there, its just hiding somewhere at the moment and they need to find it.

I think the boys need to belt a team by +75 points in the next few weeks, that would inspire them and reassure the group. Confident that they could hold that kind of good form till GF day. And make me feel a lot better in the process.

[Verdun66]

We weren't too good in August last year. This year I hope that patch happened in July, with us peaking into September. That's what I hope anyway.

We dipped last year at the wrong time, and didn't quite get back to our best IMO.

Looks grim now, but if we start finding our feet across August, we are going to be hitting some form at the business end when it really counts.

We just need to get into position, and our experience of finals, and of a GF, will be very handy indeed.

[meher baba]

St Kilda and Julia Gillard. Both riding high a few weeks ago, both now suddenly looking unexpectedly shaky.

But, I reckon, both can still turn it around..