Is Alan Richardson doing a good job?

[magnifisaint]

Justin Leppitsch isn't going great guns at the moment. Looked like he was doing something right last year.

[saintspremiers]

"time machine required"? I'd settle for a chance for an extra decade or two! I'm seventy years old on Thursday, and being brutally honest, although I'm in (touch wood) good health and fitness, my chances of seeing that second premiership being won are slim. Am I bitter? NO! Sad? a wee bit Ready to throw my hand in? ARE YOU CRAZY!

You're in good health at 70. Could well get into the nervous 90's. That's 20 more years of St.Kilda.

[Sainternist]

"time machine required"? I'd settle for a chance for an extra decade or two! I'm seventy years old on Thursday, and being brutally honest, although I'm in (touch wood) good health and fitness, my chances of seeing that second premiership being won are slim. Am I bitter? NO! Sad? a wee bit Ready to throw my hand in? ARE YOU CRAZY!

You're in good health at 70. Could well get into the nervous 90's. That's 20 more years of St.Kilda.

Jiggster will celebrate his 75th birthday in style. That'll be our year!

[WinnersOnly]

Does AR just generate any excitment or passion and love for the club?

He is obviously a great bloke and very considered, but struggles with his match day coaching! Granted he doesnt have the cattle - but he also needs to considerably improve his selectikn approach and positional moves during match days! 

Dempster is getting over run in defence and we need some size through the midfield why not go back to his Sydney days and throw him in the middle? 
He is killing Armitage & Stevens with his lack of midfield rotations? 
We need more midfield rotations so we play a team of small forwards? 
Savage when tagged why not move him into middle or the wing?
Newnes is struggling in the middle get him back to HB and swap with Geary. 
Geary cant kick - get him out of defence? 
We looked good in the NAB playing three talls plus Membrey up forward, season starts and goes away from it? 
Is exactly how Carlton beat us we couldnt match them all when their midfield began to dominate? 
Why play so many f....n defensive small forwards, who cant mark or put on score board pressure?  

The one move that was Ok on the weekend was Shenton move forward - but he also needs to go through the middle?

AR think outside the box you say you want flexibility from your players well HOW ABOUT SHOWING SOME YOUSELF!

I am not coach bashing as I believe Richo is the right man for the job, I would just like to see him improve his decisions at selection and his match day coaching!

[spert]

It's easy to hide behind excuses- of course inexperience and quality make a difference, but the original question is AR doing a good job? It seems that for many on the forum there is only one selection on this question and that is the Yes box, and any No is howled down. I'm presuming many on the forum have never played footy under different coaches and seen the massive difference a good coach makes to even an ordinary bunch of players. In answer to the original simple question, I would say AR is not really impressing me as a match-day coach after almost one and a third seasons..and that's it.

[plugger66]

Can the knockers tell us the exactly things AR is doing wrong and what they would do differently. My guess is none of us here have any inside knowledge to what is done on match day or the week before. And the other thing that is clear is player wise we are poor compared to SW last year but this year at least we have been in every game for the first half.

[FQF]

I think AR just needs to relax a bit. He seems very cordial and friendly but perhaps not the most sociable. Watching coaches like Hinkley, Roos even Ross talk with their players in a very relaxed manner makes me think if I've ever seen AR in that mode. Obviously I barely see any of the interactions, but that's my view as an outsider.

I get the impression that a large reason why we appointed AR was because of the strong parallel the club wanted to make with Port. Port had just undergone a few years of painful rebuild and we flying up the ladder. This coincided with the appointment of a new coach who had been in the system for many many years but was constantly overlooked. AR was in a similar position. To top it off, AR himself was involved in the Port resurrection. The club also often make reference to Port last year as our model for the rebuild.

[howlinwolf]

I think he's doing a great job. Port rated him very highly and they'd be better judges than us here.
He has little to work with and no coach would lift our list greatly up the ladder at present.
I like him. Just wish we could have held on to Luke Beveridge as an assistant as could have been a great team.
I was very disappointed hearing the announcement of him going to the dogs.
Good luck to them though. They're battlers and I don't mind seeing them show some promise.

[Con Gorozidis]

Well hallelujah!
Someone has mentioned kicking and ball use. Jack Billings - top of the class. Probably the smartest bloke at the club

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2015-04-2 ... r-ball-use

St Kilda tracked at 61 per cent disposal efficiency, while Carlton’s 69 per cent was bang on the AFL average for round four.

Westpac Stadium’s small arena played its role in this, with space hard to find and typically windy Wellington conditions causing turnovers for both teams throughout the contest.

“The effort was definitely there all game from the boys, but when they got that run on, we found it hard to stop them,” Billings told SAINTS.com.au post-match.

“The guys tried all game but a few skill errors cost us as well. At times our ball use is good but then we sometimes just kick it straight back to them. It was an issue a little bit last year as well. That will be a big focus next week and for the rest of the year.

“We need to work on it and be better for it.”

[saynta]

Does AR just generate any excitment or passion and love for the club?

He is obviously a great bloke and very considered, but struggles with his match day coaching! Granted he doesnt have the cattle - but he also needs to considerably improve his selectikn approach and positional moves during match days! 

Dempster is getting over run in defence and we need some size through the midfield why not go back to his Sydney days and throw him in the middle? 
He is killing Armitage & Stevens with his lack of midfield rotations? 
We need more midfield rotations so we play a team of small forwards? 
Savage when tagged why not move him into middle or the wing?
Newnes is struggling in the middle get him back to HB and swap with Geary. 
Geary cant kick - get him out of defence? 
We looked good in the NAB playing three talls plus Membrey up forward, season starts and goes away from it? 
Is exactly how Carlton beat us we couldnt match them all when their midfield began to dominate? 
Why play so many f....n defensive small forwards, who cant mark or put on score board pressure?  

The one move that was Ok on the weekend was Shenton move forward - but he also needs to go through the middle?

AR think outside the box you say you want flexibility from your players well HOW ABOUT SHOWING SOME YOUSELF!

I am not coach bashing as I believe Richo is the right man for the job, I would just like to see him improve his decisions at selection and his match day coaching!

A very interesting post.

[Bluthy]

I get the feeling Richo will have learnt a painful lesson out of the last 2 weeks. With big games at stake and losing some stars, he fell back to playing it safe with lots of cover. But God hates a coward. He needs to show confidence in the next generation. Playing Paddy was a good step in that direction. Would like to see more of it. Remember he played new draftees billings, Dunstan, Eli and ACres from the outset last year.

Nah, Acres didn't play until Round 7. This year we've had three debutants and a 1 gamer so far - Lonie, Sinclair, Paddy and Membrey. Three of them have played every game. Doesn't feel too different to last year for mine.

Except that last year's first four rounds we averaged 80+ games of experience. This year's first four rounds we've averaged around 60. That's a lot less experience in the side overall. Not sure how you can say he's playing it safe and not trying the kids.

Curren's 22 and has now played 25 games. He's not exactly a veteran, and he's the sort of guy we need to find out about this year. Along with these guys who we need to sift and keep or discard this year:

Roberton, Delaney, Weller, Simpkin, Hickey, Saad, Siposs, Ross, Longer, Curren, Webster, Saunders, Murdoch, Shenton, Lee, Minchington, White, Markworth

Most of these guys are 22+ and have played less than 50 games. We need to know if there's any point keeping them. They have question marks for various reasons. The only way we're going to make sensible decisions on them is to give them games, critique them on how they're playing, and then give them more games to see if they improve.

That's the purpose of this year. As part of that, younger guys will get games (Dunstan, Billings, Templeton, Acres, Membrey, McCartin, Goddard, McKenzie, Lonie, Sinclair, Pierce, Payne). But largely their improvement is going to be about time and pre-seasons, not about the difference between playing 10 and 15 games this year.

Great result is if we're confident in a third of the question mark guys, we've dumped a third and kept another third for one more season; and also got 5-10 games average into the kids. I reckon we're exactly on track for that at the moment.

Good points Berg and well made. You are the soothing yin to my raging yang. One thing that dawned on me with Richo is he's tended to show that once you're in the team, and have talent and work ethic, you tend to stay in there eg. Dunstan and Billings last year and hopefully Paddy and Lonie and perhaps Sinclair this year. So I guess its just a matter of showing some patience with Goddard, Acres and McKenzie. They will be waiting until they feel they are physically and mentally ready so they can have a sustained role in the ones. They obviously know a lot more about the nitty gritty of them physically. Hopefully once they are in, they are in. I'll feel a lot better about the backline when I see Goddard and Acres are in the team. I'll feel like then I can see the future on each line with Paddy and Lonie on the forward line, Dunstan and Billings as mids. I find the current back six a frustrating mix of oldies and ordinary.

And you're right -its a good opportunity to try out some of the more fringe players. We've invested a lot of time and resources in them and need to be sure with our delistings. Don't necessarily agree about games v preseasons though. The port model was to get AFL games in to young players because that speeds up development. Richo said the same thing. But obviously they have to be able to cope physically and mentally and produce enough to be somewhat competitive.

[ROLS-LEE]

We became conservative: Richo

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2015-04-2 ... tive-richo

See this was my problem at selection. The reality was Carlton was a better team and the odds were against us winning. So if we really needed a win then we had to roll the dice. Playing so many protective defenders doesn't encourage taking the game on. And playing a guy delisted at the end of the year in 3 of the first 4 games isn't exactly bravely forward looking. If he wants his team to take the game on then they need to be brave at the selection table. I'll cut Richo some slack because he is learning like everyone else. I think there is a lesson to learn here. The best coaches are bold. They have a plan and they go for it - they crash and burn or fly. Even if we don't win another game Richo will be safe this year so he's in a position to take some risks and be experimental. If he's not going to be bold now when we have virtually nothing to lose, will he be later when the stakes start to rise?

He seems to to think he can 'steal a few wins' by playing people like Schneider, Dempster, Geary and Saad week in week out. Players who ARE NOT part of our future.

Hes is just kidding himself if he thinks he can do that. You cant have a bob each way. He needs to embrace the re-build or f*ck off.

That's crap Con. How many kids do you want in there? You HAVE to have some experienced players playing with the kids, or we not only lose, but we lose by over 100 points EVERY week. The bottom line is that our midfield is decimated and is getting smashed every week. I will grant you Saad, but the rest have to stay afaic.

Well if we hadnt faffed around wasting 2011, 12, 13, 14 having a bob each way we might have some better 22 yos by now and therefore not get thrashed.
How long do we keep kicking the can down the road?
How do you explain the following

Paul Seedsman 23yo 40 games
Josh Thomas 23 32
Ben Sinclair 23 46
Jamie Elliott 22 56
Jarrod Witts 22 27
Marley Williams 21 41
Taylor Adams 21 46
Jack Crisp 21 22
Ben Kennedy 21 20
Brodie Grundy 21 26
Tom Langdon 20 23
Tim Broomhead 21 11

Tell me how Collingwood got so many games into so many kids? Just explain it to me.

If your answer is they kept a few senior players in the side - then my question is how have they won so many more games than us in the last 3 years?

So either we arent good at developing kids OR our experienced players are terrible.
Which one is it? It has to be one (or both). Cant be none.
Ill remind you the Pies won the 2010 flag and then made a pre-lim in 2012.
Ill also remind you they have 4 top 10 draft picks who are yet to play a single game.

I agree with everything you say, and the reason why I think we haven't gone as well is due to our drafting, prior to rebuild and the players that we let go, and what we got for them vs collingwoods.
Think about it, got nothing for Cripps, got nothing for ball, then downgraded our picks for more picks that really haven't worked out yet.

Collingwood maximised their trade deals with Beams, Dawes and Wellingham and have picked well in the draft, but having a lot of cash at your disposal helps with the former.

The players that Collingwood lost hurt, was not the fabric of their club like Goddard and Dal Santo was to us. If they lost a Pendlebury and a Swan, then who knows.

We had to let/force them to go as we had no other currency to stimulate our rebuild.

So to answer your question our selection at the draft table has been poor, our footy department is under resourced due to not enough funds, and we had to let our top line players go as we had no other currency so its both.

If we don't maximise with the draft this year and next Collingwood, Doggies and Melbourne will always stay in front of us and we could forget about the 2018 and beyond as these clubs could be better than us.