"It ain't over till it's over"

[Sainternist]

Or at least that's what Yogi Berra famously said.

So..."Fremantle are in the finals".

Hold the phone!

They still need to win one more game. Tomorrow they play a very good North Melbourne team. I'm predicting North to knock the stuffing out of them. This will leave them over the course of the week to be ruminating and feeling terrified of the thought of losing to Melbourne. So terrified that they may very well will lose. I mean, it's the Dockers we're talking about here.

Who knows? Come next Sunday, we may find ourselves playing for a shot in the finals.

Stranger things have happened.

[Chef attack]

Well it is st Kilda, strange is normal!

[MC Gusto]

The chances of Melbourne winning in Perth are nil! Other than it is the last game of the season!
Being that fish et al have been put on ice I think the saints coaching staff are in touch with reality

[saintspremiers]

The chances of Melbourne winning in Perth are nil! Other than it is the last game of the season!
Being that fish et al have been put on ice I think the saints coaching staff are in touch with reality

Agree. It's Perth. Different to the GC game where maybe some Carltank players wanted to oust Ratten.

[plugger66]

The chances of Melbourne winning in Perth are nil! Other than it is the last game of the season!
Being that fish et al have been put on ice I think the saints coaching staff are in touch with reality

Agree. It's Perth. Different to the GC game where maybe some Carltank players wanted to oust Ratten.

Of course they did. They deliberately lost so Ratten would leave and they would miss playing finals. Makes sense.

[matrix]

agreed

[Goody]

The decision for Fisher, Snides to have surgery is the right one. No one here is sayin g we will win the GF, but we could still make finals. It would a great fast track fot our younger brigade to be exposed to finals footy, whether or not they are ready for it. Its all in ours anf freo's hands, oh anf Melbournes. Unlikely but it can happen.
Bit like Lotto, you don't think you can win but you buy a ticket.

[GRAMophone]

Can only hope the umps have some money on Melbourne. They owe us one (at least).

[jays]

need freo to lose next week aint going to happen

[bigcarl]

The chances of Melbourne winning in Perth are nil! Other than it is the last game of the season!
Being that fish et al have been put on ice I think the saints coaching staff are in touch with reality

Sadly you are correct. I'd rate our chances of playing finals as about one in a thousand.

[Thinline]

I'd love to see us in the 8 because on balance I believe we have been good enough to warrant a finals spot, but if we finish 9th or 10th I won't sook. A full pre-season will do wonders and there's been a HEAP of good to come out of this year.

Off the top of my head:

Simpkin - outstanding year. OUTSTANDING.
Geary - welcome
Gwilt - slow start but finding feet again after horrible knee
Hayes - best return from injury ever in the history of mankind
Dal - outstanding season
Riewoldt - happy, and back towards being a tireless dominant force up forward again
Armo - best year yet
Steven - will be a jet
Siposs - class act IMO
Saad - Milne Mk 2
Stanley - huge leaps despite injury. Will be a jet
Milera - talented in body development year
Newnes - glimpses and a taste
Cripps - glimpses and more of a taste
McEvoy - battered from pillar to post, but really a very brave year and one that will do wonders in long run
Ledger - a couple of games, and another year of tank-building
Milne - terrific year all in all.
Dunell - looks a player
Seb Ross - ready and raring from all reports
Wilkes - finally a solid back up

Downsides?

BJ not re-signing has been a black mark

Kosi showing us he's all but cooked

Round f****** one which has more than likely cost us a berth in the end, and a couple of dropped close ones against Freo and Tigers which really stung. If they'd been won, the reality is a la 2008 we'd be going into final round a sniff of fourth and with a most agreeable percentage.

C'est la vie.

Broader picture is pretty positive IMO. Not sure we'll ever have the big bottom out. More a Sydney-like performance curve IMO.

[Chef attack]

agreed

With you on that one

[deadman walking]

its over

[kalsaint]

its over

Yep Mute point now

[Sainternist]

its over

Yep, it was just a case "where there's life, there's hope" on my behalf

On a brighter note, we won't have to blow our $$$ on finals tickets

[bobmurray]

That's it for the optimists, we can't make the finals...roll on the delistings,trade week and the draft...

[joffaboy]

That's it for the optimists, we can't make the finals...roll on the delistings,trade week and the draft...

Yes indeed.

From what I am hearing (nothing official, and rumours left right and centre at this time of year), there may be some gnashing of teeth and howling at the moon come delisting and trade week.

Will be a lot of fun.

[Rosco]

its over

Yep Mute point now

moot.

kinda glad it happened this round, can have a relaxing week and knock off Carlton's kids with our kids next week

[ShanghaiSaint]

all over now, f%&king north where was that killer football they served up to us and the pies... F#%k i hate north.

[Teflon]

all over now, f%&king north where was that killer football they served up to us and the pies... F#%k i hate north.

yer hate nth also.

shitbonhead spirit and gumby pretend prez...

[saintspremiers]

That's it for the optimists, we can't make the finals...roll on the delistings,trade week and the draft...

Yes indeed.

From what I am hearing (nothing official, and rumours left right and centre at this time of year), there may be some gnashing of teeth and howling at the moon come delisting and trade week.

Will be a lot of fun.

What have you heard re delistings?

Agree it's open season now. New coach = new philosophy.

[Stillwaiting]

That's it for the optimists, we can't make the finals...roll on the delistings,trade week and the draft...

Yes indeed.

From what I am hearing (nothing official, and rumours left right and centre at this time of year), there may be some gnashing of teeth and howling at the moon come delisting and trade week.

Will be a lot of fun.

What have you heard re delistings?

Agree it's open season now. New coach = new philosophy.

Agree also, it might be a very interesting trade period for us, if bj does go ( hope he doesn't) then I hope we go hard after a gun with the space that creates on our cap.

[kalsaint]

That's it for the optimists, we can't make the finals...roll on the delistings,trade week and the draft...

Yes indeed.

From what I am hearing (nothing official, and rumours left right and centre at this time of year), there may be some gnashing of teeth and howling at the moon come delisting and trade week.

Will be a lot of fun.

What have you heard re delistings?

Agree it's open season now. New coach = new philosophy.

Yep just the wheeling and dealing to be done now.

Your Watters >>>>>>Lying is probably not appropriate today after their solid win. It may be best in the longer term but right now I'm still coming to terms with the number of close losses over the year.
The team matchups, # of interstate games and consecutive short breaks show that inequality in the AFL is still rampant. Short term decisions by the AFL probably hurt Carltank and Essendon more than St. Kilda to some extent but wouldn't it be nice for the AFL not to fiddle with the game by short term decision making to allow the clubs to plan for the longer term without blow budgets on mistakes made by changes necessitated? I will continue to scrutinise the AFL equality rating apllied (or not) to continued bias of umpiring interpretations that affect games (without technology improvements) and recruitment losses made by clubs due to inconsistent AFL management short term decisions to teams and game rules.

While these appear like sour grapes as I know as we wernt good enough over the full year, the former reasons do continue to contrubute to a level of inequallity that the AFL dont allow with respect other inequalities like villification, so why not improve these other areas too?

I can provide numerous examples here but wont and just hope for greater equality next year. Adrian Anderson believes he shows integrity? Look again I say. It's still wanting.


Look forward to next year and will scrutinise the 2013 roster with vigour for evidence of improvement to equality.

[NOTTHATAWKWARD]

While these appear like sour grapes as I know as we wernt good enough over the full year, the former reasons do continue to contrubute to a level of inequallity that the AFL dont allow with respect other inequalities like villification, so why not improve these other areas too?

I can provide numerous examples here but wont and just hope for greater equality next year. Adrian Anderson believes he shows integrity? Look again I say. It's still wanting

Please elaborate, not baiting just generally interested because I think I know what your on about, would just like some clarification and am also interested in other theories.

[thejiggingsaint]

Thinline! What a GREAT response to some of the less positive postings! Wonderful attitude to take into the final game of the year!!! and roll on 2013!!! Love your work!!! Jiggster