By comparison to GT

[fugazi]

Ross Lyon this year has had better injuries overall and a better draw with less 6 day breaks and less travel, than GT did over the last 3 years where he got us to two Prelim's and final 8 last year.

We won by bigger margins and were rarely flogged.

I know it is Lyon's first year, but overall it gives a perspective on GT and how good he was at getting results with an undermanned team.

Is that fair to say or am I missing something?

I guess in Lyon's defence, Gehrig isn't the player he was, and Lenny has been recovering all year, and Goddard going down in Round 4 or 5 stuffed up his plans....but he's had Kosi all year, Roo all year, an improved Monty, Sam Fisher and Gram...and Hamill was missing for large parts of GT's reign also.

Just feel GT deserves some credit for what he managed to do with injuries compared to Lyon. He's still unfairly regarded as a bit of a joke in the media.

[fonz_#15]

gee i think ive heard this before....

GT IS IN THE PAST!

and that means he is not part of the F**king club anymore.

care to move on?

[saint patrick]

With due respect to you and GT mate I am over this perenial bloody broken record...

Its academic,pointless and boring IMO...

GT is gone and Ross deserves time...end of story

[redwhite&blackblood]

Is that fair to say or am I missing something?

GT did a good job with the list that built over time. We need to allow RL the same time to build the list to play his brand of the game unfortunately that can't happen over night so it will more than likely take another 2 years to develop the list he needs to be able to carry out his game style. The players not only have had to struggle yet again with significant injuries but have had to adapt to a brand new game plan and way of thinking about the game some have struggled with this and it will take time to jell together.

[fugazi]

Hang on a minute - I'm not posting to have a go at Lyon, really just to note retrospectively how well GT did with an injury hit list and how little credit he gets for it ...look at Melbourne with its injury list and where it ended up compaed to Saints playing finals...I actually think Lyon has done pretty well given the circumstances.

If this has all been done before my apologies...it is not intended to enter into a Ross Lyon slagging session as I actually reckon he can coach and wil get better.

[kaos theory]

Ross Lyon this year has had better injuries overall and a better draw with less 6 day breaks and less travel, than GT did over the last 3 years where he got us to two Prelim's and final 8 last year.

that is BS.

We had the worst pre-season for more than 5 yrs. We had the worst injury list in the first half of the season since 2002. We therefore are coming from a long way back. Therefore, it is extemely difficult to get everything running perfectly when 'on paper' you have most players available for the second half of the yr, becuase of what has happened in the pre-season and the first half of the yr.


Also, the draw is a BS arguement, becuase the competition is significantly better than in previous yrs:

The quality of other teams has significnatly improved over the last year compared to us. Teams like Hawks, Essenodn (earleir in the year were vastly superior to their 2006 form), Roos, Geelong, Port, Lions have, overall, improved on last year. The pies have improved, a little, but are stagnating now. The dogs, swans, eagles, freo have stagnated, but not gone backwards significantly. Only the tigers & Melborune have gone significantly backwards. Therefore we have a much tougher competition this yr versus the last 2 or 3 years.

Finally, how do you know we would not be in the same position or worse if GT was still coaching?

[saintsRrising]

Ross Lyon this year has had better injuries overall .

Rubbish..

Heaps of injuries and many players had poor pre-seasons too...raph has still to play enough games to gain match practice

Goose, Hayes and Ball are all still recovering from injuries


Just because RL seems to be getting on top of our soft tissue injuries now does not mean that he was not handed an injury riddled team.

[fugazi]

Kaos Theory - We've had a much better draw this year than last year for instance in terms of breaks, travel and we play Carlton, Doggie, Freo and Tigers twice(4 out of 6 in the bottom 8...including 15th and 16th team!)...on the whole a better draw...simply saying the Hawks and Kangaroos have improved means little...I could say Freo and Melbourne have got worse and it amounts to the same thing.

Think about the injury list we had by the time we played Adelaide and wn in the final at AAMI in 05......our injuries were a least as bad then and certainly worse than they are now.

[plugger66]

Why do we care how Gt would have gone. He is gone say it doesnt matter. But what does matter is our style of footy and while RL states we do want to kick more goals I am not sure how we are playing will help us kick more goals.

I was at the game and what really annoyed me is when we were 2 goals down with 10 minutes left the swans were still out numbering us in our forward line. Please tell me why we would do that and that isnt the players fault. Skills yes set up No.

It is a very negitve and worst of alll a tiring game plan as shown by our inabilty of winning last quarters.

What can we do? Nothing just wait for next year when are fit enough to play that style of footy.

[BringBackMadDog]

GT Who???????? Gone and forgotten now shut up