the good ole days...the Streak

[saintsRrising]

There is a contiinual undercurrent by many hinting that if we just returned to how we played in the streak that all would well...."the good ole days" hypothesis.


Such thoughts ignore:

1/ That we don't play in a vaccum. The main reason the streak stopped was that opposition teams changed how they played against us.


Let me repeat that...The main reason the streak stopped was that opposition teams changed how they played against us....or at least all the good ones did. Some of the lesser teams could not apply the defensive brakes and so we became flat track bullies pummelling weaker opponents maintaining the illusion that we were better than we were.


Quite simply they will not allow us to play that free running open style.....they will lock up our forwards by flooding and then will rebound to build their own attacks.


Good opposition pressure us more now.


good opposition work the ball more against us.....THINKING is king in the modern game and teams that gift the ball to too many low % situations will lose.

Look at the recent Doggies game where they changed their game quite radically......with a lot of short kicks etc and triumphed.

2/ Back then we had many midfielders in their prime...Harvey, Frankie, Powell and Thommmo...two are gone & Thommo hassed faded substantially. Ball and Hayes are still here...but are still playing hampered.

Dal is still here....sublime one game and tagged out the next. Opposition clubs seek to shut him down more. Dal could be a great midfielder but is onlya good midfielder as the opposition can often control him.

On the plus side Joey has stepped up...but that does not go close to offsetting our midfield losses.

Again we don't play in a vaccum. While our midfield has declined the best teams in the competition have actually improved their midfields...in depth and quality.

While much of the focus on centre clearances goes on the ""ruck stats""....the main factor is that our midfield in comparison to other teams is not as good as it was.




3/ That even the so called "Attacking Cats" still very much play possession football. They are just doing it far better with more committment and application. They are bursting with confidence.....with other plusses such as good pre-season and few injuries (some late 2006 tanking assisted with this not to mention gaining them the young Selwood). They are kicking surely and with purpose. they are at the height of their game......but they are defensively (ie when the opposition have the ball) much superior to the Saints in the Streak.


The Cats work very hard defensively when they do not have the ball....something which the Saints in the streak did not do....and something which opposition coaches woke up to and exploited.

[fonz_#15]

whilst i hear what your saying, can we please stop bringing the past up.
Fact of the matter is that were playing below the potential that we have, no excuse can cover that up.

Who is to blame? not RL imho, but rather the mentally weak playing group who refuse to dig deep when they absolutely must.

We need a MASSIVE pre-season to get things back on track for 2008 (and yes that means we are no threat this year).

[saintsRrising]

The way forward:::

Learn to play the defensive side of our game better...we are actually improving greatly at this

Rebuild and expand our midfield....no short cuts here I am afraid

Excecute better....(easier said than done......and RL has a battle here.. ie why did X miss 3 sodas...was it confiedence...?????)

Better injury management......looks like we are starting to get better at this at last...

[saintsRrising]

whilst i hear what your saying, can we please stop bringing the past up.
Fact of the matter is that were playing below the potential that we have, no excuse can cover that up.

Who is to blame? not RL imho, but rather the mentally weak playing group who refuse to dig deep when they absolutely must.

We need a MASSIVE pre-season to get things back on track for 2008 (and yes that means we are no threat this year).

Indeed...we need to think about what we need to be....and not what we were...particularly when that "were" was a dead end as it was stopped.

[fonz_#15]

The way forward:::

Excecute better....(easier said than done......and RL has a battle here.. ie why did X miss 3 sodas...was it confiedence...?????)

That right there is the key..good sides don't miss easy opportunities! Even back to the age old problem with Rooey's goal kicking, How often does Pavlich miss the shots that Roo misses? I bet not that often.

We are absolutely pathetic at converting when we go forward. It may be confidence, or it may be a lack of basic football skill, but whatever it is must be rectified because it is costing us games of football.

[JeffDunne]

I don't understand why some people are trying so hard to justify the way we are currently playing.

I also don't understand why they keep bringing up comparisons to 2004 when doing so.

I'd be happy for us to display the form we showed in the second half of 2006 compared to what we are displaying now, especially with the players we have at our disposal. We may have been inconsistent over the the run home, but we played with more intensity than we've displayed in all but one or two games this year.

Nobody should be happy with the way we are playing at the moment, regardless of what happened in 2004, 2005 or 2006.

[barks4eva]

Geelong have won 14 and counting in what will be a premiership year

We won 10 in 2004 and didn't make a Grand Final

Time for those still stuck in a time warp, with a semi watching their streak video, put the thing back in your brown paper bag, stop embracing mediocrity and move on