It's Official - Blake is a Top Ten Player (B&F)

[saintsRrising]

Unfortunately we have too many others who simply have no impact when their game is off (and some who seem to have mainly off games ).

Indeed...and this is the problem.


The problem is not that based on performance that Blake gained ninth...that is fair enough.


The problem is that not enough of the rest of our list played near their potential....for whatever reason.

[maverick]

I have no issue with Blake finishing 9th in the B&F.
I have an issue with Kosi not finishing top ten however.
I thought his season was reasonable and if playing first ruck all year he can't get him in the top 10, then he MUST play forward next year and we have to find another ruckman simple as that.
He is wasted in the ruck and is only there because of our pathetic ruck stocks. He is a KPP and occasional ruck.

[saintsRrising]

By Russell Holmesby

for saints.com.au

http://www.saints.com.au/Season2007/New ... wsId=52207

“You need to ask yourself honestly; ‘am I doing everything I can to help St Kilda win a premiership’.

“I know I’m not. I could be doing more to make sure we win a premiership, but until we have everyone asking themselves the question and challenging each other on it, we are not going to achieve what we want to achieve.â€

[saintbrat]

so if I take the theory that some are putting; Nick is the - best of the rest? as backed up by his own words?

why then would we even have a best and fairest-

ONE way to gain improvement is to find acheivement and and build on it.
If you continue to build on the negatives you will get negatives and reduce marole.
Don't bother working at it and gaining advantage because you'll never be good enough

or you can use the positives- strong consistent work is something to be admired- there was a top ten- ( I haven't seen how many actually polled votes) surely it is best to do as Nick has done ask ALL to work to be even better- to be encouraging the players who are next to work to be amongst that ten- using Jason as model-
If- to some of you - he doesn't have the skill- ( heck he is out there every week- having played every game) there would be no use encouraging others to use to his example and work to the best of their ability, giving their all, EVERY week- getting the consistency most of us want to see.
Obviously the coaching staff saw greater value in Jason's out put and gave him points above others.
winning a best and fairest- getting a place in one - will never match a premiership medallion- just ask THE SAINT- but gaining recognition in a B&F will or wanting to may just be the incentive anyone player needs to improve .

[Bernard Shakey]

Why all this crap about Blake?
He had his best year yet.

I am more concerned about Dal Santo, probably the most talented player on our list. He finished 4th, which most would say is pretty good.
It is rubbish.
If he played to half his ability, he would have finished 1st or 2nd.
Dal needs to play to his undoubted ability or we, as Saints supporters are being ripped off.

Dal, lift your game and play to your ability, for your sake, for the sake of the team and for the sake of the supporters, who pay your wage.

[bigcarl]

I have no issue with Blake finishing 9th in the B&F.
I have an issue with Kosi not finishing top ten however.
I thought his season was reasonable and if playing first ruck all year he can't get him in the top 10, then he MUST play forward next year and we have to find another ruckman simple as that.
He is wasted in the ruck and is only there because of our pathetic ruck stocks. He is a KPP and occasional ruck.

absolutely. i'll be appalled if kosi is used for hack ruck work again. he's not even particularly good at it (the hitouts, I mean) whereas i believe he can be a gun at ff

[St Fidelius]

Agree 100%

It's also a very VERY poor reflection on our list and where it's at due to poor recruiting and development.

Ask yourself, would Jason Blake get a game for Geelong?

He wouldn't even be in Geelong's top 30

Blake is a liability and that he can finish 9th in our best and fairest is a damning indightment on our recruiting for the past six years and shows why we are middle of the table which is where we have been two years in a row


We will never win a premiership with players such as Blake and Birss running around

These players would not get a game with Geelong and that's just a fact, that they can get regular games with us, is nothing for any supporter to jump up and down about unless you enjoy embracing mediocrity

FAIR DINKUM

HO HUM here comes the the FAIR DIMKUM MAN

Lets roll up and knock Blake again, shall we...

From a poster that stated that "he has nothing against Blake"???

FAIR DINKUM you are full of it...

and to even confirm that your "source" suggested that GT would NOT give up our first draft pick for Judd proves it...

Give up while you're behind, you will never catch up IMO...

Yeah, righto RIX is the answer

Blake is by far a better player than RIX and it's time you get a grip FFS

FAIR DINKUM!!!

[joffaboy]

So it is official.

Luminaries like Sainbot, Milney44 and barks4 eva know more about footbll than the St.Kilda coaches.

Oh dear

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

How embarrassing for you guys

Really some very red faces on this forum and I love watching you all squirm as you attempt to justify your foolishness.

Keep it up it is very funny.

[Oh When the Saints]

I am more concerned about Dal Santo, probably the most talented player on our list. He finished 4th, which most would say is pretty good.
It is rubbish.
If he played to half his ability, he would have finished 1st or 2nd.
Dal needs to play to his undoubted ability or we, as Saints supporters are being ripped off.

Dal, lift your game and play to your ability, for your sake, for the sake of the team and for the sake of the supporters, who pay your wage.

I wouldn't say Dal Santo is more talented than Riewoldt ... so fair enough to finish as a runner-up to Roo.

Dal takes the hard tag every week, and still did in '07. What that allowed was Montagna to play loose and have a terrific year.

For instance - Joey dominated in Rounds 12 and 13. So what did Malthouse do the following week?

He tagged Montagna. Dal had a better run at it and polled 3 votes for BOG.


Now being tagged is no excuse, but Dal finished about 10th in the Brownlow, and top 25 in the Herald Sun award.

For two weeks in Rounds 16 and 17 Dal Santo didn't have a tackle ... he racked up plenty of the footy and according to the Brownlow was BOG.

But what would the coaches prefer from him? A bit of defensive pressure, and would probably reward him more for it in the B&F. So the B&F finish can be misleading.


Dal Santo is ridiculously maligned on here. He is a player that every other team in the AFL would jump at having, and is St Kilda's best midfielder.

People also forget that Dal Santo has played 102 consecutive games. He is there every week, unlike most of our other players. When you play that many in a row, you are going to have a few poor matches.


What I want to see is our other midfielders step up around him. Players like Ball and Hayes need to take some of the pressure of Dal Santo, who works hard and is our best mid.

[plugger66]

I am more concerned about Dal Santo, probably the most talented player on our list. He finished 4th, which most would say is pretty good.
It is rubbish.
If he played to half his ability, he would have finished 1st or 2nd.
Dal needs to play to his undoubted ability or we, as Saints supporters are being ripped off.

Dal, lift your game and play to your ability, for your sake, for the sake of the team and for the sake of the supporters, who pay your wage.

I wouldn't say Dal Santo is more talented than Riewoldt ... so fair enough to finish as a runner-up to Roo.

Dal takes the hard tag every week, and still did in '07. What that allowed was Montagna to play loose and have a terrific year.

For instance - Joey dominated in Rounds 12 and 13. So what did Malthouse do the following week?

He tagged Montagna. Dal had a better run at it and polled 3 votes for BOG.


Now being tagged is no excuse, but Dal finished about 10th in the Brownlow, and top 25 in the Herald Sun award.

For two weeks in Rounds 16 and 17 Dal Santo didn't have a tackle ... he racked up plenty of the footy and according to the Brownlow was BOG.

But what would the coaches prefer from him? A bit of defensive pressure, and would probably reward him more for it in the B&F. So the B&F finish can be misleading.


Dal Santo is ridiculously maligned on here. He is a player that every other team in the AFL would jump at having, and is St Kilda's best midfielder.

People also forget that Dal Santo has played 102 consecutive games. He is there every week, unlike most of our other players. When you play that many in a row, you are going to have a few poor matches.


What I want to see is our other midfielders step up around him. Players like Ball and Hayes need to take some of the pressure of Dal Santo, who works hard and is our best mid.

Whilst I agree with most things you said I cannot agree Dal is our best mid. Lenny is our best and more importantly our most important mid. Dal is a great player and gets a lot more hard ball than people realise but Lenny is the general and when he at his best so are the Saints.

[SaintBot]

Luminaries like Sainbot, Milney44 and barks4 eva know more about footbll than the St.Kilda coaches.

If you can find where anyone has said they "think they know more than the st kilda coaches." please do quote it and let us see.

Just because we disagree with what the club have come up with does not mean that we suddenly believe we are higher on the pecking order. Youve never disagreed with the club? Never disagreed with a team selection? Never disagreed with a final quarter tatic? Never disagreed with a failure to stand up to the afl over a unreasonable suspension through the courts? I could go on...I highly doubt youve agreed with everything the club has ever done but does that make you better than whatever section of the club that is in question: the coaches, board, employees, etc?

Its just one decision that I disagree with, not a big decision yes. As it means nothing. However Blake being congratulated on his season more than Kosi, Fiora, Ball even Milne and Leigh Fisher is pretty poor in MY opinion. There is absouletly no way i consider myself to be better or smarter than the Saints coaches just by making that opinion.

[kalsaint]

fiora drifted in and out of games way too much to get even close to blake's consistancy...

!!!!!!?????

They both had their days. Blake was no more consistent than Fiora over 2007.

As OWTS says, # of games played has a big influenec on B&F scores. Blake is a good stopper on some weeks but if you were to to rate the best stopper in each side I still dont rate him as in the top 10.

His may show effort but mistakes and lack of follow up at times still hurt his performance more than most.

Despite all the above I wish him well but still think effort in this case is not enough. Shoot me all you like, I wont budge on this.

[milney044]

of course i dont think im smarter than the club. if i did i certainly wouldnt be sitting here. its called a forum, where you express your own opinion, even if it happens to be different to that of others. and if you actually read my post, it was nothing against blake, i was having a go at our injuries more than anything. but oh wait sorry, i had an opinion, that must mean i want the coaches' job.

[fonz_#15]

congrats to blakey
not my favourite player, but is the player at our club i respect most, cant fault his efforts....EVER...keep up the good work and hope to see another improvement in our premiership year next year

to all who dont appreciate blakes efforts...go support carscum FFS

[Zippy]

Some of the criticism reminds me of the week after the west coast game. People were slamming blake because Cousins destroyed him in the second half, but not giving him much credit for keeping cousins quiet in the first half (lots of good players playing on cousins get destroyed in both halves . . .)

Remember expectations - for a GOP who won't take up salary space, and can do a decent job in a wide variety of roles, he's very good value.

We can't have a team consisting solely of stars.

[evertonfc]

Well done to him, but the result is symptamatic of where we are as a football club.

[SaintBot]

Some of the criticism reminds me of the week after the west coast game. People were slamming blake because Cousins destroyed him in the second half, but not giving him much credit for keeping cousins quiet in the first half (lots of good players playing on cousins get destroyed in both halves . . .)

Oh so now we are patting players on the back for doing a good job for half a game
If it was any other player that was beaten that badly, they also wouldve copped a bit...its not an anti blake thing

Remember expectations - for a GOP who won't take up salary space, and can do a decent job in a wide variety of roles, he's very good value.

so you know for a fact how much he takes out of our salary cap? please, enlighten us.