What I like about the leadership group is what it says about our recent recruiting and what it means for us to be strong. There is a lot of talk about "the bottom six" needing to be strong - on paper 6 of the 8 leadership group could have been that bottom six if you look at how they were picked up - rookies, free hits, high picks.
If our young low draft picks start coming into there own we could be very good - which leads me to a comment re Terry Wallaces last article - he doesn't really know what's going on down at the saints - hopefully he will come the early rounds
Leadership group & our potential
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Wayne42
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Re: Leadership group & our potential
Richmond eventually realised Terry Wallet doesn't really know what's going on and threw him under a bus.
He's irrelevant, to footy, to the sun tan industry and to the voice over work industry.
He's irrelevant, to footy, to the sun tan industry and to the voice over work industry.
The Saints are under review, will it make any difference to the underachievers ?
Re: Leadership group & our potential
Bruce has proven to be a steal. Seb has been a slow burner showing a great ability to find the footy now and its hard to dispute his pick 24 or whatever it was. Likewise Newnes although I'd like him to step up in terms of being setting play up from the back (although his sneaky goal kicking is great). Robbo was definitely a great pickup for nothing - his development will be interesting whether he continues as a running back or can do that third tall role. Gears as a rookie to skipper has beaten the odds big time.
Weller is a good example of both how we've been cleverly opportunist with our recruiting but perhaps also the dangers. Weller obviously ticked a lot of boxes - was prepared to work his guts out on perhaps his last chance and was a decent draft pick I think. But one of the big reasons for recruiting Weller was his big body. We were desperate for some decent sized guys with good tanks out there who can hold their own physically at seniors level hence Weller, Delaney, Savage brought in. We were going to have lots of skinny kids coming in and had lost quite a few seniors and had a huge hole in that 23-28 group. I remember that horror Hawks game and Weller was one of the few that was able to dish back some physicality.
However we have still finished outside the 8. Now is when our recruiting and talent acquisition will really be shown for what it is as we make the really difficult part of the climb into the 8 and then top 4. Weller is a great leader, trainer and enforcer and has been playing well. Does he have the talent and skill to be part of us as as top 4 team? Likewise Savage and Robbo and Gears. ARe they bargain pickups that do well to bump out list up that was falling off a cliff and get us to the top of the bottom 8, but do they have another level in skill and consistency to make us compete with the best of the best which is where we have to get to.
Depth is fantastic and a great starting point. But the top teams have depth AND great talent. There are only 22 players out there on grand final day. Thats what sets them apart from other teams who have one or the other but not both. GWS are going to be sky high in both by default. I'm still a bit concerned we didn't stay down long enough to get those top draft picks. A pick 5 on a skillful young onballer would have been a great last high pick get.
And even spread of ability on the field does make it much harder to shut down your team and we seem to be working towards that well. I always thought one of Lyons problem is relying too much on key players - for us Hayes, Rooey, Dal, Fisher. Moving Bartel onto Hayes in the grannie was a master stroke. Thompson said we'll sacrifice queens here because we bat much deeper in the midfield. WE can't be relying too much on Billings and Paddy as they will get a lot of hard marking.
It could really depend how well guys like Gresham, Steele, Acres, White, Rice, Mckenzie, Carlisle, Goddard, Long who have great potential can maximise that potential to become A-graders. We get 3 or 4 of them into a-grade/elite I'm feeling a lot better about our list talent to compete with GWS, GC, Melbourne etc who are loaded up with high picks.
Weller is a good example of both how we've been cleverly opportunist with our recruiting but perhaps also the dangers. Weller obviously ticked a lot of boxes - was prepared to work his guts out on perhaps his last chance and was a decent draft pick I think. But one of the big reasons for recruiting Weller was his big body. We were desperate for some decent sized guys with good tanks out there who can hold their own physically at seniors level hence Weller, Delaney, Savage brought in. We were going to have lots of skinny kids coming in and had lost quite a few seniors and had a huge hole in that 23-28 group. I remember that horror Hawks game and Weller was one of the few that was able to dish back some physicality.
However we have still finished outside the 8. Now is when our recruiting and talent acquisition will really be shown for what it is as we make the really difficult part of the climb into the 8 and then top 4. Weller is a great leader, trainer and enforcer and has been playing well. Does he have the talent and skill to be part of us as as top 4 team? Likewise Savage and Robbo and Gears. ARe they bargain pickups that do well to bump out list up that was falling off a cliff and get us to the top of the bottom 8, but do they have another level in skill and consistency to make us compete with the best of the best which is where we have to get to.
Depth is fantastic and a great starting point. But the top teams have depth AND great talent. There are only 22 players out there on grand final day. Thats what sets them apart from other teams who have one or the other but not both. GWS are going to be sky high in both by default. I'm still a bit concerned we didn't stay down long enough to get those top draft picks. A pick 5 on a skillful young onballer would have been a great last high pick get.
And even spread of ability on the field does make it much harder to shut down your team and we seem to be working towards that well. I always thought one of Lyons problem is relying too much on key players - for us Hayes, Rooey, Dal, Fisher. Moving Bartel onto Hayes in the grannie was a master stroke. Thompson said we'll sacrifice queens here because we bat much deeper in the midfield. WE can't be relying too much on Billings and Paddy as they will get a lot of hard marking.
It could really depend how well guys like Gresham, Steele, Acres, White, Rice, Mckenzie, Carlisle, Goddard, Long who have great potential can maximise that potential to become A-graders. We get 3 or 4 of them into a-grade/elite I'm feeling a lot better about our list talent to compete with GWS, GC, Melbourne etc who are loaded up with high picks.
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Freebird
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Re: Leadership group & our potential
Agree Bluthy, our mids are showing promise but do the Dunstans, Armitage, Ross's etc have the weapons to take us to the top.
Because they're one paced they'll have to dominate the ball and not just get their 24 possessions while their opponents dominate and create space and openings in our defence.
Because they're one paced they'll have to dominate the ball and not just get their 24 possessions while their opponents dominate and create space and openings in our defence.
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saint6709
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Re: Leadership group & our potential
Sorry freebird but you're off topic - maybe our mids need to step up a bit this year - which they have the potential to do - the point is if our bottom six in terms of their ranking in 'draft order' speak are our leadership group then we have potential to be better than we should be if ' draft order' is seen as the benchmarkFreebird wrote:Agree Bluthy, our mids are showing promise but do the Dunstans, Armitage, Ross's etc have the weapons to take us to the top.
Because they're one paced they'll have to dominate the ball and not just get their 24 possessions while their opponents dominate and create space and openings in our defence.
Re: Leadership group & our potential
It's not such a surprise as Leaderships groups are often about trademarking - effort, preparation, professionalism, not doing stupid things in down hours - which is irrelevant to skill or draft pick. Plus a lot of our really high draft picks are still too young to carry a burden of leadership. Other clubs would probably have similar make up of their Leadership group.saint6709 wrote:Sorry freebird but you're off topic - maybe our mids need to step up a bit this year - which they have the potential to do - the point is if our bottom six in terms of their ranking in 'draft order' speak are our leadership group then we have potential to be better than we should be if ' draft order' is seen as the benchmarkFreebird wrote:Agree Bluthy, our mids are showing promise but do the Dunstans, Armitage, Ross's etc have the weapons to take us to the top.
Because they're one paced they'll have to dominate the ball and not just get their 24 possessions while their opponents dominate and create space and openings in our defence.
We brought in a lot of players to fill that big gap we had in the middle of our list between oldies and youngies, and they are that age now that they can step into a leadership role (and are obviously playing well to hold their position). Plenty of teams will have rookies and low draft players come on to be good players/leaders. You can even say some of the really talented players shouldn't be burdened with captaincy as they get a lot of attention on the field they need to be able to put all their focus on beating.