So what do people want to see happen..?

[bigcarl]

I'd like to see Acres at the centre bounces for one

+1.

Not sure Richo has the balls to try it ... but that's his right. It's his job on the line

[samuraisaint]

1) No sackings. I would like the president to address the membership and supporters and explain how players and the coaching team will be supported and developed a lot better than they have been so far. The club have spoken a lot about moving back to Moorabbin, getting a better deal at Etihad stadium, and fielding a womens team. These are all good things for the club. Now it is time to focus on the team's performances. Too many of our players look to have gone backwards in their ability, or have stagnated, and this has been a view shared by football experts far worthier than I to make these observations. It isn't the president's job to do these things of course, but to oversee that they are happening.
2) Give players time in the firsts to learn their role/acclimatise to the quantum leap in skills and pressure at the top level. No more scape goats for poor performances. If selected they get a month to show what they've got. Once dropped they only return to the senior team through several consistent performances. This will help to ensure responsibility and accountability.
3) Play our better players, that means Carlisle, up forward so that we can score. Strugglers go to the backline - that means Paddy at the moment. He can learn his craft there.
4) New and young players on the list should be given senior games and list turned over. Rewarding effort, not 'role players'.
5) Two ruckmen playing each week. I don't like Bruce in the ruck. We have enough difficulty scoring as it is.
6) No more acceptance of St. Kilda playing to the script. When we play at places like Geelong the coaches and players need to be put on notice that they are representing us and the southern suburbs of Melbourne. If we lose by 100 odd points again this year this should not be tolerated.
7) No more talk about finals. This was always going to be a development year. We could ill afford to lose the calibre of players we've lost and keep playing like we were last year.
I think all of these things are reasonable and fair, and for a professional football team with people earning very good money, is not asking too much.

[meher baba]

It's pretty straightforward to me. I think our game plan (in short, to bring the ball out of our defence quickly and do everything we can to stop our opponents doing the same and thereby get them to turn it over) is pretty good and, if it could be implemented effectively, then it would win games and be very attractive to our fans.

So we need to work out what we can do to execute this plan as well as we can. There are two key questions to answer.

1. Have we got the right team on the park? The best sort of team to execute the sort of game plan I described above should have as much as possible in the way of speed, endurance and good disposal skills. Have we maximised these capabilities in the team that we are putting on the field, or are we trying to have our cake and eat it too? Eg, it seems to me that our selection policy seems to be driven partly by a desire to win clearances and have forward marking targets: but perhaps these goals are not consistent with an "attack from all over the field after turnovers" style of play? We need to think that through.

2. Are the players being properly taught/prepared for the style of play we are trying to execute? On Good Friday, our players often seemed to be working at cross purposes and the game plan wasn't being executed properly. What's going wrong there? Our coaching staff need to analyse the game and talk openly to the players - especially the senior players - and work out what's going wrong. There wasn't anything wrong with the effort of most of the guys on Friday: the problem was with the teamwork, which comes back to inadequate preparation.

The fact that we have to ask questions 1 and 2 after two rounds of the season is a clear indication that what's happening in the football department is a long way short of good enough. So that raises a third question that needs to be asked of everyone from the coach down.

3. Will you fix this quickly, or do we need to get someone else to do your job?

[meher baba]

2) Give players time in the firsts to learn their role/acclimatise to the quantum leap in skills and pressure at the top level. No more scape goats for poor performances. If selected they get a month to show what they've got. Once dropped they only return to the senior team through several consistent performances. This will help to ensure responsibility and accountability.
3) Play our better players, that means Carlisle, up forward so that we can score. Strugglers go to the backline - that means Paddy at the moment. He can learn his craft there.
4) New and young players on the list should be given senior games and list turned over. Rewarding effort, not 'role players'.
5) Two ruckmen playing each week. I don't like Bruce in the ruck. We have enough difficulty scoring as it is.

Your post appeared while I was writing mine. I'd just like to comment on four of your points. I agree with 2): players need to learn their role and be given a chance to deliver it.

For that reason I don't agree with 3) Carlisle has a role, he does it well, he's not one of our problems. He should be left where he is, except occasionally within games as a tactical move.

For 4): as I said, we should be selecting the best team available each week from the perspective of maximising our ability to implement our game plan. After seven years out of the finals, we are past the development phase: we need to reward our loyal fans and attract new ones by playing as competitively and attractively as we can, whatever the result.

5: I completely disagree. If, as I said, our game plan is primarily about getting the ball through turnovers and then attacking from any part of the field, then we need as much mobility and speed in our team as we can get. If we are brave and run 100% with what seems to be our philosophy, then we don't need to win the clearances.

[axcellence]

Write off the year.

Get rid of the CEO and the footy admin.

Change of all assistant coaches

Shake up the recruiting department

Look like business

Sign up FAs and trade 2019 first pick to get some talent in ASAP.

[DJ Higgins]

1) start looking for a new coach. I don't mean sack Richo today I mean line up a great coach and go get him next year as Richo is not good and it will be pleasing to see him leave,
2) train on the fundamentals. Forwards cant mark and rarely give targets to the mids. midfielders cant spot players on the lead and the rare time they do they kick it to them, not where they will end up. Practice this over and over an over
3) goal kicking is low hanging fruit but it is still terrible. Rome not built in a day but 2.12 says it all
4) write this year off. Yeah I am being negative in some peoples eyes but is anyone else thinking we are going to be 1-6 after round 7 and bottom of the ladder. So blood the up and comers and pump games into them. Not saying all at once or if they don't deserve a spot but if there is a spot between a young guy or an elder player play the kid.
5) don't experiment with key players. e.g. Carlisle. If they are a KP they stay where they are. Moving a key position player weakens one area more than it strengthens another
6) and finally look where you are kicking. Stop kicking it to no-one or worse the opposition. At least kick it to a contest

I wont be taking a blowtorch to my membership any time soon but I feel the pain of those they have

[Joffa Burns]

Go undefeated for the rest of the year winning the GF by a record margin so that the game is a celebration after 1/4 time.

[samoht]

L.Shaw to finally get the recognition he deserves.

[meher baba]

1) start looking for a new coach. I don't mean sack Richo today I mean line up a great coach and go get him next year as Richo is not good and it will be pleasing to see him leave,
2) train on the fundamentals. Forwards cant mark and rarely give targets to the mids. midfielders cant spot players on the lead and the rare time they do they kick it to them, not where they will end up. Practice this over and over an over
3) goal kicking is low hanging fruit but it is still terrible. Rome not built in a day but 2.12 says it all
4) write this year off. Yeah I am being negative in some peoples eyes but is anyone else thinking we are going to be 1-6 after round 7 and bottom of the ladder. So blood the up and comers and pump games into them. Not saying all at once or if they don't deserve a spot but if there is a spot between a young guy or an elder player play the kid.
5) don't experiment with key players. e.g. Carlisle. If they are a KP they stay where they are. Moving a key position player weakens one area more than it strengthens another
6) and finally look where you are kicking. Stop kicking it to no-one or worse the opposition. At least kick it to a contest

All pretty good points. I have some further comments:

1) You are more generous than me. I reckon Richo might have no more than 6 weeks to get things together. The way we played on Friday, we could lose the next 5-6 games by 100 points. It was only because the Roos' kicking for goal was even worse than ours that we didn't lose that game by 100 points. Richo has had the team for more than 4 years. In Round 2 last year, we played a finalist in West Coast in Perth with McCartin in for the injured Riewoldt. That team pushed West Coast all the way and was ultimately defeated by a few typical Eagles home game umpiring decisions. On Friday, with a pretty similar quality team (Montagna, Dunstan, Gilbert, Weller, Lonie and Hickey replaced by Clark, Armo, Sinclair, Stevens, Long and Longer), we couldn't get close to last year's #15 team in a game on our own home ground. You couldn't find a better benchmark of the performance of the football department - and, in particular, the coach. Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in the next few weeks, Richo's a goner IMO: any of the 18 clubs would sack a coach under these circumstances. I like Richo and I want him to succeed, but he's patently not delivering against the club's long-term plan of getting better each year until we win a premiership. If things stay as they are, he'll have to go, regardless of what you or I or anyone else might think.

Who do we bring in as a replacement? If I were running the club, I'd think seriously about Eade, who's currently coaching in the Eastern Football League and might well appreciate an approach. Sure he's old (ie, he's my age), sure he's a grumpy bugger, but I was incredibly impressed by the turnaround job he did on the Bulldogs in 2005, at a time when they seemed to be going out backwards as we are now. He not only improved their results, he also taught them an exciting and attractive playing style that got the crowds in. I think the problems he faced at the Suns were largely not of his own making.

3) It's unbelievable that modern players (not just the Saints, but we have been among the worst for quite a while) are so inaccurate in enclosed stadiums where wind is a negligible problem. It needs to be fixed, but I don't see how this can be done quickly.

4) If Richo can turn things around in the next few weeks, then the year won't be a complete write-off. Otherwise, see my point 1

[bigred]

I want to see us win five of the next seven. Including Geelong down there.

And after that I would like to see us cementing our position as we head into the mid way point of the year, making this week a long buried and repressed memory.

[MC Gusto]

What do I want to see?

I want to see white and dunstan in.

I want to see rice get a go.

I want to see Mav back in and back to 2016 form

I want to see Rowan Marshall get a run in the 1s just like paddy is

[MC Gusto]

I want to see us win five of the next seven. Including Geelong down there.

And after that I would like to see us cementing our position as we head into the mid way point of the year, making this week a long buried and repressed memory.

I want to
See this as well but bloody hell red it seems but a distant and unlikely dream!

[mbogo]

I want to see desperation, energy, tackling, clearances and running in numbers in midfield.
I want to see an attack on a talented opposition so that they then fumble and look uncertain.
I want to see constant forward pressure and an attack on goals and turn overs as the opposition try to clear, due to unrelenting pressure.
I wan to see an aggressive backline that does not give an inch and has a kickouts system and a coordinated approach and structure when the ball enters the zone.
I am positive that this would result in a pleasing outcome over the remaining games this year.

[Linton Lodger]

Make Billy Longer captain.

You're just been flippant.

[stonecold]

Make Billy Longer captain.

You're just been flippant.

Nothing new there really!!!!!

[stonecold]

Make Billy Longer captain.

You're just been flippant.

Not the word I would have chosen, I would have used a word starting with 'F' but ending in 'T'!!!!!!

[The Real Numpty]

Make Billy Longer captain.

You're just been flippant.

Not the word I would have chosen, I would have used a word starting with 'F' but ending in 'T'!!!!!!

Like you Mr Austin, I am very disappointed also, believe me. I was hoping for that word beginning in 'T' and ending in 'F'. 'Tarriffs'. Believe me! #makingtariffsgrateagain