All Australian Team

[damienc]

He's a small test.

Count how many Saints players are in the all Australian squad?

Give up? 0. Sums up our year.

Let's hope our new coach cleans out the dead wood. This time is has to be real and significant.

We are carrying too many whose skill level is below AFL standard.

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

[Moods]

I've been banging on about this year for years. people rate Jack Steven as an A grader, but despite his 4 x B&F's at the Saints he has never made a team and only been nominated a few times. It's our lack of star quality that has been hurting us for years. That's for the fault of recruiters and the people charged with developing these players. Billings should be a walk in to be nominated by this stage of his career. So should Paddy McCartin. Jack is at least making progress and must have been in contention. I don't think his year was nearly as good as some on here would have you believe. His first 6 games overall was great.

Think back to the GT/Lyon years. Off the top of my head, we had Roo, Lenny, Dal, BJ, Fisher, Milney, all receiving AA accolades.

We are simply kidding ourselves if we think that unless drastic improvement takes place that we'll even come close to finals. Let's be honest - our draw was soft as. We were barely competitive (again) against the top teams. Look at the teams just outside the 8 - all of them have been competitive against top teams at various times this year. Out % tells the story and is probably a true indication of where we are at, bottom 4.

[BarryGrogan]

Ross Lyon made an artform of using role players to support the guns.

Certain players would do nothing aside from block, clog up space, pressure and be a decoy to get the ball in the gun players' hands.


Fyfe even acknowledged this in his Brownlow speech.



Cho on the other hand, had spuds with no skill in roles which they simply couldn't execute.

When the opposition isolated Geary in the D50, Cho allowed it to happen and let Geary murder the nut by foot over and over again.

That's just one example.


Good coaches implement a plan to get their guns doing the things that guns do - and get their spuds doing the things that spuds are good at. The 'role' spuds play is to make life easier for the guns.

When this happens, the stars shine - and the Jason Blake's of the world have gemuine value.

When it doesn't, Geary looks like a total dud and and guys like Jack Billings take 4 years to show anything.


As a result, we've had no AAs, very few Rising Star noms and no one with any trade value.

[B.M]

We have no decorated player, because we have no great players

We have a poor list

Not hard to fathom

[BarryGrogan]

We have no decorated player, because we have no great players

We have a poor list

Not hard to fathom

It's very hard to fathom.

I don't think I've ever seen a club with not one A-Grade player or legit exciting youngster coming through over a 6 year period, in my life.

It's actually totally unfathomable.

And...we haven't lost a player either.

[carn_sainter]

There is a lack of decorated players, for sure.

What's more alarming to me is that we lack players who play like champions. I mean in their mindset. We lack mental toughness. Leigh Matthews said in 2005 he went out to shake Lenny Hayes' hand before a game and had never seen the eye of the tiger more so in a player. We completely lack this quality, across the board.

We also lack players who play for the club. We have players who play for the team, but nobody plays for the club. How we can go out and keep getting smashed by adelaide and sydney, no matter what, shows that the current list don't care about the St.Kilda footy club. They should be foaming at the mouth with rage at the start of these games but come out timid and disinterested.

The closest we get to a champion mindset on the current list:
Roberton
Marshall
Wilkie

Players who may become so
Clark
Battle
Steele

It's a big problem which manifests in all these games where we get pumped in a quarter or a 10 minute period

[CURLY]

Odd that Billings leads McLuggage in stats but he is being talked about as the greatest wingman of all time.

[spert]

Odd that Billings leads McLuggage in stats but he is being talked about as the greatest wingman of all time.

Billings just isn't impacting games- seems to have all the tools, maybe needs more fire in the belly. McLuggage's form is one of the reasons the Lions are doing well.

[CURLY]

Odd that Billings leads McLuggage in stats but he is being talked about as the greatest wingman of all time.

Billings just isn't impacting games- seems to have all the tools, maybe needs more fire in the belly. McLuggage's form is one of the reasons the Lions are doing well.

Billings impacts games he and us aren't the flavor of the month though. He rarely misses a target his work rate is excellent.

[Toy Saint]

Billings may be better than Dal Santo

[freely]

Ross Lyon made an artform of using role players to support the guns.

Certain players would do nothing aside from block, clog up space, pressure and be a decoy to get the ball in the gun players' hands.


Fyfe even acknowledged this in his Brownlow speech.



Cho on the other hand, had spuds with no skill in roles which they simply couldn't execute.

When the opposition isolated Geary in the D50, Cho allowed it to happen and let Geary murder the nut by foot over and over again.

That's just one example.


Good coaches implement a plan to get their guns doing the things that guns do - and get their spuds doing the things that spuds are good at. The 'role' spuds play is to make life easier for the guns.

When this happens, the stars shine - and the Jason Blake's of the world have gemuine value.

When it doesn't, Geary looks like a total dud and and guys like Jack Billings take 4 years to show anything.


As a result, we've had no AAs, very few Rising Star noms and no one with any trade value.

Excellent analysis - great post.

[freely]

There is a lack of decorated players, for sure.

What's more alarming to me is that we lack players who play like champions. I mean in their mindset. We lack mental toughness. Leigh Matthews said in 2005 he went out to shake Lenny Hayes' hand before a game and had never seen the eye of the tiger more so in a player. We completely lack this quality, across the board.

We also lack players who play for the club. We have players who play for the team, but nobody plays for the club. How we can go out and keep getting smashed by adelaide and sydney, no matter what, shows that the current list don't care about the St.Kilda footy club. They should be foaming at the mouth with rage at the start of these games but come out timid and disinterested.

The closest we get to a champion mindset on the current list:
Roberton
Marshall
Wilkie

Players who may become so
Clark
Battle
Steele

It's a big problem which manifests in all these games where we get pumped in a quarter or a 10 minute period

This is true too. Great to see two SSers (grogan and cs) putting their hands up for the coaching role!

[Enrico_Misso]

How did Tom Hawkins make that side?

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Billings may be better than Dal Santo

Nope. Nope. No way.

He's to Dal what Dunstan is to Lenny or Lonie is to Milne-- a pale imitation.

[Beno88]

We've now not had an All Australian representative since 2014. The longest drought of any team.

We are the only team to have not had an All Australian in the last four seasons.