Cyril.

[saynta]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

[elizabethr]

Troll

[satchmo]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Get over it.

[satchmo]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Get over it.

Actually, I love him too.

[saynta]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Get over it.

[Jacks Back]

Is Rowan from Sydney available at the end of the year?

[Impatient Sainter]

Mate we traded that years draft in McEvoy across to the Hawks just to keep him company...You wonder once again this year if we could get SPS the Rioli prototype how it would end up. Some clubs seem to be able to engender the aboriginal boys I dont know if we are one them?

[SainterK]

We took Ben, and he's a premiership player....

[Spinner]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Who was it?

[skeptic]

Mate we traded that years draft in McEvoy across to the Hawks just to keep him company...You wonder once again this year if we could get SPS the Rioli prototype how it would end up. Some clubs seem to be able to engender the aboriginal boys I dont know if we are one them?

We're really not.

Nick Winmar never looked remotely up to it and then when we got the reports that he seriously upped his training we cut him to get I don't know who...
Ross Tustungutlum or whatever got home sick and walked out after a year
Raph Clarke, one of the most excitingly freakishly talented prospects ever drafted we turned into a slower, uncreative HBF with soft tissue issues
Xavier Clarke couldn't get onto the park
Alan Murray, a guy that regularly led Casey's goal kicking talley over several years got a handful of opportunities as a mid for us and was cut


With the exception of Ross who was perhaps never really near it... We seriously mismanaged the rest.


I bet had we have drafted Cyril, we'd have tried to turn him into a tagger or a back pocket type

[saintspremiers]

He stuck it up those salary cap and academy cheats good and proper. On ya Cyril! Bruce may need. New set of dacks

[bigred]

Ross would have kept him as fringe.

Then played him in a back pocket and probably left him out of the GF Side for a "role player".

[hayes66]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Well seeing it was the '07 draft I assume it was the same clown who pick Steven at 42.

Are you over that?

Or are you just an armchair critic who is very good after the event?

[Legendary]

Xavier Clarke would have been among the best Aboriginal players of his generation had he remained injury free.

Rioli is and will always be inconsistent, and has never really played in anything but a top 4 team. His career journey at St Kilda may have been somewhat different.

[White Winmar]

Ross would have kept him as fringe.

Then played him in a back pocket and probably left him out of the GF Side for a "role player".

Ross wouldn't have played him at all. Too much flair and skill. Too unpredictable. I know 20/20 hindsight is the best vision, but how handy would Cyril have been in 2009/10? A bit like Judd..........

[dragit]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

I think you would have gone for Scott Selwood?

Hindsight says Dangerfield would have been much better than both McEvoy and Cyril.

[Linton Lodger]

Troll

No not necessarily a troll, its fair comment.

We took McEvoy in that draft, now I have a lot of time for Big Ben, however he should not have been taken ahead of a number of players. You don't pick ruckman with a top 10 pick!

However, there is another side to this. Would Rioli have got us over the line in 2009 and/or 2010? Maybe, but that's speculative. As brilliant as he is, he is a small forward who occasionally runs through the midfield. We had a pretty handy one of those at the time, Stephen Milne. Whilst we watched Rioli almost single handedly win last nights game, I think Milne also won a fair few for us.

We have, at least taking into account our current list dvelopment, gone a long way to rectifying that decision. The trading of McEvoy for Savage and picks 18 & 19, Luke Dunstan & Blake Acres was inspired. I'm confident that history will consider it inspired trading.

[hayes66]

Troll

No not necessarily a troll, its fair comment.

We took McEvoy in that draft, now I have a lot of time for Big Ben, however he should not have been taken ahead of a number of players. You don't pick ruckman with a top 10 pick!

Interesting comment. Very black and white. Not sure I agree. Ryder, Naitanui, Ottens, Josh Fraser, Gardiner no good. All top ten picks.
Don't think AFL clubs would agree with you.

[saintspremiers]

Xavier Clarke would have been among the best Aboriginal players of his generation had he remained injury free.

Rioli is and will always be inconsistent, and has never really played in anything but a top 4 team. His career journey at St Kilda may have been somewhat different.

He would've been good but not great IMO. Never close to Cuz - who was even better than Rioli for all you younguns!

As for Raph, I still have nightmares over him getting run down in that granny...

[skeptic]

Xavier Clarke would have been among the best Aboriginal players of his generation had he remained injury free.

Rioli is and will always be inconsistent, and has never really played in anything but a top 4 team. His career journey at St Kilda may have been somewhat different.

Interesting comment.

I agree to a point but think that if u look at the list of Indigenous players we've had all of Xavier, Raph and Nick were plagued with soft tissue injuries. I reckon there is something to that. Am far from an expert of the subject but I always felt an issue was that the club focused too heavily on making players put on muscle and increase strength in that era.

For our Indigenunous players that were about speed, run and creativity... It Wass problem. Those guys on that list were either plagued with leg soft tissue injuries and couldn't run like they would have like too. Raph in particular, who came into the system as an explosive Winmar type played a very slow game.
The othe problem was was that even with the added muscle those guys weren't ever really strong enough to be true engine types and got hurt often in packs.

Few indigenous players tend to develop into muscle bound KPP types. Obviously there are exceptions but my point is that in terms of development we lagged in that area

[borderbarry]

Remember Russell Jeffries, a very good HBF who was tall and solid.
Phil Narkle. Gilbert McAdam, Robert Muir. All great players for us. Jade Gresham is going to be a good player for us.
What we really need to do is find our our Cyril.

[borderbarry]

Remember Russell Jeffries, a very good HBF who was tall and solid.
Phil Narkle. Gilbert McAdam, Robert Muir. All great players for us. Jade Gresham is going to be a good player for us.
What we really need to do is find our our Cyril.

[White Winmar]

Ralph was greatly affected by epilepsy. More than is generally known. I believe it stopped him from reaching his full potential. It wasn't even diagnosed until he kept falling asleep in meetings and "zoning out" in conversations. The medication required to manage it isn't exactly helpful to an elite athlete trying to reach maximum performance levels. The Clarke brothers were both very talented. Cruelled by injury and illness. Xavier, in particular just didn't have the type of body that stands up to the rigours of an AFL regime. Don't forget, the training puts greater strain on than the actual playing. What a shame. When he was up and going, he was an excitement machine. Remember the speccies? The sort of goal kicking forward/midfielder we needed in 09-10, although having said that, I'm sure Ross would've found a dull "role" for him. Imagine Rioli and a fit Xavier Clarke, instead of Eddy and McQualter. Koschitzke, Riewoldt and Milne, plus those two. Flag anyone? Oh well, I'm allowed to dream.

[saynta]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

Well seeing it was the '07 draft I assume it was the same clown who pick Steven at 42.

Are you over that?

Or are you just an armchair critic who is very good after the event?

No ,there were plenty on here and in the press, me included who thought we were a monty to draft cyril.

I was really pissed at the time, and said so,repeatedly. Still am. It was a really dumb decision. Imhfo that is.

[saynta]

Who was the Saints official who made the decision to pass on the best player in the best side of the 21st century?

f****** unbelievable IMHO.

Don't bother telling me to get over it. I never will.

I think you would have gone for Scott Selwood?

Hindsight says Dangerfield would have been much better than both McEvoy and Cyril.

No, i wanted us to draft Cyril.