We Would Have To Be One Of The Unluckiest Club In The AFL

[damienc]

I am going to make the following disclaimer. There is no fault, no blame, no criticism to be had here.

In fact the opposite. I have nothing but sympathy and admiration for all who will be mentioned. And I am fully supportive of their predicament and wish them all, nothing but the best.

It's just that life can be very cruel sometimes. Randomly cruel. And if I sound a little selfish, my apologies.

We have three players now permanently ( pretty much) on the sidelines. Two of them bona fide superstars.

The third one cut down just when he was starting to show some promise.

I read today, Dylan Roberton probably won't ever play footy again. What a tragedy for the club and for all St Kilda supporters.

Roberton was clearly our best defender. Knocking on the door of All Australian.

So unfair.

After a long absence from the game, Roberton makes a comeback and not surprisingly, given his prodigious talent, picks up from where he left off, only to again be struck down with the same complaint for a second time.

A life threatening complaint no less.

I feel for him and I feel for the club and for us. We could really do with him under the present circumstances.

Paddy McCartin, just when he was really starting to show something, gets his 8th and almost certainly a career ending concussion.

A lot of supporters on this forum are critical of Paddy saying his playing style is to blame.

Maybe.

But you can't criticise the fact that McCartin is pretty selfless, courageous and reckless all at the same time. I feel for him as well.

And now we get the news of Jack Steven.

An indefinite leave of absence. Of course it is the best thing he could do for himself and great for the club to be so supportive.

I truly hope he makes a speedy recovery.

I am going to sound selfish.

Of course he must do what he needs to do in his own time, but I really hope that it is speedy. He is such a great running midfielder, who we desperately need.

I know we have to make the best of it and who knows what might rise like a phoenix from our adversity.

I really hope something really good falls our way. We are overdue.

[Bowey Boy]

This is not new news. 🥺

[The Fireman]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

[damienc]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

[damienc]

This is not new news. 🥺

Not meant to be news. Just an opinion being expressed.

[The Fireman]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

if you have a clear conscience why would you care ?

[twirlyhair]

Yep. For the Saints to get anywhere this year, we needed everything to go right, and much has, apart from the most important one: players available. So now the season becomes another development year, with the opportunity for us to get games into players and hopefully watch them grow. Coffield and Clark clearly in this group.

[evertonfc]

The only silver lining to all of this is that we are now actually developing players, rather than just plugging games into players.

This is helping us to build depth and competition for places.

Look, it's not ideal, but I want to see what our list has.

[Cairnsman]

Yep. For the Saints to get anywhere this year, we needed everything to go right, and much has, apart from the most important one: players available. So now the season becomes another development year, with the opportunity for us to get games into players and hopefully watch them grow. Coffield and Clark clearly in this group.

Don't give up hope just yet. My prediction at the start of the season was we would play finals if we had luck with injury and that was before Jake, Paddy and Robbo went down on the eve of the season. It always was a development year and so will next year be, my prediction is we are 2 -3 years away from being a consistent final 4 side. The list is a really good list however we still need to add a few more players to achieve being a consistent finals team capable of jagging a flag.

As we know it's the sum of all parts and you have to have that critical mass of seasoned campaigners who have played a good chunk of footy together to make the weigh-in. The Bulldog's flag was like Haley's Comet so don't get sucked into unrealistic expectations.

This season still has some surprises to come, don't they all in the modern era. So I'm not giving up hope that we can still make the 8. If we can keep the ledger respectable, and by respectable I'm thinking 6-7 wins by the half way mark then anything is possible in the back half.

They gotta keep entertaining us with what they have brought in the first 6 rounds though and don't stop delivering on the things they can control, if they do that then they will be able to claim progress in 2019.

And incremental and continuous improvement across the board is how the professionals do it.

CARN THE SAINTERS!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Fireman]

atm every move forward is being countered by some evil force ...wtf did we do to bring down upon us such bad luck..ok I feel better now ..actually I don't believe in luck..but if there was such a thing , bad is the only type we have had.

[Devilhead]

The Saints curse in full swing

It needs to be sorted

[damienc]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

if you have a clear conscience why would you care ?

I have a clear conscience and you can think what you like.

[The Fireman]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

if you have a clear conscience why would you care ?

I have a clear conscience and you can think what you like.

thanks

[damienc]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

if you have a clear conscience why would you care ?

By the way, referring to any Saints supporter as a 'peanut' is deeply offensive, disloyal on your part, and plainly wrong.

[The Fireman]

character building .... or character destroying..hmmm well I know it has produced some peanut fellow supporters......12 of them

Not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you might care to elaborate?

if you have a clear conscience why would you care ?

By the way, referring to any Saints supporter as a 'peanut' is deeply offensive, disloyal on your part, and plainly wrong.

I find it difficult to accept your blind loyalty

[tony74]

Not as unlucky as the 64 Man United team

[The Fireman]

Not as unlucky as the 64 Man United team

just

[guitars4]

Apparently what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We will have to wait & see. At least it will give us a chance to blood a few new blokes & see what they have to offer.

[Cairnsman]

Apparently what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We will have to wait & see. At least it will give us a chance to blood a few new blokes & see what they have to offer.

exactly. love watching players develop and improve.

[saint64]

Not as unlucky as the 64 Man United team

Or the 1972 Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay...

[The Fireman]

Not as unlucky as the 64 Man United team

Or the 1972 Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay...

or the 2010 StKilda team

[goods]

its good! we have recruited mature age to allow our club to give time to develop the 19 year old talent in the vfl. Imagine how much stronger we will be when our injuries are not a issue. You have to be consistent these days. You can't bottom out.. our strategy is sound and it's being tested

[desertsaint]

Not as unlucky as the 64 Man United team

58?

[desertsaint]

United supporter since their newton heath days!

[twirlyhair]

Yep. For the Saints to get anywhere this year, we needed everything to go right, and much has, apart from the most important one: players available. So now the season becomes another development year, with the opportunity for us to get games into players and hopefully watch them grow. Coffield and Clark clearly in this group.

Don't give up hope just yet. My prediction at the start of the season was we would play finals if we had luck with injury and that was before Jake, Paddy and Robbo went down on the eve of the season. It always was a development year and so will next year be, my prediction is we are 2 -3 years away from being a consistent final 4 side. The list is a really good list however we still need to add a few more players to achieve being a consistent finals team capable of jagging a flag.

As we know it's the sum of all parts and you have to have that critical mass of seasoned campaigners who have played a good chunk of footy together to make the weigh-in. The Bulldog's flag was like Haley's Comet so don't get sucked into unrealistic expectations.

This season still has some surprises to come, don't they all in the modern era. So I'm not giving up hope that we can still make the 8. If we can keep the ledger respectable, and by respectable I'm thinking 6-7 wins by the half way mark then anything is possible in the back half.

They gotta keep entertaining us with what they have brought in the first 6 rounds though and don't stop delivering on the things they can control, if they do that then they will be able to claim progress in 2019.

And incremental and continuous improvement across the board is how the professionals do it.

CARN THE SAINTERS!!!!!!!!!!!
[/quote

Yep, agree entirely. Never give up. As soon as the ball is bounced tomorrow it is Go Saints!