Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

[LostDoggy]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

Yep. Farren Ray and Zac Dawson are the differences.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

All facetiousness aside, Lyon made the hard calls last year, not this year -- he hasn't blooded anyone this year (no rookies at all!), hasn't dropped anyone (I guess he hasn't really had to when they've been winning).

It does shows a long-term planning mentality, though, which I do think that Rocket has as well. Lyon has been building towards this for three years -- the first year was all about teaching a pack of soft, injury-prone front-runners about defensive, lock-down pressure (thus a concern about their uber-boring game plan then). Last year was about getting the balance right and learning to break games open. It was also about teaching 22-player accountability (thus dropping Milne and Dal Santo at times last year), and already some of the zoning was occuring (but lost in the hype of the Hawthorn zone). The team struggled a bit in the transition on game day (they would lose momentum everytime they changed styles), but they were learning, and got better towards the end of the season.

This season was a culmination of a simple, effective and ruthless game plan that had been drilled over three pre-seasons into a settled, mature group of players, and keeping Riewoldt injury-free was a big plus.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

Rocket has had the same long-term mentality, but from a different perspective. When he came on board, his first task was to teach a young, talented group of players how to beat their man, so he played man-to-man for the first year, where we got monstered at times, but learnt what was required to compete at this level. Then, he developed the running, play-on-at-all costs style to take advantage of the natural assets of the team. Getting the balance right between the uber-offensive style and getting a lock-down when momentum was shifting was our problem, but we're very close to perfecting it. We also had an older core of gun players that Rocket knew we had to utilise before their use-by date, thus a bit more trading for mature players (Aker, Huddo, Welsh) to fast-track our development; by all accounts, we've hunted aggressively for the missing KPF (Hall etc) in the past two seasons, because Rocket knew that it was the last piece of the puzzle -- hopefully next season won't be too late.

Just shows the fickle nature of football: no guarantees. A stray kick here or there, an umpiring error or two, and it's Rocket instead of Ross leading his team out next week, coaching plans vindicated.

(ps. contrast all this with Richmond's long-term planning!)

[LostDoggy]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

Adhere to a simple yet extremely-effective game plan, and apply themselves consistently, to a man, week-in, week-out, from their stars to their footsoldiers.



That one's easy. They had the good fortune of drawing us as prelim opponents.

That comment and your Avatar says much about you - none of it complimentary.

Wander down to the Club and tell Eade and the players they choked you Dickhead!

[yeah_sampson]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

That comment and your Avatar says much about you - none of it complimentary.

Wander down to the Club and tell Eade and the players they choked you Dickhead!

Harsh But Fair!!!

Too many Dogs Supporters rubbish their own club. My dad being one of them.

New Breed of Dog includes the supporters!

[Bornadog]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

That comment and your Avatar says much about you - none of it complimentary.

Wander down to the Club and tell Eade and the players they choked you Dickhead!

no need for that language.

[macca]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

Rocket has had the same long-term mentality, but from a different perspective. When he came on board, his first task was to teach a young, talented group of players how to beat their man, so he played man-to-man for the first year, where we got monstered at times, but learnt what was required to compete at this level. Then, he developed the running, play-on-at-all costs style to take advantage of the natural assets of the team. Getting the balance right between the uber-offensive style and getting a lock-down when momentum was shifting was our problem, but we're very close to perfecting it. We also had an older core of gun players that Rocket knew we had to utilise before their use-by date, thus a bit more trading for mature players (Aker, Huddo, Welsh) to fast-track our development; by all accounts, we've hunted aggressively for the missing KPF (Hall etc) in the past two seasons, because Rocket knew that it was the last piece of the puzzle -- hopefully next season won't be too late.

Just shows the fickle nature of football: no guarantees. A stray kick here or there, an umpiring error or two, and it's Rocket instead of Ross leading his team out next week, coaching plans vindicated.

(ps. contrast all this with Richmond's long-term planning!)

Great post Lantern. Eade has a good development plan, and I guess he was fortunate he had a base of young and talented players to work with.

[Rocket Science]

Re: Saints 2008 to 2009 ... What's the difference?

That comment and your Avatar says much about you - none of it complimentary.

Wander down to the Club and tell Eade and the players they choked you Dickhead!

Dickhead with a capital 'D' no less.

The avatar's more an exaggerated comment on my own down-trodden state of mind in the wake of Friday eve's events and consequences, than a comment on the character of the club.

As for the statement, please excuse my wanton display of resignation.