Red, White And Black

Monday night’s watershed victory over the Blues showcased a more than welcome new side to Scott Watters’ incarnation of the Saints. I’m talking about sheer speed.

Speed has been a word often used in conjunction with the Saints through the naughties, but always in terms of the side’s greatest need. Versus the Blues though, some of the team’s newbies set about turning those tables. Terry Milera, Ahmed Saad and Rhys Stanley in particular really torched the Blues, especially offensively. The small forward trio of Milera, Saad and Milne combined for nine goals; Stanley added two of his own. Defensively, the inferred pressure created by Saad in particular, had some of the Blues smooth movers looking flustered time after time, as well as showing up Stevie Milne’s defensive side – or lack thereof.

Saints fans had witnessed this kind of breakneck-speed footy but only from the receiving end, namely from the Blues and the Bombers.

On top of the aforementioned forward trio, Jack Steven’s acceleration in and away from the packs has added a new dimension to the side’s engine room. These fleet footed players are what the side has been crying out for over the last decade. Now that the team has these tools at its disposal, it’s enabled coach Scott Watters to impress the fluency in the offensive side of the game that can make the Saints more of a threat.

Looking ahead to the West Coast game, this element of the Saints’ game is going to have to be ready to go again. Should the side then be able to bring the intensity around the clearances as well as create turnovers, then the likes of Saad, Milne and Milera should again have opportunities to break into space and cause scoreboard damage.

The health of gun Eagles midfielder Matthew Priddis is a critical factor also. If he is excluded from the side the Saints will be confident they can break even in the midfield battle and provide their forwards with a decent amount of opportunities. Despite the great win against Carlton, the Saints did only manage a meager 47 inside 50s for the game – four less than the Blues.

On top of the pace element, another noteworthy aspect of the teams structure this week will be where Arryn Siposs stands. Last week, he was relegated to the sub role and had a relatively minor impact when he was inserted into the match in the second half. Patersons Stadium though provides the chance for Siposs to really use his kicking skills to advantage, particularly if the Saints are going to look to play predominantly on the counterattack. Having numerous long, accurate kickers of the ball in the side gives the team the ammunition to really hurt West Coast should they cough up the ball in transition or otherwise.

The challenge of a star midfielder having to learn to deal with taggers is one that is fairly common. It usually happens to one star or another a couple of times a year. North Melbourne’s energizer bunny Brent Harvey has been in the same position a couple of times during his illustrious career.

For Nick Dal Santo this hard-tag treatment that he has received from the likes of Ryan Crowley and Jordan Lewis is hardly surprising. Dal has endured countless tagging battles; Cameron Ling was assigned to him time after time in several battles against the Saints under Mark Thompson.

The need for Dal to rise up to the tagging challenge is that much more significant this year as the side’s need for it’s A-graders to perform is at a premium. So far most of the teams elite have been below par. Goddard has been mediocre apart from last week; Montagna has struggled mightily; Hayes is performing well though still a way off his best; Riewoldt has been steady without reaching any heights.

Last time the gauntlet was really laid out for Nicky Dal to conquer, he came through in flying colors. The time I’m referring to of course is back in 2008 when, controversially at the time, he and Stephen Milne were sent back to the VFL mid-season by Ross The (now Ex-) Boss. They were made a symbol of; a line was drawn in the sand for the team. Dal returned to the seniors a week later, worked hard and helped the team win seven of it’s last nine game en-route to a preliminary final.

Though he is a laconic looking player – never pressed, or stressed – the 2008 demotion and redemption showed that he is a proud player, one that is willing to meet the coaches demands in order to help the team. Let’s hope that with the spotlight again on him, that he returns fire the best way he can: by playing some great footy.

The Blues will probably throw David Ellard or Aaron Joseph onto Nick this week. Hopefully, he can again rise to the occasion and bounce back to form.

Over the last week, as the sky falls in exclusively on the Melbourne Football Club, the media spotlight turned to some of the Dees’ recruiting that has produced their current crop of players. Did they capitalize on the selections that they had? Did they focus on the right types of players? It quickly reminded me of the Saints draft woes through of a (now) critical six-year period of 2003-2008.

At the time there was still quite a bit of naivety about developing lists and recruiting, and it felt like the general approach was that your list was in one of two states: built and ready to contend and thus only needed topping up, or your list was in re-build mode. The third mode, I suppose would be the Richmond mode: destined to finish 9^th. AKA irrelevant mode.

How does this relate to the early naughties Saints? At the end of the 2003 season, the team’s then talent-laden, young list was on the precipice of ditching its training wheels and launching into a period of premiership assaults. I do not think anyone predicted that the ascension to the top of the ladder would be so rapid, but the St Kilda faithful was salivating at the imminent prospects of the group.

After having really capitalized on a raft of top draft picks through 2000-2002, the club really took a nosedive in recruitment area. At the time the calamitous decisions were questioned and derided, but their impact were smoothed over because the core of the list was so strong. Now that the Dal Santos, Riewoldts, Goddards et al are ageing as well as the way the game is so team focused nowadays, the mistakes that were made post 2002 are now being laid to bare.

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Via The Age: Next chapter in the Nick Riewoldt story

Once a club can no longer win a premiership, there’s little point trying to hang on. If you’re not part of the birth of the next team, then you’ll be the death of the current one. The Saints have their youth academy and, having embarked on a rebuild, must be willing also to reallocate talent – removing some from the present – to the future.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/saints-fan-look-away-now-20120331-1w5ku.html#ixzz1r8FbTfIl

It’s not quite panic stations yet after a narrow Round One loss (well, it is for some), and I don’t think last Sunday’s performance should justify Niall’s ideas in The Age last Saturday any more or less.

That said, if the Saints had come out and played the way did in the second quarter throughout the match and trounced the Power we’d have been sitting here this past week with the idea of trading a big name – as recommended by Niall – far from our minds.

The Saints lost though, and so for many it at least brought a drop down the ladder and the need for further rejuvenation of the playing list a step closer. The place in the 22 of players such as Blake, Peake, Ray (overshadowed by sub counterpart David Rodan), Jones and perhaps Polo and Armitage were called into question for various reasons. Calls like that are easy to make, particularly when you’ve got young players like Ledger, Siposs, Ross, Newnes, Saad, Simpkin and rookies in Curren and Dunell impressing at Sandy.

What’s not so easy is looking at players such as BJ, Dal, Fisher and Montagna, who would attract great attention if available for trade or via free agency, and whether or not they have a place not just in the 22, but at the club at all.

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According to Wikipedia the single most defining and important fact that distinguishes Jason Blake and his career is that he “holds the record for most games played (199 as of the end of the 2011 season) without accruing a single Brownlow Medal vote.” Alas, this is true. This is Jason Blake.

And mind you, this is after being reminded that Jason Blake is actually a footballer by profession (no, seriously he is) by his official Wikipedia page. He’s not just out on the field; he gets paid for this stuff.

Even the name Jason Blake, on face value, is so nondescript. Which is so apt. But that is what makes the whole package that is Neil (as he is affectionately known), somewhat loveable or at least admirable – he never really mastered a position or role in his career, but has become part of the fabric of St Kilda by just doing whatever the team needed him to do at any given time. In fact I’m sure if there is a football jargon dictionary that is created in years to come, if you look under versatile it will just say “see Jason Blake”. And tomorrow, versus Port Adelaide, he will again be doing all those nondescript, versatile and frustratingly ordinary Jason Blake things for the 200th time in the red, white and black.

He is like the bizarro Matthew Pavlich having spent time in defence, in the midfield (albeit as a tagger), and to a lesser extent up forward. Oh, and he also became a pinch-hitting ruckman under Grant Thomas – take that, Pav!

I am sure all Saints fans have been a Jason Blake hater at one point or another during his 199 game career to this point. He has never been the most gifted player in terms of skill, nor one to be included in flashy highlights packages or in glossy football editorials. In fact, I’m sure if a highlights package were to be put together of his career, it would be choc full of smothers, spoils and shepherds rather than goals, marks and ridiculous goal celebrations. In fact, Jason Blake is probably the king of the selfless act – a stat/measurement that previous Saints coach Grant Thomas was besotted with and thought was a key KPI by which to measure a team’s performance.

Granted, I am sure Neil will still provide a lot of face-palm moments this year and not even the most bullish Jason Blake fan, could say that the club is really progressing in terms of creating a new era if he is still a mainstay.

That said, Blakey really is the archetypal Coaches Award type player; a fantastic, selfless locker room presence, a standup club man. Coach Scott Watters summed it up perfectly when he said: “a player that always puts the team and the Club first, and because of that he’s loved by his teammates. He’s just a terrific person to have at the Club.”

St Kilda through its history has regularly been blessed with brilliant individual players, so it is great to acknowledge such a (seemingly) mundane player for at least one day. Especially, in this age of high-profile, salary demands and mega sponsorship deals, it is great to pause and salute such a genuine, loyal player.

Since the National Draft back in November the media has been awash with prices, bargains, and tips to pick up in your fantasy AFL competition of choice. But such competitions will never be able to value a guy like Neil, no matter how intelligent the technology is or people behind it, he is priceless.

So this is it.

For about the seventh time this off-season, we declare the beginning of a new era. This is really “it”, though. The new coach announcement, the draft(s), the captaincy announcement, the pre-season competition – they all ultimately lead to the season proper, and us finally being able to declare this moment “it”.

Like the most sane of supporters, I’m not bullish about our flag chances. It’s a tough position to be in after all the hopes we’ve had over the last decade. But there are a number of reasons why I and the football world in general would think that a premiership is beyond the club this year – most of them obvious and reasonable; anything else would be the arrogant ramblings of opposition supporters that can lay claim to having witnessed their team winning a premiership in recent times. Whatever.

Getting used to a tinkered game plan will take time, something we saw at the beginning of Ross the ex-Boss’s tenure. It’s an oft-cited example with plenty of merit, though the hope for us Saints is that the ex-Boss’s game will prove to have taken a greater learning curve to master. It relied on fanatical commitment to the most dour of styles, and it meant a season-and-a-half of one of the most attacking and entertaining teams in the competition coming to terms with the idea of relentless accountability and pressure on the opposition after seasons of wielding pace, muscle and slick skills alone as weapons in a premiership assault.

As we saw in the pre-season matches, Swat’s game plan relies a little more on the natural instinct to get the footy and move. Though the focus on defence and pressing will still be top priority, he’ll be using players that are now wired for that kind of requirement (as all players now need to be) and allow them to be let loose and be creative going forward. In theory, this should be an easier transition.

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