Willow's Word
The killer instinct is gone

10 June 2002:

Dammit. I was reading this article the beach this morning and thought 'Is Pepe really Peter Frilingos?' Figured it would make a good post. Unfortunately, the subject matter is somewhat depressing.

I'm talking about the sports headline: 'The club with no heart and soul' as written in the Sydney Telegraph by Peter Frilingos on Monday, June 10, 2002. The term, 'no heart and soul' was raised by Pepe and has been seen in both the chat room and discussion forums of Legends World of Sport for months now.

Frilingos is tabloid journo who fits in well with the sensationalism of the Telegraph. But while this plagiarist of Pepe's best line is near the bottom of the compost pile, he has on this occasion written an article which is pretty close to the mark. ...and I'm someone who almost always treats the Telegraph with contempt.

Notwithstanding the obvious 'kick em while their down' mentality, I have to say that the report says what most of us have thought for some time now.

The article published said: "This is the club built on a proud fighting tradition, the club that won 11 straight premierships and set standards of excellence for the league world to follow."

"That's when it was St George playing out of Kogarah Oval, now...

...a club without a home and devoid of credibility".

It concludes with, "Even if the buck does stop with coach Andrew Farrar the management is entitled expect more bang for their bucks from players who don't seem to have the same respect for the famous red vee worn with distinction by so many of the game's household names over the past 81 years."

Firstly, let be known that I always been extremely reluctant to have a go at the Dragons. There are plenty of others who are more than capable of laying the boot in. Quite frankly, I've seen Saints go up and down too often to worry about a few bad games.

But what we have here is a problem deeper than a team which is simply out of form.

Like a canary dying in a coal mine, we knew something was rotten in the air two years ago when David Waite was shafted for being the St George coach. If there was another reason, I'd be interested to hear it. When Blacklock left earlier this month, it confirmed that a number of miners were still trapped inside.

Saints had the opportunity to answer their critics on the footy field last Saturday when they took on local rivals, Cronulla. Saints had their chance to put to rest the speculation that the team had lost its soul. But in what was perhaps the most embarrassing defeat of an already dismal year, they capitulated to a team that had lost seven on the trot.

While there are a number of reasons for this crisis, I believe that the root cause is one of identity. They don't know who they are anymore. They don't have a St George home ground and they don't have a history. They are told that the club started in 1999, not 1921. This is an insult to the red vee and the 15 premierships that went before. While the players should be able to rise above this, its more than a fair bet that it is having an effect on the overall team morale.

Add to this players out of form, a coach under pressure, and a troubled administration and it soon becomes apparent why the team isn't performing. It's little wonder that crowd figures are down and fans are becoming disillusioned.

I understand from the article that the Saints hierarchy and players have held an emergency meeting in an attempt to solve the problems. It may be true, but we shouldn't forget that this is the Telegraph we are reading. What this talk of a meeting means, I don't know. Perhaps they should just belt the crap out of each for half an hour so as to clear the air. At the very least, they should address the issue of being a team without identity.

There was a time, not that long ago, when it was forbidden to say we were a chance for the top eight. The word was, we are going to win the premiership. The culture of the club was the same. If a player said after a loss, 'we can still make the top eight', he stood a chance of playing reserve grade the following week.
Sadly, the culture of the club now seems to be that making one of the immensely overated top eight positions equates to a successful season.

The killer instinct is gone... therein lies the fundamental problem.

But the real issue is to not lay the boot in. The issue is to locate the reason why this has happened and more importantly, how we can go about rectifying it.

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