As a resident of Melbourne for thirty odd years there was a huge benefit of being a St Kilda supporter…..The train only took twenty minutes to get you home after a miserable loss.

Last night we endured a ninety minute train ride to our new home of Ballarat. That’s  seventy more minutes than usual wallowing in self-pity after what was nothing more than a debacle versus the Bulldogs at Marvel.

Patience is a virtue for us Sainters and by this morning all was forgiven and optimism towards next week’s clash is as high in anticipation as it is for blind loyalty.

One premiership in 150 years tends to do that to you. You certainly need a sense of humour and I would say after meeting fellow Sainters over the past fifty years, we all keep our expectations at the lower levels.

The club has made some woeful decisions over the years in terms of coaches and list management. If you didn’t laugh you’d cry. Not taking Bontempelli and Petracca when available in the draft? Trading players out that go on to play in premierships with other clubs? We’re the masters of all things mediocre.

Having said that, we always seem to get the rough end of the pineapple when it comes to AFL fixturing. It’s like the AFL says, “they won’t notice. They’re broke anyway. They’ll take whatever’s given to them.”

The most recent case (and we don’t want to make any excuses. Yes we do!) the Saints have played three games in eleven days, all of them away from Marvel Stadium.

It was obvious from the first minute when Rohan Marshall ‘duffed’ a thirty metre pass to young Garcia who would have run straight through centre half forward for his first goal in the AFL. Rohan was clearly leg weary already and we knew we were in for ‘one of those nights’.

Aware of the Saints physical predicament, Bulldog coach Luke Beveridge spread his players laterally as much as he could in the first quarter, stretching the Saints players. The Saints gave the Bulldogs players way too much room and as a result doubled the Saints in uncontested possessions.

I couldn’t believe how much room the Dogs boys were given and it had the desired effect of fatiguing the Saints who were quickly losing any structure.

It also makes for a boring contest and makes me long for the games in the 80s and 90s when one on one football was everything. I’m not knocking today’s players as they are amazing athletes and brave. It’s the process that I don’t like.

The congestion around stoppages and the uncontested possessions are the most annoying for me. This is a coaches game, not players. It’s now like we are waiting and hoping for a turnover so we can see a fast rebound to wake us from our slumber. It’s basketball.

Ross Lyon is one of the main instigators along with his old mentor Paul Roos when they were at Sydney. Choking the opposition then sling-shotting. It was also the Saints of 2009/10.

It’s all well and good and it requires enormous fitness and discipline to execute. If you’re not up to it, as in off by 10% you will pay the price. We were off by 30% last night and copped our right whack.

I feel a bit sorry for the footballers of today not being able to experience true one on one contests. It happens occasionally with forwards and defenders but not so much in the midfield.

It’s more about ‘shifts’, ’shapes’ and ‘patterns’. More crochet than accountability.

In the 80s and 90s, you pretty much knew who you were going to play against. You’d eye him up, compete against whatever he brought to the table and do your best to beat him.

And there were taggers. Last week Essendon put taggers on the Bulldog’s two most influential players, Liberatore and Bontempelli and shut them down which changed the face of the game. ‘Bont’ was left unattended last night and ran amok as per usual.

When I see Ross Lyon’s press conferences I’m reminded of an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when Larry David and friends are confronted by a rich future groom who’s wedding they’ve all been invited to.

As the future groom walks away after smugly chatting to them all, Larry says in his inimitable manner, “What you have just witnessed is a tsunami of smarm.”

Last night Ross ‘smarmly’ suggested without accusing the AFL of course, that three games in eleven days may have been a factor. Of course it was however there is no excuse for not picking up your opponent and addressing the uncontested possessions.

Our youth is what it’s all about. Windhager, Owens, Phillipou, Wanganeen-Milera, Wilson et all. A flag is there if we’re prepared to be patient.

At 2 and 4 and with a full seven day break, things had better improve against Port next week or we’ll….we’ll….get really, really mad….OK?  Go Saints!