Swing and a miss.
It’s been the unfortunate ongoing theme with St Kilda with a long list of free agents or stars otherwise on the trade market they’ve missed out on.
And there’s now questions being asked of whether the Saints are “the opposite of a destination club” and how it’s compounded issues already on their list amid fears over their short-term outlook.
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“Are you concerned now that they’re the opposite of a destination club?,” triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown posed of the Saints on Fox Footy’s On the Couch.
“They’re throwing bucket loads of money at recruits trying to get them in the door and they’re not coming. North Melbourne had this same issue.”
Indeed, the Saints haven’t been able to draw big names and nor can they sell an overly enticing vision right now beyond being able to dangle cash.
MISSED TARGETS, DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
Just this year the cashed-up Saints have missed out on several stars on the market including Tyson Stengle, Hugh McCluggage and Elliot Yeo. You can add Jarrod Berry to that list too amid reports he’s set to re-sign with the Lions.
It’s followed St Kilda’s failed pursuits of the likes of Jordan De Goey and Tom De Koning in recent years. Plus current bids for big names facing contract calls next year including Jacob Weitering and Luke Davies-Uniacke also appear unlikely to come off.
There’s sufficient funds available in the Saints’ salary cap, but no one of note has been willing to take them.
And the club appears to be drifting further away from flag contention — not moving closer towards it — both at a glance of their overall profile and based on results, having slid from a finals appearance to currently sit in the bottom four.
As Melbourne legend Garry Lyon highlighted, it’s not as though the Saints haven’t been able to get names through the door — they have 14 players on their list recruited from rival clubs.
It’s just not many of them have had been a major drawcard or significantly lifted the club’s ceiling, with Liam Henry and Paddy Dow the latest of those additions.
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“They’ve already attracted 14 players. Of the 14, none of them are genuine out and outs, there’s some journeymen among them. But that is the basis of your list,” Lyon said on On the Couch.
If they can’t get big names through the door, it enhances the microscope on the players already on the list and the development of their youth.
So who are the promising names that will carry this club into the future?
Well, three of their most promising young players have gone backwards from last year including Mitch Owens (-21%), Anthony Caminiti (-21%) and Mattaes Phillipou (47%) suffering a considerable drop off in their AFL Player Ratings.
Phillipou’s lack of progression would be of greatest concern including the former Pick 10 currently plying his trade in the VFL.
“You talk about development and you’re going to Phillipou and Owens and these sorts of players,” Lyon added.
“Or are you looking at the players who have (come in) and where are they going? (Dan) Butler and (Jack) Higgins, who have been pretty good servants. The Mason Woods of the world. Is (Liam) Henry going to be the player they hope?”
Beyond the lack of promising youth, who are the out and out A-graders on their list?
Chief Herald Sun reporter Mark Robinson believes there’s an evident lack of overall talent on Ross Lyon’s list and that they “need” to start attracting rival stars.
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But what comes first — getting players in or creating an environment to lure them?
“They haven’t got enough talent — we all know that, they know that. They’re not going to come out and say that, but they know they need talent and they’ve got to acquire it somehow,” Robinson said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“The problem is: Are they a destination club? Can they get free agents? They missed out on Tyson Stengle, another one bites the dust. They went for De Goey, didn’t get him. Who’s next? LDU is not leaving North Melbourne.
“They’ve got a couple of years to try and rework their list, but it might be a problem from then now to then.”
If nothing else, landing big names builds excitement in a supporter base. For there’s not much for Saints fans to cheer about right now or to look forward to, with a list profile right now that’s not contending or in a rebuild.
And so the club will need to add talent through all mechanisms possible.
“The hard truth for St Kilda fans is they’re going to get worse before they get better,” Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph told On the Couch.
“Their fourth in the draft order and absolutely cannot rise up the ladder (with their current list). They need to get the elite young talent they haven’t before.
“They like Mattaes Phillipou, who finally turned the corner with two goals and 31 possessions (in the VFL), but the midfielders are getting bashed. They can only rise up the ladder with that young talent.”
The Saints are also in a fight to retain one of their best players, with swingman Josh Battle weighing up interest from Hawthorn amid reports both clubs have tabled deals as long as six years at around $800,000 per season.
What Battle decides to do will be a fair indication on the internal vibe of St Kilda’s direction. And the longer it drags on, the longer it seems he could be heading for the exit door.
Battle is one of 21 Saints players uncontracted beyond 2024 in a sign that the Saints are undertaking significant turnover of their list.
Even arguably their biggest star’s future has been the subject of debate.
Should Saints trade away King? | 01:11
THE KING DILEMMA
Max King has worn the brunt of criticism of Saints players this year amid his underwhelming form — on track for his lowest goalkicking return since his first season with 19 goals from 12 games.
Fox Footy pundits posed whether it would be best for King, who booted a career-best 52 goals in 2022, and the Saints to part ways at season’s end despite the 23-year old being contracted until 2026.
There’d certainly be no shortage of suitors in the market for a key forward that’d be willing to spend up in a trade.
However Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph reports that wouldn’t happen and that the club is in fact looking to extend his current deal beyond 2026.
“There’s a lot of talk about him, but certainly not about trading him,” Ralph said on On The Couch.
“They want to extend his deal past 2026, he’s already a $1 million player. Maybe that’s the issue? He knows he’s the great white hope, he is Winx.
“They’ve been working through his body language, it was appalling on the weekend. He’s also just not a pressure player — eight tackles in 12 games — he is a walker when the ball spills away from the contest.
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“The club is constantly trying to work with him on it, but certainly it was a new low on the weekend.”
It created a fascinating hypothetical on AFL 360 if the Saints’ call on King was simplified to two options: Trade him at season’s end or sign him to a long-term, big-money extension?
Mark Robinson believes the Saints have to stay loyal to a former Pick 4 they’ve invested so much in, but suggested there needed to be a heart-to-heart conversation between the two parties.
“I want him to get back to his form and it’s in him,” Robinson said.
“(The Saints should say): ‘We’ll stick with you, but you’ve got to live up to your end of the bargain as well. We’re all in this together. We’ll give you the long-term deal and a lot of cash, but in return give us competition, goals, marks, interest and ver. Because we’re not getting that at the moment’.
“He’s got to be sat down and asked: ‘What do you want to be as a footballer? Help us and we’ll help you.’
“These are the kind of discussions I’m sure are going on. All we hear about is ‘arm around and we’re really supportive’. Sometimes you’ve
got to look him in the eye and say: ‘C’mon Max, live up to it mate, we need you. Live up to who you are.’”