by Dan Lonergan
Unless you have been living under a rock or don’t follow footy and if you are reading this column, I would presume it won’t be the latter, St Kilda has been making a statement during the off season that they would no longer be pushovers on the field by undertaking a major spending spree in attracting players from other clubs.
There is no doubt in my opinion that they paid more than overs for Tom De Koning from Carlton. A nice player at best, but has not taken many games apart and definitely not worth 1.7 million a season.
Jack Silvagni last year in another injury interrupted season looked more than solid as a key defender and the Saints swooped ahead of the Bulldogs and Collingwood to nab him and if fit should be handy, but 128 games in 10 years, I believe is a concern that he will get through a whole season.
Sam Flanders a good midfielder at the Gold Coast, but many ahead of him up there, so he was surplus to their needs and wasn’t a regular in 2025 – he will help the Saints, but will he take them to the next level? Jury obviously out.
Then there is Liam Ryan, who at times was electric and a match winner for West Coast, but also highly inconsistent. He can have very quiet periods during games and seasons and obviously the Saints know what he is, but I reckon he is a risky selection for this club again on big money, which he wasn’t going to say no to.
This is a club that has won one premiership and by a point 60 years ago, and many of those players still with us who played that season attended this opening round match in front of the biggest home and away crowd the Saints have ever played in against Collingwood, who would draw a crowd to the Nullabor.
The Saints are desperate for success, hence why they have gone down this path of spending up big and the extreme keeness of their president, Andrew Bassat wanting his club to compete with the bigger teams and have long term success.
They have a good batch of youngsters and their 2021 draft hand of Nasiah Wanganeen Millera, who was their biggest signing for this year, Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager would be one of the best of any club from that year.
Darcy Wilson and Mathieus Phillipou have good futures along with Hugo Garcia, Hugh Boxshall, Max Hall, the flying Viking Alex Tauru and Cooper Sharman, so they have drafted well in recent years.
However – and you can’t blame them – the Saints are impatient for success after many barren years and in Opening Round at the MCG in perfect conditions, a home game against the Magpies, who were missing key defenders in Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe, the Saints were favourites as their team looked better on paper and it was the perfect situation to highlight their new look lineup and make a statement.
The Magpies though were there to spoil the party, and on the ground where the game is played and not paper, were able to. It wasn’t the greatest standard game, but it was an intense contest.
Nas (Wanganeen Millera) was kept under control by Harry Perryman and it won’t be the first time he gets attention. He produced some brilliance including a magnificent goal, which he snapped over his shoulder, but it was spasmodic.
There had been debate that he is now a better player of the younger brigade than Nick Daicos and this could have been a referendum to decide who was king. If it was solely on this match, Daicos sits on the throne.
He had over 40 possessions and much to my surprise, Ross Lyon known for being an elite defensive coach, Daicos was not tagged and often isn’t.
Many in the footy world say the younger Daicos is untaggable and that might be the case, but he was on his own most of the night, two-way running, collecting touches at will, and more often than not hitting targets. Marcus Windhager did some good run-with jobs last year for the Saints, but not in this game.
His brother, Josh was just as good and they kept the Magpies in the hunt in a low scoring first half where goals were hard to come by.
The Saints had more inside-50s and Sharman nearly marked everything, but held onto little. Rohan Marshall, their number one ruck last year, was moved forward to accommodate the inclusion of De Koning at the centre bounces, but struggled.
He was eventually concussed and spent the last quarter of a night to forget on the bench and the caveat is this is just one game and it’s a tiny sample size – however, Marshall and De Koning are number one rucks not forward-rucks, so how can they both survive, with one not playing in his preferred and best position?
This match showed why Marshall was so keen to be traded to Geelong in the off season, with the Cats still looking for a specialist ruckman.
St Kilda went inside 50 more often in the second and last quarters, but their delivery let them down and Collingwood played their system with one tall back in Billy Frampton being well supported by Quaynor, Houston (who looked more comfortable) and Maynard keeping the wayward Saints at bay.
With the 5th interchange in place this year, you get the impression coaches may use this as a Clayton’s sub, a sub you have when you don’t have a sub! Remember the Old Clayton’s ad, when I had hair, many years ago?
Tom Papley for Sydney had endured an interrupted pre-season and he played limited minutes on Thursday, but made an impact and Collingwood opted for the same idea with the incomparable Scott Pendlebury.
He only played 55 minutes, but showed his genius having an incredible 26 disposals and all of them quality. How could you forget that lookaway handball hugging the boundary when he found McCreery, who booted one of the Pies’ five third quarter goals, which in the end was the difference in the contest.
One of those five goals for the Pies came from Roan Steele, his first in League Footy, whom I first saw when I called him at his junior club, the Frankston YCW Stonecats (which for those interested are a type of fish) playing seniors in the Mornington Peninsula Football Netball League. Like him I got a real kick out of that. Excuse the pun!
The Saints kicked the first two goals of the last term after trailing by 18 points at three quarter time with Liam Ryan producing some magic through a long bomb and the margin was just six points and the saints lived inside their attacking 50 for the next few minutes.
However, despite creating numerous opportunities, the Saints could not finish. Mind you! Even though they received more free kicks than Collingwood, there were I thought three blatant ones deep inside St Kilda’s forward line that they should have been awarded in frantic passages of play.
The Pies then kicked a goal against the trend to seal the result as the Saints to me went too defensive putting players behind the footy instead of going on the attack.
A 12 point win for Collingwood was well deserved considering they are seen as too old, but another veteran, Steele Sidebottom, also had important moments and last year’s Best and Fairest Darcy Cameron beat De Koning. How would have Marshall performed if he spent more time in the ruck?
In the end St Kilda’s forward line was, as usual, dysfunctional and they need Max King, but his body lets him down and they can’t completely rely on him.
This opening round match was the only one in Melbourne and a rare St Kilda home game at the MCG, the Saints with some high prized recruits and hopes springing eternal for long suffering fans that they would start the season and a new era with a win – but it wasn’t to be.
It didn’t happen and no doubt those supporters hope this is a blip and not the start of another wasted season. For Collingwood, as Craig McRae would say, we are a system based side and that system won another close one.
ST KILDA 2.4 5.7 7.10 9.12 (66)
COLLINGWOOD 4.3 5.5 10.10 11.12 (78)
GOALS
St Kilda: Owens 2, Sharman 2, Hall, Higgins, Hill, Ryan, Wanganeen-Milera
Collingwood: De Goey 3, Schultz 2, McCreery 2, Cameron, Elliott, McStay, Steele
BEST
St Kilda: Sinclair, Flanders, Wanganeen-Milera, Owens, Silvagni
Collingwood: J.Daicos, N.Daicos, Pendlebury, Cameron, De Goey, Schultz
INJURIES
St Kilda: Marshall (concussion)
Collingwood: Nil
Crowd: 82,528 at the MCG
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Great to read your erudite and incisive match report Dan. Welcome!
Good summary Dan. You may well be right about St Kilda’s 4 big recruits, but as a St Kilda supporter, I hope you’re not.
Yes they paid too much for TDK but I’m still happy they got him. They need him to help share the ruck load with Marshall, who currently will miss a week with concussion. I think the two specialist ruckman can work, like it did when Marshall and Ryder were playing in the same team at St Kilda. When the other one is resting in the forward line, they just need to provide a contest. They don’t need to kick goals and the opposition will need to find a tall defender to play on them. Otherwise, if they’re just resting on the bench, while the other one is playing in the ruck, that’s fine too. The coaching staff will find a way to give them close to equal time as the ruckman.
Like with NW-M and even Max King, all St Kilda’s list still fit well into their salary cap. There’s talk that Max King may not play in the seniors now until Round 11.
Unfortunately, it looks like St Kilda took the wrong King. Max King is still good enough, but he needs to be on the park consistently. St Kilda have always been a jinxed club in that regard, as well as McCartin’s numerous concussions. The biggest jinx for them was being forced to give up the Mornington Peninsula zone after winning the 1966 flag, because other flags thought they would be too good if they kept that zone. It certainly deprived them of winning further premierships. In hindsight, they should have taken Judd over Ball, Petracca over McCartin and Bontompelli over Billings, but at least they have drafted well in recent years.
Obviously, things take time. I know that it always takes longer at St Kilda, but as Andrew Bassat, their President, recently suggested that it’s better to take risks than no risks at all!
Personally, I was very disappointed last Sunday night as I believed that St Kilda had the chances to win but weren’t good enough on the night to take them. I honestly thought that the real difference was De Goey’s 3 goals for Collingwood and St Kilda didn’t have a De Goey equivalent.
It’s a long season and things can change quickly. Obviously, your Western Bulldogs won a flag from nowhere from the Elimination Final in 2016 after a 62 year drought. I remember Richmond in 2017 were 4 wins and 5 losses, before they won the flag that year.
If Max King can play in the seniors from mid year onwards and if his body can hold, anything’s possible. He doesn’t need to kick a bag of goals every week for St Kilda to be successful. I remember the moment Richmond stopped relying on Jack Riewoldt to kick a bag of goals every week, they became successful, as well as having Dustin Martin and a successful winning game plan. St Kilda’s equivalent to Dustin Martin is NW-M and hopefully they still have a successful winning game plan from Corey Enright, like St Kilda’s 19 game in a row winning streak in 2009 under Ross Lyon.
Even if Max King isn’t available, someone like Keeler can come in and give a contest. They need 3 tall forwards, to support Owens and Sharman. Caminiti, in my opinion, isn’t good enough as a key forward or a key defender.
I am biased but I’m a realist too and have always lived in hope that St Kilda will break their current 60 year premiership drought.
It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen while NW-M is on the park playing for St Kilda!
I’m actually coming from a different angle about St Kilda’s 4 big recruits.
I already mentioned in my previous comments about how good it is for St Kilda to have TDK. More importantly, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that all of them will make St Kilda better, in the long run, if not the short term.
I was extremely pleased with the way Silvagni played against Collingwood. I think he’ll be a tremendous asset to St Kilda. He is exactly what St Kilda need to help the other tall backmen in Wilkie and Tauru or Dougal Howard, when Howard’s fitf. Silvagni could well end up being the Josh Battle replacement St Kilda has been looking for.
Sam Flanders may not have the best disposal, but he gets the ball often enough and is capable of clearances, which St Kilda has desperately needed for many years.
Liam Ryan has surprised me how good he is. He’s a good ball user and kick goals. Any high marks he takes is a bonus. Once again, he has been the type of smaller player St Kilda has needed for a long time because Higgins has been the only smaller player who had been kicking goals, as unfortunately Butler, has been in decline.
I’m still think St Kilda will win enough games to make the top 10, and like the Western Bulldogs of 2016, anything’s possible, although St Kilda may have to win 5 finals in a row, not 4.
We’ll see what happens and whatever does happen, it won’t be a wasted year because games into St Kilda’s less experience d players will mean everything to the team. Collingwood were too experienced for them in front of a large crowd and we’re therefore able to execute their game plan better. St Kilda’s forward line may have been dysfunctional, yet they only lost by 12 points and still should have won.
Imagine when the forward line does get going. There were still enough positives to have taken away from the match and I have full faith that these group of players will learn from their mistakes and most importantly, they will be a better team going forward,
The problem, as always, is the Saints can spend as much as they like, can trade and recruit whatever names they wish, in the end a Ross Lyon team is a Ross Lyon team. Same lack of skills, same mistakes and same result on the scoreboard.
And what a perfect Ross Lyon score: the first number bigger than the second, and the last one starting with a six.
The fact that Bassst can’t see that Lyon is the biggest obstacle to success beggars belief and suggests that life down at Moorabbin remains way too comfortable. Lots of names have changed over the past 15 years except the one that matters the most.
A blip? If only.
Not sure who you barrack for Patrick for but I completely disagree with you! You are far too harsh! It’s only match which St Kilda could have easily won.
Ross Lyon is a brilliant coach. Nearly a 2 time premiership coach in 2009 and 2010. An incredible 19 game winning streak as coach of St Kilda in 2009.
Ross Lyon is by far the best St Kilda coach since Allan Jeans coached St Kilda to a flag in 1966.
The President has made a great decision on Ross Lyon. He got his man! Bassat is a fantastic President who takes risks! He is a goer and a doer!
Hi Ross!
I’m a Sainter and I’m gonna go out on a limb with two bold predictions:
1 We’re finishing 10th this year.
2. It’ll be another 15 years before we play in front of 80k again.
Patrick, I’m sure Ross appreciates your remarks.
Re your comment on March 13, 2026 at 2.06pm:
Otherwise, everything’s OK with St Kilda!
I join Ross in hoping for a much improved performance against the Dees and their new cheese displays.
The last club I know who added cheese to the match day ‘experience’ was Spurs, so fingers crossed.
I have to acknowledge Patrick, as today is Saint Patrick’s Day!
Patrick, you are a Saint!
Ross
Not sure how the Ross comparison came about because Ross Lyon doesn’t like to give match away in press conferences and is all about the team, not individuals. Even when St Kilda win, he is humble and modest and simply says we move on and bank the 4 points.
Most St Kilda supporters were very upbeat about how St Kilda would go this year and were very positive.