Oz Footy List Manager takes a look at the Sainters.
List:
One look at the St Kilda list indicates the split between twilighters (28+yo) and juniors (18-21yo), and little in between.
Their main struggle is trying to hold onto players that are repeatedly drawn to other more successful clubs.
What makes their drafting this year seem amiss is that the’ve mainly focused their drafting in areas where they already had strong juniors – taller-mediums (186-189cm) and mobile talls (190-194).
The other area that St Kilda’s drafting seems amiss is in the area of midfielders. They seem rarely to have enough of them. A premiership team runs on at least an 8-cylinder (midfield) engine, many have a 10 to 12-cylinder (midfield) engine. The old adage goes, “You can never have too many midfielders.” In St Kilda’s case, they seem to always struggle to have enough midfielders. Yet, in the last draft, their early picks went on Tauru, Travaglia & Barrat – all tallish defenders.
Select 22:
St Kilda’s defence almost picks itself, with experienced players over several seasons. Hopefully, Howard plays more than 15 games this season. Schoenmaker looked very impressive in his 4 games last season and could be an early starter this season in place of the aging Webster (31yo).
The forward half has developed nicely, with Camaniti, Owens, Sharman and King all showing talent. Higgins hasn’t taken the step up to being a regular midfielder. While Henry, a free-wheeling midfielder at Freo, seems restricted as a small forward at the Saints.
In the ruck, Marshall now moves into twilighter territory, so the developing Heath needs to be given game time. The talented junior Dodson (18yo) will need 2-4 years before being ready to start.
Again, picking midfielders is hard. Steele, Hill and Wood pick themselves. Ex-Bulldog MacCrae walks into the tallish midfielder role, but from there it gets difficult. Higgins, Henry, Dow, Clark, and others haven’t shown enough to be tier-1 midfielders, and this is the crux of their problem. Dow’s recent knee injury and infection makes the problem more difficult. But, there is little else.
Without a decent midfield, its hard to see the Saints going anywhere quickly.
B: Stocker, Howard, Schoenmaker
HB: Sinclair, Wilkie, Wanganeen-Milera
C: Hill, Steele, Wood
HF: Owens, Camaniti, Sharman
F: Higgins, King, Henry
R: Marshall, MacCrae, Dow
I: Windhager, Wilson, Clark, Heath
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It was 25 years ago that I began developing a model for analysing footy squad lists for the purpose of improving those lists into a premiership window. Since then, the model has been used to successfully predict premiership clubs and to improve either lop-sided or underdeveloped lists into premiership lists. Indeed, the model was used for an article that I had published as a double page spread in The Age 2005 Pre-Season magazine.
Over the 25 years, I have analysed the annual lists of one particular club but have used it for other clubs upon request. It has always been on my bucket list to display the lists of all the clubs, using the model, which I’ve done since 2021 on my website – OzFootyListManager.com
Spot on with our midfield depth Micky. I’m hoping Boyd might provide some cover for Marshall who needs to get out and roam. McCrae is quality but we don’t have the class in the midfield. NAS is special and King is fragile. 8th would be a mighty achievement cheers
If the Saints don’t give big Harry Boyd a decent go, they’re nuts. Boyd dominated all over the ground for the Redlegs in season ’24 and was a worthy winner of the Magarey Medal
Agree with the previous 2 comments. I would put Boyd on the interchange bench instead of Max Heath.
I can understand why St Kilda went for Travaglia and Tauru, as they were the best available top 10 picks for St Kilda in the National Draft at the time that it was St Kilda’s turn to pick. There is even the possibility that Travaglia and Tauru can also play in the midfield one day.
To me, quality tall defenders are much harder to find than quality midfielders, even if St Kilda have struggled previously in the midfield. I also have faith in St Kilda’s List Manager, Simon Dalrymple, who was responsible for drafting Tairu, Travaglia and Barrat. Dalrymple, of course, was also responsible for building the Western Bulldogs’ premiership list of 2016.
The loss of Josh Battle to Hawthorn left an enormous hole in St Kilda’s defence, so they needed to pick up tall quality tall defenders to cover his loss. As Dougal Howard will also be missing a large portion of the season due to injury, I believe In hindsight, the right draft picks have been selected. Only time will tell.
I would probably have Webster ahead of Stocker because Webster uses the ball well in defence and can shut down a player like Charlie Cameron. At this stage, I would have Cordy ahead of Schoenmaker because Cordy filled in very well for Howard at the beginning of last year, when Howard was also injured. I also believe that Cordy can shut down a tall forward bettter than Schoenmaker.
From what I saw of Travaglia in the practice match against Carlton last week, although Travaglia was playing forward, at this stage I would also have him ahead of Schoenmaker, in defence.
I agree that St Kilda has a poor midfield compared to many other clubs and that’s been the case for many years.
However, I thought in the last 7 games of 2024 that the midfield played well. It’s a shame that Phillipou will be missing a large portion of this season due to injury, because I thought he played well in the midfield for St Kilda at the end of last year. Likewise, Dow, another midfielder, will be missing a large part of the season, due to injury.
On paper, the midfield is still competitive. If everyone’s available, which rarely happens, the players who can have a run in the midfield are Jack Steele, Jack Macrae, Jack Sinclair, Marcus Windhager, Mattaes Phillipou, Zac Jones, Paddy Dow, Hugo Garcia, Hunter Clark, Jack Carroll and Hugh Boxshall.
I actually think that Mitch Owens would make a great midfielder but St Kilda want to play him forward and they may not need him now as a pinch hitter in the ruck, unless they St Kilda play only one ruckman, for team balance.
If Marshall and Boyd play well in the seniors, they may even get their hit outs to favour the St Kilda midfield.
Obviously, all those midfielders mentioned can’t be selected in the team at the one time, but hopefully they will all get their opportunity at some stage in 2025 and whoever is in form in the midfield in the seniors, should stay there.
I personally would have Phillipou ahead of both Dow and Hunter Clark in the best 22.
Caminiti may also play in defence, if needed.
I agree with Ian about Max King. He needs to obviously stay on the park without being injured, for as long as possible. He also needs to lead better and kick straighter and improve his work ethic. The moment Richmond didn’t rely on Jack Riewoldt to kick a bag of goals, they improved.
Although King demands the ball with his height, the St Kilda players not only need to deliver the ball better to Max King, but look for the best available option at the time to kick the goal.
St Kilda’s strength is their team of runners and they are a very fit team, who run out games well and they have overrun the opposition in the last quarter.
Under Ross Lyon, who gets the best out of his players, and the game plan from the Assistant Coaches in Corey Enright, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes and Brendon Goddard, I’m optimistic about St Kilda this year.
How well is St Kilda’s midfield going? Pretty, pretty good!
St Kilda are doing okay, but the wins are coming from their defensive intercepts and rebounding of Sinclair, Wanganeen-Milera, Wilkie & Caminiti.
Caminiti influence in their defence has been enormous.
Their midfield performance is okay but not great – getting full use of Macrae, Steele, Marshall, Windhager & Garcia.
Against other top 8 teams, with Saints in 7th position, they’ve beaten Geelong marginally at Marvel and have been thrashed in Adelaide.
We’ve heard much over the years of March and April premiers. Let’s have another look at St Kilda when they’ve played Hawthorn, Brisbane, the Suns, Collingwood and the Giants.
The good news is that the game against the Giants is this weekend on neutral territory.
Good luck!