By Roger Vaughan
June 20th 2008 @ 3:09am
Saints stun with Dal Santo omission
A day after St Kilda coach Ross Lyon declared “reputations really count for nothing”, Nick Dal Santo became the first casualty at the struggling AFL club.
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The club’s leading goalkicker Stephen Milne was also dropped for tomorrow night’s must-win game against Fremantle at Telstra Dome, but Dal Santo was the stunning omission.
Dal Santo was named as an emergency and tomorrow looms as the first time in 114 games he has not made the senior side.
Along with captain Nick Riewoldt and Lenny Hayes, he is among the Saints’ top three players.
While Dal Santo had been off his best form this season, he had looked better in the last few weeks.
In his last three games the onballer picked up 28 touches against Melbourne, 27 against the Western Bulldogs and 17 last weekend against the close-checking Sydney midfield.
Ruckman Michael Gardiner and forward Adam Schneider are also out with hamstring problems, while three of the four inclusions are first-gamers.
Again reflecting Lyon’s determination to shake up the team, the Saints promoted rookie-listed player Robert Eddy, Jarryd Allen and ruckman Ben McEvoy for their AFL debuts.
The other inclusion was second-year player David Armitage.
Fremantle, by contrast, named an unchanged team.
St Kilda are 10th on five wins and seven losses, while the Dockers’ confidence is rising after belting North Melbourne last weekend by 53 points.
“Reputations really count for nothing, particularly when you’re five-seven and you’ve won one out of five,” Lyon said yesterday.
“It’s not about personalities or past performances, it’s what you’re putting up week-in, week-out.”
Milne leads the Saints goalkicking with 27, but he only managed one goal apiece in his last two matches.
Like Dal Santo, Milne has not missed a senior game so far this season, but unlike Dal Santo, he was not named as an emergency.
McEvoy’s selection will also make Robert Harvey only the ninth AFL player to have a teammate who was not born when he made his senior debut.
Harvey first played senior football in 1988 and McEvoy was born the following year.
The 36-year-old, the league’s oldest current player, was named in tomorrow night’s team despite calf soreness in the loss to Sydney.
After tomorrow night, St Kilda play fellow mid-range teams North and Carlton ahead of top side Hawthorn.
Earlier today, former St Kilda captain and current board member Nathan Burke declared the side could definitely return to the top eight.
“I don’t see anyone on our horizon that, if we … play our best football, we can’t beat,” he said.
Saints football manager Matthew Drain was unavailable for comment about the team selections.
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