Season 2016 will mark the third campaign St Kilda have been coached by Alan Richardson and the Saints will be hoping the direction Richardson is trying to take the club will start to pay dividends.
On face value, the performances of St Kilda may not look particularly impressive under Richardson thus far, with St Kilda winning four games in 2014 and six games in 2016.
The Saints, however, were a club in massive need of a rebuild. After playing in a grand final in 2010 the club slowly began to slide down the ladder, finishing sixth in 2011 and failing to play finals football since.
St Kilda made the decision Scott Watters was not the man to take the club forward and the club moved for the highly rated and experienced Richardson at the end of the 2013 season.
Anytime a gameplan and playing list is being completely overhauled it is going to take some time for results. The current make-up of the St Kilda list is quite interesting, the roster is quite young and inexperienced however there are a number of senior players who are still playing a massive role at the club.
While recent seasons has seen a lot of experience exit the club, with players such as Lenny Hayes, Jason Blake, Stephen Milne, and James Gwilt departing, the senior players still at St Kilda are still playing a massive role. Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna, Sean Dempster and Sam Fisher, all over 30 years of age, played 17 games or more in 2015.
St Kilda certainly have talent developing on the list. By virtue of finishing outside the finals and towards the bottom of the ladder, St Kilda were awarded some high-quality draft picks. Players such as Jack Billings, Luke Dunstan, Hugh Goddard, Patrick McCartin were all drafted in recent years and are expected drive the club forward.
St Kilda have also traded with an eye on the future. The midfield has some quality established players such as Jack Steven and David Armitage and the edition of Nathan Freeman from Collingwood strengthens the team considerably.
The forward line and defence certainly needs reinforcement with key position players. Josh Bruce arrived at the club last season from Greater Western Sydney and the club acquired Jake Carlisle from Essendon during the trade period.
Unfortunately, developments this week mean Carlisle will serve a 12-month suspension. But St Kilda will be hoping Bruce can take some of the pressure off Nick Riewoldt, while in defence, Luke Delaney can hold up a key position with Dempster and Fisher nearing the end of the road.
Finals football is probably a bridge too far in 2016, but St Kilda will be full of
optimism. In the world of AFL many fans want immediate success and sometimes patience can be tested when results do not come quickly. At the very least St Kilda will hope to be slightly more competitive.
In 2015, the Saints lost six games by more than 60 points. St Kilda obviously have full faith in Richardson, as evidenced by the club extending his initial contract. If St Kilda can follow the Richardson blueprint then they may get their just desserts with some finals football and a long overdue premiership.
Luke
Guest
Dunstan? Bruce kicked 50 goals at 23 ? Newnes has been improving every year as has Webster and Weller Ross has been impressing this pre-season So TomC sometimes it takes players a few pre-seasons to get their body right and be able to have a significant impact at AFL level. Only the rare few can walk in the system and have a more of an immediate impact in their first couple years. I agree Curren, Shenton, Minchington, Savage may not make it but theres players similar to that on every list.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Yeah, that Essendon pick was a little bit wrong. Missed it by thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat much. In my defence, Essendon's team was strong and deep, they just had a bad coach and no forward line; two issues that are evidently barriers to winning football games. Oh, and there was some off field stuff happening last year too. Missed it by that much...
TomC
Roar Guru
On the other hand, we also largely missed your prediction in that same article that Essendon would make the top four. I don't really see it with the Saints. We're likely to get into this discussion more as the season gets closer, but last year it looked like a lot was going right, and that several players had career best years, and they still only managed six wins. There are a lot of players approaching the age where we generally know what level they're going to reach - Savage, Webster, Ross, Newnes, Weller, Curren, Minchington, Hickey, Shenton - without being particularly impressive. And Billings is the only youngster who really looks like becoming an elite footballer. It looks like they still have a lot of list-building to do.
Steve
Guest
It says that they won 6 games in 2016? There needs to be a correction there for sure.
Wilson
Roar Guru
Ryan I think that they may try and use Hugh Goddard more as he is taller and need to start to get the experiance and have Dempster and Fisher more guiding him over the year. and once Carlisle is back Goddard and Carlisle with be a very dangerous defenceive pair I think
Ryan Buckland
Expert
You would be correct; they began a plan in 2013, and their target was to be in a position to attract free agents from 2016 onwards. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of free agent talent on the board this year at this stage. I think they go to the draft for one more season, and then look at 2017's class. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/st-kilda-list-cleanout-just-the-start-head-of-football-chris-pelchen-tells-members/story-fni5f9q3-1226738800490 (this link may be pay walled I'm not sure)
Ryan Buckland
Expert
I am in love with St Kilda's list (I wrote a big piece last year, but it was largely missed http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/05/27/inspecting-the-foundations-how-is-the-st-kilda-build-coming/). I reckon it has juggernaut written all over it, and in a few year's time they will be in a fantastic spot for a tilt at their second premiership. I would think they're still one draft away - needing a bit more depth - but once they're there it'll be all about picking up free agents (of which there aren't really many left on the board this year). I've also said in a few different places that they have a decent shot at the eight this season, if they have an "everything breaks right for us" season like Port Adelaide did in 2013 and the Dogs did last year. They're still young and raw, but they're building to something pretty special. The loss of Jake Carlisle is going to be huge, because he fixed (on paper) the most glaring hole on the field: tall defender. Last season, the Saints played Sean Dempster and Sam Fisher as their tall defenders; fine against teams with mediocre tall forwards, but woefully inadequate in both size and strength when it comes to taking on the big boys. Looks like that'll be their lot for 2016.
WhereIsGene
Guest
They play Essendon* twice so that's two percentage boosters right there.
Liam Sheedy
Roar Guru
On reflection not my finest hour and a little slap dashed together reading back. Criticism duly noted.
Mick
Guest
Ross Lyon left that list in awful shape. A lot of repair work needed.
Paul Thompson
Guest
David C,The Saints plan since this rebuild commenced was to recruit as many early draft picks as possible and at the end of 2016 season start looking into Free Agency and Trades.I am sure thats still their plan
David C
Guest
St K has good young talent on the list. The problem is the over reliance on established veterans who will probably be gone in 2 years. Just when the young guns start to deliver all that experience will be gone and they will slide again. They need to start looking at free agents to fill the void.
TomC
Roar Guru
It's an interesting topic, but I just got too distracted reading this by the sloppiness of the writing. Spelling errors, grammar errors, lines that are essentially repeated, and sentences that seem out of order Come on, Liam, do a bit of proof reading.