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AFL 2019 top 100: St Kilda Saints

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Roar Guru
3rd September, 2019
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How can a coach who improves his year-on-year win-loss ratio by 125%, his points scored by 2.4%, his points conceded by 7.7% and the club’s position on the ladder by two places be considered worthy of sacking?

Alan Richardson achieved all this with only four current top 100 game-players on the Saints list at the start of the season, and of those four, the top three were virtually useless, contributing a total of 14 games for the season between them.

Luckily, Jack Newnes played 20 serviceable games and was joined as a member of the Saints’ game-playing elite by the well credentialed Sebastian Ross, who in Round 15 accumulated enough games to replace Jason Daniels and Bruce Phillips in St Kilda’s top 100 games played list.

By season’s end – playing every game – he had climbed to equal 89th position with 1970s back pocket Wayne Judson.

The reason for the Saints’ failure was inertia – too little, too late in refreshing a stale list of players. Season 2019 newbies included star recruits Dan Hannebery (who played only five games, kicking three goals) and Melbourne’s Dean Kent, who played 13 games for 12 goals but has averaged only slightly over ten games per year in his seven seasons of AFL football.

Dan Hannebery

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Twenty-three-year-old debutant Callum Wilkie played all 22 games and appears a likely prospect if the Saints can surround him with consistent, quality players.

It would appear that Brett Ratten has the job of senior coach next year – or the decision to appoint Jarryd Roughead to an assistant coaching role was extremely foolhardy – and he has some players and some systems to work with.

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The twin towers of Josh Bruce and Tim Membrey played every game for the year and combined to kick 80 goals, the same as Adelaide’s two-pronged attack of Taylor Walker and Eddie Betts, but 18 less than last year’s premiership duo at West Coast, Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling.

Membrey currently sits in 21st position on the Saints’ all-time top 100 goal-scorers, one goal ahead of Josh Bruce, and both are potential top 100 game-players next year, along with Jack Billings, Shane Savage and Luke Dunstan.

All of a sudden, the Saints, who never lacked heart or persistence under Alan Richardson, may have in place a core of players who have the ability to deliver something that Richardson could not do in his six years at the helm: a place in the finals.

The Saints – like North Melbourne and Melbourne – are hampered by their inability to attract imports hungry for success, but some aggressive recruiting and the development of players such as Matthew Parker, Nick Coffield, Ed Phillips, Hunter Clark, Ben Paton and Josh Battle – who should all blossom under the watchful eye of Jarryd Roughead – will see the team continue to improve.

David Armitage has been delisted, but a more productive season from Jarryn Geary and Jack Steven – who are both in sight of 200 games – would provide a much needed leadership boost to a revitalised group of committed players capable of much more.

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