I come to bury St Kilda’s season, not to praise it.
The good of a season can often be lost in the mire of disappointment. Likewise, focusing, or even sometimes mentioning, positives can open you up to accusations of either foolishness, blindness or unhelpful optimism.
This St Kilda team overcame Fremantle in Perth, belted Richmond into the ground, outran minor premiers Geelong, and ran over the top of the still up-and-coming Carlton.
But they were not a good team.
Max King kicked 52 goals for the season and yet the focus was on his poor goalkicking. This is a man who constantly has to fight against three defenders hanging off him before even getting a shot at goal.
While this raises serious questions about the forward and midfield structure that the Saints are running with, with King as the only serious target, it does give some explanation about his sometimes wayward kicking. The man is carrying the forward line all by himself!
At the start of the season I said much would depend on King, and so it turned out. An accurate King made a good team better, an inaccurate one kept a bad team in its position. Next season, an accurate King could drag a bad team up to being good.
Because remember, this is a club that’s nowhere near success.
And let’s not forget Ben Long. Every week he gives the effort that every player should, but doesn’t. His performance against Sydney should now be his benchmark. He’s always been magnificent in patches, he could be game changing if he maintained the performances as he did on Sunday.
And Jack Sinclair, having earnt his first All Australian, has proven what it looks like to maintain a high level of performance throughout the season. He has done the 35 jumper proud. Aside from the haircut, you could be mistaken for thinking he was Robert Harvey reborn, such is his reliability.
Remember though, this is a poor team.
While we’re here, the two academy prospects of Windhager and Owens have slotted in very nicely into the team. Windhager’s rising star nomination, earnt for shutting down some of the best players in the game, was an unexpected but correct decision by the AFL.
With only seven games, Owens of course didn’t reach the same heights as Windhager but his game against Sydney was his best, which is an encouraging sign for next year and the future.
The football intelligence and skill of Wanganeen-Milera are evident. If he is a long-term prospect, watching how he now develops will be an exciting subplot of the next phase of this St Kilda side.
This season was a failure. Depending on your perspective, either 97 or 123 of the 124 seasons that St Kilda have competed in have been failures. And while it’s easy to give into despair in those cold days of mid-winter, as yet another season slipped away, the first glimpses of Spring lends a different perspective on things.
I tell you the team had a poor season, but lurking just underneath is something else, something beyond the mid-ladder obscurity which has cursed the recent St Kilda sides.
The club survives with 60,000 members. The core is more than competent. The youth is exciting. The off-field image of the team is being remade from the state it dropped to after Ross Lyon fled to Fremantle.
But that’s an image that could so easily be destroyed if recruiters are not careful. The club can survive poor performance, but not players wrapped in scandal.
I’m not here to offer blind hope about the future, simply to state that things are not as dark as they appear. There is the glimpse of something bright on the horizon.
And now, as the first winds of September tease us, maybe with some Priest-ly intervention, the St Kilda Women will bring the club much-needed success.
May Moorabbin be filled with 10,000 Saints fans this Spring, cheering for the new age that surely has to come soon.
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
Let's hope it happens John it would be good for the game.
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
Hard to see where St Kilda's improvement will come from. Having grown up in StKilda with many old school friends following the local club, I do feel for them. There but for the hero worship of Poly Farmer go I. Their recruiting seems to me to be piecemeal rather than a cordinated strategy, as if plugging holes in the dam wall. It's easy to blame Ratten as the team looks disjointed, although I dont see enough of them through the season. It would be interesting to get the take of some Saint Roarers but they look years off of being a genuine contender.
Simoc
Roar Rookie
Gotta say I expected the Saints to be better. It's hard not to blame the coach when you see the output from Collingwood under a fresh coach in McRae. There's a need to surpass the previous best so ably demonstrated by Goodwins Demons last season. Changing won't help now but Ratten has to up his game. He doesn't come across as a potential winner.
robertbrob13226
Roar Rookie
Success breeds success and till Stkilda FC get these people into the relevant positions at the club we are going nowhere . Carlton stated at 8@2 you should not miss the finals , saints were 8@3 and were still expected to miss the 8 , yet everyone is running around saying you need to resign the coach, the club should have waited till seasons end it’s not as if Ratten is a in demand coach now he there for another 2 years ,which he will be lucky to survive . Another poor club decision , Now AFL house discard is new CEO and older player looking for $$ end of career top up will make their way to the club in the trade period ,Amon,s mum works at the saints and he wants to go to Hawks , Ifs going be be a long decade for us saints supporters,
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Even if they win another one by a point (like Barry Breen in 1966), it will be worth the tension.
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
lets hope stkilda win a flag soon since 1966,we can only hope.
Dingo
Roar Rookie
Well done for sharing this Rowdy
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I picked Norwood as all my primary school friends were Sturt (they were in the 5-in-@-row run) or Port supporters. Even at Norwood Primary, well, we were at very impressionable ages. I thought I’m going to pick the Wooden Spooners not realising any of Norwood’s history. I’m glad l did. That was 1968.
Fraser Gehrig's Mullet
Roar Rookie
Thanks for sharing mate that’s a beautiful verse. Hopefully the Sainters can throw some positivity your way. Hearing about Lenny coming home definitely brought a smile to my face.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
I decided that St Kilda would be “my AFL team” in 1965 when in Sydney there was limited TV coverage of the game. The following year saw the first (of many I thought) flag. Subsequently there have been the couple of “honourable defeats) in the GF, against the Crows & Geelong however the bad bounce Steven Milne copped in the 2010 draw was typically St Kilda & I just knew that the Pies would win the replay. Some teams just know how to win & their players make the right decisions & then there are teams such as the Saints who win games they are expected to lose then the following week do the opposite. Although I have been saying this for sometime “next year Saints” with no confidence whatsoever.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
This is how I spend my days I came to bury, not to raise I'll drink my fill and sleep alone I play in blood but not my own ------- Your opening line reminded me of the last verse in "Pay in Blood". A modern day Dylan classic. The whole song could be the Sainters theme song. Any Sainters subject makes me think of my departed brother. I think of him everyday.