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Marius Smith

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Joined September 2010

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I’m not sure that William’s article has managed to get the balance quite right – it seems he came in with a preconceived view and wasn’t minded to challenge it. There’s a lot of focus on the negatives without a focus on the positives. A more balanced analysis of the Saints would have mentioned the following players:
– Ben Long looks like an emerging star for the Saints. Injury limited him to a handful of games in 2019 but he showed why he’s so highly regarded when he got on the park.
– Jack Steele was 3rd in the B&F and at at 23 looks ready to take the next step in 2019, particularly as his second half of last year was very impressive.
– Josh Battle is a seriously talented tall forward with white line fever who has been switched to defence this offseason and has potential to give huge headaches to opposition teams.

Regarding players that he did mention:
– Gresham has been brilliant as a small forward but showed his real talent with amazing impact in the centre square from very little opportunity in 2018 (his centre clearance rate was phenomenal). As a full-time mid, he could really change the shape of the team this year. AA in 2019 is not beyond him. Throw him in with Steven, Steele, Ross and Hannebery and things in the centre square look OK.
– Hunter Clark is not vanilla. He has genuine star quality. Just amazing that anyone would call him a “safe choice”.
– Hannebery was brought in to address the Saints’ leadership gap and has already had a huge influence in that area.

The real question for the Saints in 2019 is whether 2018 was a one-off dip after three years of consistent improvement prior to that, or whether we’re really that bad. Will our young players who had a bad year last year resume their upward career trajectories? Acres, Dunstan, Seb Ross, Billings, Newnes, Sinclair and Membrey all fall into this boat. If even half of them improve, we’re looking a lot better.

And will the glut of players who played little to no footy in 2018 get on the park regularly this year. That would include Dylan Roberton, Paddy McCartin, Josh Bruce, Jimmy Webster and Billy Longer.

And will the addition of some well respected assistants in Brendon Lade, Brett Ratten and Billy Slater (in a leadership role) help the club as well?

I’m not saying we’ll win the flag this year, but a more balanced article would have considered at least some of these points.

Why St Kilda are in the worst position of any team in the league

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