Off-season outlook: Can St Kilda make another jump up the ladder in 2021?
He’s been a prolific ball winner for St Kilda, but one game in 2020 may have revealed that Seb Ross is due for reinvention. FULL SAINTS ANALYSIS
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Few clubs improved more than St Kilda in 2020.
And after another big off-season at the trade table, the Saints will be eyeing a deep September run in 2021.
But how far can this group go?
Lauren Wood looks at the off-season moves, the game plan, the coach, the best 22 and more in our off-season series.
LIST CHANGES
INS: Jack Higgins, Brad Crouch, Shaun McKernan, James Frawley, Matthew Allison (pick 26), Tom Highmore (pick 45)
OUTS: Nick Hind (traded), Ed Phillips (delisted), Matty Parker (delisted), Doulton Langlands (delisted), Ryan Abbott (delisted), Jack Bell (delisted), Jack Mayo (delisted), Logan Austin (delisted), Jonathon Marsh (delisted), Shane Savage (delisted), Nathan Brown (retired)
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COACH STATUS
Brett Ratten is much-loved at Moorabbin and rightly so after taking the team to its first finals series in more than a decade.
Contracted until the end of 2022, Ratten is under little pressure after reinvigorating the team in 2020.
In fact he can further enhance the model of the second-chance saloon by pushing the Saints further into the finals series.
His example could see more clubs willing to appoint a coach who has been axed by a rival team.
GAME PLAN
Speed thrills for the Saints. They actively sought more foot speed in the 2019 trade period, nabbing the likes of Bradley Hill, and while the former Hawk and Docker didn’t fire in the finals, it caught on.
The team likes to keep the Sherrin moving and applies pressure to go with it — shades of Richmond’s successful model of recent years.
They love to mark and play-on, but going forward must avoid cheap turnovers. They pay the price when opposition sides are allowed to mark the ball and given control.
Accuracy had for a long time been the shortcoming of the Saints, but they turned that stat around in 2020, returning the highest shot-at-goal accuracy. It all came down to the ease of the kick.
Under the guidance of forward coach and premiership Hawk Jarryd Roughead, the focus of the Saints became to generate shots closer to goal. It allowed the likes of Dan Butler, Max King and Tim Membrey to reap the rewards.
TRADE TABLE REPORT
It was another fruitful year with list boss James Gallagher — who only took on the role in 2019 — steering the ship like an old hand.
Supported by senior figures Simon Lethlean and Graeme Allan, Gallagher kept hold of a top-30 pick while also securing free agent pair Brad Crouch and Shaun McKernan.
The icing on the top was applied late when Jack Higgins made the shift from Punt Road on the final day of trade period. Higgins is the second small Tiger forward to join St Kilda, following Butler, and will add more forward pressure and speed.
Two big trade periods in the past two years mean the Saints have their focus set squarely on the now. A finals win this year showed that strategy had already began to bear fruit.
THEIR 2020 DRAFT HAUL
Matthew Allison (pick 26) is a 194cm athletic marking forward who could take time to develop before the Saints would consider playing him alongside Max King, while pick 45 Tom Highmore led the SANFL for intercept marks this year, so Saints fans will hope he can follow the path blazed by Cal Wilkie.
The Saints’ top picks of recent years are starting to bear fruit, with King, Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield all taking another big step in 2020.
PLAYERS THEY CAN REINVENT
It will be interesting to see what happens with Seb Ross.
With the injection of Adelaide free agent Brad Crouch into the midfield, what of the vice-captain?
Maybe he will take a leaf out of Jarryn Geary’s 2020 playbook. Ross kept Brisbane star and Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale to zero clearances for the first time in five years during the season, so his defensive work is a serious asset at coach Ratten’s disposal. In that match he had just the 15 touches and a SuperCoach score of 73 (averaging 77.8 for the year) – well down on previous season outputs even when adjusted for the shorter games.
Maybe he could be used as a defensive forward.
Jade Gresham — whose 2020 was plagued by a serious back injury — has been open about his midfield ambitions and could push in there given the arrival of goalsneak Jack Higgins.
And what of Hill? Maybe it’s not exactly a reinvention rather than a reinvigoration that is needed because the former Hawk and Docker fell short of expectations for a player of his ilk. He did a lot of running this season, unfortunately, it was often without the ball.
READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP
If you’d said 18 months ago that Jack Steele would be one of the premier midfielders of the club — let alone the competition — you would have been shouted down. But he thrived and is hungry for more, potentially taking another step towards the captaincy.
Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield will only continue to develop, and expect Callum Wilkie to do the same.
Rowan Marshall has shown a rapid improvement in the past two years and if he continues on that trajectory, he can begin to stamp himself as one of the pre-eminent ruckman in the competition.
BEST 22 FOR NEXT SEASON
B: Jake Carlisle --- Dougal Howard --- Ben Paton
HB: Nick Coffield --- Callum Wilkie --- Hunter Clark
C: Bradley Hill --- Brad Crouch --- Dan Hannebery
HF: Dan Butler --- Tim Membrey --- Jade Gresham
F: Jack Billings --- Max King --- Josh Battle
R: Rowan Marshall --- Zak Jones --- Jack Steele
Int: Jack Sinclair --- Seb Ross --- Jack Higgins --- Jarryn Geary
CHAMPION DATA SAYS
Good: The Saints averaged 38 points from their forward half chains – ranked second.
Bad: The Saints leaked defensively at times across 2020, conceding a score from 42 per cent of their oppositions inside 50 entries – ranked 14th defensively.
FINISH THE LAST FIVE YEARS: 2016: 9th. 2017: 11th. 2018: 16th. 2019: 14th. 2020: 6th (semi-final)
TAB PREMIERSHIP ODDS: $17
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