Deep dive: St Kilda is paying the price for shunning the AFL Draft in the hunt for a quick flag fix
Jack Steele is an All-Australian success story, but years of trades and draft decisions have left St Kilda with a long list of ‘maybe’ players. Where is the flag blueprint at?
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The infamous St Kilda blueprint seven years ago had a grand vision to deliver the long-suffering club’s second premiership by 2020.
Only months after the release of that bold 40-page document, which also included the audacious goal of attracting 10,000 members in New Zealand, came the #SaintsFutureFest.
For those who’ve forgotten, St Kilda unveiled the re-signings of 19 young players who arrived inside the previous three seasons. AFL clubs love a slogan.
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What was supposed to be the backbone of upcoming success instead disintegrated for various reasons.
Only four of those 19 – Jack Billings, Seb Ross, Jimmy Webster and Luke Dunstan – remain on the Saints’ list and many of the other 15 had no impact at all.
St Kilda finished last that year, so selling a brighter future was good business and figuring out how it was going to happen was absolutely necessary.
Perhaps the repeated draft misses played a role in the Saints deviating off course from the blueprint, which declared they would bring in 18 young guns from 2013-16 before attacking free agency.
Or maybe it was the realisation of how poor the 23-25 age bracket was on their list and the need to bulk that up.
They ended up drafting only 12 players in the first three rounds of the national draft in that period.
Not only that but St Kilda never truly turned to the draft in the years since, outside of 2017, when it nabbed Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield in the top 10.
The Saints are one of only two clubs – alongside Hawthorn – to make only single-digit selections in the first two rounds between 2015 and last year.
Both lists are in serious need of an injection of quality youth, yet the Hawks’ faithful is naturally more forgiving, given their 2013-15 flag three-peat.
So, while dredging up St Kilda’s 2014 blueprint again might seem a low blow, the patient build-up promised in the document wasn’t followed.
Instead, there’s been a constant search for quick fixes that’s often resulted in overlooking the draft, the bedrock of all AFL empires.
They’ve almost annually dangled second-round picks in front of rivals to bring in more established talent.
The fruits of that labour include Nathan Freeman, Jack Steele, Dan Hannebery and Zak Jones, while they were also used in packages to trade in Jake Carlisle, Bradley Hill and Jack Higgins.
Steele has transformed into an All-Australian, club champion and co-captain and represents a major victory. The other deals are more of a mixed bag.
Top-10 picks were used in swaps for Carlisle and Hill, while first-round selections went into recruiting Dougal Howard and Higgins, which resulted in the Saints sliding down the order.
Essendon spent that Carlisle pick on Aaron Francis, who’s settled in as a top defensive option, coinciding with the injury-prone Saint – no stranger to controversy – having career-threatening back surgery.
Other players they could have recruited in preference of the aforementioned mature-age crop include Sean Darcy, one of Sam Taylor, Bayley Fritsch or Tom McCartin, James Jordon, plus their pick of Fischer McAsey, Hayden Young or Caleb Serong.
How’s that for a batch of talent? No club strikes gold with every draft pick but the possibilities were there and the strike rate is higher in the first two rounds.
St Kilda was lauded for its extraordinary trade haul in 2019 that reeled in Hill, Howard, Paddy Ryder, Jones and Dan Butler, but that left the club with picks 52 and 64 in that year’s draft.
Brett Ratten led his rebuilt side to the finals and even won one last season, but it was no match for eventual premier Richmond.
This season, the Saints have tumbled back to earth – with injuries playing their part – but without a strong base of elite kids to sell the future off.
The chance to punt on more teenagers was wasted in recent years on the likes of Jonathon Marsh, Sam Rowe, Ryan Abbott, James Frawley, Shaun McKernan and Paul Hunter.
Frawley, at age 32, is one of only 11 St Kilda players selected with a top-20 pick or its equivalent, including Higgins, Ryder, Billings, Max King, Clark, Dunstan, Brad Crouch, Jade Gresham, Jones and Coffield.
Only five are aged 23 or younger, while Billings is a restricted free agent.
It’s no wonder chief operating officer Simon Lethlean said after the Saints’ triple-digit defeat to the Western Bulldogs in May that they would definitely use their first-round pick this year.
With that said, there is still hope with St Kilda’s youngish brigade.
But the Saints need some of Clark, King, Coffield, Gresham, Butler, Howard, Callum Wilkie, Rowan Marshall, Billings – if he stays – Ben Paton, Higgins, Josh Battle, Jack Bytel, Ben Long and Tom Highmore to join Steele as a bona fide star.
The question is: do they have the patience?
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