Jack Peris to debut as Saints back King to have long career

The son of an Olympic gold medallist will make his AFL debut on the weekend as St Kilda gets behind its luckless star forward.

Max King has had his injury woes. Picture: Michael Klein

St Kilda has handed a senior debut to the son of Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris as the club moves to allay fears for the future of star forward Max King.

Teenage NGA product Jack Peris will face Gold Coast at Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday after earning his call-up off the back of a consistent campaign at VFL level.

The speedy forward has kicked 11 goals in 12 games this season and in the last fortnight has averaged 16 possessions and five tackles for Sandringham.

Peris, whose is also the son of late Australian sprinter Daniel Batman, put a promising athletics career on hold to pursue football, coming through the Saints academy in 2021 with Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager.

Former category B rookie Jack Peris will play his first game for St Kilda against Gold Coast on Saturday. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

The Saints remain confident King can have a long career ahead of him despite significant post-season shoulder surgery looming for the second time in a year, having also suffered an ACL injury before being drafted.

Football boss David Mission revealed it was King who quickly put his hand up to “have a crack” at getting back in 2023 after confirmation from surgeons he couldn‘t further damage the shoulder that he injured last week against Melbourne.

That return could come in as few as four weeks, but Misson also said the Saints would have no issue playing him first-up in a final should the recovery push deeper into the season.

King, 23, has already kicked 123 goals in his 67-game career and remains a “critical player” to both the short and long-term success of the Saints.

Misson was adamant the club had the best systems in place and King’s professionalism was such that his body could sustain a long career at Moorabbin.

“The AFL is littered with situations like this where a player has significant injuries early in his career but is able to rehab those and go on and have a long career,” he said on Thursday.

Max King injured his shoulder against Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

“We are confident in both our people and our systems and also in Max and his diligence and professionalism, It’s not a concern for us.”

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said news of a potential comeback this season “buoyed the group”, but now he would put King “to sleep” in his thoughts and not worry about him again until he was available to play.

Misson said that comeback would be dictated by King who, despite knowing he’ll need post-season surgery, albeit not another shoulder reconstruction, wants to get back this year.

“He didn’t take long to take the decision to have a crack,” he said.

“We are not going to take undue risks with him, he’s a critical player for us, and Max will be the one who will update us along the way. It’s a step progression towards him hopefully playing again.”

The St Kilda forward line will also be without Jack Higgins for Saturday’s clash with the Gold Coast Suns having also lost Jack Billings (thumb) and Zaine Cordy (concussion) in last week’s 21-point loss to Melbourne.

“It was a bit of carnage,” Lyon said.

“But we want to be a no-excuse football club, use no alibi. That’s not the space we live in.

“You’re either improving or going backwards. There’s no point standing still.”