AFL Round 12 Sydney v St Kilda: St Kilda has taken to giving media outlets ‘feedback’ on their reporting of players
St Kilda’s Jack Higgins was heavily criticised after his 1.6 against the Swans on Saturday. And the Saints aren’t happy, raising the issue with two media outlets.
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St Kilda has taken to giving media outlets “feedback” on their reporting of players including Jack Higgins and Max King following Saturday’s loss to Sydney.
But Saints footy boss Simon Lethlean acknowledged criticism was “part of the industry”.
Lethlean said he had called the AFL about a “Missy” Higgins headline and he had also spoken to Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon about his comments.
Higgins kicked 1.6 with the chance to be the matchwinner while Max King’s performance was a focus of TV commentary.
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“There was some feedback about the use of nicknames like Missy Higgins and the like for Jack,” Lethlean said on SEN radio.
“No one likes young athletes being scrutinised with negativity, but again our job here is to put support around those players here, which they’ve got,” Lethlean said.
“It’s all part of the game to be scrutinised. As long as it’s balanced, that’s all part of the industry.
“I put a call into the AFL. I think the AFL saw fit without us getting involved to change the headline yesterday.
“ .... He wasn’t the only pretty talented player across the weekend to miss a lot of shots at goal … all I know is of all the guys who try their hardest on goalkicking, it’s Jack.
“He’ll be out there again this week doing that, he’s in pretty good form and we’ll keep supporting him, as we always do.”
Lethlean said he spoke to Lyon on Sunday.
“I haven’t listened to it Garry, you and I spoke yesterday because I thought it was worth me talking to Fox about it because we certainly got a lot of feedback about it,” Lethlean said.
“My view on that stuff is so long as it is balanced. It’s a story when high profile people are not playing well. There’s background I guess to what players are dealing with.”
Why Ratten loved King’s ‘amazing’ four-touch game
St Kilda coach Brett Ratten says the club will wrap its arms around misfiring forward Jack Higgins after a heartbreaking loss to Sydney which was compounded by three fresh injuries to add to a growing casualty list.
Higgins had an ‘almost’ day at the SCG, presenting strongly and logging 23 disposals and 12 marks to be the standout forward in the Saints’ attack.
But the 22-year-old’s inaccuracy in front of goal proved costly for his side as he kicked only 1.6 including three misses in the final term.
Two of those misses came in the last 153 seconds of the match.
Sydney sealed the nine-point win with a James Rowbottom goal with only 11 seconds left on the clock.
Ratten said he could not fault Higgins’ work ethic on the training track, having had to tell the former Richmond forward not to tire himself out by taking too many shots at goal after training during the week.
However, the coach said Higgins was one of a number of Saints that needed to work on their goalkicking.
Entering Round 12, St Kilda ranked 17th in the competition for shot-at-goal accuracy, coming in at 42.2 percent.
“He’s a dangerous small forward. He gets lots of shots at goal,” Ratten said.
“To get seven shots at goal, he was probably going to be best-on if he kicked 6.1 instead of 1.6. He’s had a fair game but he just hasn’t done the last part of it and that’s put the ball through the sticks. But that’s part of the game. He’s a professional and he just needs to keep working hard. Sometimes you have days where it just doesn’t happen for you but he just needs to get his routine right and he’s just one of a number of players that are still working through that.”
Ratten was full of praise for key forward Max King, who re-injured his back in the first half after leaving the training track early on Thursday with the same injury.
King had little impact on the match with only four disposals and one goal as he was blanketed by Sydney stopper Dane Rampe.
But Ratten said the fact King was able to push on through the injury was another important phase in his development.
“He did an amazing job to play,” Ratten said.
“We just positioned him as the deep forward, create a contest. That’s what we asked him to do today and I thought it was pretty encouraging for a young man just to push through. They’re some of the things you learn along the journey.”
The Saints hope King will be fit to face Adelaide next Saturday night, but the news was not so good for forward Mason Wood and veteran defender Jarryn Geary.
Wood suffered a hamstring injury in the opening quarter which is expected to sideline him for three weeks, while Geary dislocated his right shoulder in the final term and was taken to hospital post-match after club medical staff were unable to pop it back in.
“You just feel for him because every time he gets into a groove, a bit of rhythm and some continuity into his football, he cops another injury,” Ratten said.
“I don’t know what it means for him.”
The Saints will remain in Sydney this week and are confident they will be granted an exemption by the Queensland government to travel to Cairns and play next Saturday night’s match against Adelaide at Cazaly’s Stadium as scheduled.
“We think it will go ahead and we’re hoping it will, but we’ll just wait and see from the AFL,” Ratten said.
“We’d love to get that game scheduled for Cairns completed and hopefully we’ll get the four points.”
Match report: Saints kick their season away — again
Sydney left it until the last minute to seal the four points in their nine-point win against St Kilda.
The Saints were left to lament a number of missed set shots in the final quarter which could’ve sealed a memorable victory at the SCG.
The most notable was a miss from Jack Higgins who had a shot with a minute left on the clock to win the game for St Kilda but sprayed his kick wide to give the Swans the ball and the game.
Higgins kicked 1.6 for the match.
Sydney looked set for a cruisy afternoon at the office when it jumped out to a 21-point lead in the first quarter, but two late goals to the Saints brought the margin back to eight-points at the first change.
Mason Wood was subbed out of the game at quarter-time with a hamstring injury after kicking the first goal of the Round 12 fixture. Tom Highmore came into the contest in the second quarter as the Saints’ medical sub and was thrust into an uncustomary forward role.
The second term was tight, but it was the Saints who managed to win the arm wrestle on the scoreboard early and kicked the first two goals of the term through Jack Steele and Ryan Byrnes.
Buddy Franklin’s 968th career goal had the Swans back on top, before his protégé Logan McDonald kicked his second, and what would be the last, goal of the quarter at the 11-minute mark.
After the Swans jumped out to a 14-point lead early in the third quarter, it looked like the top-four aspirants had put the foot down and were set to race away with the contest.
But as was the seesawing nature of the game, the Saints were able to claw their way back into it and appeared to have all the momentum when Tim Membrey became their ninth goalkicker of the afternoon and gave his side the lead in time-on.
Sydney had all the answers though, and two late goals to livewire forward Tom Papley and skipper Luke Parker gave the Swans some breathing room when the sides turned for home.
Two dubious 50-metre penalties resulted in St Kilda goals and gave them a sniff deep into the last quarter, but it was inaccuracy that killed the Saints again as Sydney ran out winners.
Sydney’s weapons
Any forward line with Buddy Franklin in it is dangerous, but it’s the pieces around the generational forward that might make the Swans’ attack the best in the competition.
The Swans finished with four multiple goal kickers and it’s that potency that will have opposition sides worried come September.
Isaac Heeney and Will Hayward are just as dangerous in the air as they are on the ground, and kicked five goals between them.
Buddy kicked two to move within 32 of 1000 career goals, while 19-year-old Logan McDonald kicked a couple on his return to the senior side.
Hill stops decline
Bradley Hill answered his critics once again in 2020 with his best game of the season, playing across half back for the Saints.
The 27-year-old’s numbers had dropped every week since Round 7, and he had just six touches last week, but it took half a quarter against the Swans for Hill to surpass that.
The Saints looked to get him involved at every turn and he had 18 first-half possessions at 100 per cent efficiency and totalled a game-high 317-metres gained to go with six score involvements.
Miss of the season
St Kilda’s woeful goalkicking accuracy has been well documented and their biggest issue reared its ugly head again, including one miss that had to be seen to be believed.
Jack Higgins was the main culprit early for the Saints, kicking 1.3 in the first half including a bevy of set shots the skilful forward would normally nail.
Higgins added three more behinds in the final term, twice missing the chance to put the Saints in front.
But the worst miss of the day came with just second left on the clock in the second quarter.
After Jack Billings pumped the ball to about 15-metres out from the St Kilda goal, Seb Ross roved the ball out the back of the pack and ran into an open goal.
The 28-year-old put the ball on his boot 10-metres from goal but staggeringly stuck the Sherrin the wrong side of the goalpost in one of the misses of the season.
Soft 50s
Two of the softest 50-metre penalties of the season that resulted in goals gave the Saints a sniff in the last quarter.
When Josh Battle was lining up from 55-metres out on the boundary line to give the Saints a sniff early in the last quarter, Dane Rampe gave King the slightest push which resulted in the two-metre key forward flailing to the ground and a 50 being paid.
Minutes later, the Saints were trapped deep in defence when Nick Coffield took a mark on the last line and a late-arriving Sam Wicks put a hand on the young defender which sent him to the ground and another 50 was paid.
St Kilda took the ball to the other end of the ground and Membrey kicked his second to make it a one-goal game.
Scoreboard
SWANS 4.6 6.7 10.11 13.14 92
SAINTS 3.4 5.7 9.7 12.11 83
MOTTERSHEAD’S BEST
Swans: Parker, Hickey, McCartin, Franklin, Mills. Saints: Steele, Crouch, Hill, Higgins, Sinclair.
GOALS
Swans: Hayward 3, Franklin 2, McDonald 2, Heeney 2, Papley, Parker, Kennedy, Rowbottom. Saints: Membrey 2, Byrnes 2, Wood, Higgins, King, Steele, Butler, Ross, Billings, Battle.
INJURIES
Swans:
Saints: Wood (hamstring), Geary (arm).
UMPIRES: Deboy, Findlay, Toner.
VENUE: SCG
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JAMES MOTTERSHEAD’S VOTES
3 J.Steele (St.K)
2 B.Crouch (St.K)
1 L.Parker (Syd)
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