Rowan Marshall opens up on staying at St Kilda after failed trade request to Geelong
Rowan Marshall hoped to play for Geelong, but St Kilda didn’t let him go. Now, the ruckman reveals why he wanted a move, his thoughts on Tom De Koning and addresses some trade period rumours.
Rowan Marshall heard the stories during trade period.
That he got his hair cut in Geelong every week and that he wanted out of Melbourne because St Kilda hadn’t kept him in the loop about its much publicised hunt of fellow ruck Tom De Koning.
But Marshall just wanted to win.
His trade request to drive down the highway to Kardinia Park was about hunting success.
The reliable ruck, who turned 30 late in November, was held to his contract by the Saints as the trade deadline ticked past, went back to Moorabbin and sat down for some tough conversations before thinking again about winning.
“I’m really excited to be back,” he told Code Sports.
“After having some chats with Ross (Lyon) and other people at the club, I am excited about what I can do for the club. So it is just head down, bum up and I will give everything to the club.
“There would be no better club to experience success at than St Kilda and I think we have the right people there to do that.”
Marshall would not elaborate on those tough chats and said requesting a trade was “difficult”.
“We had ongoing conversations as the season was ending and I put in my request,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I was still contracted to St Kilda and as I said, I will do everything I possibly can to make us a better side.
“At the end of the day, I am still employed by them and I have got my head around staying now and I’m really excited about what we can do this year.”
So what about those stories?
There was Marshall supposedly frequenting a barber in Geelong consistently as he settled in as a regular down the highway.
It is true his brother Ollie plays for Newcomb in Geelong’s Bellarine Football League, but Marshall laughs at the idea he is desperate to get out of Melbourne.
“It’s pretty funny. I saw an article come out that I get my hair cut down there every single week,” he said.
“I got my hair cut down there once, before we played Geelong and I had a couple hours to kill and I was watching my brother play for Newcomb.
“One of my mates sent that through, that was pretty funny to laugh at but it is always someone trying to create a headline or something like that. I do love living in Melbourne.”
It is fact Marshall did want to get to the Cats, which was all about their winning record.
Geelong ruck Rhys Stanley has played only 15 more games than Marshall since leaving St Kilda for the Cats in 2014 – three years before Marshall’s debut – but he has played 16 more finals, including three grand finals and a premiership.
“Obviously they have had a lot of success in the past and they are a great organisation but you never fully know until you are inside the four walls of the club,” Marshall said of the lure to Geelong.
“But I do love St Kilda and St Kilda is the club that took a punt on a skinny, raw, 20-year-old kid so I want to do everything I possibly can to make this club great and I’m really determined to do that this year.”
Marshall has played three finals in his 156 games with the Saints, winning one elimination final in Queensland in 2020.
For most of his tenure, St Kilda has stuck like glue to the dreaded mediocrity area of the ladder, finishing between 10th and 12th in four of the last five seasons.
The Saints shocked the footy industry by opening the checkbook in the off-season and going on a seismic spending spree that brought in four experienced recruits and saw captain Jack Steele jettisoned.
It was a statement and a step forward in the long-gestating battle to win a second premiership and Marshall is adamant his team will be better in 2026.
“I am probably in the twilight of my career and I just want to win games of football and I think we have the group to do that but we definitely still have to work hard over the pre-season,” he said.
“I think that is step one and step two is performing well out on the park and working well together. Time will tell but at the minute, it is looking promising.”
From the supermarket to the golf course – Marshall is a member at Commonwealth Victoria gold clubs, and showed off some of his shaky short game at Marvel Stadium’s Pixar Putt recently – Marshall has been asked about one thing more than any other since his trade request fell through.
And that is how the fit will work with De Koning.
While St Kilda’s courtship of De Koning was well publicised, speculation steadily grew that Marshall was not kept in the loop that his club was ready to throw big money at a player who plays the same position.
“I won’t delve into that, at the end of the day, Tom is there and I’m really excited to play alongside him,” Marshall responded.
The Saints will invest potentially as much as $2.5m into a ruck role that can really only be played by one person at a time, so naturally Marshall has been peppered often with questions of how his side will split the time next year.
Marshall is a solid mark but his career-high goal tally sits at the 15 he bagged in 2024, so he is not a proven forward threat, and neither is De Koning.
But a month into pre-season training, the pair are yet to fully work out how they will manage their minutes.
“I think it is a bit of wait and see,” Marshall said.
“Tom is obviously a super player and I am just excited to play alongside him and see what he can bring to the club. Whether that means I am spending more time forward or a bit of time in the ruck, I will just wait and see what Ross has in store for us and see how it goes from there.
“It could change week by week depending on who we are coming up against or if such and such is working. It could be a bit of trial and error. Ross is as mastermind of a coach and I am sure what he sees for us is exciting and can help benefit us.”
Tickets to Pixar Putt at Marvel Stadium’s North Pole can be booked through Ticketmaster until January 18 and the free Christmas live site runs until December 23.
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