AFL Finals 2023: The remarkable St Kilda numbers that show why Ross Lyon should be coach of the year

This season, Ross Lyon has achieved a 35-year first – one usually reserved for a bottom side. SAM LANDSBERGER discovers why the St Kilda boss should be coach of the year.

He was “Ross the Boss”. This year he has been “Ross the Babysitter”.

Based on these numbers he could soon become coach of the year, an accolade Ross Lyon last won in 2009.

An analysis by this masthead has revealed the Saints have pumped 104 games into players who started this calendar year as teenagers.

That ranks behind only West Coast (116 games) – and yet the Saints finished 10 wins, 54.8 per cent and 12 places north of the Eagles on the ladder.

Put simply, Lyon has latched on to young talent like a bottom-four team would be expected to and somehow he has guided this blended team into a home MCG final.

Is Ross Lyon coach of the year? Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

You have to go all the way back to 1988 for the last time the Saints got more games into players who started the year as teenagers.

That year a 16-year-old Robert Harvey, who then-coach Darrel Baldock mistakenly called “Rodney” Harvey, made his debut and the Saints sank to last on the 14-team ladder.

Now Harvey is part of Lyon’s coaching panel and is helping harvest this talent wave.

The 2023 statistics become more staggering by the second.

It is all based around the fantastic five – Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (23 games), Mattaes Phillipou (23), Mitchito Owens (22), Marcus Windhager (18) and Anthony Caminiti (17).

They combined for 103 of the 104 matches and Category B rookie Jack Peris added one more to the tally.

This season’s teenage takeover has already eclipsed the figure from Lyon’s stint as St Kilda coach from 2007-11.

In those five seasons, Ross 1.0 fed 92 games to players who started the year as teenagers.

The Saints of 2023 enter September with the most teenage exposure of any finalist since 2010.

Mitch Owens was the real Rising Star of 2023, according to Nathan Buckley. Picture: Michael Klein

The next-best tally since then? Sydney (92 games) in 2011, and the Swans won the premiership the next season.

The next best after that?

The Western Bulldogs (83 games) in 2015, and the Dogs also won the flag the following season.

The 2023 figure is currently tied with St Kilda’s 2004 campaign (104 games) – but that included finals, and so it will be surpassed at 3.20pm on Saturday.

Back in 2004 it was the likes of Brendon Goddard (No.1 draft pick), Luke Ball (No.2), Nick Dal Santo (No.13), Raph Clarke (No.8), Jason Gram (No.19) and Matt Maguire (No.21) who were consistently fed games as teenagers.

This year it has been done without such dominant draft hands.

But who really cares that Owens somehow slipped to No.33?

This kid is 19 and has been asked to play centre half-forward every week … plus pinch-hit in the ruck and wherever else he has been needed.

“It’s well-documented the club didn’t really go to the draft for four years, we’re just fortunate the kids we’ve got are really, really good players,” Lyon said during last weekend’s bye.

“Like Wanganeen-Milera and Windhager and Owens and Phillipou and Caminiti. So we want to really add to that group.”

The Saints will spend the off-season searching for speed and midfielders – Carlton’s Paddy Dow would be an obvious target – but draft picks are their priority.

They will select another three or four teenagers in November to flesh out Lyon’s quality quintet.

Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley gave Owens maximum votes in the Rising Star count that was won by Harry Sheezel.

“I thought his season was the most exceptional of the young talent,” Buckley said.

Owens – who was nominated for both mark and goal of the year – is a competitor who adjusts to all conditions and appears built for big games.

Wanganeen-Milera – moved to half-back by “half-back whisperer” and assistant coach Corey Enright – is tipped to give the top five of the Saints’ best-and-fairest a tilt.

Caminiti came in off a VFL pre-season while Phillipou has played every game.

When you consider their positions it adds potency to their powerful seasons.

Mattaes Phillipou — who does not drink alcohol — has kept Jack Billings out of the team to play every game this season. Picture: Michael Klein.

Caminiti, Owens and Phillipou were put together in an AFL attack that wouldn’t look out of place in the under-18s.

Can one of them grow from a boy to a man in an elimination final against Greater Western Sydney?

Back in 1982, Dermott Brereton launched his glittering career with 5.2 on debut in a semi-final.

Windhager and Wanganeen-Milera have partnered at half-back although the former has recently crept up to a wing.

They are five critical roles and they have somehow proven themselves almost overnight.

These aren’t honest footballers who have been around for five or 10 years that Lyon is extracting everything out of, but will never be able to take the Saints to the promised land.

And they aren’t the likes of Spencer White and Tom Lee, draft busts from a decade ago.

They are legitimate future A-graders. When was the last time you could say that about St Kilda’s youngsters?

But it makes you wonder … what does the future have in store for some of the club’s older players stuck outside the selected side?

How many times could Lyon have rested 18-year-old teetotaller Phillipou to play Jack Billings this year?

He didn’t at all. Billings must be thinking about browsing the AFL marketplace for a new buyer.

Does injury-prone utility Nick Coffield fit back in? And what about Hunter Clark? Will free agent Jade Gresham seek a fresh start?

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has been another St Kilda revelation off half-back. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos

Lyon has clearly locked in his favourite five and wants to build around them. This year of exploration has ended up exploding with promise.

These Saints have won 13 last quarters with a mindset that anything is possible.

There are obviously leaders driving them forward.

Reigning premiership captain Joel Selwood noted how All-Australian Callum Wilkie would often run up to the midfielders mid-game to offer advice and then organise his defensive group.

Wanganeen-Milera has shadowed Jack Sinclair at training this year.

The fear 12 months ago was that Wanganeen-Milera would return to South Australia after 2023.

But in April the Herald Sun revealed he had re-signed until 2025 and it’s no surprise after listening to teammates talk about how he has come out of his shell in his second season.

There are three more St Kilda babies still on training wheels in the VFL that insiders at Moorabbin are also bullish about.

They are key forward Isaac Keeler (12 VFL games this year), midfielder Oli Hotton (9) and key defender James Van Es (14).

Keeler, Van Es, Phillipou and Caminiti are housemates in Cheltenham while Wanganeen-Milera – the nephew of 1993 Brownlow medallist Gavin Wanganeen – lives with revitalised wingman Mason Wood.

There’s hordes of talent in those houses with more on the way. As for the long-held theory that Lyon doesn’t play the kids?

Consider it debunked.

Originally published as AFL Finals 2023: The remarkable St Kilda numbers that show why Ross Lyon should be coach of the year