Saints young talent to spear Saints forward

[saynta]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 3bd28c4d03

"St Kilda believes a return to finals football next year will be spearheaded by its young talent

The Saints are confident they made the right draft and trade calls this off-season. So will they play finals in 2022? Here’s what they think will spark a climb.
Jon Ralph.

St Kilda believes a return to finals football next year will be spearheaded by its young wave of talent and justify a barren trade period for Brett Ratten’s side.

The Saints strongly backed their draft rankings to secure the silky Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, despite criticism from Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy that they should have taken local boy Josh Sinn.

On the second night of the draft, they were thrilled to secure NGA academy picks Mitch Owens, a 191cm fearless wingman, and Marcus Windhager, a powerful onballer, before nabbing 198cm Glenelg key defender Oscar Adams.


The Saints failed to make a deal across the trade period, after missing on North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri, and eventually added ex-Roo Tom Campbell for ruck depth as a free agent.

But St Kilda list boss James Gallagher made clear the club’s improvement after a poor 2021 was always going to come from within.

“We know our improvement is coming from the young players on our list,” he said.

“We know there is a significant amount of improvement.

“(Jade) Gresham will come back and play this year, but (Rowan) Marshall has still only played 70 games and missed half the year, (Max) King has only played 40, (Cal) Wilkie hasn’t played a lot of footy. (Ben) Long, (Hunter) Clark, (Nick) Coffield, (Josh) Battle, all these boys who are only scratching the surface in their own careers who have played 40, 50, 60 players.

“That is where the large portion of our improvement will come from. If we get a fair run with injury that will help.

“But we know it’s primarily about growth. We tried to do a little bit in the trade period, very selective and we managed it really well with a focus on the draft and as you will hear from 17 other clubs we are very happy with how it went.”

"Gresham’s torn achilles is fully healed but he will be eased back into training pre-Christmas to ensure he is ready for Round 1.

Healy said St Kilda should have weighed the flight risk of selecting South Australian Wanganeen-Milera at pick 11 when Vic Metro captain Sinn was available at the same time.

Sinn went to Port Adelaide with the next pick, after the Power traded up ahead of West Coast.

“Why would you take a wingman from interstate, with all the issues associated with it, when you have a kid in your own heartland – Josh Sinn – who is captain of Sandringham Dragons, captain of Vic Metro, and still available,” Healy told 3AW.

Gallagher said the club backed in its capacity to keep interstate players despite Healy’s critique.

“He wasn’t too far away, Josh, but geography doesn’t play a big role in our recruiting,” Gallagher said.

“We have got a club that people want to stay at. History has shown if they come to our club they don’t want to leave.

“Josh is a really talented player. Good kid, he has some upside, but we need to bring in elite talent to our club and we have done it.

“It is best available. We had (Nasiah) inside (pick 11). He is exceptionally talented, he is a beautiful mover, very light on his feet, very comfortably the best kick in the draft.

“That is something we need. Max King is pretty happy to have him at the club. He is a pretty skinny kid. There is enormous growth in him.”

[Impatient Sainter]

Thanks for posting Saynta.

As Gallagher has indicated if we can have some luck with injuries this year, I believe we will give the competition a real shake up. For the first time since 2008/2009 we have some quality depth on our list and can afford the comfort of having our kids developing in the VFL or at the Dragons before they are thrown into the big time. The elite quality players will filter through to the AFL, but there will be no pressure to rush them.

Things are are really on the up at Moorabin!