KING KEY AS LYON MAKES HIS RUN
Did St Kilda overachieve in 2023? Fans bristle at the suggestion. The Saints won their first four games under Ross Lyon then hung on to a finals berth ahead of the chasing pack with 13 wins. The Saints had no Max King or Tim Membrey early and inspirational skipper Jack Steele was battered and bruised. King and Membrey are back and have a willing accomplice in fellow key tall Cooper Sharman. They have another year under Lyon’s game plan and of development in Mattaes Phillipou, Mitch Owens, Nasiah WanganeenMilera and Marcus Windhager.
THE FIRING LYON
Lyon-coached teams were once defensively dour. But Lyon inherited a team of runners and has only added to that reputation with 2023 draftees Darcy Wilson and Hugo Garcia, as well as ex-Fremantle wingman Liam Henry. So Lyon will use the elite runners to play an up-tempo attacking game, then surge back and clog the corridor when the rivals have the pill. And as Rowan Marshall said last week, if you don’t know the game plan you don’t play under Ross Lyon.
IS IT MAX KING OR BUST?
St Kilda has so often in the past needed a key forward saviour to drag it deep into September. Think Tony Lockett, Barry Hall, Nick Riewoldt and Stewart Loewe. In his fifth season, there is every reason to believe King is primed for his best yet after 52.41 in 2022 then 28 goals in just 11 games last year, including three in the elimination final loss to Greater Western Sydney. But St Kilda’s forward line is as balanced as it has been since Riewoldt’s glory days. King, Membrey and Sharman are the talls, while Jack Higgins and Dan Butler have speed and verve.
St Kilda has built from within at multiple drafts while making prudent acquisitions that have not broken the bank (Brad Hill’s outside contract excepted). It means the Saints have cap space if they can show they are a destination club. There’s every chance the kids they have drafted will have shown their potential by October. In 2022 the Saints took Wanganeen-Milera, Owens and Windhager, then followed it in 2023 with Phillipou while adding former top 20 pick Liam Stocker from Carlton. Last November they took five kids and three experienced types. Four of those kids played North Melbourne last week – Darcy Wilson, Lance Collard, Arie Schoenmaker and Hugo Garcia – along with Henry and ex-Power defender Riley Bonner. Ex-Blue Paddy Dow isn’t far away.