In critical moments in the final quarter of their first two matches, the over-hyped Saints have followed a script rather than react to the circumstances of the game.
In opening round, two goals behind with seven minutes remaining in the game, St Kilda folded back hard in defence rather than pushing up to the Collingwood kicker to squeeze the ground and attempt to force a turnover. The Magpies took eight uncontested marks and 45 seconds off the clock.
In round one, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera kicked a goal with less than 12 minutes left in the game. His kick cut St Kilda’s margin against Melbourne to 12 points. He then spent six minutes and 18 seconds on the bench.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is an elite talent but he can’t do it all.Credit: AFL Photos
Different decisions may not have changed the result but the lack of initiative when the game was on the line is an indication that the club isn’t ready yet, regardless of talent, to compete with the best.
Although Wanganeen-Milera was entitled to a break, the Saints’ on-field leadership and coaching panel are either not ready to get the critical decisions right without the input of the senior coach, or they are so concerned about getting them wrong that they rigidly stick to what was planned out of fear of making a mistake.
By contrast, Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury and Nick Daicos and Melbourne’s Max Gawn had the nous to take advantage of the situation to secure the four points. Even allowing for costly fumbles and missed shots at goal, the Saints did not.
The problem for the Saints is they needed to learn and win rather than learn and lose in those two games, given the expectation on the club heading into 2026.
Work to do: Saints coach Ross Lyon.Credit: AFL Photos
The early losses only add pressure to a team that looked nervous early in their opening game with so much riding on the outcome.
All this presents a challenge for their coach Ross Lyon.
He knows the answer to almost every football question, but judging when to step in and when to step out so others learn to apply solutions for themselves can’t be easy for an experienced coach who drives such exacting standards.
“Sometimes you’ve got to let them drive the car … but it’s a steep learning curve,” Lyon said in a sometimes rambling post-game media conference.
St Kilda recruit Sam Flanders is a good player but not a club changing player. Credit: St Kilda FC
That learning curve is even steeper without last year’s captain Jack Steele, now a Demon, who played a decisive role in Melbourne’s win, and high-priced recruits (none who strike anyone as club-changing additions) trying to gel on the field with new teammates.
Steele is enjoying playing to a looser framework than he did at St Kilda, and it showed in his game.
Can, and should, Lyon let the players drive the car even further – or grab the wheel himself? That’s just one of several questions for the Saints boss.
In an ideal world, the reins are loosened. But Lyon knows such a world doesn’t exist, particularly when trying to lift a club from the doldrums with a relatively young list. He also carries a reputation that may affect the decisions of players and officials he manages.
The other issue for St Kilda, who have played reasonably well in both matches, is that despite their headline-grabbing recruits, their midfield is still below par.
Wanganeen-Milera is an elite player, but he is not necessarily an elite centre-bounce player yet. Even if he was, one player is not enough.
Underneath the ruckman, the centre bounce attendances were shared by Wanganeen-Milera, Marcus Windhager, Jack Macrae, Hugo Garcia, Hugh Boxhall, Sam Flanders, Mattaes Phillipou, Jack Sinclair, Max Hall and Mitch Owens.
Most of those players are young and not yet in the class of the midfield combinations they have faced or are about to face most of this season. Hall has been outstanding (one of three players along with the co-captains to earn coaches votes this season) and the others can develop into good players. Tobie Travaglia, who played VFL on Sunday, is also emerging.
But they are not there yet. They also lack a pinch-hitting speedster in the mould of Nick Watson or Kysaiah Pickett who can create chaos in the centre. Incidentally, the pick seven they used to trade in Flanders is the pick Melbourne used to select Latrelle Pickett at 12 in last year’s draft, a reminder that every decision in footy carries an opportunity cost.
St Kilda are playing like the middle-of-the-road team most predicted they would be at the start of the season. They are neither bad, nor that good. They are not excelling on any statistical measure, nor retreating.
But they have no excuses for their failure to win four points in their first two matches as most things were tilted in their favour. They can’t reset a narrative now.
The Saints will improve, but the road is long, and now, with every team gunning to knock them off (none more so than the Giants, who remember what happened to Leek Aleer in the trade period), the hill they are climbing is steep.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
