St Kilda great Leigh Montagna has implored the club to trade out some of its star senior players to bring more youth into the club in a “reset”, saying he thinks it “needs to go back to go forward.”
The Saints had their final hopes dashed after losing to Brisbane, falling to 11-10 to continue St Kilda’s drop off after a promising 5-1 start to the season.
Since Round 7 St Kilda has ranked bottom six in the ‘Core Four’ stats — with the footy (15th), without the footy, clearance and post-clearance contest (all 12th).
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“They’re in a real predicament … this is 15 rounds of football, it’s a bottom-four profile, so they have really struggled with their game,” Montagna said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.
Asked if their issues lie with personnel or system, Montagna said: “I think it’s a combination of both.”
The Saints’ finals hopes are over (Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS
It comes after St Kilda has aggressively recruited players via trade and free agency over the last four years, bringing Paddy Ryder (35 years old), Dan Hannebery (32), Tom Campbell (31), Brad Hill, Dean Kent, Mason Wood, Brad Crouch (all 29), Jarrod Lienert, Zak Jones (both 28), Dougal Howard (27), Dan Butler, Jack Hayes (both 26) and Jack Higgins (24) into the fold.
Looking at the age profile of those players combined with the rest of the senior core, Montgana questioned how much upside the Saints’ list has.
“This is the concern for St Kilda supporters when you think about where the improvement is going to come from in the years to come,” he said.
“How much room for improvement have they got these guys? How high is their ceiling? And that’s in conjunction with their core group of Seb Ross, Tim Membrey, Jimmy Webster, Jack Sinclair, Jack Billings, Rowan Marshall and Jack Steele, who are all 26 plus years old as well.
“There’s not a lot of ceiling room within the core group of players on top of that profile… the upside is a very small margin.”
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Montagna did praise young guns Max King, Cooper Sharman (both 22), Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (20), Marcus Windhager and Mitch Owens (both 19), who’ve joined the club over the same four-year period, but said he had “question marks” on their other youngsters.
He believes St Kilda should follow Port Adelaide’s blueprint from post 2018 and trade out their players with currency to try and bounce back quickly.
“I think they need to go back to go forward,” Montagna said.
“I think they need to trade out some of those players they’ve brought in and bring in some more young talent and reset — Brad Hill, Zak Jones and maybe Jack Billings or Jade Gresham to try and get some other young talent in.
“I look at Port Adelaide — they went through a period for five years where they were mid-table — then traded Chad Wingard, Jasper Pittard and Jared Polec when they were playing good footy — Jack Hombsch, Paddy Ryder and Dougal Howard.
“They made some change and got in those young players — Zak Butters, Xavier Duursma, Connor Rozee and Mitch Georgiades — then all of a sudden played in back-t0-back preliminary finals (in 2020 and 2021).
“I think there’s some concerns there for St Kilda, they need to have a real hard think about where their list is at moving forward.”
Fremantle expect Rory Lobb to back up against GWS, despite being subbed out of the win over West Coast.
While the Roos are counting the injury toll from a bruising encounter with the Crows.
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FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir has defended the club’s decision to sub Rory Lob out of the win over West Coast late, despite then admitting he expects the star to play next weekend.
Lobb has been carrying a shoulder injury for the past few weeks and appeared to aggravate it in a marking contest in the third term.
But the big forward waved away medical staff and played on, despite clearly carrying his right shoulder.
“He’s sore,” Longmuir admitted post-match. “We don’t think it’s too significant. We’re proud of his efforts after he got injured and halved some contests and remained in the game and kept working his way through it.
“(We) expect him to play (against GWS).
“Players have played plenty of times after they’ve been subbed out.
“He was carrying his arm around so he’s got an injury. He’s been carrying it for three weeks so he got a stinger on it and couldn’t go on tonight but we think he’ll be alright.”
Longmuir said he would enjoy the win over West Coast before contemplating having both Lobb and fellow big forward Matt Taberner unavailable for the away clash with GWS.
“I’ll worry about that when I get home,” he laughed.
“It’s not ideal and I’d love Lobby to play next week. We haven’t really crossed that bridge yet.
“When you see a player out there carrying their arm, you want to protect them so that’s why we subbed him out.
“He’s a fast healer. He played the week after he hurt it the first time from memory. So fingers crossed he gets up. He doesn’t let on when he brings injuries into games and he pushes through it really well.
“He’s 205cm and we needed to contest forward of the ball.
“I’m really proud of his efforts to keep competing, sometimes with one arm.”
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The call to sub Lobb out of the contest came with just four minutes remaining when the match was all but won.
“The docs went out and checked him and probably decided that he couldn’t go on anymore,” Longmuir said.
“He battled as well as he could for as long as he could. We needed to get him off for his own welfare from him.”
Lobb’s potential absence could hurt Fremantle’s top four push with Taberner already sidelined. skipper Nat Fyfe is no guarantee to return from his hamstring injury in Round 23 with Longmuir adamant the club would take a cautious approach.
“We don’t need to (bring him straight back), but if he’s fit to play, he’ll put his hand up for selection,” Longmuir said.
“If he’s not declared fit, we’re not going to put him out there and risk him. You injure yourself at this time of year and have a repeat injury to that hammy, then your season’s almost done.”
Longmuir said Fyfe may even go back to the WAFL for a second time this year to build fitness heading into finals.
“If it’s not this week, then we’ve got the bye and a WAFL game in the bye so we’ll look at that,” he said.
ST KILDA‘s Jimmy Webster‘s season is all but over after he injured his hamstring in the loss to Brisbane.
With the Saints now only a mathematical chance of finals, Webster is set for scans in the coming days.
He was subbed out of the loss to Brisbane early and was iced up for the remainder of the clash.
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ADELAIDE forward Shane McAdam is in doubt for this weekend’s Showdown with Port Adelaide.
McAdam was subbed out of the win over North Melbourne with a hamstring complaint.
“Forward Shane McAdam injured his hamstring while leading for the ball in the final quarter and was subbed out of the game,” Crows high performance manager Darren Burgess said.
“He will be assessed in coming days ahead of next week’s Showdown.”
NORTH MELBOURNE are counting the cost of a bruising loss to the Crows, with three players injured and young Paul Curtis now racing to be fit for the final match of the season.
jed anderson suffered concussion and won’t play again this season under the AFL’s protocols.
skipper jack ziebell is also likely done for 2022 after suffering a “significant” shoulder injury.
“It didn’t look great for Ziebs in particular,” coach Leigh Adams said.
“It’s some sort of shoulder injury. I think we all know Jack Ziebell is going to put his body on the line every time.
“I’m not sure if its collarbone or a dislocation but for him to come straight off and get subbed off, it must have been pretty bad. He doesn’t come off unless something is wrong.
“Fingers crossed it’s not too bad but it looks like his season is over.”
Kangaroos miss chance against Crows | 01:34
Jaidyn Stephenson will have to prove his fitness to play again this season after coming off with a back injury.
“Stevo’s had a bit of back issues that can come good pretty quick.”
Adams defended the club’s decision to send Anderson back out into the contest, as he was later ruled out with concussion.
“I haven’t seen the vision yet – I’m comfortable our doctors will have made the right decision,” he said.
“I know he came off with the blood rule and I was told at three quarter time he’d gone into the concussion protocols.”
Adams said the club wouldn’t take any risk with young Curtis after he copped a knock to his shoulder.
“This time of year obviously with one game to go, we won’t take any risk with a young kid like that,” he said.
GWS could be without Lachlan Keeffe after he complained of groin soreness in the loss to the Western Bulldogs.
Caretaker coach Mark McVeigh said the club would take precautions with the veteran.
“We’ll assess Keeffey who complained of a bit of groin soreness. We’ll take precautions there,” he said.
Tanner Bruhn won’t play again this season after entering the AFL’s concussion protocols.
“Tanner Bruhn with the HIA so he’ll enter those protocols which is not ideal for him,” McVeigh said.
the WESTERN BULLDOGS admit skipper Marcus Bontempelli is not fully fit but continues to press on.
“I finished the game off alright didn’t he?” coach Luke Beveridge said.
“He’s struggling a little bit with a niggle or two. I had Marcus and Chrissy Bell in my office yesterday talking through, he’s got a bit of an adductor issue going on.
“Both Marcus and Chris were sure he’d get through the game.
“He’s not 100 per cent. I have pushed through a bit of discomfort today.”
Bulldogs keep finals in sight | 02:53
GEELONG Coach Chris Scott has hinted at resting more players for the final round clash against West Coast.
With top spot assured, the Cats do have one injury concern with Rhys Stanley subbed out of the win over the Gold Coast.
“They tell me he’s got a low grade adductor strain,” Scott said.
“Generally when they say low grade it’s a week or two. It will be unlikely he’ll play next week is the feedback I’ve got but they are not too worried beyond that.”
GOLD COAST coach Stuart Dew says he feels for Sam Day after the forward re-injured his knee.
“Suspected that he’s hurt his meniscus that he’s had repaired last year and it was the same mechanism the way he slid and jammed that joint so we’ve got fingers crossed but unfortunately I think Sam might have hurt his knee which is really unfortunate,” Dew said.
Izak Rankin also remains in doubt for Round 23 after injuring his shoulder.
“He hurt that shoulder a few weeks back… clearly awkward landing/hit and he’s stirred that up,” Dew said.
“We’ll just see how that settles.”
WEST COAST could be without both Nic Naitanui and jamine jones for the trip to Geelong.
Jones was subbed out of the loss to the Dockers with a back issue.
“His back just seized up. We weighed up before the game whether to pull him out … He’s had a big year and carried some injuries. He just couldn’t last,” coach Adam Simpson said.
Simpson also admitted Naitanui was playing through the pain.
“He’s playing because the club needs him,” Simpson said.
