{"id":191220,"date":"2025-10-05T08:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191220\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T08:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:52:16","slug":"saints-list-strategy-raises-eyebrows-with-aggressive-recruiting-and-risky-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191220\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints’ list strategy raises eyebrows with aggressive recruiting and risky spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

They also used two top 10 picks in last year\u2019s strong draft after losing free agent Josh Battle to Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

So the risk is overstated in relation to how they are working within the system because it saves clubs who lose the type of gamble they are embarking on.<\/p>\n

After the AFL bailed out West Coast just seven years after a premiership with a draft assistance package means new regimes aren\u2019t being held accountable for the sins of the past.<\/p>\n

There is little to no moral hazard for an administration to use the full extent of the salary cap\u2019s mechanisms particularly with the league\u2019s centralised funding distribution model helping clubs not bursting at the seams with revenue. It\u2019s a flaw draft assistant packages accentuate by saying if you take a risk, make it a big one.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean to imply the Saints don\u2019t care about the future impact of their decisions.<\/p>\n

\"St<\/p>\n

St Kilda president Andrew Bassat is prepared to take the punt. Credit: Penny Stephens<\/p>\n

They do, as their decision to draft top-end talent in previous seasons shows.<\/p>\n

The real risk is to the reputation of those in charge now as they attempt to land the Saints what they term a special premiership, having won just one in their history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough task.<\/p>\n

Flanders and De Koning have upside, but they are no guarantee to change the club\u2019s trajectory as Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Neale, Lance Franklin and Jeremy Cameron did when they arrived at their new clubs.<\/p>\n

The money being spent on that pair would not want to be coming out of my pockets.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they believe Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is already that type. He may well be after what we saw this season, while Max King is a wildcard.<\/p>\n

Of the five ready to arrive only Ryan has so far finished top 10 in his club best and fairest in 2025 (he was eighth) with De Koning more likely than Silvagni to finish top 10 in the Blues\u2019 count on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

The real test for the coaching staff is integrating the well paid new crew with the existing crew having listened to Wilkie over remuneration, potentially lost Rowan Marshall to Geelong<\/a> (probably for a first round draft pick of some description), and made the former skipper Jack Steele \u2013 who stepped down as captain at his exit meeting \u2013 on offer to any interested party.<\/p>\n

St Kilda\u2019s hierarchy don\u2019t seem to lose sleep over such issues, content that tough decisions is the only way to push them up the ladder given the compromised nature of the draft and free agency system, which rewards higher placed clubs more than it should under an equalisation model.<\/p>\n

But they have few excuses now and they know it as club president Andrew Bassat sold the thinking to members at the Trevor Barker Award last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruiting aggressively as we have, no doubt involves a degree of risk … (but) there is no risk-free way to a flag and indeed, doing nothing is the greatest risk of all,\u201d Bassat said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big queue of people lining up to take cracks if we fail. That\u2019s fine because we\u2019re not here to make friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

They would be battling on that front if they were. The big question is whether they can make finals.<\/p>\n

The system won\u2019t really punish the club if they don\u2019t. It\u2019s the leaders who will fall.<\/p>\n

By being so aggressive, St Kilda\u2019s leaders have put their reputations on the line. That is where the real risk lies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They also used two top 10 picks in last year\u2019s strong draft after losing free agent Josh Battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-191220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}