loss to the Western Bulldogs<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\nMattaes Phillipou and Isaac Keeler (2022), Tobie Travaglia, Alix Tauru, Patrick Said and Hugh Boxshall (2024) and Charlie Banfield and Kye Fincher (2025) all played VFL instead on Sunday.<\/p>\n
But King warned he needs more out of the top draftees in a premiership puzzle that remains unsolved.<\/p>\n
Is this St Kilda’s next premiership team? (Yellow for future unclear, orange for potential recruit and red for young players with a question on quality)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real problem, or the real discussion is the top three \u2013 picks 8, picks 10 and picks 10 in the draft (Travaglia, Tauru, Phillipou). They just could be (Essendon\u2019s 2020 draft haul) Reid, Cox and Perkins. They really could be and this team can\u2019t afford that,\u201d he said on First Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s their back pockets in a couple of years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if (Darcy) Wilson finishes at the Saints or if he leaves. I don\u2019t know whether (Max) King comes back, (Liam) Ryan hangs on with his age. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not good enough to win a flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t make strawberry jam out of cow dung. If you want Ross (Lyon) to be successful, they\u2019ve got to support him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got to get their picks right for starters. They are too high a pick grade to get wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got to make them (Travaglia, Tauru, Phillipou) players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 2022, 2024 and 2025 drafts, 12 players \u2013 none of them played today. That\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: “We all like a bit of theatre” | 08:30<\/p>\n
Fellow First Crack panellist Leigh Montagna said \u201cideally\u201d Travaglia and Tauru become St Kilda\u2019s back pockets \u2013 but only \u201cif they get to the level they drafted them at as top 10 draft picks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what they\u2019d be hoping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019d be hoping Phillipou is that half forward that is becoming the player they are paying next year and onwards. But they are still the big question marks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not completely confident yet, but some young players do take longer than others.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Tauru we\u2019ve seen the athleticism and the raw talent \u2013 he\u2019s still got to work out game sense. How to play a defensive system, when to roll off, the craft. Phillipou is still trying to work out what he is as a player \u2013 we know he\u2019s got the talent and the size, but what is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
King said it was a \u201cwaste of time\u201d having Phillipou play in the VFL, when he could be down back.<\/p>\n
Bevo: “We wanted to take risks” | 14:53<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not the only move King would make at the selection table, imploring the Saints the use $2 million star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera as a damaging centre forward player \u2013 in the Dustin Martin mould.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s time for Ross Lyon to have the chat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNasiah Wanganeen-Milera to me is a Dustin Martin-level type player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2016 Dustin Martin was getting the same volume of ball as what Nas is getting now \u2013 but there was a lot of junk down back.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t really impact the scoreboard \u2013 it doesn\u2019t really help anyone but the player feel good about their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps you win Brownlows, it helps you win a Best and Fairest clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
But King said the conversation to \u201ccut down\u201d Martin\u2019s role in the back half helped him become the damaging player we saw forward of the ball from 2017 onwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Nas is the same \u2013 you see him kicking out a lot and his ball use out of the back half, and it\u2019s terrific. I\u2019m not denigrating what he\u2019s doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera racked up more than 40 disposals on Sunday.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing right now what he\u2019s asked from the coach to do. I think they need to make him a centre forward player because I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve got the talent getting junk down back.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan they find someone else to be that guy at half back? Can it be Wilson?<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they go centre forward, they couldn\u2019t score (in the loss to the Dogs).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had 61 inside 50s. A ridiculous number, but for no real productivity, for no real damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think they are a different commodity when he\u2019s in the forward line. And (Nasiah) wants to be that guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a positive discussion, but I think Ross has to have the chat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kicked the ball inside 50 five times \u2013 and he\u2019s had 44 touches. You\u2019ve got to get the balance right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not good enough down there without him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda have got a \u201creal problem\u201d when it comes to their talented young draftees as questions over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-750783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750783","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=750783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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