Footy Tragic

The Team:

As the Saints showed the footy world last year, and so far in their pre-season this year, they are going to be one of the teams to beat in 2010. It is from teams such as St.Kilda that it is best to pick your premium players and key-positions. The catch is that players from St.Kilda will come at a premium due to their consistency last year - however, it should be expected that many Saints will maintain their 2009 averages this year, meaning that you should be happy to fork out premium prices for many of their players. The Saints game-plan is certainly one which complements dream team - not only is it a high-possession one, but it also involves a lot of tackling - the highest in the league! The other benefit of the Saints for DT purposes is their great run with injuries in recent seasons – the hiring of David Misson to elite performance manager a few years ago has proven wonders for the Saints soft-tissue issues. So load your team with premium Saints in 2010 – they will play consistently, justify the money spent on them and are all very likely to play 20 – 22 games this year!

Who’s Hot?:

Nick Riewoldt ($468,100): Coming off his best pre-season in five years, the captain is looking bigger, fitter and stronger than ever! Riewoldt was injured through a lot of 2009 yet still dominated games – consider what he will be like this year whilst fully fit and with a point to prove! You need to have him!

David Armitage ($321,100): This is Armo’s fourth year on the list, and now with a spot in the team vacated by Luke Ball, he has a huge opportunity to cement himself a position in the best 22. Had a super summer so my money is on him having a big year.

Jack Steven ($200,400): Taken as a bottom age player in 2007, Steven has shown the Saints plenty of promise, dominating in many VFL games last year and having a great debut game late in the season. Big things are expected this year from him and he is every chance to play a number of games and score highly.

Ben McEvoy ($194,100): Has added considerable bulk and muscle to his frame in the off-season. Lyon said that he has been the most impressive ‘kid’ this pre-season, running personal best times in all the time-trials, including leading the 3km! Should be able to force his way into the best-22 this year.

Adam Schneider ($348,000): A change of role in 2010 should see his scoring potential grow greatly. He will be playing through the midfield much more this year, and as he proved at the end of 2009, this position can be hugely lucrative for him as he averaged 100 points across a five-game period towards the end of the year.

Brendon Goddard ($455,700): Will be one of the first picked players in many sides, and rightly so! He is a star midfielder but can be picked up also as a defender! A massive positive! Also, he has shown already this year that he is a star DTer because he does it all – kicks, marks, goals and tackles! He is a complete DTer and will rarely give you a bad game! 

Who’s Not?:

Jesse W Smith: Has come to the Saints to get over his injury woes. So far he is looking much better, however he will not be ready until mid-season, putting him out of consideration for your starting team.

Lenny Hayes: Has had an interrupted pre-season due to a calf strain. Unfortunately, he corked the same calf against Freo, however he is expected to be ready for round one.

Raph Clarke: Pulled his hamstring in the intraclub game – could be ready round one, but I doubt he will get a game due to lack of match practice.

Robert Eddy: Been in a moon boot for most of the pre-season and would have to be very lucky to be selected early before proving himself at Sandy.

Andrew Lovett: Has been sacked by the club and will therefore play no part in their tilt at the flag. You don’t deserve the car if you’re silly enough to pick him! 

The Bargain:

David Armitage ($321,100): Often it can be hard to find the big improvers in the higher ranked teams as positions are often pretty well held by more experienced players. The only time that a younger player can ever really take a large step (as opposed to cameo roles which only score between 50 and 60 points) is typically due to a long term injury or retirement, or in St.Kilda’s case, the walking out of one of their senior players in the form of Luke Ball. The Saints have been so well-equipped with inside midfielder talent that they have not recruited once since Armitage in 2006, obviously expecting the likes of Lenny Hayes and Luke Ball to be at the club for many more years. However, when the unexpected happened and Ball walked out on the Saints at the end of last year, there was only really ever one man who would step up into that spot – and that was Armitage. His only real competition will come from the likes of McQualter, Jones and Geary – all of whom have either already secured a different position in the team (so why rob Peter to pay Paul?) or are not as good as Armo under the packs. Assuming Armo does step up this year and play 20 – 22 games, what are his chances of scoring well? Well… so far this pre-season, Armo has scored 99 points against Collingwood, 50 against Sydney (whilst being tagged by Brett Kirk – this WON’T happen in the real season) and 92 points against Freo on Saturday night. So he is proven this year he is up to the task, and last year was no difference – despite only three appearances, he averaged 92 DT points (including a whopping average of 9 tackles per game) and also winning himself 3 brownlow votes against Hawthorn! As a junior, he averaged 22 disposals through the TAC cup and was one of the higher ranked midfielders coming into the draft (and was subsequently taken at pick 9 by the Saints). Where he really shines in the Saints team is his ability to win his own ball, but also present a good option wide of the contest – the exact work rate lacked by Luke Ball that saw him dropped for several games last season. He also has an ability to go forward, averaging nearly a goal per game in his AFL career so far. To summarise, I believe that Armo is one of the better mid-priced players in the year’s dream team – not only should he play 22 games in a top-4 team, but he also has the runs on the board to show he is a great dream teamer. He should be one of the league’s biggest improvers in 2010, and if he is not, there will be plenty of questions asked, as are the expectation on his shoulders. 

The Kid:

Tom Lynch ($94,500): Lynch came to the Saints with the 13^th pick in the 2008 draft, lumped with plenty of Saints fans who saw him finally as the answer to their third forward worries. Unfortunately, 2009 saw no senior action for Lynch, a year in which the Saints made a very low number of changes to their team across the course of the year – almost the least on record. However, the one position that was far from set for the year was the position of a third tall in the forward line – the role was sporadically shared between James Gwilt, Sean Dempster and Robert Eddy. But still, none of these three became first choice, with the role being one that seemed to put each out of their comfort zone. The weekend’s game against Freo gave DT coaches a chance to look at Lynch for the first time in 2010 – and he was very impressive. Whilst not quite big enough for a key position, he certainly should be strong enough (and is definitely mobile enough) to hold down the third tall spot alongside Riewoldt and Kosi in 2010. It may be a bit much to ask of a second year player who has never played a game in the home and away season, but Lyon would surely want to develop Lynch as quick as possible as he is far and away the most suited player for this position in the Saints side. DT-wise, he is very good – he was ranked as the best forward (for DT) in his draft, mainly due to his high leads, which brought in plenty of marks, kicks and tackles. I’d want to see him named in round one first before selecting him. But Lyon has proven he doesn’t like to mess with structures, so if he plays round one, you can nearly be assured he will play plenty more games throughout the season. 

The Premium:

Nick Riewoldt ($468,100): For the second year in a row, Riewoldt was the highest scoring forward in dream team, and in 2010 it looks unlikely that there could be any better option! There is reason behind his high scoring – not only does he have one of the better marks in the competition, but his workrate is regarded as some of the best in the entire league, giving him the ability to venture far up ground for possessions, before gunning it back to the forward line to take a strong mark and kick a goal – simply put, he outruns and outclasses his opponents nearly every week. When choosing a premium priced player, it must be remembered why you are paying the big bucks for them – it is not necessarily to make money out of them, but to consistently get large scores, and never to be traded out barring injury. However, every now and then a premium comes along that has the potential to not only reap those large scores consistently, but also with a strong likelihood to improve on his previous years score. This appears to be the case for Riewoldt in 2010 – for the past number years he has struggled into the season (and often been inconsistent for the first several rounds) due to a lack of pre-season, but this year he has completed his first pre-season in five years, meaning he should step straight into the season in full flight – so far in the NAB cup he has shown he is in great form, scoring 85 and 86 points, both from very limited time on ground. Simply put, Riewoldt should be one of your first picked players – especially in 2010 as he looks even more like a premium than in years gone by. No longer can a coach have the usual excuse, “I’ll pick him in round five when he’s $100k cheaper,” as this year he is likely to come out swinging! 

The Smokey:

Adam Schneider ($348,000): Schneider has played as a forward for the majority of his career – this was up until late last year when Lyon gave him a turn through the midfield for the last half-dozen games of the season. As it seems through watching the NAB cup, it does not look like his time in the middle from last year (where he averaged 100 points across five games) will be a one-off. This NAB series we have seen him line up at the centre square for all three games, only moving forward occasionally (and therefore boosting his scoring power with a couple of goals) – he has clocked up scores of 104, 60 and 79 in his three games so far, and has looked at home in the midfield through each. He is still speculative due to the fact that St.Kilda still don’t seem 100% settled on each player’s positions for 2010, with Ross Lyon still tinkering with players in different roles. I do believe however, that Schneider will stay in the midfield for the majority of 2010 – with DalSanto and Goddard set to spend more time in the forward line, the logical conclusion is that Schneids will be the man who moves up the field to allow this. I believe that for the money you pay for him there should be a reasonable increase, but don’t expect much more than $50k – he may just prove to be more of a mid-priced keeper.