4 Points: St Kilda’s rebuild falling apart at the seams

St Kilda and Melbourne began their rebuilds together. Melbournes has advanced falteringly but with a confidence it is going in the right direction. St Kildas just looks to have faltered.

In 2013 St Kilda finished 16th, Melbourne 17th. In 2014 the Saints were bottom, Melbourne second bottom. They have both climbed in increments since (Melbourne 13th, St Kilda 14th in 2015). The Saints missed the eight by percentage the next year, Melbourne fell short on percentage last year.

They are both five years into fixing that mess and St Kilda is back where this all began.

This was the game to best measure where St Kilda is at. The peers have been on the same trajectory. After seven rounds St Kildas trajectory seems to have changed direction. With one and a half wins from seven rounds it is probable we can now put a line through them reaching the eight.

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Within weeks we can know if we can put a line through them getting to where they were last year. They need to win 10 of the next 15 games to improve on last years 11 win season. The way they are playing that seems unlikely.

So where does that leave them? Is this another step backwards to go forwards? Do they need to do more than tinker? They have traded out of this years draft leaving themselves only with their first round pick but no picks in the second and third rounds, so finding talent will be a challenge.

They have not been a destination club though hopefully the move up Nepean Highway to Moorabbin can help change that. They are cashed up and offering money to lure Jordy De Goey from Collingwood, or entice free agent Rory Sloane. Their playing list looks vanilla and they clearly need to inject pace and class into their midfield.

The obvious measure of the two teams from Sunday and their comparative development is found in two players: Paddy McCartin, taken at number one, and Christian Petracca, taken with the next pick.

Emblematic of the rebuilds writ small, McCartin remains an uncertain proposition while Petracca looks more likely to become an A-grade player.

Clubs know that when they recruit key position players there is a greater risk of them not living up to their adolescent promise. But they are so structurally important in teams, they invest heavily in the hope that they can build a team around them. McCartin has not yet suggested he will be that player in the way that say Jesse Hogan has at Melbourne. Petracca was a safer pick and is now looking the significantly better one.

McCartin on Sunday was also emblematic of what is going wrong at St Kilda right now. He is their full forward and they can't kick goals. If they kicked the ball at anywhere approaching a 50-50 return this season they would be in the eight. This stat suggests that the problems bedevilling them right now will as turn when they start kicking accurately. But is this an issue of form or personnel? Is it where the kick is taken from or who is taking it? Is it what the opposition is doing and in turn making you do?

Jade Gresham is one of their most talented young players at St Kilda but he was clearly infected with the goal kicking contagion. He kicked the Saints first goal when he ran into an open goal but then pushed a set shot from 40 out of bounds and centred another when he should have taken his shot. Paddy McCartin could feel it too, as did Seb Ross.

St Kilda looks better when they get Jimmy Webster running off half-back, and having David Armitage back in the team gives them some ballast, but their movement forward is haphazard.

Melbourne in part fed that uncertainty in the mind of the player running forward by playing with a spare man behind the ball, but St Kildas disposal by foot was seldom better than 50 per cent and their fast handballs in packs did little to release a player into space and more to pass the problem onto others.

We have previously raised in this column the idea of the need for a searching review at St Kilda to ascertain how deep a correction in the rebuild needs to be, and whether the skill lapses are due to personnel, structure, or the simple ephemera of form.

North's Wood truly a wonder

There were few highlights at the SCG on Saturday night in a game that did nothing to end the debate about the state of the game, but one of them was Mason Wood.

The wonder of Wood is why he has not played more often. The answer is he would have but for injuries. It is clearer now why it is they have been impatient for him to be fit and in the team. He is versatile – being strong over head, powerful and quick. He knows where the goals are and has a nice left foot.

Norths decision to keep Jarrad Waite on the list this year as coverage for their forwards has proven a smart one. He has certainly helped. His role is even clearer now after Saturday night when he missed the game than it was before, and that is that he will not play ahead of Wood.

Norths victory was a surprise but it should not have been on two counts. One, Sydney has been able to win away but not at home this year so a loss at home was not unexpected. And two, we need to stop under-selling North.

Their first wins were against St Kilda and Carlton so they needed to be put in context, but since then they have now beaten Hawthorn and Sydney away. Their wins are becoming like Peter Daicos goals, where at some point they reach a regularity that they can no longer be flukes or a surprise. We have to now stop being surprised when North wins.

The closeness of the scores throughout the night was the only aspect other than Wood to inject life into a game that was for the agnostic viewer a flat affair.

If you are a North fan, you will quite rightly see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Your team won away against a higher-ranked opponent so you see only joy – and sport is after all a results-driven business where you got the result – but cripes it was lifeless. The teams kicked only nine goals each. There were many big packs following the ball under 9 style, long periods of play where little happened.

Dive Bombers

Was this better from Essendon? Really? Any better? For a half, yes.

The first quarter was the sort of response you wanted to see from a team that was rightly criticised. They should even have been further ahead at quarter time.

At half time they were ahead and should have been further ahead but then of course there was the mandatory meek third quarter surrender.

“Some players will have nightmares. Theyll hear sirens, wake up in a cold sweat thinking 'Is that the third-quarter siren Ive heard, must be the third quarter,” John Worsfold said, trying to lightly explain away the mental affliction of the third quarter. He was joking. I think.

It is hard to explain the third-quarter fade out any other way than mental. Opposition teams do not radically rejig things at half time and catch Essendon out each week.

Essendon does defend the ball deep. It is not by design, Worsfold said recently, admitting the side does not plan to play the game in the oppositions half and to score from there. They would rather be playing it in their half they just cant get it there and keep it there.

They had seven players in the team on Saturday who had been All Australian. Not all of them are as seasoned as Brendon Goddard. The talent is still there which suggests they are side that is underperforming, not a side playing at its level and had been overrated after finals last year.

Zac Merrett was again the avenue to success for the opposition. Merrett was tagged and held to just 17 touches and consequently Essendon had no drive.

Joe Daniher kicked one goal, and tried to make his mark, but was unable to create an impression in his 100th game.

Paddy Ambrose was beaten. Anthony McDonald Tipungwuti needs to be dropped, for it is now a string of games where he has looked injured and has had no impact on the game.

Jayden Laverde was a high draft pick and highly rated junior, but he has yet to develop into an AFL player.

Shooting the messenger

Last week the AFL sent a message when they shot the messenger.

Chad Cornes was suspended for a week for swearing at a player. Meh. So what, hes a runner hes easy enough to replace.

But the point was the AFL was making a point: they are sick of runners.

Does the AFL make a point this week with Tom Hawkins and any form of intentional contact with an umpire? The umpire is, ahem, touchy on the subject.

Hawkins had to be cited for contact with the umpire for the simple reason he made contact with the umpire.

The question was whether the contact when he pushed away Dean Margetts hand was accidental or intentional. Accidental would be a fine and dealt with by the MRO, while intentional was a direct referral. He was charged with intentional.

It was right that it was referred to the tribunal even if it is subsequently agreed it was accidental not intentional. The evidence deserves to be discussed and debated in the tribunal for this type of incident not just considered by one person.

Hawkins definitely pushes Margetts hand away and is told by the umpire not to touch him. Hawkins said he thought it was a players hand not the umpires he pushed, but with the opponent Phil Davis a step away at the time thats debatable.

The contact is at the lowest end as it was more dismissive than anything. But the contact was intentional and that is ordinarily graded higher for all offences higher than accidental. Does that mean a bigger fine or a week off? I think he might miss a week.

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Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on Boots for Kids. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victorias cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books – five sports books and two true crime books.

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