SEN SA Breakfast co-hosts Kane Cornes and Andrew Hayes fear St Kilda are stuck in “no man’s land” heading into the 2022 season.
The Saints finished 10th last year with a 10-12 win-loss record after making the eight and winning a final in 2020.
Cornes and Hayes are both tipping St Kilda to miss the finals once again this year with the former raising concerns about their “small” midfield and undersized defence.
Hayes told SEN SA Breakfast: “The Saints are always going to threaten, and it means they’re not going to be right down the bottom, so they don’t get absolute prized picks. So then what are you doing if you’re mid-range?”
Cornes: “No man’s land.”
Hayes: “Absolute no man’s land. 11th to 9th.”
Cornes: “You don’t want to be in no man’s land.
“I’m worried about their midfield. I love Jack Steele, standalone skipper now and a great choice, but they are a little bit like Adelaide, they’re a small midfield.
“Ross is a smaller midfielder, Billings is a smaller midfielder, Gresham is a smaller midfielder, Jones is a smaller midfielder, so there’s an issue there.
“They can get smashed there if Ryder and Marshall aren’t completely at the top of their game – and Ryder’s 33. How much footy he plays, I’m not sure.
“I do like the forward combination of (Tim) Membrey and Max King … but their defenders are also undersized. They’ve got Dougal Howard who is a good size, they’ve got Cal Wilkie and then who is their third key defender? That would be an issue for them.
“I think they probably win 10 games again.”
Cornes touched on St Kilda’s inconsistent 2021 campaign and the pressure that’s on out-of-contract coach Brett Ratten.
“10 wins and 12 losses doesn’t paint the full picture,” Cornes said.
“They had some smashings last year – Round 3 they got beaten by Essendon by 74, Round 6 they got beaten by Port Adelaide by 54, Round 10 they got beaten by the Western Bulldogs by 111 points – they got belted up.
“Saints fans will say, ‘give us a break, we had significant injuries’, that is true, Ryder, (Rowan) Marshall and (Dan) Hannebery, if you can count Hannebery as an injury because he just doesn’t play, were all reasons amongst others that they struggled last year.
“I really like Brett Ratten, there’s something really likeable about him and he’s going to be one of those coaches that’s under the pump with Stewie Dew and Ken Hinkley this year coming out of contract.
“They won a final (in 2020) and there was some optimism building, they go and recruit and top-up again with mature players, and when you do that, it signals that they think they’re close – and they weren’t – they weren’t anywhere near close last year.”
The Saints take on Essendon in the AAMI Community Series at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, followed by a Round 1 clash against Collingwood on March 18.