Earlier in 2026, there was an expectation that the St Kilda Football Club would reap immediate rewards due to their off-season recruiting spree.
Adding players like Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Liam Ryan, and Sam Flanders to the club was meant to push this team into contention in the eyes of some.
But those people have become accustomed to expecting immediate results, and that rarely happens in the footy world.
Look at it this way. If the footy club was a garden and you just introduced new plants, you don’t expect everything to start flowering around them. Things take time. You need to water them, care for them, and occasionally, you need to give things a prune in order for them to blossom. Looking at where St Kilda is right now, I actually believe they might even be a little bit ahead of schedule.
In our 2026 Season Preview, I argued that this would be a year of things all coming together for the Saints. They managed to hold onto Rowan Marshall, despite both he and the Geelong Footy Club looking to see him play this season at Kardinia Park, and in one of the larger news items of late last season, they re-signed Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. I didn’t think the club would make the top eight, but I did think the team would improve as the season progressed. I actually earmarked 2027 as the year the Saints would make their move.
Maybe I was wrong?
This is just the introduction – the remainder of this article is for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re all in on the 2026 AFL season. Player articles, stats, awards, game coverage. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I consider it your loss as we get into the grind of the season, and you’re stuck with the stuff that’s frustrated you for years.
