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Q&A: Simon Lethlean
GM of Football Simon Lethlean sat down with AFL.com.au ahead of the 2019 season.
GM of Football Simon Lethlean sat down with AFL.com.au to discuss how the Saints plan on getting back on track in 2019.
Dinny Navaratnam: You've come into the job and (St Kilda president) Andrew Bassat has said you've done a very thorough review. What were your main findings out of that?
Simon Lethlean: It (reviewing) is certainly an ongoing thing and given the performance last year, there's obviously areas of the program that weren't good enough, and changes to be made. We made changes to the senior assistants in coaching to bring some different views in.
All the changes we made in the end have brought pretty successful people into the club. We had a poor year and we haven't played finals in seven years, so I thought our playing group needed better access to successful people from successful programs to show them the way.
DN: The list. I think you've said you're not rebuilding, so if that's the case, where do you see the list at?
SL: All the metrics on premiership teams have average age and average games higher than where we're at, so we've got some ground to make up in that regard. We didn't need to draft six or seven 18-year-olds, because of the age of our list. Our first two picks we did with (Max) King and (Jack) Bytel, and we're stoked to get players of that quality, but we then focused on some more mature-age players that we think are ready to go.
Our list, insofar as how it performs, is short on top-end performers. We need to organically develop our players who have been here for a little bit. We need to invest in our development program, which we have. We need to push as many of those (players) into whatever you want to call it, category ones or rating As. Then category twos or rating Bs, we need to get a stockpile of bigger numbers. We think we've got players that can move into those areas.
We've got some that are already there. Everyone talks about (Jake) Carlisle, (Jack) Steven and (Seb) Ross. We think (Dan) Hannebery adds to that. We think (Jack) Billings, (Jade) Gresham and (Jack) Steele, that's a pretty good core, and you get (Dylan) Roberton back (after his heart problem). Then we need (Blake) Acres and we need (Jack) Newnes and we need Ed Phillips and we need other players that can move into that bracket to get there.
You take a bit of heart that there's a real change in the mix of teams that improve each year, and we expect to work hard enough to be in that conversation too. We've got work to do and we've got games to get into players, but we like what we see. Hunter Clark, (Nick) Coffield, Gresham, Billings and Paddy (McCartin), we think we've got the foundation for a good enough list, but we've got to keep adding to it and be aggressive in the market.
DN: There's been a fair bit of chat about Hannebery's soft-tissue injuries he's had the past couple of years. The hamstring, he's obviously experienced a bit of tightness. How's he tracking along in your eyes? SL: He's brought a lot to the club, as we knew he would. He's frustrated that we're being cautious with him. There is a level of interest around Dan that is probably out of the ordinary but that's 'welcome back to Victoria' I suppose for a pretty high-profile player.
Dan's here to play 100 games for the Saints. We don't want to rush him into that first game if he's not ready, whether that's JLT or round one or intraclub. He needs to be right. He gets frustrated because he's a pro and he wants to make an impact, but if he's not feeling quite right, we're not going to put him in harm's way.
He's done the work over summer, his body of work is there. He just needs to be right that he's ready to go 100 per cent. He's just got 'awareness', which is sort of a half-annoying word in sport these days, but he's got some soreness in his hamstring. It's not a tear or a strain, but it's something that means he doesn't feel quite right. Other than that, he's been exactly what we wanted.
DN: Are you still confident he's going to play the A-grade level footy that you recruited him to play?
SL: Yeah we are. Only in performance will we be able to identify whether that's the case in time. We didn't bring Dan here just for that. We brought Dan here because he's a good leader. He demands high standards and is a different character in our group. He's a pro and he's also an A-grader. We expect he will and so does he.
Only time will tell, because there's an element of risk in all recruiting. We want to be aggressive and take informed and calculated risks to make ourselves better. We think Dan's a great addition and I'm confident he'll prove that to everyone.
DN: So assuming no other setbacks, he should be right for JLT and round one?
SL: He'll certainly be right for round one. JLT is three and four weeks away. I'd expect he would be, but the next 7-10 days will dictate that.