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.

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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.

Simon Lethlean (right) watches on at training alongside Graeme Allan (left).

DN: Paddy McCartin. What's the reasonable expectation for him to produce this year?

SL: Paddy's only played, I think, 30 games. Joe Daniher's played, I think, 100 games, and he's like all tall forwards (in that) it's taken a while for him to get going. So the reasonable expectation on Paddy is to play round one, play good footy and take it from there. That might be a boring answer externally but it's the right answer internally … there's no expectation on Paddy by way of games played and goals kicked. 

DN: We all know about his injury history. Is it fair that people doubt whether his body's up to the rigours of the AFL?

SL: I don't know if it's fair or unfair. It's unfair for those to comment about many things to do with Paddy, given some of the challenges that he has. He hasn't had soft-tissue injuries. They've mainly been collision injuries, so in that regard, his body's in good shape athletically, so that's a pretty good start. He's just competed very well in another intraclub and he's looking pretty good. He's in the best shape of his life, so like any fourth or fifth-year tall forward, hopefully he starts to get some reward for his effort.

DN: Going back to the A-graders conversation, towards the end of the year, there are going to be guys coming out of contract. Are you guys going to be aggressive in hunting them again? The room is there in the salary cap?

SL: We're well-placed by way of our player payments to reward good players and to retain our own good players, so we'll be active for players that we need. We'll be really targeted about that and we'll be confidential about that. We'll see how we go.

DN: On retaining some of those players, Gresham is one who comes out of contract. Where does that sit?

SL: We're having good dialogue with his management. He's important to us. Gresh, I think in his own words, loves the club. He's a priority for us and we'll get that done.

DN: Billings – his first half of last season was pretty disappointing but his second half was pretty good. Is he a priority (or) do you wait a bit?

SL: He's a priority. We're talking to his manager now. He's into his fifth year now and he's an emerging leader in the group. He's an absolute pro in how he prepares and he's a serious, serious footballer who wants success. We want to have Jack here for his whole career, so he's an absolute priority.

DN: Ben Long is another one who comes out. Is he one you wait and see on or does that happen a bit earlier?

SL: No waiting to see on Ben, we like what we see there. There's lots of conversation this time of year with management about players that are priorities and those conversations are going really well.

DN: Carlisle, where does that one sit?
SL: Jake, without giving too much detail, has got certain triggers in his contract that will see him extend just by playing senior footy. That one's in hand and we expect that will take care of itself based on negotiation that was already had.

DN: Richo's contract has been discussed a fair bit, and the clauses in it. What constitutes a good year for him, in your eyes?

SL: It's something that's discussed externally. It's not discussed internally. I guess you go back to the start. We've made a lot of changes to make our program and our coaching staff better and I think Richo will enjoy that new support, that new insight, that new level of performance. We've put all that around Richo to enable him to be the best coach possible and to get the best results possible.

My view is that will translate into the season and performance will take care of itself. As much as the media like us to try and define what a successful season looks like, I think that will play itself out by way of how the team performs and how the program feels along the course of the season.

DN: A guy like (senior analyst) Darren O'Shaughnessy doesn't get much publicity but can you tell us what he brings to the club?
SL: He's my favourite, 'DOS'. He just brings a level of intelligence and insight that helps inform our coaching game plan, how we use stats, how we review games and on what data we recruit. He's an integral addition to the team and he's well-known in sports analytics circles as being one of the best around. Each time you mention that Darren's here, people give you the nod and the wink that that's a pretty good appointment.

He's flat out building things and creating algorithms and doing all sorts of things that are way too smart for me to understand, but he's great. He's informed all different parts of our program and he'll only help us get better as we enable him to give us his insights on where we're at with all those areas. Match-days will be an important one. He'll have a different method of digesting Champion Data stats and telling us what we want to know out of those stats.

DN: Last year the kicking, the field kicking and the goalkicking, it's probably fair to say was a problem. What's been done to rectify it?

SL: On goalkicking, Ben Dixon is still our goalkicking coach. He's quite strong on the fact that if you introduce a goalkicking program, the results don't come overnight, they come over the journey, so he's still involved with us, which is good.

Field kicking isn't just improved by trying to improve kicking ability. It's improved by having more time and space to execute it, having better options to kick to, having less pressure around you to get the job done. It's all part of the gameplan and how we set up and the ball movement structures we've got. I can see we've done more on that than the previous year, because part of what Brett Ratten and Brendon Lade brought to the club was to amend our game-plan to be better for our strengths and to deal with our weaknesses. Hopefully that all translates into better ball use, but it's an area of improvement.