St Kilda coach Brett Ratten launched a passionate defence of key forward Max King after the star Saint's wayward night in front of goal in the club's close loss to Brisbane.
The Saints went down to the Lions by 15-points at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, with the club being overrun after leading at three-quarter time by five points.
King kicked 0.5 for the night, including four set shots with his season tally now at 47 goals and 41 behinds.
However Ratten came out firing post-game, backing in his young forward with confidence that King's work ethic will see him get the rewards sooner rather than later.
"The pleasing part that we know about Max is Tuesday was a day off for the players and he was at Marvel Stadium for an hour and a half having goalkicking practice. Every day we're at the footy club or we're not at the footy club he's there having extra goalkicking and rehearsing and finetuning his game to make sure he gets his opportunity to score on game day," Ratten said.
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"He's doing a power of work. What I do know is I want Max King in my corner. He'll be at our footy club for 10 years. When we look back we'll be saying what a great player he is and what he's done. Tonight he had a night where it didn’t work for him. He did everything right bar the finish and for great forwards in the game that's happened.
"We know he's doing the work and sometimes you don't get the reward all the time but he'll keep doing that and you watch, he'll turn it around."
He said there were many factors behind inaccuracy, which wasn't exclusive to King as the Saints booted 5.10 after half-time.
"Goalkicking has so many elements to it – it's the technical aspect, the mental aspect, the fatigue, what part of the ground [you're kicking from]. I wouldn't say it's high pressure. I want to go to war with Max because he delivers and he will deliver," Ratten said.
The loss continued an inconsistent second half of the year for the Saints, who have lost seven of their past 10 games after starting the season with eight wins from their first 11.
Ratten pointed out Marcus Windhager's performance as a positive, with the first-year Saint tagging Brownlow Medal favourite Neale throughout the night and keeping him to a season-low tally of 16 disposals. Windhager had 21 touches himself.
“Lachie Neale’s last month has been outstanding. He’s been close to the best player in the competition," Ratten said.
“It was spoken about in Match Committee, and Marcus has done some jobs, but it is the learnings he will get from it.
“The pleasing aspect in the second half has been the development. Windhager, Mitch Owens, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.
“They’ve really taken their game to another level, and I think they’ve earned the respect from their teammates and maybe a little bit in the competition as well."
