Captain Jack Steele is taking Ross Lyon’s direct feedback in his stride following St Kilda’s most recent performance which leaves its position in the top-eight in jeopardy.
Lyon didn’t skirt around the issue of his side’s decline over the past six weeks following Saturday’s 26-point loss to Gold Coast, lamenting their inefficiency, “confused” offensive and how the Saints - in their current state - are not deserving to make the top-eight.
St Kilda has dropped four of its last five matches, with five consecutive games at Marvel Stadium against the Roos, Hawks, Blues, Tigers and Cats - plus Round 24 against Brisbane at the Gabba - to rekindle its early-season form.
The Saints held their post-game review this afternoon, with Steele saying Lyon’s frankness last Saturday was absolutely necessary heading into this weekend’s match against North Melbourne.
“He was brutally honest and he needed to be I think. We’ll go in and see what he has for us and we’ll have our opportunity to respond,” Steele said at this morning’s press conference.
“We’re looking pretty strongly at our opportunity against North Melbourne. That’s what I’m focussed on: how we can best prepare for the game this weekend.”
Addressing its ball movement and subsequent diminishing scoring returns are top billing for the Saints to address; a facet compounded by the loss of Max King to a shoulder injury last fortnight.
Anthony Caminiti, Mattaes Phillipou and Mitch Owens have been forced to carry the majority of the forward load, which has been aided by Cooper Sharman in recent weeks following his return to the attacking arc.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids in there at the moment, but that’s what we have available and we trust the coaches to pick the best 23 available every week. I back them in,” Steele said.
“Our best performers just need to keep things going and keep driving the standards, but we also need that second and third tier to lift even more.
“We probably haven’t had that in the last six or seven weeks of football. We saw it earlier in the year, everyone was evenly contributing to our performances, but it’s definitely tapered off in our last couple of months of footy. We’ve just got to find a way to get that back.”
As the post-season talk of list changes and trade period starts to trickle in, Steele says the focus is remaining on the task at hand this Sunday.
“I don’t really think about that too much until the season’s all said and done,” Steele said.
“Each year you try to top your list up as much as possible, you try to develop your young players… I think we’ve got some pretty good youth in our team. Our last couple of drafts have been really good and really positive, so we’ve just got to continue to grow those young players and drive the standards through them.
“We’ve still got plenty of footy left to be played, so I’m just worried about that.”
