St Kilda Development Coach and Sandringham Senior Coach Jake Batchelor runs through each Saint who played in the Zebras' practice match against North Melbourne.

Zak Jones

"Jonesy played three quarters and was really good for us inside, was really tough and really explosive when we won the ball.

"He led the midfield for most of the game and was really good for us connecting the two teams, because realistically he won’t be here for too long, I would have thought.

"Zak came in with a great attitude and performed really well. We were thinking whether or not to take him up (to Sydney) and risk him playing versus get some good football minutes into him.

"Jonesy played really well and got through unscathed which is the most important thing."

Brad Crouch

"Crouchy played the whole game. He obviously won’t play AFL next week, so not entirely sure what the plans will be for him, but he got through a really good game of football.

"Same as Jonesy, he was tough inside and kicked a goal which was good for a midfielder.

"He and Zak complement each other really well. They’ve obviously had the pre-season to work together, but when one was getting in and getting dirty, the other one was pretty smart on the outside."

Luke Dunstan

"Luke played a half, he was our travelling emergency. Same as Kenty, he’s going to play deep forward and inside mid for us and his power was just through the roof.

"You could almost sense that he knew he had a half, so he went out saying ‘I’m going to go out real hard and smash anyone that gets in my way’.  

"He’s got a great balance between knowing when to go hard but can also control the outside of a contest if we need that.

"He wants to continue to improve his leadership, and he’s doing some coaching with our AFLW side at the moment which transferring over to us a little bit. That’s starting to come out in matches, you see him instructing and he almost wants to take control of whatever team he’s playing in and that’s really good to watch.

Dean Kent

"He was awesome. Keg was probably our most influential AFL-listed player on the day.

"His power and toughness around the ball, looking back and even live he was just bursting through every contest and hitting bodies hard.

"He’s a real thick and solid unit, so he can come in hard and can kick it 60 metres on top of that. We got some real deep entries off the back of that and he got a goal in the end as well.

"His attitude has been really good the last couple of weeks – which it always has been – and he had a couple of midfield minutes as well, so just mixing up where he plays and not letting his opponent know what he’s doing all the time. He can play deep, he can go high or be an inside mid, so we’ll keep working with that."

Jake Carlisle

"Jake worked really well with Darragh and Clav. That’s probably one of the main strengths of our team, we can win the ball back and mark the ball in the air in our defensive half.

"Sometimes we’re going to lose clearances, but it’s ok because we can force the ball high up in the air and those three can mark it really well.

"Jake’s buying in and he’s good with the younger blokes. Watching the vision back and even live on the day, those three controlled everyone in the defensive end.

"We’ve got good competition for spots, so hopefully they’re all chances at some point throughout the year." 

Darragh Joyce

"Darragh’s moved back for this season. He played forward a fair bit last year in the hub, but he looks so good behind the ball and just looks so steady.  

"He’s now going for his marks and you can see the real shift in the last couple of weeks of him just seeing it and going for it.

"For a bloke who hasn’t played much footy, he reads it very well and that’s his real strength.

"DJ and Clav are just workhorses. They put heaps and heaps of work in after training, especially on the important stuff for them – they’re good contested marks, they’re smart readers of the play, so that’s where they put most of their energy into."

Oscar Clavarino

"Clav was very good aerially. We actually put him forward for the last five minutes of the game and after the game he could have done it for a quarter at least. There’s nothing better than a backman getting told he’s going to go forward for a bit.

"He had three genuine chances where he could have got the ball inside 30 metres and potentially kicked a goal, so whether that’s something we look at down the track if we need a swingman or something like that.

"We’ve got a fair few amount of key backs, so if we need some flexibility and we give players the chance to broaden their horizons a little bit and expand on their current skillset, then that’s our job." 

Matthew Allison

"Matty showed some really good signs with his patterning and was able to get to some good spots. Early days he was a little fumbly, but the pleasing thing was he actually got heaps of chances.

"He ran to the right spots, he did some good work, it was just a little bit of polish in the end that cost him a few marks. He’s our main St Kilda player down in the forward line at the moment, so he’s got a big workload and he’ll play on some bigger blokes.

"For him to continue to get better, he’s got to figure out ways to play on different opponents while he’s developing.

"He’s a great runner, but at times he’s going to have to be a key position player. When our ball movement improves throughout the year as well, he’ll reap the rewards."

Leo Connolly

"Leo’s playing off half-back and whenever he’s got the ball in his hand we know something’s going to happen.

"He’s really creative, got a lot of good foot-skills and he’s put a lot of effort into the defensive and contest side of things over the whole pre-season. Leo knows what his strengths are and we do as well, so we want that from him whenever he gets a chance to get the ball in his hands.

"There’s still a bit of room to work on the fast defence side of things if we turn that ball over, but we’re in safe hands when someone’s giving him the ball at half-back.

"He’s almost like a Jayden Short from a couple years ago, can go both sides and clean at ground-level. The poise that he’s got and the ability to see tha game probably a second before his opponent is something that’s really exciting for his future."

Sam Alabakis

"Sal had a good battle coming up against two rucks Tristan Xerri and Tom Campbell. Tom’s a really good ruckman who’s been in the AFL system for a long time, so Sal would have learned a fair bit off him but he competed really well.

"He’s still learning, but he’s just going to get better from playing. At the moment he’s our No. 1 ruck so we’re going to give him as many minutes as we can to help him develop and build a connection with the mids and the rest of the team.

"Sal's massive, so the more we can use his side and his running ability as well the better he’ll be.

"He can run at high speed for long periods of time, it’s just the knowledge of where and when to run. It’s not the main priority of a ruck, but if you get the ruck craft down-pat then you can start to add that to your game."