Saints News International scholarship players

[Manimal_Dunstan]

St Kilda have signed 16 year old Joseph Baker-Thomas on a 2 year scholarship, He is 193cm/83kg. Bit of info Saints twitter released through the night.

St Kilda FC ‏@stkildafc 3h
Baker-Thomas is 16, 193cm & 83kg from Porirua Collage in Wellington. Rugby Union background and selected from recent AFLNZ u18 championships

St Kilda FC ‏@stkildafc 3h
Baker-Thomas will stay in NZ complete his studies in 2013 #SaintsNZ

 

[goodie23]

So he has a first name after all, seems like someone left a tweet out. Nice to see us making inroads into Kiwiland, hopefully we'll find a couple of other prospects at our private draft camp

 

[SaintLex]

Really good news. What a great way to expand the game and hopefully convert a few New Zealenders. If we can sign a few over there then it will go a long way towards convincing a few Kiwis to jump onboard with the Saints, not to mention unearth a heap of talent.

Good work, St Kilda!

 

[Defacto]

bloody hell this kid is an impressive size for a 16 yr old. hasnt stopped growing either. other positive is he'll know how to lay a tackle, somethign thats been foreign to us for a while.

interesting that the pelchen see's him as a CHB. indicates to me that we have a ready made CHB pretty much all signed up that will keep us going for the next 3-4 years.

this is a really good story. wellington is OUR city now. we have a unique home ground and now we have very fertile recruiting ground.

pelchen, ameet and the club have to be absolutely commended for what they are doing. so many positives.

 

[sammm]

and they hopefully will sign another 3-4 NZ players by the end of the year.

 

[Baldur]

and they hopefully will sign another 3-4 NZ players by the end of the year.

I love to see some huge Maori kids as KKP's. Polynesian players have made a large impact in NRL. We could have a spine to send terror among the AFL.

 

[hayes]

Great stuff. Do we know much about the kid? Good athlete, hard at it etc?

 

[sammm]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-04-26/saints-make-a-kiwi-call

Saints make call on Kiwi

By Jennifer Phelan12:45pm AEST Friday, April 26, 2013

Ultimately, unless you start prospecting you don't find the golden nugget

Chris Pelchen​

IT TOOK the St Kilda 15 minutes to identify the raw athletic talent of New Zealand teenager Joe Baker-Thomas, the club's first New Zealand scholarship player.....

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

 

[God Save Max King]

Great news for the Saints. We should pick him up for basically nothing, so we don't have much to lose. The fact that he likes the contact is a very good thing, would be nice to see a 195cm (by the time he is finished growing) bloke running around tackling everyone.

 

[L_W_P]

16 and he looks as built/solid as Dal.

Going to be a monster when he fills out in 5-6 years!

 

[Defacto]

he reminds me of someone. but i just cant put a finger on it

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Maybe this bloke. That would be nice

 

[Highlander35]

For Rugby boys You're looking for either:

Locks/Flankers: KPPs and Rucks to be found here galore. Big boys, hopefully with a bit of basketball experience.

Fullbacks/Creative wingers: Really good flanker midfielder types to be found here. Israel Dagg is my absolute example of this sort of player, but Drew Mitchell, Stuart Hogg & Jesse Mogg are others I really like.

At Baker-Thomas's height and weight, I'ld think he'd have been playing a lot of Flanker if he was a rugby boy. Or he's a really big back. Pyke is the exception rather than the rule, as he's simultaneously the size of a big loose forward, but played in the fullback position for Canada and the clubs.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Choice, Bro.

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

I hope this NZ experiment doesn't end up in our club being relocated and become the Wellington Saints! I hope as a club we are strong enough to stay in Melbourne as STKFC. We should be. I like what the club is trying to do but I hope it caps the number of games.....

 

[sammm]

I hope this NZ experiment doesn't end up in our club being relocated and become the Wellington Saints! I hope as a club we are strong enough to stay in Melbourne as STKFC. We should be. I like what the club is trying to do but I hope it caps the number of games.....

thats a bit pie in the sky thinking.

i bet hawathorn supporters don't think that way about tassie.

 

[Highlander35]

This is the only way to described how I felt re-watching that 2nd half. (as well as that Webster to White goal)

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

thats a bit pie in the sky thinking.

i bet hawathorn supporters don't think that way about tassie.

Happy to be proven wrong, and what I am talking about might not happen at all. Although to be fair Tassie is different to Wellington as both North and Hawthorn play down there.

It actually wouldn't surprise me if North end up there. Don't dismiss these things out of hand - it has been written that there are too many teams in Melbourne......I don't want to see any teams relocate. I'm just saying....

 

[StFly]

he reminds me of someone. but i just cant put a finger on it

Ross Taylor (NZ cricketer) for mine before he got old and started with the dopey grin pics.

Happy to be proven wrong, and what I am talking about might not happen at all. Although to be fair Tassie is different to Wellington as both North and Hawthorn play down there.

It actually wouldn't surprise me if North end up there. Don't dismiss these things out of hand - it has been written that there are too many teams in Melbourne......I don't want to see any teams relocate. I'm just saying....

Relocation won't happen, chiefly because the Saints won't want it and Wellington wouldn't either, they'd aim for a purely NZ based team as opposed to a rebadged effort, South Melb to Sydney and the Fitzroy assimilation are exceptions rather than the rule. Secondly it won't happen because no club is in such a dire financial or supporter based position, that, hypothetically, if anyone were to be forced to shift via the AFL it would take North Melb to deteriorate even further into bordering on insolvency financially and most of their fans / afl fans vacating them as well. It simply is that unlikely.

Maximum wise, we'd sell 4-6 games, as a ceiling to Wellington and the only ones really shafted in any capacity will be Australian members with replacement matches for their memberships.

 

[sammm]

Ross Taylor (NZ cricketer) for mine before he got old and started with the dopey grin pics.



Relocation won't happen, chiefly because the Saints won't want it and Wellington wouldn't either, they'd aim for a purely NZ based team as opposed to a rebadged effort, South Melb to Sydney and the Fitzroy assimilation are exceptions rather than the rule. Secondly it won't happen because no club is in such a dire financial or supporter based position, that, hypothetically, if anyone were to be forced to shift via the AFL it would take North Melb to deteriorate even further into bordering on insolvency financially and most of their fans / afl fans vacating them as well. It simply is that unlikely.

Maximum wise, we'd sell 4-6 games, as a ceiling to Wellington and the only ones really shafted in any capacity will be Australian members with replacement matches for their memberships.

and even that is not really being shafted as we get replacement games. just like the haws member who also get 4 replacement games.

 

[sauce_head]

and even that is not really being shafted as we get replacement games. just like the haws member who also get 4 replacement games.

Except for the seating at the replacement games.

 

[stkildathunda]

Joseph was at VFL yesterday

 

[Manimal_Dunstan]

he reminds me of someone. but i just cant put a finger on it

Alex Woodward he reminds me of looking at him now haha.

 

[Flyingsaint]

Joseph was also at the Saints game on Saturday night with Ameet Baines