Training Saints preseason 2026

[akaifu]

 

[Ads734]

You seriously wouldn’t have Keeler in our top 11 most naturally talented players under 23?

Perhaps your right maybe I have this weird thought re Isaac that the club could delist after this year if he doesn’t come on.

Like I rate Isaac as highly as anyone but I’m concerned he may not get the games he needs to develop and show his potential.

 

[Ads734]

He does seem infectious. I can see what Dalrympal sees in him.

Simmilar to Dunkley. Although Banners has a great running profile.

 

[topbillings]

Just on King...

We all understand he desperately wants to play, right? So King will be in the coaches' ears, giving them reassurances everything is going well, because he just wants to play a game of footy. It's been 18 months and counting.

I am sure the club realise Round 0 is no more important than the game after it. But they'll have a timeframe in mind as to when they'd like King to be back in the side by. We don't really want him playing his first game after the mid-year bye. He needs footy.

No Darcy Moore might make it too tempting for them. He gets a half of footy and (hopefully) gets some confidence back against a depleted defence.

 

[mighty_sainters]

It’s worth watching all of Tayla Little’s instagram reel at our launch day.

Quite concerned that Max King causes my heart to skip a few beats every time he opens his mouth. ****ing hell he’s a bull.

 

[SG34]

Because someone made up a story our backline is weak even though its the strongest it has looked in years.

It's a worry isn't it.
'25 was definitely worse than '24. And we were conceding higher and higher totals where as in the past we were so tight.

Battle was a huge loss. Much more than i expected.
Now we lose Webster too.

Howard is older and frailer too.

Let us see.

i wonder how many games JSos will play in defence?

2026 St Kilda Season Preview - The Big Questions - The Mongrel Punt

The Saints made the moves over the off-season. Now it is time to deliver. Here are the Big Questions for St Kilda in our 2026 season preview

themongrelpunt.com

 

[Mowman]

I’m not a betting man but I’ve just put Nan’s house on us at $2.21

They can all play and we will still smash the f**k out of them

 

[Joffaboy]

It's a worry isn't it.
'25 was definitely worse than '24. And we were conceding higher and higher totals where as in the past we were so tight.

Battle was a huge loss. Much more than i expected.
Now we lose Webster too.

Howard is older and frailer too.

Let us see.

i wonder how many games JSos will play in defence?

2026 St Kilda Season Preview - The Big Questions - The Mongrel Punt

The Saints made the moves over the off-season. Now it is time to deliver. Here are the Big Questions for St Kilda in our 2026 season preview

themongrelpunt.com

We lost Battle, huge loss, then lost Howard. In 25 we were totally undersized.
This year we have smalls and mediums covered. Stocker is still strong, LOC is my choice for Websters role, Carroll is the surprise of the preseason and could well take a hbf, Camminiti is bigger and stronger, Wilks is still Wilks and Doogs will be primed for R1.
How many games will JSOS play back? As many as he is fit to. How many will that be? Well you can ask that about any player.
We are relatively injury free. May change with injuries. Barratt is the future as Armstrong may well be also.

 

[Remboy]

I’m not a betting man but I’ve just put Nan’s house on us at $2.21

Smart move. Those odds will be slashed after we beat the Pies by 400 points.

 

[OxSaint]

Owens will be a nightmare matchup when oppo have to contain King/Marshall/Keeler/Sharman/Pou/Tauru and the smalls at any one time

With our new found height I can see Owens dragging his mismatch deep forward a lot. If he kicks north of 50% in front of the sticks I can see him kicking 30-40 goals this year.

 

[dudeintheswamp]

The young mid in the thick of Saints' list build

Marcus Windhager is more bullish than ever about St Kilda's hopes in 2026.

www.saints.com.au

 

[Ads734]

Mitch Owens has been training as anyone would expect constantly beating oppoenents who are bigger then him.

However, unless we see some improved set shot kicking imo his cieling is limited OR we start to actually allow him to play on the ball.

I just feel we underutilise him.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Interesting little nuggets given by Adam Kingsley on SEN this morning regarding Lleek Aleer

Wrapped to keep him and great result for them but went onto say he hasn’t trained at all this off-season or pre-season with adductor issues and will aim to be in the side at the back end of the year but he won’t start in it.

That of course won’t get reported though will it

They were so rapt to keep him that they reduced the size of his contract ( from the pre-Saint’s offer) if I remember correctly.

 

[Mstr Strokesman]

Did Squiggle and went pretty conservative. Got us to the GF after finishing 9th. It would be a pretty St Kilda way to do it.

		W	L	D	%
1.	Brisbane Lions	19	4	0	123.6%
2.	Hawthorn	18	5	0	115.4%
3.	Adelaide	17	6	0	116.7%
4.	Fremantle	16	7	0	120.1%
5.	Geelong	16	7	0	107.1%
6.	Gold Coast	15	8	0	113.7%
7.	Sydney	15	8	0	112.4%
8.	GWS	15	8	0	109.6%
9.	St Kilda	14	9	0	110.2%
10.	Western Bulldogs	13	10	0	112.8%
11.	Port Adelaide	13	10	0	98.8%
12.	Collingwood	12	11	0	97.8%
13.	Essendon	7	16	0	87.3%
14.	North Melbourne	6	17	0	89.1%
15.	Carlton	6	17	0	85.4%
16.	Melbourne	3	20	0	78.5%
17.	Richmond	2	21	0	77.5%
18.	West Coast	0	23	0	68.1%

WC1: SYDNEY v Western Bulldogs
WC2: GWS v ST KILDA

QF1: BRISBANE LIONS v Fremantle
QF2: HAWTHORN v Adelaide
EF1: Geelong v ST KILDA
EF2: GOLD COAST v Sydney

SF1: Fremantle v ST KILDA
SF2: Adelaide v GOLD COAST

PF1: BRISBANE LIONS v Gold Coast
PF2: Hawthorn v ST KILDA

GF: BRISBANE LIONS v St Kilda

AFL HQ would not be happy with all of big crowd drawers Carlton Richmond ,Essendon Collingwood not making the top 10 and playing finals

 

[stavro#4]

It’s worth watching all of Tayla Little’s instagram reel at our launch day.

Quite concerned that Max King causes my heart to skip a few beats every time he opens his mouth. ****ing hell he’s a bull.

View attachment 2517918

Chin of an Adonis.

 

[SainterinSydney]

Chin of an Adonis.

Max now looks like the Greek god we all have been waiting for.

 

[DougalHoward]

It’s worth watching all of Tayla Little’s instagram reel at our launch day.

Quite concerned that Max King causes my heart to skip a few beats every time he opens his mouth. ****ing hell he’s a bull.

View attachment 2517918

I tried to press play on that...

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Mitch Owens has been training as anyone would expect constantly beating oppoenents who are bigger then him.

However, unless we see some improved set shot kicking imo his cieling is limited OR we start to actually allow him to play on the ball.

I just feel we underutilise him.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a reasonable ceiling on a player. Not all of our kids can become A graders. We've been lucky enough to see one of our players take the step from gun to freak. That doesn't happen too often.

The team is going to have a lot of players that fall into the 'B grader' category even if we end up one of the better teams. And that's ok. Timmy Membrey was never an 'A' grader, but still had a fantastic career. Same with JWebb.

I think Mitch has a fantastic set of attributes that will set him apart from others, and make him a serious problem for opposition coaches. Most likely up forward. I think his kicking and decision making will probably hold him back from getting to that next level. But he can still absolutely play 200 games + for St Kilda, and I hope he does.

 

[The Jack]

King and JSOS will play 26 games each this year.

 

[Jesuswasacarpenter]

Ranking them imo in terms of potential
1. Naz
2. Pou
3. Tauru
4. Dodson
5. Wilson
6. Boxman
7. Owens
8. Windy
9. Garcia
10. Trav
11. Cananiti

Not including Lance, keels,

I genuinely think the top 5 could be top 20 AFL guys.

I would include Boxshall to that list, top 6.
I reckon he is gonna be a gun.

 

[Ekomaira]

I would include Boxshall to that list, top 6.
I reckon he is gonna be a gun.

i think he's done exactly that

 

[CursingFijian]

I hope they all play.

 

[jwint43]

There's a lot of subplots within the journey though, and the Jay Clarke article mentions RTB's reference to our big problem - size! At a guess, although that's an asset for me, I'm guessing that's an issue for a number of posters on here, and it has certainly been an issue for our team. We lost Battle from nearly the stingiest backline in the league, but then on top of that we also lost Dougal to injury, meaning two thirds of the KPB's from our stingy backline were gone.....replaced by kids!

We let Skunk go and then lost King to injury again, meaning our KPF's again - kids!

We get some size into KP roles, and then factor in the development of the kids so we're less inexperienced and it is a huge step up, especially the "ripple effect" for the likes of Owens, Sharman, and Camaniti.....if those kids are playing 3rd tall instead of having to play first banana the effect is huge.

Imagine Sharman with 60 plus games now under his belt and now getting the 3rd defender instead of the number 1 defender! He kicked 30 or 40 goals last year playing as the full forward in a team that won bugger all games. If he kicks that this year with King at full forward and Roma or Hammer up in the forward line we will be scoring 50 more goals than we did last year......that's 2 extra goals a game plus.

Winning centre clearances regularly will add a goal a game just by virtue of not having to launch every attack from the backline and allowing the opposition defence time to set up!

If we have JSOS an/or Howard down back and especially if they deploy Hammer in the backline (again now around 50 plus games), then Wilkie is released more into the role that Battle was playing, and our stingy backline returns......a gain of 2 goals a game, minimum.

It's pretty crazy how we turned our biggest weakness into a theoretical strength in one off season, health permitting. It's why I never wanted us to trade Roma. He doesn't miss games.

 

[jwint43]

Mitch Owens has almost become a bit of a forgotten man in our young brigade.

I reckon he’s played the hardest possible position and performed admirably. He has played as a 1st or 2nd forward but well undersized. More pressing, he was forced to do so in a team who had the greatest weakness of being outmarked in the air. We were one of the worst teams in the league at intercept defender marks against. So Owens constantly scragged against 2 defenders and more often than not he made a contest.

With more tall timber, be it King or a resting ruck, he will get far more looks one on one. He is incredible in a contest and the defenders are forced to hold and scrag. My prediction is that he will win a significant amount of free kicks in front of goal this year for holding, as it’s the only way defenders can try to compete in the contest.

If he can tidy his set shot goal kicking, especially the kicks straight in front 30m out, he will have a big year I think.

His kicking action has to improve, hopefully it's been his no.1 focus. He is capable of taking spectacular marks but if he can't finish his hard work then he will never truly elevate his game. I have the least confidence in his set shot in the entire team, and he was basically our no.1 forward last year. We've seen other players fix it, so I am optimistic!

 

[Max the great]

Personally I’d be very very surprised if they’re planning for anything but Tauru playing every week, unless he’s right out of form/injured.

He’s a blue-chip stock, who is another back there who will benefit from the extra support he’ll hopefully have there.

Tauru is not playing VFL. I have no idea why soo many on here have that weird idea. He's a future superstar of the club who already more than carries his weight. He is not playing 2s.