Fair points.Saints can make as many excuses and use all the mental gymnastics they like, but if you cant score 10 goals against Hawthorn on a sunny windless day then you are absolutely ****ed.
The problem is the kicking around and around the boundary game plan. Its outdated and s**t. Gives the fwds no chance.
Saints game is high effort and no reward and the players are burnt out. Superior fitness isnt working. Its all so inefficient.
But arguably if Max King was playing like the Max King of 2022 and 2023, St Kilda would've won several of those close games and would be top 8 if not top 4.
He's having the worst stretch of his career.
3 goals is the pass mark for a quality spearhead these days. King achieved that 8 times in 2022, and 6 times in 10 games in 2023 (technically he played 11 but came off 20 seconds into one of them). This year he's done it once in 6 games.
The difference between King kicking 3, instead of 1 or 2, is the difference between St Kilda losing those games by a few points and winning them. The difference between St Kilda kicking 9 or 10 goals and losing, verses kicking 11 and winning.
And yes the entries haven't been great. But King should be doing more with them. And would be if he wasn't terribly out of form.