They shall not be forgotten.
St Kilda’s highly impressive defeat of out-of-sorts reigning premiers Collingwood on Thursday night shone a light on one of the more bizarre decisions of the AFL’s off-season.
Mattaes Phillipou continues to make his mark in his second season as a Saint.Credit: Getty Images
The Saints made their head of recruiting, Chris Toce, redundant in December despite his selection of Mattaes Phillipou, Darcy Wilson and Lance Collard across the previous two drafts.
Toce was also part of the recruiting team that delivered the home run pick of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera at No.11 in the same 2021 draft that Next Generation Academy talents Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager arrived in.
Before that, he was St Kilda’s South Australian and West Australian scout when they unearthed diamond-in-the-rough defender Callum Wilkie from the SANFL.
A look back at the Saints’ 2021 list reveals one lacking elite young talent, besides Max King, with top-10 picks Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield – traded to the Western Bulldogs last year – going only serviceably by then.
The Saints now have one of the most promising lists in the competition, with big thanks to Toce, whose haul could look even better if any of James van Es, Olli Hotton, Isaac Keeler, Angus Hastie and Hugo Garcia take off.
Simon Dalrymple, who has a long-standing relationship with list boss Stephen Silvagni, crossed from Sydney as effectively Toce’s replacement, with St Kilda justifying the redundancy by adding salary cap and player movement responsibility to Dalrymple’s job description.
Saints’ win highlights bizarre call, Mitchell’s misstep: Key takeouts from round two
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25.03.2024
They shall not be forgotten.
St Kilda’s highly impressive defeat of out-of-sorts reigning premiers Collingwood on Thursday night shone a light on one of the more bizarre decisions of the AFL’s off-season.
Mattaes Phillipou continues to make his mark in his second season as a Saint.Credit: Getty Images
The Saints made their head of recruiting, Chris Toce, redundant in........
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