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Sport Nation
"Bottom out": Cornes and King debate the trajectory of St Kilda
Jaiden Sciberras • June 13th, 2025 2:48 pm
St Kilda failed to put together any sort of contest against the Western Bulldogs, falling by 72 points in a rather dire performance at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
With that loss, the Saints have a combined tally of -143 points in just two games against the Dogs this year and will next enter a clash with top-of-the-table Collingwood who will be fresh off a bye.
Managing just five wins and 87.8 per cent from 13 games in 2025, St Kilda are evidently in a league below the top strings in the competition, well off the pace of sides pushing for September football.
In the coming months, the football department at Moorabbin have a number of major decisions to make that will significantly divert the trajectory of the club.
With that being said, SEN Fireball co-hosts Kane Cornes and David King dove into the issues the Saints are currently facing, and the direction that they believe the side should take to benefit their future prospects.
King: “Gee, there’s some work to do, isn’t there?”
Cornes: “They clearly didn’t know that it was this bad when Ross (Lyon) got the job.
“There's definitely been a change of language, he spoke last night about the fact that some teams have been rebuilding for six or seven years, he said ‘we don’t want to take that long here’.
“It will take that long, because that’s how long it takes to rebuild a list.
“What are you going to do with Jack Steele? (Jack) Macrae, which we’ve spoken about a lot, is not the answer. Zak Jones, Brad Hill, there’s just so many players running around in that side that probably shouldn’t be there.
“I just think going after big fish at $1.7 (million) is not the right timing to do that.
“I want them to rebuild through the draft. They can do both, but it’s not going to help them significantly going to buy players from other clubs.”
King: “If they don’t get free agents and spend the money, they’re just going to have a gap in their cap for what? For nothing!”
Cornes: “You’re going to have to finish low to get the access to the best players. You don’t want them finishing mid, top end of the bottom section of the eight.”
King: “So, you want them to bottom out?”
Cornes:“Yeah, absolutely I want them to bottom out!
“What do you want them to do, just stay in football quicksand and get Pick 8 in the draft every year?
“Where is that going to take them?”
King: “I wonder what St Kilda fans want. Is that what they want? To just throw the towel in and give up?
“It’s not about making finals; it’s about building towards that next premiership.
“The recent drafts they’ve gone back to the draft to try and get some elite talent after missing it for a block of four to five years.
“That void that they’ve created for themselves is now hitting hard.
“This is why they can’t afford to lose Nasiah (Wanganeen-Milera); I don’t care what he costs he cannot be walking out the door.
“They can’t be firing the bullets at a football club which they’ve fired over the last six months and then lose Nasiah.
“They’ve got to find a way to keep him, and I still think they’ve got to go and get Tom De Koning, because they’ve got to be gameday competitive.”
Beyond Wanganeen-Milera, the pair debated the prospect of potentially offloading their injured key forward Max King in order to boost their draft capital.
Cornes: “You need multiple picks inside the top five to build this properly.”
King: “So, auction off Max King?
“Trade him to Collingwood, trade him to Melbourne, trade him to someone else.”
King: “They signed the stupidest deal in history with Max King.
“I’m talking about the length, extending him when you didn’t need to when he already had four years.
“You’re going to have good access to good picks because of where you are going to finish, and that would be, you would think, in the bottom five.”
King: “I don’t envy the position that they’re in, and I don’t think anyone has the answer as to how to get out of this situation.”
The Saints currently occupy 14th position with a 5-8 record in Lyon's third year back at the club.
