It would be a Daniel Cross, Bernie Vince type signing. Good for the young players.

JV is our only wise head in the midfield now.

I didn't like this when I first heard it....

But it seems like we are trying to bring in some good citizens to get our culture back on track - Steele has been captain of the Saints - while Mihoceck has held the pies forward line together for years. Given we have lost Brayshaw, ANB, Brown, Spargo, Trac, Oliver etc we have lost a lot of our leaders - or at least players we expected to be leaders.

We are banking on our youth to turn us around but it can't all be left to Max and Jack. The fact that we don't have an obvious successor to Max's captaincy to me says this may not be the worst idea.

We all remember what it looks like if you bring in kids that don't have enough senior players setting the standards.

I would prefer to get Dylan Shiel for peanuts , not sure Steele is any better than past players in Billings or Hunter.

Wasn’t he fav for the Brownlow a few years back, he can’t be that bad!

Don't mind it as a stop gap.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by layzie

Jack Steele has averaged 23 disposals, 7 tackles, 10 contested possessions and 41/2 tackles throughout his 11 seasons thus far, with 88 career Brownlow votes and a third place in 2020. He has 2 B&F's - 2020 & 2021. In those same years he was AA. He has been St Kilda's captain since 2021.

We need senior bodies or we'll get smacked off the park

This makes sense with Clarry & Trac on there way would fill a void that now exists on our list

I like Steele but my query is how he works in a high-rotation midfield set up - would be great if he could have an impact up frwd

Makes a lot of sense, we still need in and under extrators, so he along with Viney protect Langford - who I think will be out main man but not for another 2 or 3 years - while also allowing Windsor, Rivers, Pickett etc to play the combination of inside/outside without burning them out too young. I wouldn't be surprised if we strech his contract out another 12 months, giving us more space while keeping him in a semi-coaching role like checkers.

Handy inclusion

I don't hate this.

We're in the middle of cultural reset and need good people and leaders around the club and you won't find many better people that fit that mould better than Steele.

If we can get at least two decent years out of him while he mentors the young guns (ala Daniel Cross) then I say go for it.

At the right price, it's a no brainer. He was a club captain. He is a leader. This is a cultural reset. He can play too.

15 minutes ago, adonski said:

We need senior bodies or we'll get smacked off the park

We’ll get smacked off the park regardless, why bother junking up the team with a plodder

1 minute ago, DeeSpencer said:

We’ll get smacked off the park regardless, why bother junking up the team with a plodder

Ever so slightly less smackage with this strategy

At some stage we should stop Alan Richardson collecting every one of his St Kilda rejects by simply firing him.

Hopefully he can go to a new club and start collecting Melbourne rejects for us.

Petracca and Oliver out means that we won't e doing any clearance dominance in 2026.

Steele in, alongside Viney, would at least mean we won't be giving away easy clearance dominance to opponents.

They are both a bit slow and neither are they attacking weapons, bit they would take and give a he'll of a lot of the battering in the clinches while letting our youngsters and long list of rotating 'point of difference' players be effective without being drained by the wrestle efforts.

He is also a reliable AFL grade player to add to a team which will have a lot of young players with inconsistent output.

And by every account, an exceptional character.

Has some similarities to Oliver and would play the same role. Not quite as quick, clean and doesn’t cover the ground as well especially in defensive transition. But by all reports is a good leader and role model.

I’m for it if we basically spend no draft capital and end up better off financially when considering what we’re paying for Oliver (2026 combined payments to Oliver and Steele would need to be less than what they would’ve been to keep Oliver). I’d rather Steele rotate through the middle especially with 5 on the bench instead of giving high minutes to Sparrow and Rivers in there and realising it doesn’t work by round 5 or 6. He’ll make a is harder team to play against at least in the short term and we are really thin on midfield depth without Oliver and Trac.

3 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

We’ll get smacked off the park regardless, why bother junking up the team with a plodder

Because we're not going to win or lose a flag due to the play of Jack Steele, just as we didn't win a flag due to the play of Daniel Cross. We did, however, win a flag with the players on the team that played with Daniel Cross, just as we hope to do the same with the players that play with Jack Steele.

Those players will be better for being in a team and club with Jack Steele.

What's the counterfactual though? If we assume Petracca and Oliver leave and CJ comes in, if don't get Steele, what's the alternative? In other words, if we leave that spot vacant and go to the draft with it, what pick (roughly) would it be and would that be better value than Steele?

Would love Steele imo, think hes a great onfield leader

32 minutes ago, Jack Vineys Anger Manager said:

It would be a Daniel Cross, Bernie Vince type signing. Good for the young players.

JV is our only wise head in the midfield now.

THIS is the point being totally missed by those not keen on this.

Elite training standards, elite character, high end leadership and low cost.

We don't need him to be a superstar, we need him to add depth and help the young guys in a midfield that's losing a lot of depth.

Does anyone at the club actually know what our strategy is?

rebuild or find all the discards and outcasts from the around the league?

11 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

I like Steele but my query is how he works in a high-rotation midfield set up - would be great if he could have an impact up frwd

Late in the season Saints tried to repurpose him a bit more forward (game against us in particular). I think he's got some adaptability to rest forward as he's still a good athlete vertically and is good overhead. Would think him and Langford can interchange as resting forward. Like this move if we can get him for limited capital.

Just feels like we have become the Saints dumping ground of late.