North Melbourne champion David King believes St Kilda’s questionable draft choices are coming back to haunt the club as their early season struggles continue.
After a lengthy re-build, the Saints still look devoid of any sort of A-grade talent with no real light at the end of the tunnel as they slumped to their fifth loss in their opening seven fixtures.
King said the Saints' hierarchy should take responsibility for their draft woes over previous years.
“The assessment on the drafts are hard to refute,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“Even the Paddy McCartin selection they were offered by the GWS Giants who were trading up to take Christian Petracca. I think they offered pick four and seven for pick one.
“Those are the sort of decisions when you look back now you think, you have a team willing to give up picks four and seven to get Petracca – why aren’t we taking Petracca? We’ve got this pick.
“Those are the sort of decisions that you really are going to struggle as a Saints fan to come to grips with.
"It’s not an industry where you can hang onto your mistakes.
“It’s an honesty system – you put your hand up and say, yep we made a blue here, what can we do to get out of this as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
“The problem with St Kilda is some of those guys you’re talking about are high pick investments. So you’re really limited in what you can do.
"You just cannot get your selections wrong. I watched Brisbane yesterday, they have had six picks inside the top 20 in the last two years and you can see it. You can see quality and class."
The two-time premiership player was also critical of St Kilda coach Alan Richardson’s game plan, saying it’s not suited to the players he has at his disposal.
“Don’t discard that the system they playing completely does not fit this group,” King said.
“That is a genuine discussion that Alan Richardson needs to have with his coaching group.”
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Listen to David King discuss the Saints in the player below