Gerard Whateley has made a self-admitted “wild observation” heading into the 2021 AFL season.
While this isn’t an official prediction, Whateley believes it’s possible St Kilda takes full advantage of their favourable fixture across the first half of the year.
“One observation to conclude, I’ll go first: I’ve got a track specialist for the year. Back the Saints out of the red box at Marvel Stadium,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“Eagles in Perth, Geelong in Geelong, I think the toughest assignment in footy might be facing St Kilda under the roof on the lightning fast deck at Marvel.
“They play nine of their first 12 at the ground.
“They could be top of the ladder after 12 rounds on the back of that.
“St Kilda could be top of the ladder after 12 rounds, having played nine games at Marvel.
“I just think teams will be going ‘which way did they go?!’.”
We saw on Thursday night St Kilda can take full advantage of the additional speed in the game thanks to the man on the mark change, beating Carlton by 26 points in a shootout.
The Saints play: Melbourne, Essendon, West Coast, Richmond, Hawthorn, Geelong, Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne and Sydney at Marvel Stadium before Round 13, pending fixture changes.
David King’s final observation before the 2021 season revolved around the MRO and hoping they continue to crack down on bumps to the head, following Zac Williams’ one-week ban for colliding with Hunter Clark.
“I want Steve Hocking to have another press conference this week and I want Michael Christian standing next to him and I want them to say to AFL players out there ‘if you’re going to anywhere near the head guys, starting point is one week and we’re up from there’,” King said.
“It’s been on the front page of the AFL handout for 18 months, but if the AFL is serious, and we were big on this last year, you’ve got to make it two weeks, but this is it.
“Don’t be silly enough to bump the head from this point forward.”
Carlton has revealed they will challenge the one-week ban at the AFL Tribunal.