Kane Cornes has accused St Kilda of being “precious” for not allowing Max King to work on his goalkicking with Matthew Lloyd.
King contacted Lloyd, his former coach at Haileybury College, asking for a private goalkicking session after kicking 1.5 against Geelong in Round 9, which was denied by the Saints.
The young Saints forward has struggled in front of goal since debuting last season, kicking 35 goals and 41 behinds across 28 AFL games.
King has booted 13.21 this year and looks bereft of confidence when it comes to his goalkicking at the present time.
“They (St Kilda) are precious. They’re worried about their own jobs,” Cornes told Channel Nine’s Footy Classified.
“They’ve got their own skills people. They think they would feel threatened by an expert like Matthew Lloyd coming in and having good results.
“It’s a precious group clearly and they’re putting their own self-interests over the improvement of their biggest star who is going to potentially win a lot of games for them over the next 10 years.”
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Dwayne Russell is also of the opinion that the Saints should allow the 20-year-old to practice with Lloyd – a three-time Coleman Medallist and 926-goal Essendon great.
“If I was at St Kilda, I would allow Max King to talk to Matthew Lloyd,” Russell told SEN's Dwayne's World.
“In this day and age, all we hear from progressive clubs is we’re just trying to make better people, we’re trying to help players become the best possible version of themselves, it’s all about what’s best for the individual.
“We hear that from clubs over and over again, well, Max King wanted help on his goalkicking from his old school coach Matthew Lloyd, but they said no.
“I think that flies in the face of the way that most clubs would approach it.”
King went goalless and registered two behinds in St Kilda’s win over North Melbourne last Saturday.