Numerous key Saints are racing the clock to be fit for Round 1.
St Kilda football manager Geoff Walsh provided the update to AFL Media’s AFL Daily podcast, two weeks after the majority of the club’s playing list returned for pre-season.
Winger Jack Billings is one of those under the pump for a Round 1 appearance. Back and hamstring injuries saw the 27-year-old play just eight games in 2022, with Billings undergoing surgery at the end of the season.
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It’s understood Billings won’t train with the main group until January at the earliest, but as it stands, he’ll line up in Round 1.
“Pretty confident he’ll be up and going and get enough of his work in that will make him available for Round 1,” Walsh stated.
Walsh also spoke on Nick Coffield, Jack Hayes and Jade Gresham.
Coffield and Hayes both went down with ACL injuries earlier this year, with Coffield’s coming in the pre-season and Hayes’ during Round 6.
Walsh stopped short of declaring Coffield would be ready to play Round 1 and feature in his first game since Round 23, 2021, but added he was progressing well.
“The two boys with the knee reconstructions, Coff is running quite strongly now,” the new footy boss said.
“He did a trial three-kilometre (run) on Monday and pulled up okay, and Hayesy is probably a couple of months behind that.”
Meanwhile, star midfielder Gresham’s season ended in July due to a knee injury.
Gresham underwent surgery late in the season and didn’t feature in the Saints’ finals push and is another one who faces a delayed start to pre-season.
“The medicos painted a reasonably encouraging picture yesterday. He’ll meet with our medicos and physio staff to ramp up the program a little bit, we wouldn’t see him doing anything meaningful until the backend of January probably,” Walsh said.
“We’re still confident he’ll get enough work in the following six weeks to make him available for our season opener.”
New Saints coach Ross Lyon currently has a relatively healthy list at his disposal outside of those injuries and recent ankle surgery for Josh Battle.
Lyon will also be assisted by new high-performance boss Dave Mission, whose appointment was one of more than half-a-dozen additions to the club’s football program following the review which culminated in Brett Ratten’s job.