A dejected St Kilda trudges off Marvel Stadium on Friday night with its finals hopes all but dashed for season 2022. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

For the 10th time in 11 seasons St Kilda won’t be playing finals football. In that period only Gold Coast have endured more idle Septembers than the owners of footy’s longest premiership drought.

Friday night’s must-win encounter against Brisbane perfectly encapsulated St Kilda’s plight. Outmatched in the first half yet good enough to produce a five-goal third term to briefly resuscitate their lost season only to have it sink again, ending the match with six straight behinds.

St Kilda is often able to elbow their way into semi-relevance and earn the odd date owing to a reasonable level of honesty and integrity, but their pronounced lack of class gets them nothing more than a peck on the cheek at night’s end.

Over the last few years, they’ve exhibited a desperate willingness to join the AFL’s elite yet remain firmly stuck in the AFL’s middle class which is a far from ideal place to be in the modern game.

To go from ordinary to average the Saints have surrendered tremendous resources over the past few years, dispensing with first- and second-round picks at will while handing over large cheques to the likes of Dan Hannebery, Bradley Hill, Dougal Howard and Jack Higgins.

And while this quartet of imported H’s haven’t been entirely defective, they’re additions that have ultimately left the club little to no margin for error either on the field or on draft night.

When a team is bursting with star power, and the Saints clearly aren’t, one of the many luxuries that star power can provide is the ability to help you out of tight spots.

When that ridiculously hard-to-assemble IKEA bookshelf is tormenting you, someone who truly knows what they’re doing can waltz in and have it up in minutes. However, St Kilda’s dearth of top-end talent means it’s often left fumbling around on the floor with instructions and screws.

Poor accuracy in front of goal needn’t sink every team, but it routinely does at St Kilda. Injuries to a 34-year-old back-up ruckman like Paddy Ryder shouldn’t be so insurmountable either, yet the Saints are often at a loss when he doesn’t play, going just 11-13 without his services since he arrived at Moorabbin at the end of 2019.

Last season the Demons were the league’s fifth-most inaccurate team yet charged to a flag. They were joined that night in Perth by the Dogs who’d lost their leading goalkicker on the eve of finals. This season the Pies have jumped from 17th to the top four with multiple All-Australian and Copeland Trophy winner Brodie Grundy playing just four games.

To the Saints’ credit they’ve been able to lift themselves out of the absolute doldrums, largely through hard yakka. Brett Ratten took over a four-win team at the end of 2018 and in two seasons had them playing off in a semi-final against Richmond.

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Since he arrived, he’s installed a much more competitive outfit that’s at least been able to separate itself from the league’s paupers. The Saints have gone 19-7 against bottom-eight teams over the last three seasons, leaning heavily on Jack Steele and a heap of rookie-draft gems to be able to look themselves in the mirror and say, “At least we’re not shit anymore.”

Yet unfortunately clinging on gamely, with the occasional inspiring win, won’t cut the mustard for much longer. What’s needed is a serious injection of class, which is equally why a player like Max King must cause St Kilda’s loyal fan base such tremendous angst.

At just 22, King already looks like a future superstar of the league, prowling the Saints forward 50, often hauling in laughably excellent pack marks. Yet St Kilda’s knight in shining armour’s kicking for goal undoes so much of his fine work while seriously mitigating his threat.

In 2022, only Tom Hawkins has taken more marks inside 50 than King, while only Tom Lynch has amassed more total contested grabs. As for King’s 47 per cent goal accuracy? Well, that ranks 286th in the competition.

While King’s improved kicking in isolation won’t take the Saints from OK to great, it’d be the kind of headache the club would kill to not have to continually stress about.

Because St Kilda’s list has been largely decked out with foot soldiers and imported labour, Ratten is limited in the kind of recipes he can cook. What he’s got at hand is usually enough to fend off inferior opposition, yet the lack of tactical innovation means his team rarely scares the league’s absolute top dogs.

Where this leaves St Kilda is in a familiar position of contemplating yet another off-season off the back of another underwhelming year.

And while St Kilda fans mightn’t want to hear it, it’s probably through the boring old draft where any potential golden ticket might lie.

Over the last few years perhaps the only area where the club has truly distinguished itself is in unearthing excellent players in hard-to-reach places.

Callum Wilkie, Jack Sinclair and Rowan Marshall are all locks to finish top five in the club’s best-and-fairest and all were sourced through the rookie draft. Outside of King, St Kilda’s most promising key forward prospects are Jack Hayes and Cooper Sharman – also rookie and mid-season draft products.

The Saints keep searching externally, mistakenly believing they’re just a player or two away from being a threat which is a policy that’s surely run its course.

A more sensible approach from here would be to trust their recruiting team which has already proven itself off Broadway. It’s now time to put them on the main stage and to allow them as many swings at the pinata as possible over the next couple of national drafts.