A summer spent away from the main group during the pre-season due to a shoulder reconstruction, ended up being a blessing in disguise for vastly improved St Kilda power forward Tim Membrey.

The 22-year-old, who kicked the most goals at Linen House Centre this season despite missing the first five games, produced a breakout year in 2016 to emerge as one of the most improved forwards in the game.

After booting a career-best five goals in his return against Melbourne in Round 6, Membrey went from strength to strength, utilising his improved endurance to his advantage to kick three sets of three across the next month.

From there, the undersized but powerfully built forward added another three five-goal bags to his 2016 collection, as well as a set of four. He put five past Carlton on two occasions and added another five against the Bombers.

Starved of opportunity across two seasons at the Swans, Membrey played 12 games in his first year at St Kilda in 2015. Although prior to this season he had never kicked more than two goals in an AFL game, emphasising his remarkable rise this winter.

Membrey was crowned St Kilda’s Best Emerging Player at last month’s Trevor Barker Award and finished ninth in the best and fairest behind now three-time winner Jack Steven.

He was also the first Saint to be named in the AFL Player’s Association’s Best 22under22 side, capping off a phenomenal rise by the Gippsland Power product.

Alan Richardson’s Views:

“Tim wasn’t able to do a lot of the footy stuff pre-Christmas or even after Christmas for that matter due to his shoulder reconstruction. What he was able to do was do a lot more running and that was the plan had the injury not occurred. Our plan was to get some flexibility into Tim’s play so that he wasn’t just a forward, so that he could play a role for the team through the midfield and if he was going to be able to do that he had to improve his running capacity, so that was the focus and no doubt that really helped him. He was able to get to a lot more contests where he could win the ball a lot; he’s a very smart player and very good in the contest. Because of his improved running capacity he was able to reset and get back towards goal after working into defence. His improved running capacity helped him and it certainly helped us.

“He’s only a young guy, he had a couple of years at Sydney where he didn’t play – there were a few in front of him up there. He got opportunity last year; he got more opportunity this year and got himself fitter so he was able to be much more involved in the game. So nothing every surprises me when someone works that hard. If someone didn’t work hard and then had a really positive year, that would surprise me, but that wasn’t the case with Tim.

“He’s a fairly mature guy, he’s got good balance in his life, he gets away from footy when he can up the bush and spends some time with his family. He’s moved in Paddy and Jimmy Webster and those three will often get away, so I reckon he’s worked that out and that breeds consistency, it means he can have some real routine in his life and helps him nail his preparation.”

The Numbers:

17 games
44 goals
2.6 goals per game (No. 6 in the AFL)
6.1 marks
3.1 marks inside 50 (No. 4 in the AFL)
12.9 disposals
2.1 inside 50s