Jesse Wardlaw’s newfound role in the ruck may only be in its infancy, but senior coach Nick Dal Santo is eager to “explore the possibilities” of what a dual-position All-Australian could do for the Saints moving forward.
Wardlaw - who bagged her 50th AFLW goal in the game’s initial minutes - was drafted to St Kilda as the reigning AFLW Leading Goalkicker in March, yet has shown plenty of promise up the ground in her first five games as a Saint, rotating between her customary role inside-50 and through the middle as far more than just a pinch-hitting ruck.
The 23-year-old ended her evening against the Western Bulldogs with three goals, 10 hit-outs, six marks and five tackles; her all-round display pivotal in the eventual 18-point win in favour of St Kilda.
“She’s good at it is the thinking behind it,” Dal Santo said at his post-game press conference.
“We are in a fortunate position where Jesse is a fantastic forward - we’re well aware of that - and she has been previous to coming to the Saints as well. We dabbled with her in the ruck (a few weeks ago), and then thought ‘why don’t we just try it a little bit more?’. So we’re still exploring that balance.
“We’re still working through that and that will be a continual conversation from week-to-week on how to utilise Jesse’s skillset.”
Erin McKinnon came into the side for her first game in a touch over the year in place of Simone Nalder, charting up 17 hit-outs to serve as the ideal counterpoint to Wardlaw in what was a pleasing display in Dal Santo’s eyes.
It was far from the only thing which the Saints can walk away content with after correcting the course in response to a 0-3 start to the season.
St Kilda looked a markedly different side to the one that went down to North Melbourne in Round 1 by 40 points, jetting out to an early lead at VU Whitten Oval before changing gears to arrest the Dogs’ momentum in the second term after they replied with five straight majors of their own.
The Western Bulldogs only mustered one more goal from that point on, with the physical Saints shifting the dial again to force the free-flowing contest into a grind in the scoreless final term.
“It’s really pleasing. It’s a similar story to last week in that it’s been a build,” Dal Santo said.
“To reflect on the first five games, (although) disappointed with the North Melbourne first-up I feel like we’ve building since then and seen small signs of improvement in all three phases of the game.
“We spoke about Grand Final Week and what that means in Melbourne and how special it is. I understand that it’s not our Grand Final Week, but it’s still a really cool place to be this time of year.”
St Kilda will have consecutive home games at RSEA Park following this week’s eight-day break, beginning with Hawthorn before tackling GWS for the opening week of Indigenous Round.
The extra time to rest and refresh won’t be a time for complacency however, with Dal Santo determined to see his side build upon the steady improvement of the previous few weeks.
“It was a good performance and we’ve clearly got areas to work on (with) that second quarter the run-on that the Dogs had,” Dal Santo said regarding the Bulldogs’ unanswered five-goal run either side of quarter-time.
“We knew they were going to challenge us, and they did right to the end. Some of their stoppage work was really aggressive and challenged us.
“Overall regarding our girls, I’m really pleased where we sit right now on the growth that we’ve had over the past month.”
