After three and a half seasons at Linen House Centre, emerging young ruckman Lewis Pierce broke through for a debut midway through the season, in what was the crowning moment of his best year to date at St Kilda.

Pierce took significant strides forward with his development in 2016, banging down the selection door by halfway through the season, following a sustained patch of excellence in the VFL.

With Alan Richardson and the match committee reluctant to play two ruckmen in the same 22, Pierce was forced to bide his time at Sandringham, while Tom Hickey tightened his grip on the No. 1 ruck mantle.

But after a dominant month in the VFL, Pierce was rewarded with a taste of senior football against Carlton in Round 12.

The Dandenong Stingrays was far from overawed against Blues star Matthew Kreuzer, getting his hands on the ball at stoppages before kicking a late goal to cap off a memorable day for him and the Saints.

Pierce returned to the Zebras after the win over the Blues but demonstrated his ability at the highest level. Alongside Billy Longer and Jason Holmes, the trio rotated through the ruck and deep inside 50 in a far from ideal situation at Sandringham, but one that allowed Pierce to develop his forward craft.

In late July, Pierce and Longer inked two-year contract extensions, shoring up St Kilda’s ruck stocks for the future.

Rohan Welsh’s Views:

“I suppose the pleasing thing with ‘Lewy’ was that he played senior footy this year. He didn’t look overwhelmingly out of his depth, obviously he’s got areas to improve, but just getting that taste of what’s required is really pleasing. And now we need him to step up to another level, have another really strong pre-season, get his fitness up, get stronger because I think last pre-season he did get a fair bit stronger which is really pleasing, but now he just needs to take that to a different level.

“I think the area of his game that needs to improve is his centre bounce work. We know around the ground he gives us a bit and we know up forward he’ll give us a bit, he just needs to work on his craft in the centre bounce to be more competitive in there and give us a bit more use.

“Pressure for spots for the rucks definitely helped all four; it kept Hickey up and going; Billy was constantly striving to get a game, so was ‘Lewy’ and ‘Holmesy’ obviously got an opportunity late. So I think the four of them had really good development years in terms of games played and there was a real competitive edge to try and get a game, which I think spurred all over them on.”

The Numbers:

AFL

1 game
1 goal
10.0 hitouts
6.0 disposals

VFL

17 games
15.1 hitouts
12.1 disposals

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