By Mic Cullen 12:22 PM Sun 19 April, 2009
THE ST KILDA midfield is clearly undervalued in terms of AFL engine-rooms.
But while Geelong is the dux of the school, the Saints are rapidly becoming a unit to be feared.
Nick Dal Santo, Lenny Hayes, Brendon Goddard, Leigh Montagna, Farren Ray and Clint Jones are a group any other team would be more than happy to have.
Add Jason Gram into that mix, and it's even stronger.
Gram made his name as a rebounding defender but moved into the midfield last year.
"Ross (Lyon, Saints coach) wanted to get more depth in the midfield, and he wanted to do that from about half-way through last year," Gram said after his side's crushing 83-point win over Fremantle on Saturday night.
"He didn't want us relying on just Dal, Hayes and Ball, so he introduced myself, Goddard, Jones, Farren Ray, all those guys.
"I'm loving it in the midfield, and every now and then if I have to go back, I'll go back."
The 24-year-old said the plan to build the strength of the unit was clearly working, and warned more was to come.
"We've got really good depth in there now, and we've still got some guys who aren't playing – you've got (David) Armitage and Rob Eddy can go in there, (Andrew) McQualter is playing at half-forward and he can go in there.
"And the two big men (Michael Gardiner and Steven King) are really firing in the ruck, so if we can keep them all out there, it's going to be a good season."
Despite the thrashing handed out to Fremantle, Gram said the side wasn't overly pleased with their efforts.
"We want to be a hard football team, one of the hardest in the league.
"I think our tackling was down a bit tonight, and you notice it when you're out on the ground – in the last few weeks you just notice everyone coming forward, tackling, hitting them.
"We were a bit up and down – we started off pretty well and then our pressure dropped down a bit in the second term – I don't know if it's the way Freo were playing, they were chipping it around a bit, going backwards.
"It was down tonight but we stuck at it.
"We probably played some bad footy, but we still won."
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Nick Dal Santo, Lenny Hayes, Brendon Goddard, Leigh Montagna, Farren Ray and Clint Jones are a group any other team would be more than happy to have.
Add Jason Gram into that mix, and it's even stronger.
Gram made his name as a rebounding defender but moved into the midfield last year."
.....wtf.............
.....luke ball anyone....?????/
