The Saints do have a problem with the distribution of ages in our squad (not just age, also experience).
Lets have a look at the squad set to play 08/06/24: Player number Name Age matches played
26 Battle 25y 112m 20 Howard 28y 126m 44 Wilkie 28y 121m
29 Webster 30y 155m 7 Wanganeen-Milera 21y 53m 35 Sinclair 29y 176m
8 Hill 30y 245m 2 Windhager 21y 48m 32 Wood 30y 124
19 Marshall 28y 122m 9 Steele 28y 170m 15 Dow 24y 76m
22 Wilson 18y 12m 23 Henry 22y 49m 10 Owens 20y 42m
1 Higgins 25y 111m 12 King 23y 80m Caminiti 20y 26m
6 Ross 31y 209m 11 Clark 25y 88m 16 Butler 28y 134m 28 Membrey 30y 170m 36 Bonner 27y 105m
The colour coding is to highlight my point; we have very few players on our injured list, so the squad assembled is pretty much our best squad. There are 12 players 27y or older who should be at their prime and some may be showing that they are past their prime. We have 5 players 23y - 26y, all of whom have played more than 50 matches. And we have 6 players 18y - 22y most of whom is approaching the 50 match mark (after which they will generally perform consistently). These players are holding a spot in this team, possibly pushing out more experienced players.
To some extent all clubs need to play recruits and allow them to gain experience. A good club will develop players by reviewing footage of performances to correct errors or suggest alternative actions to improve individual and team performances and then practicing those changes in training drills.
Every team should be a mix of experienced players, mid age players and youth.
St Kilda does not appear to be a "destination club" so we will need to focus on recruitment via the draft and through trades. The ultimate goal being to put together a squad capable of playing finals for a number of years and win a premiership. The number of quality youth being drafted will usually drop while the team is playing finals, so this window is best spent developing the previously recruited youth and spending draft picks on ready made players through trades.
My point is that we have a limited window of opportunity (2-3 seasons) with the players we have that are already experienced (27y and older). I can't see how our squad can be improved enough in that time frame. I am concerned that the next age cohort is too small to provide a comfortable transition as the older players retire.
Take Howard, Wilkie, Webster, Sinclair and Bonner out of that backline and we look very weak. Cordy is of similar age, so that leaves Battle, Nas, and Paton and untried defenders to fill the gaps. Players aged 23y-26y now are absolutely vital to the transition of our team going forward. We have too few of them and are compensating by playing youth in their place.
We also have a deficit of players in that mid age group through our midfield with Dow the only representative.
This leads me to believe that we must retain players in this 23y-26y age group as our highest priority. These players will be the experienced players holding the squad together while we train recruits to fill those spots. Those posters who argue that we should trade out Battle for the compensation pick are arguing to delay our era of playing finals for a further 3 or so years. I don't want further delays. I would rather trade players of that experience into our squad as we approach the "premiership window".
Updated this to make those players 30 or older a different colour. Players 27, 28, 29 can have 6 years left.
Only ones I'd be concerned about on our list from that side are Ross and Membrey.
The rest of the squad I personally think could still be here in 3 years time.
If Battle goes but we're able to bring in a couple cheaper moneyball players whilst our list continues to develop so be it.
That said if he leaves for less than $1m per year I'd be annoyed as I would hope our personal ceiling sits somewhere between $800k and $900k per year.