As the Australian Football League (AFL) season enters its critical mid-to-late stretch, a wave of unrivaled optimism is sweeping through St Kilda Football Club’s Moorabbin headquarters, centered on star key forward Max King’s long-awaited return from a debilitating multi-year injury layoff. Head coach Ross Lyon has confirmed that King, who has not appeared in a senior AFL match for more than two seasons due to repeated setbacks to his knee and surrounding soft tissue, is now hitting every key rehabilitation milestone and has successfully returned to the full running program required for elite AFL competition.
Lyon shared the latest update on King’s recovery in a press conference this week, noting that the club is targeting a potential return next week, while cautioning against overly rigid timelines that have proven problematic for injury comebacks in the past. “We’ve never been more optimistic about where Max is at,” Lyon told reporters. “He’s hitting all his milestones, and he’s back to hitting his full 23-minute running blocks at AFL standard. We’re hoping for next week, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. We take it day by day. I loved what Max said in his recent Telstra interview – he told reporters he isn’t doing all this rehab just to play in the reserves Victorian Football League, and I align completely with that mindset. We’re optimistic, but we still have steps to get through before we can confirm his return.”
Off the field, Lyon reaffirmed the club’s commitment to star big man Rowan Marshall, who is contracted to St Kilda through the end of the 2027 season. When asked about expected rival club interest in Marshall during the upcoming mid-season trade period, Lyon confirmed the club’s stance would remain unchanged from last year, when it rejected all offers for the key player. “Two things are clear: any rival interest is noted, and he is firmly contracted to us,” Lyon said in a characteristic closing remark before exiting the press conference.
Before any potential announcement about King’s comeback, the Saints face a season-defining top-flight fixture this Thursday night against the Geelong Cats, a perennial AFL powerhouse that has stumbled to an uncharacteristic ninth position on the premiership ladder, with only one win recorded since Round 11. Despite the Cats’ underwhelming win-loss record, Lyon warned against writing off the 2022 premiers, noting that context around their recent results has been lost amid widespread public discussion of their poor form.
“I wouldn’t say Geelong is out of form at all,” Lyon explained. “They played Fremantle without star defender Tom Stewart and key midfielder Bailey Smith, and they were still in the game right down to the final siren. Against a red-hot Brisbane Lions side that’s near the top of the ladder, they generated 61 inside 50 entries and only let themselves down with inaccurate goalkicking of 6.6. Against Greater Western Sydney, they were six goals up before three key players went down with injury, which completely flipped the result. All that nuance and detail gets lost in the noise around their win-loss record, but it doesn’t get lost in our analysis. We’re heading into this game knowing we’ve got a serious, dangerous challenge on our hands.”