ST KILDA recruiting manager John Peake is adamant the club will not
fall into the trap of taking success for granted after it fell
agonisingly close in its premiership bid against Geelong last Saturday.


The Saints went within a whisker of their second ever flag after an
outstanding season but Peake, speaking on the first day of the NAB AFL
Draft Camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, said the
result would not stop the club making hard decisions when it came to
evaluating its list.

"That is the hard balance. One of the biggest dangers in this business
is overrating your list and thinking: 'Oh well, it's near enough and we
only have to do this and that'," Peake told afl.com.au.

"This week [list manager] Matthew [Drain] and [coach] Ross [Lyon] are
doing it now – just going through [the list] and that's going to be the
big challenge for us".

Peake said the club was hopeful of securing some excellent talent in
the draft, despite having a relatively low first-round pick.

He said the cream of the draft camp talent tends to pick itself for the
highest selections, but that there would still be choices available to
the Saints when it came to their turn at the best young footballers in
the country.

"Usually in the first round, clubs pick the best player, but possibly because things have changed, they might go for need.

"We might get a couple of players we've targeted for that pick 16."

Since joining the Saints from Geelong in 2007, Peake's influence has
been seen most obviously in regard to trading, with Farren Ray, Adam
Schneider, Steven King and Sean Dempster all making successful
transitions to the club.

But Peake expects the young drafted talent to come to the fore in the near future.

"We've seen a bit of Ben McEvoy this year – he played 11 games, which
was good for him – and we've seen one game from Jack Steven.

"So from a personal, recruiting team point-of-view, we've been all
quite encouraged by that and with our VFL side, watching Rhys Stanley,
Tommy Lynch and Nick Heyne.

"Our true judgment day is still to come."

That, of course, involves going one better than the club managed in 2009.

"It was exciting and all of our supporters would say that," Peake said in regard to the season.

"Ross probably doesn't feel that excited at the moment, but during the
year all of us saw that our window hadn't closed … For the players and
everyone involved, we have a strong belief that that window has not
closed.

"That was the exciting thing about it, although the end result wasn't exciting, but that's footy."

Now entering his third drafting period, Peake said he is feeling more comfortable in the role.

"It'd be fair to say that in my first year, because I didn't start right from day one, it was an adjustment year," he said.

"It was Ross's first year and we were all getting to know the list and
getting to know one another and then to the club's credit, the
recruiting and the whole footy department has been better resourced.

"We've got an experienced [recruiting] person such as Paul Collins from
Melbourne, who I previously worked with at Essendon and that's helped.
And of course we've still got 'JB' Johnny Beveridge, who is very
experienced, so I've really seen it come together."