Half Kiwi and half seagull, Shane Savage enjoyed a successful season launching counterattacks for the Saint defence where he got plenty of work on the rebound. The former Hawk played every senior game for the first time in his career and produced several standout performances, including a 30-disposal, 10-mark outing against the Crows in round 6. The knock on Savage is that his 80%+ disposal efficiency is based on bombs to contests that get turned over too easily, yet still get classed as effective because they land over 40 metres away. Fantasy coaches in basic format scoring leagues don't care about that though, and they will select Savage as an insurance policy in the latter rounds.
Savage is a bombardier
Half Kiwi and half seagull, Shane Savage enjoyed a successful season launching counterattacks for the Saint defence where he got plenty of work on the rebound. The former Hawk played every senior game for the first time in his career and produced several standout performances, including a 30-disposal, 10-mark outing against the Crows in round 6. The knock on Savage is that his 80%+ disposal efficiency is based on bombs to contests that get turned over too easily, yet still get classed as effective because they land over 40 metres away. Fantasy coaches in basic format scoring leagues don't care about that though, and they will select Savage as an insurance policy in the latter rounds.
Shane Savage is now one of the more experienced players in the St Kilda back line, as it has been decimated by injuries with the latest a nasty one to Geary which will see him out for a while. Savage has always been able to find the footy and rack up metres gained with long kicks, but the knock on him is that despite the acreage he most often turns it over on the rebound. If the Saints are to make good on their excellent early form, Savage will have to learn to avoid foot clangers against teams with better defensive organisation.
Wild numbers from Savage
Shane Savage loves to kick the football, it’s what he’s best at. In recent times, the Saints have also happened to love giving him the ball. With two consecutive seasons averaging above 80, Savage is one of the more consistent defenders in fantasy football. While there has been criticism for Savage's tendency to pump up his metres gained stat at the expense of the team as he can tend to kick long and blind, he should be picked in the early-middle rounds and will most likely produce at a similar rate to the previous three seasons.
Garden stroll for Savage
Two trips to the VFL in the first half of 2017 after two solid years of senior action eventually roused Shane Savage from torpor, as he peeled off five fantasy tons in exotic scoring, all against finalists, albeit only three of those reached 100 in basic formats. Metres gained is his key stat running off half back, and he eventually pushed it from 45th in the league to 25th by season’s end, with much better numbers in that late run off the back of a contested percentage in the bottom 25 in the league. We have seen this before in the St Kilda backline. Remember when Jarryd Geary was a thing in fantasy? Good times. But seriously, this is unlikely to be a Jamie Macmillan situation where an Indian summer is followed by a long, cold winter. He is the inheritor of the Leigh Montagna role, which is quite lucrative. Defensive forwards will probably go to Dylan Roberton first for structural reasons, so if Savage looks in form in the JLT he should leap up draft boards towards early rounds.
