Through 2024, I worked incognito on a voluntary basis for an AFL club as a "scout".
I'd be asked to keep an eye on one to two players a game in under-18s and school footy. Alix Tauru was regularly on my to-do sheet.
In one game, down at Dandenong's Shepley Oval, I wondered if I was watching the re-birth of Peter Knights.
It was an intercept marking freak show. Tauru floated across packs deep in defence, with perfectly-timed, clean grabs. Yes, think Knights, if you're old enough!
This was well before the "Flying Viking" moniker and all the attention.
In another game later in the year at Port Melbourne, Tauru was flung forward in a bid to win the game and did exactly the same - reading the ball better than opponents and becoming a monster threat in front of the ball by dominating in the air. Only some wayward kicking, and the odd close shave, stopped it from being a match-winning display.
I watched Sam Lalor and Finn O'Sullivan a lot on the same year and saw plenty of Levi Ashcroft.
My draft order would have been O'Sullivan and No.1 (just), ahead Tauru at No.2. Tauru was that impressive, and the upside obvious.
That is precisely why where Tauru sits right now is so bitterly disappointing.
Memo Alix Tauru: Pull your head in. St Kilda needs you.
Tauru is facing another significant ban for collecting an opponent high in the VFL on Sunday. He ran past the footy, bumped and the impact appeared high and on the threshold of severe. Yes, big trouble.
Earlier in the year, he copped two matches combined for two incidents.
It came after a monster four-match ban for another rough conduct incident in the VFL last year.
These are not minor lineball moments. There is a common thread here and the stupidity is mounting up.
Sure, Tauru is young, but there is no excuse for a string of undisciplined events. You can excuse one, maybe two, but that is four now inside two seasons at the lower level.
Tauru was dropped to the twos for this weekend, and St Kilda's forward line looked inept against the Western Bulldogs.
Cooper Sharman one out as a traditional tall target is not going to cut it.
The Saints desperately need Tauru and they need him forward. I saw enough on that day at Port Melbourne to know he can do it.
Now, he will have to wait as another ban looms. What a waste as the season slips away.
There can be no more mis-steps and brain explosions. Tauru can be a generational player. It is time to deliver.
