St Kilda list manager James Gallagher joined Trade Mornings on AFL Trade Radio to discuss a number of players.
The Saints have recently been linked with delisted Essendon forward Shaun McKernan, to provide support for young gun Max King, while there are a handful of contracted and non-contracted players whose futures have been spoken about.
Shaun McKernan
“We were so impressed with ‘Kingy’ this year in basically his first year of AFL.
“We see a big future for Max and we love having him at our footy club and we are going to invest heavily in Max over the next 10-15 years.
“But I reckon we are a little bit exposed if we get the wrong injury in the wrong spot. That’s not necessarily just to Max. I think our team worked pretty well this year when we had the two tall forwards with Tim Membrey as well, playing as the other marking forward.
“We just don’t want to be compromised with our structure if we get the wrong injury in the wrong position. It’s not an area of the ground we’re going to throw a lot of assets and money at, and that’s not to be the disrespectful to anyone we may bring in.
“We think we’ve got our number one forward for a number of years but it’s an area we need more support in.
“He’s (McKernan) one of a few. He’s obviously finished up at Essendon.
“There’s a few marking forward types that are either out of contract or finishing up at their current clubs and we’ve made a number of phone calls to their managers over the past few weeks.
“But he’s one, yeah.”
Jimmy Webster and Luke Dunstan
“They’re both contracted. They are both good AFL players those boys.
“Just the way the season worked. They both got injured at the wrong time really.
“Jimmy we were trying to get into the side all year. He’d be fit and back in the side then cop a couple of week injury.
“Luke played a pretty strong game in Round 1 and then tore his pec. They just found it difficult to get into the side.
“So (they are) contracted for next year and at this stage we’ve had no indication that they won’t be with the Saints in 2021.”
Jake Carlisle
“Hopefully we’ll get a resolution on that (new contract) sooner rather than later.
“We’ve got a deal in front of him and his management. He’s been pretty busy the last few weeks with a new baby.
“Hopefully we get that sorted in the next few days or week.”
Jack Lonie
“We’ve got a deal in front of ‘Lones’ and his management at the moment.
“I think we’ll know more there in the coming days.
“I did read that there was some interest as well. I’m not sure if that’s absolutely the case but hopefully we get a resolution there sooner than later.”
Ben Paton and Jack Billings
“With ‘Pato’ we’re in the very final stages there. We’re anticipating a pretty positive announcement with Benny in the coming days.
“Jack Billings, he’s out (of contract) at the end of next year.
“We have a number of good players coming out (of contract) at the end of next year. What we’ll look to do is get through the next few weeks, get some clarity around salary cap and list sizes, then work our way through the draft.
“Then certainly over summer, we’ll start to prioritise the guys that are out of contract at the end of 2021 to re-contract and extend beyond that. We’ll work our way through that over the course of the year.”
Key defensive post
“That is an area of the ground that we may look to stiffen up as well given that Logan Austin won’t go next year and Nathan Brown has retired.
“We’re a bit lighter there right now than we were at the start of the year.”
Jye Caldwell
“By the sounds of it he’s pretty keen to get to Essendon.
“We wish him all the best. He’s going to be a good footballer, Jye.”