St Kilda list manager James Gallagher has touched on a trio of Saints who are being mentioned in trade circles.
Top-10 draft pick Hunter Clark has been linked with North Melbourne, as has Bradley Hill, while Ben Long has requested a trade to the Gold Coast Suns.
The club has also been linked with Gold Coast’s Jack Bowes.
Gallagher addressed St Kilda’s expected trade period activity on AFL Trade Radio’s Trade Feed.
He also commented on the club’s interested on Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey.
Hunter Clark:
“Hunter is under contract with us, he’s incredibly talented, he’s a good lad and we love having him around the club.
“We’d be really reluctant to trade him. Mainly through injury we haven’t seen the best of him yet.
“He is a young player, he’s an emerging player, his best years are ahead of him.
“I’d expect that he’d be with us next year and hopefully for a long time beyond that.”
Bradley Hill:
“I do (expect him to stay).
“I’ve spoken to ‘Hilly’ quite a bit. He’s played some really good footy for us at times.
“He may have been a little bit inconsistent in the back-half of the year but he had some mates as well that were in that boat.
“We need to find a way to get the absolute best out of Brad for 20 or 22 weeks of the year, and we think that with some tweaks to personnel, the way we play, improvements in the program and the growing maturity of our group, we’re really confident that we’ll be able to do that.
“A lot of his weapons are not replaceable in AFL footy. His running is absolutely exceptional, he has the ability to play in a few different parts of the ground and he is quite unselfish with his running and coverage for teammates. It doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
“We’ve all taken a breath at the end of the year and critically assessed how the back-end of the season went. We’ve all got a bit of improving to do.
“I’d be expecting him to play with us next year and beyond and I reckon we’ll see the best of Brad Hill.”
Regarding Long and the reported interest in Bowes:
“‘Longy’ has requested a trade to the Gold Coast, so we’ll explore that for him.
“We love Longy, he’s a beauty and we don’t want to lose him but that’s the request that he’s made.
“We’re open to all those discussions with the Gold Coast. We’ve certainly talked about players as part of potential trades and we’re open to all possibilities provided it fits within our list strategy.
“I’m not going to go into the specifics of it but we’re certainly open-minded and have had discussions around players and picks.”
The Saints currently hold pick 9 in this year’s draft and Gallagher insists it is a selection they are eager to hang onto.
“Yeah, absolutely (we want to keep that),” he added.
“One of the key things that is a priority for us this year is to make sure we maximise our early draft picks.
“Two and three years ago we didn’t pick early in the draft, but last year and again this year it’s really important to keep feeding in high-end talent through the draft.
“We’re at 9 which will likely push out to 10 with the bid for Will Ashcroft. If we can come in a bit earlier that would be great, but at the same time it might be pushing out a couple of spots to pick up something extra.
“There’s certainly no intention of trading that out.”
Listen to Gallagher on the Saints below: