Head of List Management James Gallagher says St Kilda will have eyes on ready-made, tall talent to bolster the club's overall list quality, but won't be sacrificing any of its top-end draft picks in its mission to do so.
Adding a key position player at either of the ground has been nudged up the list of priorities this upcoming trade period to add much-needed support to its respective undersized defensive and offensive generals in Callum Wilkie and Tim Membrey.
Acquiring premium young talent through the draft still remains at the top of St Kilda's wish-list across the next two months. The Saints currently hold pick No. 9 ahead of this year's draft and, as stated last week, won't be putting it on the table to secure an established talent.
“There’s a couple of spots on our list we can improve immediately, so we’ll look at ways we can do that without compromising our early picks at the draft,” Gallagher told reporters at the opening of the 2022 Continental Tyres Trade Period.
“We’ve got some emerging talls but I think a bit of support at either end will be really important for us. We’ve got a good group of talls but we’re just a bit skinny.
“We had a bit of success at the draft last year, we’d love to come out two or three more kids at the pointy end of the draft.
“Draft is a focus, but we think there’s one or two players who could come in and really help us."
St Kilda's trade strategy has pivoted slightly after restricted free agent Jordan De Goey penned a five-year deal to remain at Collingwood late last week.
“For a player like that you need to be all in. We make no apologies about that,” Gallagher said.
“We do have a little bit more room to move cap-wise going forward, absolutely, but it doesn’t change how we view our list and the next couple of weeks.
“We need to be pretty strategic with exactly what we do over the next few weeks.”
The 2022 Continental Tyres Trade Period will run from Monday 3 October to Wednesday 12 October.