St Kilda EGM Football David Misson says trade discussions between potential trade targets are yet to be initiated, however the club will certainly have plenty to ponder with two selections inside this year’s top-10.
The Saints have been linked to premiership players Jack Macrae (Western Bulldogs) and Ivan Soldo (Port Adelaide) this 2024 Continental Tyres Trade, however Misson remained staunch that conversations between the two contracted players hadn’t begun as yet.
Soldo’s potential arrival at RSEA Park would be welcomed as desirable ruck support for Rowan Marshall, who finished fourth in this year’s Trevor Barker Award after polling a career-high 16 Brownlow votes.
“He’s currently still a contracted player at Port Adelaide and there’s a fair bit of work to do it that was to happen,” Misson said at the opening day of the 2024 Continental Tyres Trade Period.
“At the moment with got Rowan Marshall and Max Heath on our list, so it’s an area we probably need to build, whether it’s with Ivan or someone else through the draft.
“We feel that ruck stocks are pretty important, we’ve probably been reasonably lucky in a way that Rowan’s been able to play every game the last couple of years, but we want to back-fill that area and make sure (he’s) got support.”
The Saints will head into this year’s draft and trade period with two selections currently inside the top-10 (pick No. 7 and No. 8), with the latter arriving on Friday as free agency compensation for Josh Battle.
“You’re always disappointed to lose good players, but as a club we were pleased to receive the compensation we did which is really going to make our draft hand very strong,” Misson said.
“I don’t think you can expect anything that is as fluid as compensation bands, but we felt it was fair and reasonable.”
Misson and St Kilda’s recruiting team of Graeme Allan, Stephen Silvagni and Simon Dalrymple spent Friday at this year’s Draft Combine, weighing up their options for what to do with their first-round selections; pick No. 8 of which came through that same day.
“We’re going to go to the draft again this year and try and pick as well as we can because we feel that sets the football club up for sustained success,” Misson said.
“We’ve run a dual-narrative for the last couple of years with both draft and trade. We’re really pleased that we debuted six players this year: all five players we got in the draft last year as well as Angus McLennan.
“History will tell you that you need at least four drafts to start to build a final-four team, so we’re looking at another strong drafting period. We have a lot of confidence in our list management and recruiting team and we feel that this is going to be another good period for the club.”
The 2024 Continental Tyres Trade Period will run until Wednesday 16 October.
