St Kilda risk becoming the “list clogger capital of Australia” as another AFL Trade period finished and the club was unable to land an “A-grader”, David King warned.
The Saints reportedly put forward Hunter Clark and pick nine in a bid to snare North Melbourne’s pick 3, but that never went ahead and they did not enter the race for Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy.
The club also missed out on Jordan De Goey before he opted to turn his back on free agency and commit to the Magpies.
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“I just worry that they are recruiting to be competitive or make finals, not necessarily win a premiership,” King said on Trading Day.
“I’ve had concerns about this list for a whole and St Kilda fans think I’m bashing them.
“They’ve got to be careful not to become the list clogger capital of Australia.”
The Saints finished the trade period with just Zaine Cordy, after giving up Ben Long and a fourth-round pick to Gold Coast in exchange for pick 32.
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King said of the recent additions to the Saints, only Jack Higgins, Dougal Howard and Paddy Ryder helped shape “fortunes”.
“These are the add ons over the last few years – Zaine Cordy this year – nice player but is he really going to shape the fortunes of this footy club? Tom Campbell, James Frawley, Shaun McKernan, Higgins was a win, Brad Crouch, Ryan Abbott, Zak Jones – hmm, Dougal Howard – maybe, Brad Hill – I’m not sure whether he’s a big tick or just a little tick. Dan Butler was good for a while, Ryder was captain for 35 to 40 games and that’s where that finished, Hannebery, Dean Kent, Logan Austin – where’s their big game changer coming in?” King said.
“We thought De Goey was that man.
“Someone that can come in and shift the fortunate of this footy club and they haven’t been able to land that.
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“I know it’s difficult to do – but this is the discussion. Are you getting someone to take you to the promise land? Or just another magnet?
“There’s some talent there, they just need an A-grader or two and we’re yet to see it.”
St Kilda list boss James Gallagher defended the club’s quiet trade period.
“We had a pretty clear plan in place … maybe you get caught up in wanting to bring players in. We’ve been really, really clear that the biggest improvement in our team is going to come from improvement within,” he said.
“You know in the last few years we’ve brought a lot of players into our best side through trade and free agency and we went to the draft last year and think it’s really important to do that again this year.
“We think we’ve got a team there that’s a pretty good team but it needs to grow together.”
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‘We’ve got a number of good players that we didn’t get a lot out of in 2022, through primarily through injury that are going to come back into our side in 2023. We played some pretty good footy in the first half of the year.
“We’re not miles off.
“We’re not just going throw money at getting other players in or another player that becomes available – we’ve got to be really strategic about that. We’re not trying to go up the ladder to finish sixth.”
Trading Day panellist Brad Johnson agreed the Saints were yet to land “their big fish”.
“We’ll be surprised if any (recent trade recruits) really step out and take this team by storm,” he said.
St Kilda were one of the early success stories in 2022, sitting inside the top four by Round 11 before fading badly to finish 10th.
The Saints have made finals just once in the past decade and haven’t tasted premiership success since 1966.
