Trade Rumours 2025

[Virgin-Dog]

Saints keep trying

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We really are in an awkward spot when it comes to player acquisition as a Victorian club.

We're a smaller club, so don't have the automatic pull that clubs like Richmond, Collingwood and Geelong have. At the same time, we're not so success-starved that we desperately throw money at anyone and therefore ruin our list build like Carlton, Essendon, North and Saints.

Just makes it more likely that we miss out on these guys who would almost certainly improve us. Saints will probably offer him something stupid like $800k+, which you can't exactly be matching. Same with Maynard exploring opportunities, and North now apparently offering him a $6 million contract...

[GVGjr]

Saints keep trying

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If he moves back to Melbourne they're a great chance of landing him.

[Axe Man]

Trade ‘reality check’ sparked big change at cashed-up Saints. Four stars now top their wishlist

After one finals win in 15 seasons and a slew of recent recruiting misses, St Kilda is “starting to change the narrative” with off-field tweaks amid a targeted four-pronged ploy.

Past failings luring ready-made talent haven’t deterred the club, which is said to be going “very hard” at four rival guns in particular in 2025.

The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane detailed the key changes at the Saints — including the catalyst that set the wheels in motion — and their recruitment plans this year on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle, having also written at length on the topic.

“There’s a number of players that the Saints have gone out to try and speak (to), the multi-million-dollar offers that we’ve all read about,” McFarlane began on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.

“Some of them are very concerned about signing on (in this) social media age we’re in — they don’t want to be ‘the man’.

“Another key point that has been an issue for some of these players is the club’s history ... they’ve won one flag in more than 100 years. St Kilda have got to change that narrative, and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do at the moment.”

The avoidance of the ‘Messiah complex’ is front-of-mind, with players baulking at life-changing rival offers in concern for the accompanying heavy responsibility of leading a struggling side out of the darkness.

But Ralph says there’s a way around it, with the Moorabbin-based club placing a key quartet atop its wish list.

“This is a massive six months for the St Kilda Football Club, and Ross 2.0. If they can actually land some of those players, they can transform this football club,” he said.

“The way that you avoid the ‘Messiah complex’ is you spread the load — you get multiple players, and I think they’ve gone very hard for at least four. I think they’re a really good chance on three of them.”

CURRENT TARGETS

Tom De Koning (Carlton)
Luke Davies-Uniacke (North Melbourne)
Miles Bergman (Port Adelaide)
Leek Aleer (GWS Giants)

“Tom De Koning, that’s a $1.7m (per year) offer. I think he wants to stay at Carlton ... he’s (asking) people ‘How do I resist that offer?’. So, I think Carlton, you’ve got to lift again,” Ralph added, before raising Leek Aleer’s situation in western Sydney.

“The fascinating one is St Kilda throwing the kitchen sink at Leek Aleer, the young GWS Pick 15 ... he’s just not in this defence because it’s so exceptional right now,” he continued.

“His manager Dylan Smith met with him in Sydney (on Tuesday), he knows he’s going to have to move on. St Kilda, I think, right now, are the biggest bidder — I think they’d be prepared to offer as much as $900,000 (per year) if that’s what it’s going to take to land this guy.

“He will move on, and I think he’d fit in there just perfectly with Cal Wilkie.”

Crucial Port Adelaide defender and Sandringham product Miles Bergman will also be among the Saints’ key considerations.

“Miles Bergman is intriguing. The bayside school mates, they’re thinking: ‘This is the time’. He knocked back St Kilda last time around, (and) I think there’s so many reasons why he wants to land at St Kilda — I think as a midfielder, instead of a half-back flanker or a third tall (defender),” Ralph said.

“The official line is that he hasn’t decided, but he’s postponed those contract talks until halfway through the year. He’s talked to Ken Hinkley about his homesickness.

“He doesn’t want to be defined by football; he wants family, he wants friends, he wants outside hobbies. It just feels to me like he’s going to be at St Kilda next year.”

RECRUITING MISSES

Jordan de Goey (Collingwood)
Zach Merrett (Essendon)
Jacob Weitering (Carlton)
Hugh McCluggage (Brisbane Lions)
Finn Callaghan (GWS Giants)
Josh Battle (moved to Hawthorn via restricted free agency)
Karl Amon (Port Adelaide to Hawthorn)

The Saints have made their fair share of unsuccessful big-money pitches in recent times for little return, but McFarlane said the Saints have taken steps in “starting to change the narrative” with key off-field tweaks.

“They’ve been less inclined to change (in the past) ... a few of the things they’ve really looked into — match-day concierge for the families, pitch Ross as the warm and cuddly father figure kind of guy ... (and) integrate the families into the pitch of the whole club experience, as Hawthorn have done,” McFarlane said on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.

“Aim to be the number one First Nations team in the competition, that’s a really important ingredient for the Saints at the moment. They’ve got a room there that they’re working really hard on with portraits of all the Indigenous players.

“And importantly, the desire to source the best players from Ireland, they are looking heavily into investing in Ireland ... we saw with Liam O’Connell on the weekend taking that Leo Barry-style mark, it’s starting to (pay) dividends.”

Ralph said the off-season departure of Josh Battle to Hawthorn was the catalyst for the Saints’ powerbrokers to acknowledge change was needed.

“I think this is a massive reality check when they lost Josh Battle. They offered more money, he was a loyal bloke, (and) he was going 10 minutes down the road to a club that should’ve been in the same premiership window as them. Instead, he walked out for less cash,” Ralph said.

“I think what they realised then, is: ‘We have to change everything that we are doing’.

“It’s a real challenge that the midfield is not great, so a lot of those players don’t want to come in like Finn Callaghan and be the ‘star’ midfielder ... but I think that was the reality check to say: ‘Okay, we’re off the pace here’.

“I think Ross listened, I think (football boss) David Misson listened, and those four pillars at the club, they’re really aggressively changing it. We’ll find out in the next six months whether it’s worked.”

[Bornadog]

Let's make it happen

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[whythelongface]

Let's make it happen

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Surely there is every chance given how awful Port are and will likely to be over the next few years.

[jazzadogs]

Surely there is every chance given how awful Port are and will likely to be over the next few years.

I think there's a good chance he leaves Port.

And it's basically guaranteed he comes to us according to all of my sources.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Delete wrong thread.

[Happy Days]

I think there's a good chance he leaves Port.

And it's basically guaranteed he comes to us according to all of my sources.

I’ve actually heard that from my sources too (my source is your post)

[jazzadogs]

I’ve actually heard that from my sources too (my source is your post)

My source was my previous post.

[Happy Days]

My source was my previous post.

Hearing it from too many places. Smoke, fire etc.

[jazzadogs]

Hearing it from too many places. Smoke, fire etc.

Absolutely relentless. Exciting time to be a Dogs fan.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I’ve actually heard that from my sources too (my source is your post)

I've actually heard it from a different source to yours. More recent than your source.

[hujsh]

Word is the Butters is touring WO today. If you take every 3rd capital letter from Butters tweets and Bulldogs official tweets and run it through a cypher it's pretty clear.

[Hotdog60]

I asked the man himself and Jac Butters will be at the Whitten Oval next year. He loves watching Footscray play

[GVGjr]

Bont forward when needed, Rowell, Butters, Ed, Sando, Fridge, Libba and Treloar is going to be a heck of a midfield.