Inside story behind St Kilda pulling off five big trades last year, including securing star Bradley Hill
Trade wheeling and dealing doesn’t all happen at Marvel Stadium in October. Go inside the long-term plans and secret player meetings that helped St Kilda land five key players in a bumper trade 2019 period.
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It was in a dark corner of the beachfront Stokehouse restaurant that the deal was all but sealed.
But they were almost caught out.
Over King George whiting and maybe a couple of ales, then-Dockers speedster Bradley Hill and his partner Samantha joined St Kilda list boss James Gallagher at the bayside hotspot, a jewel in the crown of the suburb from which the Saints take their name.
Coincidence? Unlikely.
Hill, then contracted at Fremantle, had stayed in Melbourne after a late-season Dockers game.
There had been a call to his manager, Colin Young, earlier in the year – calls that eventually progressed through to Hill, once the triple-premiership Hawk-come-Docker had expressed his interest in becoming a Saint.
Samantha was keen to return to Melbourne, as was he.
He and Gallagher would exchange messages on occasion, with the Stokehouse dinner one of the final opportunities to convince.
“It was actually pretty funny,” Hill recalled.
“We were sitting there — me, ‘Gags’ and my partner having dinner.
“And then (former Hawk) Brad Sewell walked in.”
Hill didn’t introduce Gallagher – he knew Sewell worked in the media, and laughs that he wasn’t going to take the risk.
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A few weeks later, with trade period in full swing, the feed of whiting long before and negotiations heating up, Hill admits nerves set in.
“Freo were playing it pretty hard,” he said.
“So I was a little bit stressed for a bit. Eventually they got the deal done. I got the nod from Freo one day that said, ‘we’re going to let it happen’.”
It wasn’t easy.
Pick six had been in play, earmarked to go to the Dockers as part of the Hill trade, before things took a twist and the Saints split the pick.
It turned out to be a masterstroke that helped them land not only Hill, but four other key assets in their most fruitful trade period in recent memory.
It was turned into picks 12 and 18, exchanged to Greater Western Sydney for picks six and 59.
The former pair plus a future third-round pick went to Port Adelaide in exchange for Paddy Ryder – Hill’s cousin – Dougal Howard, pick 10 and a future fourth-round pick.
Pick 10 then became part of the Hill trade, with the Dockers receiving Blake Acres, picks 10, 58 and a future second and fourth-round pick.
It was a huge bounty, with Hill throwing in a few requests of his own along the way.
“I was giving them a little hint that ‘Ratts’ (Brett Ratten) had better be the coach,” Hill laughed.
“He coached me for three years. Roughy (Jarryd Roughead) was talking to me, because he was at that stage probably coming, so I said ‘you better come! If you want me to come, that is.’
“I was talking to Paddy, too. I reckon they might have signed Paddy first, and then when I got done, it just kind of rolled through, it was me, Jonesy (Zak Jones), Buts (Dan Butler), Dougal.”
The Saints’ ability to turn their initial hand into a quintet could only be labelled as “awesome” by North Melbourne premiership player and Fox Footy commentator David King at the time.
“(List manager) James Gallagher has done a fantastic job,” he said.
“They’ve got him (Bradley Hill) effectively for going back four picks, from six to 10, and for a future second rounder – which is in a weak pool (in 2020).”
Saints great Leigh Montagna called it a “great win”, lauding the work of Gallagher and football boss Simon Lethlean, who – despite a few nervous moments – played the long game and reaped the rewards.
THE NEW BLOKE ON THE BLOCK
Gallagher – who played 38 games for the Crows between 2001 and 2004 – was appointed as list manager at Moorabbin in August 2018.
From Macquarie Bank, no less, where he’d served as Victoria’s head of professional services in banking.
Last year marked his first full tilt at a trade period, and with “a lot of balls in the air”, Lethlean said, the hard yards started early in the season.
“It was a piece of work,” Lethlean said.
“Gallagher led it all and I wouldn’t say we were surprised, but we didn’t necessarily expect all of those targeted players to select the Saints.
“When players nominate you these days, you tend to be able to get it done if you can find the tools to get it done, but we didn’t have many, so things had to fall our way for it to all work out.
“List managers are on the go at all times now, whether it’s negotiating your current listed players and their contract renewals, and in those discussions they’re having conversations with player managers all the time about who’s coming out elsewhere or looking for opportunities elsewhere. Once you piece together all those opportunities along with what you think your list needs, those conversations can start a long way out.
“Targeting Brad Hill started a long way out, even though he was in contract. You ask the question about that the Saints need speed and ball use and he’s the one, and when you’ve got Ratts and Rathy (David Rath) and Roughy, you might be a chance. Those conversations start a long way out, but list managers and managers have those conversations, so it’s kind of … the rest of the club keep out of that until actual opportunities arise, really.”
Lethean offered plenty of support, as did Graeme “Gubby” Allen, in what Lethlean describes as a “three-way attack”.
“Gags ran the whole thing, he just gets good support from Gubby and I, just like I’m sure other list managers call upon the support of people they trust along the way. He ran it and he’ll continue to run it, but he might have a larger profile upon which to be more of the mouthpiece for it going forward,” he said.
“He was pretty exhausted by the end of it, because he had a lot of balls in the air, and a lot of them had to drop at the right time for things to work out. There was stressfulness around some of those.”
GETTING IT DONE
The balls all had to drop at exactly the right time – that’s the art form of trade period.
When players say they want to come, it’s usually party time.
But for the Saints crew, it was a matter of making each deal happen – and how they would.
“I didn’t lose as much sleep as Gags would have, because he was the one that had to keep each of these moving along with the other list managers or the player managers … I was updated as required,” Lethlean explained.
“I was, closer to the end, wondering how we were going to get enough picks to get it all done … you lose a bit of sleep about how it’s all going to play out.”
He backed his man in, describing ‘Gags’ as a “very sharp … great operator”.
“But for a younger person to carry that load – and it’s so public now, when four or five players say they want to come to the Saints, and everyone’s talking about how the hell we’re going to do it, it’s a little bit stressful,” he said.
“So for him to get that all done … with some good advice and help from Gubby who’s aggressive and was very supportive and made sure that he was the right conversations were happening. He’s got a lot more work to go to make sure the list’s in the best shape we can to be able to have a crack, so he’s a very important element, as all list managers are now.
THE INTERVENTION
There was only one point where Lethlean and Allan really had to step in.
It’s what Lethlean called “the intervention”, staged with about 10 days to go of the trade period when the power of work required had suddenly dawned.
“He’s funny, Gags … he’s pretty easy to read and it was pretty obvious that he needed a beer one Sunday,” Lethlean laughed.
“I think the final one had dropped and Howard said he wanted to come, and I think it all dawned on Gags that it was going to be pretty hard work. So Gubby and I met him at the Malvern Hotel and had a fair few beers there together to just actually relax for an afternoon, forget about how hard the next few days are going to be and actually give him a chance to unwind and complain and have some expletives and everything else.
“We actually got that out of the way before the hard work was finished off, because it was looking hard to be able to trade Jack and difficult to be able to get Dougal done, and it was getting hard with Freo with Hill.
“So we had a bit of a blowout with a week to go, just to settle the nerves a bit, which was good. We still refer to it now – whenever Gags or me or Gubby are stressed, we suggest there might need to be ‘a Malvern session’.”
THE FINISH LINE
With five in hand at the end of the trade period, the Saints were declared the big winners, targeting specific players and shuffling their hand to get them to Moorabbin.
“They have absolutely won this trade period,” Montagna declared.
Lethlean said he wasn’t surprised by the feat, but doesn’t feel like “any got away”.
“More likely was that Howard or Jones was going to get away, and we got them in the end,” he said.
“I guess this year things just fell our way. It’d be unusual for them all to fall your way again, or every year, that’s for sure, so you won’t expect to get all of your wishlist done.
“At the same time, Jack Steven leaves and Josh Bruce leaves and they’re both really loved players from the club, and really good, impactful players, too. So you don’t get for nothing. You give some things up.
“Absolutely (I was proud of Gallagher).”
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Originally published as Inside story behind St Kilda pulling off five big trades last year, including securing star Bradley Hill