St Kilda’s 10 free agency options as Ross Lyon flags aggressive approach to player acquisition

The AFL industry is preparing for a ‘ballistic’ approach to the free agency market from St Kilda next year. JON RALPH looks at the 10 players who could play under Ross Lyon from 2026.

Ross Lyon said the quiet part out loud in the lead-in at the club’s fancy launch for its new-look logo.

As he spoke to the assembled guests, his broadside to Geelong about the favours Cotton On does to its players - legally, of course - was the headline item.

But Lyon’s full quote foreshadowed an intent across the entire club to finally stop being pushed around.

St Kilda was seriously in the business of attracting free agents at the end of 2025 even before the national draft.

Ross Lyon and the Saints want to land a big free agent fish. Picture: Getty Images

It has millions upon millions to spend and it wants every rival player and player agent to know about it.

Then a club with arguably footy’s worst midfield missed out on the cream of the onball crop as seven elite mids were taken off the board before St Kilda’s first selection.

The club’s pick 8 Toby Travaglia could still be the draft’s best player and might morph into a pinch-hitting midfielder like Jack Sinclair, while pick 10 Alix Tauru was too good to ignore as a versatile 193m defender.

But a club that still took six draft picks and an Irish category B rookie Eamonn Armstrong has even more reason to find an elite midfielder through free agency next year.

As one veteran player manager said this week, St Kilda is about to go “ballistic” in its attempts to finally land a quality free agent.

It already had vast cap space and tried this year but missed on Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry as it also launched attempts at contracted stars Zach Merrett and Jacob Weitering.

Now Brad Crouch will take a payout because of his bung knee, while the $900,000-plus a year allocated for Josh Battle goes unspent.

Brad Crouch is set to retire. Picture: Getty Images

The club basically said to Tim Membrey that he wasn’t in its next premiership side so he should look elsewhere for a multi-year deal, saving that cap room.

As the Herald Sun’s Josh Barnes reported Lyon saying: “We have made some hard decisions and there have been some tough things occur … unfortunately (Crouch) had a degenerative knee and we would have loved to have him but we lost him and those losses have enabled the salary cap to be freed up. As we finish up with the draft we will really go hard at free agents.”

The free agency pool is already looking skinny as clubs sign up pre-agents like Noah Balta, Darcy Fogarty, Cam Rayner and Weitering.

Given St Kilda needs a bit of everything - midfielders, key position players, flankers - which players are out there and which would realistically consider a Saints offer?