How St Kilda hit paydirt with pick 6 and an ambitious trade plan
St Kilda is giving the AFL a lesson on how to win at trading, and the results are even more incredible when you realise how little the Saints had to bargain with when it all started.
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As St Kilda celebrated a free agency heist on Wednesday as Adelaide flinched on Brad Crouch, few at Moorabbin would have cheered for the career of Jack Steven winding down.
Four-time St Kilda best-and-fairest winner Steven was not able to reignite his career at Geelong but the man his teammates called “Stuv” remains a popular figure despite his off-field battles.
Yet it was impossible to ignore the comparison on a day when St Kilda list manager James Gallagher came up big yet again.
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With a modest draft pick starting point last season he was able to turn pick 6 and a handful of later selections into four players who finished top-10 in the club’s best-and-fairest in a series of complicated but interconnected deals.
What St Kilda would be even more thrilled about is that the players who left during those trades — Steven, Josh Bruce, Blake Acres — barely made an impact at their rival clubs.
All clubs ride their luck and at times come out on the better side of trades or free agency acquisitions.
Most Saints fans wouldn’t know former Crow and Macquarie Bank staffer Gallagher if he stood up in their bowl of porridge.
Yet by the time the club adds ruck cover in Shaun McKernan and perhaps acquires Jack Higgins, while still retaining pick 17 and next year’s first-round pick,. it will be a stunning pair of trade periods by the Saints.
What it shows is that good clubs do the lot — they trade smart, they select for specific needs, their development team go to work, their players learn a defined game plan, the culture improves them, they thrive as players.
All of that happened at St Kilda this year, but it is worth noting the club’s St Kilda’s sole trade jewel last season was pick 6.
St Kilda seemingly had to use it to get Brad Hill, but instead traded it to GWS for a pair of picks in the teens and accepted only pick 58 for Jack Steven.
Then they swapped 12 and 18 — the picks they received from the Giants — and a future pick to Port Adelaide for Paddy Ryder and Dougal Howard, and the Power was also prepared to hand pick 10 back.
They secured Brad Hill for pick 10, pick 58, a future second and fourth-rounder and got a Fremantle third-rounder back.
On face value they paid Hill plenty and gave away a king’s ransom of picks, and yet because of the success of his fellow acquisitions St Kilda fans are prepared to be patient with his modest form.
Then they held their nerve on Josh Bruce and got back picks 32 and 51 from the Dogs, passing on pick 32 and adding pick 76 to Sydney in exchange for Zak Jones and pick 56.
Pick 56 became All-Australian contender Dan Butler, who Carlton somehow passed on despite early interest.
As a result of that wheeling and dealing the club’s second pick this year is 64.
Richmond is keen to retain Jack Higgins but is prepared to let him go for the right price for the benefit of his football career if he asks for a trade, which he hasn’t so far.
So St Kilda would need to find something close to a second-rounder for Higgins, and still might have designs on using that pick 17 in another trade.
When clubs win flags we look back at a cluster of picks or consecutive drafts where they found a way to change their fortunes and tip their list on its head.
St Kilda’s Simon Lethlean spruiked former Adelaide player Gallagher’s skills in data analysis, deal-making and relationship-building when he came on board in August 2018.
Those 38 games at Adelaide before a 200-plus game SANFL career might not have caught the eye, but it could scarcely have been a more impressive first 27 months.
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