By Michael Gleeson and Peter Ryan
St Kilda have poached Sydney and former Western Bulldogs recruiting manager Simon Dalrymple.
Dalrymple resigned from the Swans on Friday afternoon to accept the job at the Saints as the talent identification and player movement manager.
The move comes after St Kilda parted ways with long-term recruiting head Chris Toce three weeks ago.
Dalrymple, who helped build the Western Bulldogs’ premiership list after taking over recruiting there in 2009, has been recruiting manager at Sydney since 2018.
The recruitment by Dalrymple when at the Bulldogs of Marcus Bontempelli with pick four and Aaron Naughton at nine were standout selections, but finding premiership players in rookies Luke Dahlhaus and Jason Johannisen were canny choices.
At the Swans he selected Chad Warner with just pick 39 and had success with the choices of James Rowbottom at 25 and Justin McInerney at 44.
Toce had been at the Saints since 2005 after coming to the club from Collingwood. When he departed from the Saints the club announced that as part of a restructure Toce’s role had been made redundant.
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