St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson expects the club to be active during October’s trade period, with the Saints eager to make improvements to their list ahead of 2017.
Following St Kilda’s best finish since 2012 – a ninth place at 12-10 – Richardson believes there is still some work to do from a list management perspective, although he is confident that most of the improvement will come from those already at the club.
With 2015 off-season acquisition, Jake Carlisle, weeks away from returning to the club following the completion of his suspension, the Saints’ ageing defence will receive a significant boost that has yet to be utilised.
“We do (expect to be active during the trade period). We have no illusions about where we sit,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference on Sunday night.
“We’ll look at any player that we think can make us a better team. If they fit into the age demographic and complement our group from a positional perspective, then we’ll look at it.
“Whilst most of our improvement will come from the guys who are on our list, we’re really bullish about our list, but we’ve still got some gaps because of the age of our defence – whilst Carlisle will come in – we’ve still got a little bit of work to do there.”
Richardson also indicated that the Saints will be in the market for a midfielder to add to their evolving engine room.
“And to complement guys like [Seb] Ross, [David] Armitage, [Jack] Steven, Luke Dunstan, we need to get a bit more in and around that area,” Richardson said.
“We think what [Jade] Gresham’s been able to do this year, [Jack] Billings being able to get a bit more involved in midfield play has been positive, but we still need to add to that."
