A dual AFL trade ‘referendum’ looms… and there’s a ‘ghastly’ trap Saints can’t fall into

St Kilda is facing a two-part trade “referendum” into whether star players truly see promise and future success at the club, according to AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley.

The Saints sit 14th on the ladder with a 5-8 record after their 72-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night.

Their position comes at an intriguing time in the Saints’ list build and journey under Ross Lyon, with the club determined to retain star defender Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera – who has strong interest from both South Australian-based clubs – and keen to land Carlton free agent Tom De Koning.

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While finishing between sixth and 12th on the ladder in each of its previous five seasons, St Kilda has transitioned its list significantly, moving from the second-oldest and third-most experienced list in the competition in 2021 to the fifth-youngest and fifth-least experienced this year.

Channel 9 chief football reporter Tom Morris on Tuesday night reported the off-contract Wanganeen-Milera was not only weighing up a return to Adelaide for family reasons, but also “the prospect of success at St Kilda”.

Tom De Koning of the Blues and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera of the Saints. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images Source: Getty Images

“He’s told people close to him that he would love to be successful at St Kilda, he wants to know that players are coming in and that the club is going to improve next year,” Morris told Footy Classified.

Meanwhile De Koning, who also remains unsigned beyond this season, is considering taking a life-changing seven-year, $1.6 million-per-year reported offer from St Kilda or staying at Carlton.

It was reported on Monday night that De Koning last week requested a meeting with incoming Blues chief executive Graham Wright, which had left some Carlton key figures hopeful the star ruck would re-sign.

Saints coach Lyon declared on AFL 360 earlier this week there’s “plenty of hope” for St Kilda’s future.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, Whateley said the Saints faced a tricky and nervous wait.

“I was thinking through the Zach Merrett proposition. If you’ve sat down and done the prospecting, the forecasting on St Kilda, it’s impossible to say how and when they might be contending for a top-four (spot) with what they have,” Whateley said on AFL 360.

“But we’re about to get a referendum on it on two fronts.

Saints must 'look to the future' | 05:05

“Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is inside the environment. He knows it intimately, he knows what the ambition and the dream is. Is he going to stay?

“And then Tom De Koning on the outside – and there’s a bit of trepidation around this now, clearly. He’s taking meetings around what it might look like to stay at Carlton where, for weeks, it’d been assumed that he was going to take the money. So you have to be able to see more than money.”

Lyon this week defended the club’s decision to field slightly older teams in recent rounds. Ten Saints players aged 29 or older were selected to face the Bulldogs last week.

“We have some older players that are in form and we need to play them and give them opportunity – and if criticism comes from that, that’s OK,” Lyon told AFL 360.

Saints champion Leigh Montagna on Sunday night urged his former side to “look to the future” after it fielded the fifth-oldest team in Round 14 and left several promising youngsters in the VFL.

But Whateley said the Saints must have selection balance for the rest of the season.

“Where I do sympathise with them is you can’t toss all of these players out,” he said. “We’ve seen what that looks like and it’s ghastly. They don’t have the luxury of going 0-10 through the back-end of the season getting by 60-70 points.

“I like what Ross said about the integrity of selection. If these players’ form demands to play then they must play so that they can integrate the young players. They have played them and they will play them.

Lyon opens up on King's injury setback | 00:49

“This is where you trust Ross’ judgment. When is the right time to play them? That it won’t stifle them, that it will educate them and they come into a system that has some semblance of order about it – rather than just being tossed in to play games. We’ve seen what that looks like, we’ve seen it at Melbourne – it set them back drastically – we saw it with the expansion teams.

“Don’t be too young and ruin what you’re doing now. They’ve got to come up with some sort of identifiable brand, I think, over the back-end of the season so that prospects look and go: ‘I can see myself in it and I can see where it will end up once the A-grade talent is added.’”

Asked if his club had a chance to land Wanganeen-Milera at season’s end, Crows coach Matthew Nicks told Channel 9: “We’re obviously talked about. We’re a South Australian side – and there’s two of us – and ‘Nas’ is a South Australian.

“He’s an outstanding young footballer. We’ve always gone down the path of we don’t talk about players from other footy clubs – and I won’t be changing that tonight.”

Nicks later added: “It’s something that we’ll see how it plays out as the year plays out.”

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