{"id":61070,"date":"2025-08-11T22:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61070\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T22:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:53:07","slug":"st-kilda-trade-exodus-denied-after-suggestion-callum-wilkie-wants-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61070\/","title":{"rendered":"St Kilda trade exodus denied after suggestion Callum Wilkie wants out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A trade exodus from St Kilda at the end of the season is not going to happen, according to a prominent journalist, with Callum Wilkie likely to be the next Saints captain.<\/p>\n<p>An initial story from South Australian reporter Michelangelo Rucci suggested Wilkie, Rowan Marshall, Jack Steele and Marcus Windhager would all look to leave the Saints for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>However, Herald Sun scribe Jon Ralph denied that Wilkie wants out of St Kilda, suggesting the All-Australian defender was &#8216;bemused&#8217; about some of the Saints&#8217; reported list management plays.<\/p>\n<p>St Kilda are reportedly chasing inexperienced GWS defender Leek Aleer on $750,000-a-season, which is similar money to what Wilkie is on, while the club is also keen to acquire Carlton ruckman Tom De Koning on a reported $1.7 million-a-year.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/news\/matthew-lloyd-sydney-swans-2026-afl-premiership-favourites\/2774dab6bf632f04c522ab13\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matthew Lloyd picks the Sydney Swans as his 2026 AFL premiership favourite<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Callum Wilkie has two years left on his deal and is clearly going nowhere,&#8221; Ralph wrote in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/sport\/afl\/wreck-it-ralph-pull-and-push-of-list-management-where-everyone-knows-what-the-stars-are-paid\/news-story\/f94dd1c287adfd7b6aafba1673db05b2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Herald Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is a spectacular player and very likely the next captain at St Kilda as soon as next year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How would he feel about De Koning coming in on double his salary?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Someone with knowledge of his opinions this week suggested \u201cbemused\u201d would be the right way to categorise his feelings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Saints also want to retain Marshall and play him alongside De Koning, but could be tempted to trade their ruckman to Geelong if they offer a first-round pick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;St Kilda wants to keep Marshall but has clearly war-roomed a scenario where TDK arrives and Marshall demands a trade,&#8221; Ralph said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And there is a world where they get free agent De Koning in and secure a Cats first-rounder for Marshall to get back into the draft.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be the Saints version of \u2018pick purchasing\u2019 \u2013 paying an extra $700,000-$800,000 a year for a ruckman but potentially securing a first-round pick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And trading a soon-to-be 30-year-old for a player just turned 26.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ralph also explained St Kilda were considering if Steele &#8211; who played his 200th game on the weekend &#8211; was tradeable, while they are keen to re-sign Windhager, who would need to be traded for by other AFL clubs despite his out-of-contract status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trade exodus from St Kilda at the end of the season is not going to happen, according&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-61070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}