St. Kilda have been a far-cry from the inspired outfit they were in season 2020, with this year proving bitterly disappointing for the most part.

However based off of recent weeks' results, the Saints might not be in as dire as a position as they first thought, beating Richmond as well as outlasting Collingwood to stay in touch with the top eight.

Despite this there are still deficiencies in Brett Ratten's squad that need to be addressed, meaning activity in the trade period might be pertinent to the Saints campaign next year.

5 Trade Targets: Adelaide
5 Trade Targets: Brisbane
5 Trade Targets: Carlton
5 Trade Targets: Collingwood
5 Trade Targets: Essendon
5 Trade Targets: Fremantle
5 Trade Targets: Geelong
5 Trade Targets: Gold Coast
5 Trade Targets: GWS
5 Trade Targets: Hawthorn 
5 Trade Targets: Melbourne
5 Trade Targets: North Melbourne
5 Trade Targets: Port Adelaide
5 Trade Targets: Richmond

We continue our ‘Five trade targets for every club’ series with St. Kilda. 

The idea of these stories is to identify potentially gettable targets who could fill roles, not just link every club to superstars, the likes of Marcus Bontempelli or Patrick Cripps.

In no particular order, here are five players which the Saints recruitment team would do well to target and potentially poach.

2. Sam Taylor

The Giants defender is out of contract at the end of season 2022, and will there will be no shortage of suitors wanting to get the young gun to sign on the dotted line for their respective clubs.

Taylor has had a stellar albeit injury-marred year for GWS, with his most recent of ailments being an ankle injury which required surgery and has kept him off-field for the best part of two months.

Nonetheless in the time that the 22-year-old has had to strut his stuff, he has impressed massively.

Taylor is ranked 7th in the league for intercepts per game, averages 5.1 one-on-ones per game as well as 2.1 tackles per game - all elite level stats for a key defender.

Despite being from WA, Taylor could easily be tempted to make the switch down to Melbourne and play for Brett Ratten with the right money. The Saints would do well to get the ball rolling on the youngster.