“Loved their bravery”: Former St Kilda stars laud club’s aggressive off-season

St Kilda legends Leigh Montagna and Nick Dal Santo have lauded the club's aggressive off-season in a bid to rise from no-man's land.

The Saints went hard in the trade and free agency period, landing Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Liam Ryan and Sam Flanders, with the spree showing early rewards against Gold Coast on Sunday night.

Speaking to Zero Hanger, Dal Santo was unsure whether the Moorabbin club's forceful play on rival players would pay off in this yeae, but commended its decision to take risks.

"I loved their bravery," said the former Saints and North Melbourne 322-gamer.

"You've got to take some risks. I don't know where it measures on the scale of risks, but when you've got a certain amount of money that you can spend, there's a lot of change. But to make change, you need to do some really brave things.

Embed from Getty Images

"Whether that pays off this year, I'm not sure. I still think the competition is so difficult and so challenging, but you'd like to see, in years to come, that it starts to build."

However, Dal Santo said the new Saints quartet will be an upgrade for the club.

"They're all quality players in their own right," he added.

"I think what they can bring is a better version of what we had in previous years, from a Saints perspective.

"We know they've played in finals. Some have played in grand finals. So, you'd like to think that complements what St Kilda's had previously, and at some stage it all clicks."

Montagna endorsed the move by his former club, even if it meant "overpaying players".

"I like the move," Montagna said.

Embed from Getty Images

"I think that St Kilda and a lot of other clubs have been stuck in the middle or down the bottom have realised that you need to be aggressive at trade and free agency.

"That means probably overpaying for players. That's an advantage that St Kilda has planned for, which I like. It's not something they've just shot off the hip and done. They've actually planned and executed this."

The new and brash era underway at Moorabbin also welcomed a new leadership group, headed by co-captains Jack Sinclair and Callum Wilkie. 

Their underlings, headed by $2 million-dollar man Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera as well as Marcus Windhager and Mitch Owens, make up the core of St Kilda.

The trio are deemed by Montagna as central to the club's fortunes going forward, as long as they continue on their trajectory to stardom.

Embed from Getty Images

"I think that's a great mix," Montagna said of the club's new leadership group.

"Because the success of St Kilda is going to be built off that young core, and what level they can get to, that's going to determine how far they go.

"So to have some young leaders in there, driving that core group, that's what I experienced in my time when there was Dal Santo, Riewoldt and Hayes, and the young guys coming through who drove the standards. And then we were able to become a pretty good team."

The Saints got a good look at how they'll line up in this year when they faced Gold Coast on Thursday night.

Flanders, against his old mob, was best afield in the practice match, gathering 31 disposals in the victory.

De Koning (14 possessions and eight hit-outs) and Ryan (10 touches and a goal) showed some of their strengths, although there is an injury concern around Silvagni after suffering a concussion.

St Kilda takes on Collingwood on March 8, for which Silvagni will be pushing for selection, pending he passes concussion protocols.