St Kilda have landed a major off-field blow, signing Simon Dalrymple as their new recruitment manager.

The club moved just weeks ago to remove Chris Toce from a role at the club he had held since 2015. The decision to part ways with Toce came as the club announced a 'restructuring'.

It's also understood Jarryd Roughead has resigned from his role at St Kilda.

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Dalrymple comes to the club following time at both the Western Bulldogs and Sydney Swans, with The Age reporting the deal for his move to St Kilda was done on Friday afternoon, with the recruitment manager resigning from the Swans.

Dalrymple has had success previously though, helping to build the famous Bulldogs premiership list after taking over at the club in 2009. He was directly responsible for the draft picks of both Marcus Bontempelli and Aaron Naughton.

He has been based in Sydney since 2018 but will now bring to an end a six-year stint in the Harbour city to return to Melbourne with the Saints.

Toce's time at St Kilda has been difficult. After the club made a grand final in 2010 prior to his arrival, the Saints have made the finals just twice during Toce's time at the club.

One of those finals appearances did come in 2023 with a sixth place finish before they came up short to the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the opening week of the finals.

At the time of his departure, the club's general manager of football David Misson said the decision to restructure the list and recruiting team came as a result of a review.

"Recently we have been reviewing the structure of our recruitment and list management team," Misson said in a statement to afl.com.au at the time.

"Following this review, the decision has been made to introduce a new role, talent identification and player movement manager, which will report into our head of talent and acquisition, Graeme Allan.

"As part of this restructure, we have made the difficult decision to make the role of our current national recruiting manager, Chris Toce, redundant.

"Chris has been a valued employee at the Saints for many years, identifying talent across the country to improve our list and lay a foundation for the future."

Toce's major impact on St Kilda may not be felt for some time yet after he selected Mattaes Phillipou with the number one pick in the 2022 draft. Phillipou kicked 13 goals in 24 games during his rookie season.