ST KILDA expects to lock away small forward Jack Lonie.
With his contract set to expire, the 22-year-old impressed when he was recalled for the last five matches of the season, booting 11 goals.
Collingwood had shown interest in the 50-game player.
Lonie is on holiday in Europe with some teammates and Saints list manager James Gallagher told AFL.com.au a new deal shouldn’t be too far away.
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"We’ve got an offer to Jack at the moment … (and) we’re really hopeful that will get finalised in the next day or two," Gallagher said.
"We’ve been in regular communication with his manager so really hoping that gets the green light and we can lock that away really quickly.
"We’ll certainly announce that publicly as soon as it happens because he should be really proud of his performances in the back half of the year, and we want to make sure that’s recognised and he plays with us."
Meanwhile, the Saints have opened talks with Jade Gresham’s management to extend his contract.
While he is committed to the club for 2019, St Kilda want to lock him down because the 21-year-old is an outstanding talent, having booted 35 goals splitting his time in the midfield and up forward.
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"We’re really keen to extend that out. We’ve initiated discussions with Jade’s manager," Gallagher said.
"At this stage, he wasn’t keen to do that this season but we’ll stay in regular contact.
"He’s been terrific for our footy club. I think we’ve been terrific for him so we’re really hopeful in expecting it’s going to be a long-term relationship with Jade and he can be one of the really good players in St Kilda’s history."
The Saints are prepared to wait for Gresham.
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"You can’t put a timeframe on that (contract) because we don’t dictate the timeline," Gallagher said.
"We can be as proactive and energetic as we want to be with Jade and his management, but at the end of the day, you need two parties to agree on that. We’ll be as patient as we need to be with that."
