CAL WILKIE was summoned to Ross Lyon’s office on the top floor of RSEA Park last Monday to meet with the coach and the new head of football Lenny Hayes. The votes were in, and they were conclusive. The players wanted the All-Australian key defender to lead St Kilda, but they wanted him to do it alongside Jack Sinclair.

The appointment of Wilkie as Jack Steele’s replacement had been coming for years and felt a fait accompli after he won the 2024 Trevor Barker Award. The South Australian has played 155 consecutive games since the Saints plucked him out of the SANFL at 22 in the 2018 Rookie Draft.

But the Western Bulldogs' bold play to poach the star defender created an interesting situation at Moorabbin. Wilkie was contracted for two more years, but it didn’t stop the Footscray-based club making a compelling pitch to lure him across the city.

It dragged on longer than expected, but then St Kilda president Andrew Bassat got involved and the Saints ultimately added two more years to the 29-year-old’s contract on the eve of the trade period, while reworking 2026 and 2027.

Wilkie said he didn’t need to sit down with the coach in the off-season to clear the air. They speak almost daily. After all, in the office down the hall, Graeme 'Gubby' Allan and Stephen 'SOS' Silvagni were talking to rival players. The landscape has shifted.

“Ross knows what the landscape is like. We had we had a brief chat and he was awesome. We're very, very straight shooters, so we get along very, very well. Nothing changed. We just want to keep driving this footy club forward. He’s been a big supporter of mine since he walked through the door,” Wilkie told AFL.com.au on Monday.

“I was committed to the footy club and it was great to work that with Ross. As he said to Damian Barrett, I called him to just try and iron out everything. I'm always going to give feedback to the footy club and try and make us better, so it was great to work through that.

“I'm committed for the next four years. I've loved like coming into work every single day. They gave me the opportunity to play AFL footy and then they've obviously trusted me to lead this club alongside ‘Sincs’, which it's the players and the staff and the coaches that decide that and they obviously felt me and ‘Sincs’ were the right men for the job. And even if they didn't, I wasn't going to change who I am always just try and make everyone else better because it's a weakest-link game.”

St Kilda has won only one final since it reached the 2010 Grand Final, and has been on the clock often early in the past 15 drafts. Not many first-round picks have worked out. Wilkie and Sinclair weren’t selected in the National Draft, but have proven to be two of the best rookie selections in the club’s history.

“We’ve come a long way since being picked in the rookie draft,” Wilkie said. “It’s funny, with ‘Steeley’ leaving it was always on the horizon a little bit. It is a massive honour to captain this footy club and to do it alongside ‘Sincs’, who I’ve known since I got here and we’ve played so much footy together and we’ve worked really well together is a great achievement. We bounce off each other really well.”

Allan, Silvagni and Lyon were unashamedly aggressive in the player movement space last year. Keeping Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was the priority. Lyon ensured the environment was a key reason why the South Australian stayed. But then they convinced Tom De Koning and Jack Silvagni to move from Carlton as free agents, signed Sam Flanders from Gold Coast and added West Coast forward Liam Ryan before the deadline.

“I love it [the trade strategy]. St Kilda is a small club; we know we've got to get better in different ways and be aggressive with it. The boys are just rapt to get four quality players in and obviously keep ‘Nas’,” Wilkie said.

“The list strategy was to go young for a few years. We knew it was going to be a bit up and down with the footy that we played. It's great bringing in four very, very good players, but those young guys who showed so much talent and promise last year, another pre-season into them to really drive this group forward.

“If everyone's healthy it's tough for spots, and that's what good clubs have. That's what Brisbane had. They've got players running around the twos that you're like he should be playing AFL. That's just the way the best clubs who win premierships have that sort of whole squad mentality and depth because you're going to get injuries along the way – Brisbane did, they got so many and they were still able to perform and win the premiership.”

Second-year key defender Alix Tauru is set for more senior football in 2026 after recovering from a stress fracture in his back to play the final 10 games of last year and show why he was selected so early. But the acquisition of the 28-year-old Silvagni, who is in concussion protocols courtesy of some friendly fire from Wilkie during Thursday's match simulation, but expected to be fit for Opening Round, should have a big impact on Wilkie.

“[Silvagni] has been great,” he said. “I feel like we see the game and play it very similar. He's loud in the way he communicates, which is great. Hopefully he's all right – I gave him a little stray elbow on Thursday night against Gold Coast – I think he's all fine, so he'll be ready for Opening Round.

“I've worked alongside him in the last few months really, really well. We went from such an inexperienced backline a few years ago to a really young backline, so it's nice to have another experienced head who's a great footballer as well. It's been it's been pretty seamless honestly.”

This year marks 60 years since St Kilda’s one and only premiership in 1966. Legendary defenders Bob Murray and Verdun Howell played in that famous win over Collingwood before they were included in the Saints’ team of the century.

Wilkie is confident the foundations have been built for this group to do what others at St Kilda haven’t been able to achieve, hoping he can be part of the next backline to win a premiership in the red, white and black.

“I definitely feel like the building blocks are there,” he said. “They heavily went to the draft and got some very, very good young talent and they're just getting better and better. Now they’ve brought in four quality, quality players to help us get better. My role is just to help and guide and teach everyone else and drive standards to get back to finals.

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“Obviously that's sort of the first step, but obviously it's a record everyone knows: 60 years the longest drought and only one flag in our long history. That's where we want to get to. You know there's no hiding away from it. You don't want to shy away from the what the actual goal is. The building blocks are there we just need to put it together; we owe that to the fans because they’ve been long suffering.”

After an intriguing off-season for the former accountant from North Adelaide – and for St Kilda – Wilkie is now the captain of St Kilda. A title that has been years in the making.