THERE'S a bit of Toy Story about the St Kilda Football Club.
Just as Andy once viewed Buzz Lightyear as more dynamic and more fun than trusty old Woody, the Saints deliriously went shopping this time last year for a new set of shiny toys.
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Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Liam Ryan and Sam Flanders were added to the toybox, leaving some trusty old toys wondering where they stood.
Rowan Marshall immediately wanted out, but was told he would be held to his contract. Callum Wilkie engaged in detailed conversations with Western Bulldogs, before the Saints heavily bolstered his deal and made him captain, after they had off-loaded their previous prized toy – I mean, captain – in Jack Steele, to Melbourne. The year prior, Josh Battle, a Saint for eight seasons, walked out, straight into the All-Australian team as a Hawk.
Marshall wants out again, in the 2026 trade period. And 19-year-old Alix Tauru, himself a shiny new toy in 2024 via his selection at pick 10 in that year's national draft, and just 19 matches into his AFL career and with a contract for 2027, is chatting with officials from the Gold Coast Suns.
The Saints' big spend didn't amount to anything in 2026. They won just 10 matches, and were 10 premiership points away from the newly created wildcard final position of 10th. They won nine games in 2025, 11 in 2024 and 13 – in Ross Lyon's first season of his second stint with the club – in 2023.
They have been ensconced in football's dreaded no man's land.
Lyon himself was the repackaged shiny new toy in the eyes of president Andrew Bassat in 2022, when Bassat's board sacked Brett Ratten, less than 100 days after his re-contracting had been publicly trumpeted.
Despite the lack of wins, Bassat remains convinced his club's future looks bright, that it is better placed under Lyon than it was Ratten, that the list transformation was both brave and required, and that the midfield tracked nicely in 2026 given its youth and inexperience.
As part of the 2025 shopping excursion, the Saints had also planned to buy Leek Aleer, offering him a massive contract before changing their mind and leaving him stuck with the Giants.
Aleer and his management were left angered and hurt by St Kilda's change of plans. Tauru is managed by the same firm, but there is no link to Tauru's chats with the Suns. Tauru is contracted for 2027, and has been seeking an extension, just on more money than currently being offered.
Just as the Saints had Battle as part of their backline before his exit created the need to recruit Silvagni, they also had a more than capable ruckman in Marshall.
De Koning's recruitment was always going to adversely impact Marshall, and for the second consecutive season, he has sought a way out. This time the Saints will grant it.
"Marshall has not nominated a preferred destination at this stage, with the club making clear that any trade will need to be in the best interests of the St Kilda Football Club," said a Saints statement last week.
The biggest name on St Kilda's list remains Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, a player the club made the highest-paid ever with a $4 million deal to play in 2026 and 2027.
Now halfway through that deal, Wanganeen-Milera already looms as the AFL's biggest rolling storyline of next season, with Port Adelaide and Adelaide already identifying him as their prized toy for 2028.