St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has defended the club's decision withdraw from negotiations to acquire GWS defender Leek Aleer.
With Aleer requesting a trade to the Saints after the Giants were eliminated from the finals series, it was expected the 24-year-old would be a St Kilda player by the end of the player movement period.
But early in the negotiations with the GWS, the Saints withdraw from talks - without providing any public comment as to why they pulled out of the potential Aleer trade.
Giants general manager of football Jason McCartney claimed negotiations with St Kilda for Aleer weren't 'difficult and suggested the Saints could have easily continued communication.
MORE: How Leek Aleer situation could come back to haunt St Kilda
Since then, GWS chose to re-sign Aleer on a two-year contract after interest from North Melbourne didn't eventuate into a trade.
When asked if St Kilda 'reneged' on a promise to trade in Aleer, Lyon bristled, providing a passionate defence regarding the Saints' conduct.
"'Renege' is a strong term, I’m not sure that’s exactly correct,” Lyon said in a press conference after AFL Trade Period concluded.
"Nothing’s perfect. At the end of the day, he was a GWS player, a deal needed to be done. They certainly weren’t throwing him out the door or pushing him out."
Lyon intimated he was happy Aleer had stayed at the Giants after the move to St Kilda hadn't worked out.
"I’m really thrilled that they saw him as we did — a high-calibre player, extended him for two years," Lyon said
"The human side is always difficult, but it’s worked out really well for him. In simple terms, I’m really pleased for that.
"Life’s messy, football’s messy, trade period is messy."
However the Saints coach refused to go into exact details about why the Saints withdrew from the Aleer talks.
"There’s always the ‘known knowns’, right? But there’s a lot of information, every trade period you’re trying to figure out stuff," Lyon said.
"There’s a lot that goes on within the trades and decisions or non-decisions and non-trades.
"It’s not as simple as what’s on the surface. There’s a lot of threads to get a trade executed.
"The care factor is strong, the player has a home, we move on. Everyone that went in to have a planned trade executed, didn’t get them all done. That’s what I’d say."
St Kilda had a busy AFL Trade Period, bringing in a wealth of talent, including Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Sam Flanders and Liam Ryan.
The Saints traded 2025 captain Jack Steele to Melbourne, but managed to retain Rowan Marshall, who requested a trade to Geelong.