'Marketing ploy': Sloane says Saints won't sustain $2m contract

The re-signing of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has split the opinions of James Hird and Rory Sloane, as attention begins to turn to how St Kilda will look in two years' time.

Wanganeen-Milera rejected deals from Port Adelaide and Adelaide to stay loyal, with the help of a contract worth $2 million a season across two years.

The extension means the Saints now have a man they'll build a list around across the next two years, with Tom De Koning also expected to join the club.

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Hird admits he originally thought St Kilda may have overpaid but he has now backflipped. 

"As you think about it, you go through what it means to supporters, but then also if they can attract another couple of players and build a list off the back of it, only time will tell (how good they become)," he said on Nine's Footy Classified.

"The other clubs that were willing to spend the amount of money, they can (also) see the talent."

The potential signing of ruckman De Koning will put St Kilda's salary cap in a position where around $3.7 to $3.8 million is being spent on two players.

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Hird doesn't see that as a risk.

"Initially, yes, but when you look at what's happened this week, about five on the bench which means you can play two ruckmen," he said.

"You can play one on the bench, you can play one in the ruck, and then that new ruck rule, hopefully it gets brought in where players have to jump.

"TDK goes from being a good ruckman to an incredible ruckman if you can then jump.

"So I think it's actually foresight from St Kilda to go and get him with the ruck rule and Nasiah doing that, I think they've actually read the room and played ahead of the game."

Sloane on the other hand sees the importance of the re-signing but believes a tipping point awaits in terms of how much the club can pay other players. 

"I think the two years is important because you can do that for two years, you can recruit, you can use it as a marketing ploy," he said.

"But then after two years, that's where I think there's gotta be another negotiation with Nas and go, mate, if you're willing to stay and we're fighting for finals, you're going to have to take a bit of a cut and be part of the squad here."

However, Eddie McGuire argued the salary cap will continue to rise which will help the Saints extend Wanganeen-Milera again.

But Sloane said there will be a moment in time it could all come to a head.

"What it does for (Marcus) Windhager, his roommate too, it'll help him stay, it'll help the synergy, it'll help build the squad but I'm saying there's a tipping point at some point where the great clubs like Geelong, Sydney, Hawthorn across the years, no one has that amount of the contract percentage, and at some point there's going to be a discussion to pull back," he said.