In the wake of Jake Carlisle’s season-long ban, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson is confident the Saints have sufficient depth in their defensive key posts to cover his absence this year.

With Sam Fisher and Sean Dempster in the twilight stage of their decorated careers, Carlisle was recruited to St Kilda during the trade period to build a partnership with highly rated youngster Hugh Goddard and shore up the Saints defence for many years to come.

And while that move has been put on the backburner for 2016, Richardson believes the club is well placed to cope with the absence of Carlisle this season, as well as continuing to groom Goddard as a long-term replacement for Fisher and Dempster.

“Fisher and Dempster have been really strong players, and continued to be really strong last year and the plan was that they would play,” Richardson told 3AW’s Sport’s Today on Wednesday night.

“We want Goddard and of course Carlisle to come through together - that’s been put on hold for 12 months - but it just means that Fisher, we’ll need him to play really strong footy again.”

Richardson also identified Luke Delaney and Tom Lee as bona-fide candidates down back, with former North Melbourne key defender Delaney overcoming the hip concerns that derailed the second half of his 2015 campaign.

Since crossing from Arden Street at the end of 2013, Delaney has managed 33 games for the Saints and finished fifth in the 2014 Trevor Barker Award. But after playing 11 of the first 12 games last year, the 26-year-old lost his position before succumbing to an ongoing hip issue.

Lee failed to play a senior game in 2015 as Josh Bruce grasped his spot inside the Saints forward 50 and Paddy McCartin was given a taste at different times. The West Australian was thrown down back for Sandringham in the second half of the year where he put his hand up for a game at senior level.

“Delaney had some issues with his hip last year and had surgery. So we think he’s going to be much better for having had that surgery and his pre-season’s been really strong,” Richardson said.

“Tom Lee, we played in the VFL in the back end of the year as a defender given it wasn’t quite working for him up front – McCartin coming in, Josh Bruce playing the way he played.

“So that’s going to be exciting – he’ll get those opportunities and we’ll see if he can step up to the other level because he was really promising in the VFL.”