NORTH Melbourne midfielder Nick Dal Santo has revealed for the first time St Kilda made the decision for him to leave as a free agent rather than him actively pursuing a move.

And Dal Santo says while he will always love the Saints, he won’t shed a tear as former teammate and now Bomber Brendon Goddard did when he first played against his old club.

“Looking back on it, St Kilda had to make a decision to let me go and I had to accept it and agree to move on,” Dal Santo told the club’s website, NMFC.com.au.

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“But I’d like to think after 12 years you’ve got a really good relationship with the club, and I appreciate everything they’ve done.

“I’d never say a bad word about them.”

media_camera Nick Dal Santo is now a key part of North’s midfield. Picture: Colleen Petch

With debate raging over who made the decision to allow Dal Santo to leave, as well as Goddard 12 months earlier, the man himself says he won’t get too emotional on the weekend.

He was playing on the night that a tearful Goddard wept in an emotional television interview after Essendon had beaten St Kilda in Round 4 last season.

He doesn’t expect any tears to flow on Saturday, though he does feel for his old teammates and his former club after an embarrassing streak of 10 successive losses.

“I don’t think I’ll cry. I saw how that went last year with Brendon (Goddard) after we played them,” Dal Santo said.

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“I’ll be a bit emotional, I reckon that’s natural, but I think I’ll leave the crying to another time.

“I don’t feel uncomfortable about playing them, but it’s obviously not ideal.

“I’ve still got some really close mates that I’m looking forward to going up against because I’ve actually played against them twice a week at training for the last 12 years when we had scrimmage or ‘praccy’ games.

media_camera Nick Dal Santo in his days at the Saints with Nick Riewoldt.

“It’s going to be a little bit weird but that’s natural.”

Dal Santo played 260 games- still ninth overall at the club — with St Kilda and admits he feels for the Saints in their current plight.

But he said the efforts of veterans Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes and Leigh Montagna are helping the younger players as the club transitions for the future.

“I think those older guys, ‘Rooey’ (Riewoldt), ‘Joey’ (Montagna), Lenny and those guys, they’ve done a really good job for a long period of time and they are there for a different reason at the moment,” he said.

“They are helping the young kids, so that’s the most important bit.”

For the moment, though, all Dal Santo is thinking about right now is the Kangaroos as they look to lock in a finals berth.