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St Kilda lured Hawthorn premiership defender James Frawley out of a brief AFL retirement and he will slot into the Saints' back-six next year.

Hawthorn premiership defender James Frawley ended his brief AFL retirement and will play for St Kilda next season.

The 32-year-old announced in October that he would be pulling the pin on his 239-game career after stints with Melbourne and the Hawks.

But the Saints have convinced the one-time All-Australian to play at Moorabbin, where his late uncle Danny is one of the club's most revered figures.

St Kilda secured Frawley as a delisted free agent.

"It's obviously a huge honour to play for the same club as Danny, and I feel he would have been immensely proud to see me in the St Kilda colours," Frawley said.

"While I was content with retirement, after speaking to James (Gallagher), Brett (Ratten) and Simon (Lethlean) about their plans for this group and what they're building, I couldn't resist being part of it."

Frawley played 139 games for Melbourne and 100 for the Hawks after making his AFL debut in 2007.

He crossed from the Demons to the Hawks as free agent at the end of the 2014 season and played in the grand final win against West Coast the following year.

Frawley will shore up a St Kilda defence that includes fellow talls Dougal Howard and Jake Carlisle as the Saints look to push on from a semi-final defeat to Richmond this year - their first off-season appearance since 2011.

Saints list boss James Gallagher said Frawley's experience would be exactly what a young defence needed.