WHILE Sunday’s four-point loss to West Coast is hard to swallow given St Kilda’s ascendancy for the majority of the game, the overall effort and intensity bodes well for the future according to Scott Watters.

The Saints coach admitted that “every loss is a tough loss,” but his young team has something to be proud of following a vastly improved performance.

St Kilda made five changes to the team that lost to North Melbourne last weekend, including Josh Saunders for his third AFL game, Sam Dunell for his sixth and Trent Dennis-Lane for his 23^rd match. It’s the influx of youth that excites Watters despite a difficult first half of the season.

“The reality is, we just have a number within our midfield group at the moment [who are] young kids in their first or second season pre-season,” Watters said.

“They can’t go the distance yet. They will eventually. I know they have got great character and great heart and they are working extremely hard. I’m proud of the way they went about it [tonight].”

For the collection of 19-23 year-old Saints, this is a journey bigger than just one game or even one season, a point Watters reiterated post-match.

“There aren’t going to be knee-jerk reactions to a win or a loss. It’s much broader than that for us,” he said. “There is going to be some losses along the way. There is going to be bumps and bruises, poor quarters, times when players are flat – all of that. That’s part of growth.”

The evolution of the playing group is evident given how many debutants Watters has played in the past 18 months. St Kilda has had eight or nine youngsters run out on a weekly basis that are still learning the caper, still developing themselves physically and mentally for the AFL contest and continually learning the intricacies of league football.

“You look at the players who step up late in the game like Priddis and Naitanui – they’re seasoned, hardened competitors,” he said.

“Jack Newnes, Seb Ross, Josh Saunders and Jimmy Webster [are developing]. I’m excited to see where they are going to be after three, four, five pre-seasons. They can play, they just need time.”

For now, Watters is clear on what he expects from the players on a weekly basis.

“Try and improve, play the players we need to play, let them go through the ups and downs of development, have faith in them – that’s where we are at as a club,” he said.

While largely content with St Kilda’s overall effort, most notably the work-rate of Beau Maister and the leadership of Leigh Montagna and David Armitage, Watters refused to make excuses for the defeat.

“The scoreboard doesn’t lie.” He said. “You need to take your opportunities and execute when you are in control of the game.”

The second-year head coach believes that his team will benefit from Sunday’s solid effort ahead of the back half of the year.

“For us [a performance like that] reinforces how we want to play,” he said. “It probably reinforces a lot of things we are continually working on at training. They see it work and it gives you an appetite to keep going after it … They can build off that sort of result.”

“I’ve got a very clear picture, of when we assemble all the right parts – which takes time, of what this side can look like. We’ll keep going towards that.”

You can follow Tom Morris on Twitter: @tommorris32