AS A young team on the improve, the Western Bulldogs of 2015 proved themselves as the benchmark for what a young team can do when things click.

There have already been some predictions that the youthful St Kilda team could follow suit and be the team that surges up the ladder in 2016.

RELATED: Heat is on for the Saints

It’s hard to make comparisons and plenty has to go right but one man who carries a qualified opinion on the matter sees no reason why the Saints can’t be the team to rise up next season.

Key defender Nick Coughlan’s path to the St Kilda rookie list had him play alongside some of the young pups at Whitten Oval for a brief period in 2015.

“I was lucky enough to play with Footscray in the VFL last season. There are similarities and I can see the way the Sainters are going and where they’re going this year. It is going to be a very positive year, I can see it already,” Coughlan said from the team's training camp in the Sunshine Coast.

Coughlan admits he had no idea St Kilda would take him with a rookie list pick until he saw his name pop up as pick 23 in Friday’s rookie draft.

RELATED: Rookie draft recap

“It is an absolute dream. It only happened 48 hours ago and then all of a sudden I’m on a plane training with some of the best footballers in the country,” he said.

“It is very exciting. I can’t wait to get into it all.”

RELATED: Photo gallery - Day 2 Sunshine Coast training camp

Coughlan was the Saints’ second selection at the rookie draft after the club happily snapped up midfielder Nick O’Kearney with its first pick (fifth overall).

For O’Kearney, like Coughlan, the past seven days have been frantic, dramatic, disappointing, and ecstatic. Overlooked in the NAB AFL Draft on Tuesday night, he had to wait until Friday to find out where his footballing future lay.

“It is still pretty surreal. We got off the plane (to Maroochydore) yesterday and we were straight into it. Yesterday was like the first day of school meeting everyone and getting to know everyone as well. To come out here and get straight into it was probably a good thing,” O’Kearney said.

Selected to the All-Australian team after the Under 18 championships and the TAC Cup team of the year, O’Kearney did everything right to push himself up as a draft candidate and was considered by those in the know to be unlucky not to have his name read out on Tuesday night.

“I thought I was a reasonable chance. I had a pretty good season and I was pretty consistent throughout. I was disappointed but there is not much you can do about it,” he said.

“You just have to move on and I saw Tuesday night as chapter one of two. Chapter two was Friday with the rookie draft. There was no point dwelling on it, the sun came up the next day and we moved on with it.”

Nick O'Kearney listens to instructions at his first training session with his new club.

St Kilda Director of Coaching and Strategy Danny Sexton said O’Kearney and Coughlan had as much of an opportunity to succeed as any other young player at the club, regardless of whether they are on the primary or rookie lists.

“They are all on level footing. We saw two years ago Eli Templeton came on as a rookie and had a real impact for the team until he got injured and last year it was Jack Sinclair who played 17 games as a rookie,” Sexton said.

“Once they get here we are rapt to get them. We just want them to listen and learn. We want to turn them into pros really quickly and train with effort. If they do that, they are going to give themselves the best chance.”