St Kilda is preparing for life after Nick Riewoldt while they still have the champion centre-half forward in their midst, allowing the heirs to his throne to be as prepared as possible to lead the Saints forward line into the future.

The champion forward is on the cusp of breaking the 300-game barrier and is closer to the end than the finish of his decorated career.

But with Josh Bruce emerging as a force in 2015 and Paddy McCartin possessing prodigious talent, the next generation of St Kilda key targets have been handed more responsibility over the pre-season to help fast track their development.

“We’ve got some pretty good experience in terms of Nick, but from there down it falls away so we’ve got to learn to fast track that,” St Kilda forward line coach Aaron Hamill told saints.com.au.

“Nick’s been training up a little bit in the midfield just to allow a lot of the boys to grow and to develop and learn quick without Nick being around and showing them the ropes. We’re going okay, we think we’re on the right path.”

Hamill revealed the young forward group at Linen House Centre has benefited greatly from going to work against the Saints experienced defensive unit of Sean Dempster, Sam Fisher, Sam Gilbert, Luke Delaney and Dylan Roberton on a daily basis.

“At training so far our patterns have been good against a really experienced defence in Fisher, Dempster, Delaney, Roberton – a lot of them have played (combined) 700 odd games there,” he said.

“So a lot of experience for us to learn from as a forward group, but in our own right we’ve certainly been giving the defence something to think about. And we think we’re certainly on the right path.”

Despite an encouraging year in 2015, St Kilda still ranked 13^th in points for. Hamill believes the Saints can inflict more damage on the scoreboard this season by moving the ball quicker on transition to allow their key forwards to compete in one on one contests.

“We think if we can move the ball a lot quicker from the back half, if we can create those one-on-ones and get the ball in quick, we think the likes of ‘Paddy’, ‘Brucey’ and Tim Membrey can get on the end of it. All of who can play really good footy one on one,” he said.

“We think if we can start to put a fair bit of speed on the ball it will start to give our boys a pretty good opportunity to at least win or halve their contest.”