Ahead of his 150^th game in red, white and black, stalwart defender Sean Dempster attributed his phenomenal consistency at the Saints to his ability to find continuity in his football.

Since crossing from Sydney at the end of 2006, the Swans father-son recruit has developed into one of the most reliable pound for pound defenders in the competition.

A paragon of consistency, Dempster has finished 3^rd in four of the last five Trevor Barker Award’s to go with his 2012 All Australian guernsey, and has left a strong imprint on St Kilda through his meticulous approach to the game.

“I’ve been quite fortunate with injury the last five or six seasons,” Dempster told Melbourne radio station SEN on Thursday morning.

“So I think that continuity of just being able to get out there week-in week-out, season after season, has just been able to build on my game year after year and not have to worry about my body.

“Just being able to get out there and train and play has been of great benefit to me.”

Following Leigh Montagna’s comments at a press conference earlier in the week where the star midfielder implied his side wasn’t far away from heading back towards September, Dempster looked at the Western Bulldogs ascension in 2015 as an example to suggest it doesn’t take forever to rise again.

“I think if you look at past teams in the last few years it doesn’t take long to turn your seasons around,” Dempster said.

“Although we were down the bottom last year, if you look at the Western Bulldogs there season last year on the back of their season the year before.

“If you work hard you can give yourself an opportunity to turn it around and look at playing finals.”

St Kilda will launch its 2016 season against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday afternoon, with the game also marking Montagna’s 250^th career outing.