If St Kilda is going to climb back up the ladder and challenge for a premiership in the not too distant future, it is going to come from the brigade of youngsters that contributed to Saturday’s win over Collingwood, says Saints leader Mav Weller.

In a theme that has emerged from the Saints’ brave win in the adverse circumstances, St Kilda’s ability to outwork the Magpies and grind out a stunning victory, despite being reduced to one man on the pine in the last quarter, has given the Saints a spirited push after a winless start to the season.

“It’s really pleasing. You look around and you see a lot of young leaders coming through and I thought it was those boys that really dug deep when we needed it,” Weller told saints.com.au after the Saints 29-point win over Collingwood.

“Obviously we had some senior guys that played a big part as well, but for those younger guys to be part of a game where it was four quarters, we had to dig deep with one on the bench.

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“It was a really good game for them and hopefully we can draw on this experience and take it forward.

“If we want to get to where we want to go and climb up the ladder, and potentially be contending for a flag in the next three or four years it’s those younger guys that are going to do it.

“‘Joey’, ‘Rooey’ and Sean Dempster have been absolute stalwarts of the club but if we’re going to climb as a club it’s going to come from that younger group. We’re aware of that and we have a lot of discussions around that. It was a good step today.”

After emerging from half-time without Nick Riewoldt and Paddy McCartin, who both suffered bouts of concussion before the main break, and then losing Dylan Roberton for the last quarter, St Kilda was forced to dig deep and the effort was driven from a collection of third, fourth and fifth year players.

“The messaging was win your contest and stand up and do something about it with ‘Rooey’ and ‘Paddy’ going down,” Weller said.

“It was just really pleasing that some of those guys, Luke Dunstan, Seb Ross, I thought Jack Newnes was fantastic today and obviously the older guys as well. It was really pleasing from a club perspective that it was coming from those younger guys.”

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After spending the majority of his football life playing in the midfield, Weller has continued to transition into a forward, a role he explored in the second-half of last season. The Tasmanian booted three majors to go with 19 possessions to continue his strong start to the campaign.

“I’m really enjoying it up there, I’ve got a bit of a license to get up around the ball and then spit forward,” Weller said.

“It was pleasing that we could move the ball so well that a few of our boys could get on the scoreboard.

“I’ve done a lot of work in the pre-season mainly in the forward line, it was good today our ball movement was fantastic, it made my job a lot easier.”

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