After being dropped twice in the first month, emerging midfielder Blake Acres returned to Alan Richardson’s side with a vengeance on Saturday, staking his claim for a Rising Star nomination on the back of a career-best performance against the Demons.

The West Australian played in Round 1 and in Round 4, experiencing an up and down start to 2016, before producing a standout effort at Etihad Stadium. Acres collected a career-high 28 possessions, five tackles, 12 score involvements and two goals to make a sizeable contribution in St Kilda’s 39-point win.

That performance aside, it has been Acres’ dedication to his craft between Monday to Friday, particularly during a trying start to his season, which has impressed his coach most, prompting Richardson to laud the 21-year-old’s application in his post-mortem.

“We spoke about Blake (straight after the game), more than any other player he’s committed to making sure that he works on his game and works on his craft,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference.

“He’s been a really good example. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s ended up performing strongly. There’s no secrets in footy. If you work hard, you end up getting rewards.

“He’s going to be a very, very good player for us. He’s still got some work to do, but that was good he was able to have that sort of performance for us today, given that he’s working so hard. He didn’t get everything right Blake, but for most of it he was really positive and ran very hard for us.”

Acres wasn’t the only inclusion to make a telling contribution in the win, with Tim Membrey also producing the best showing of his short career, booting five goals and taking eight marks in his first appearance of 2016. And Jade Gresham, in only his third game, stood out with his contested work.

“All our guys that came in – Gresham, Membrey, Acres – had an influence. You want people to come in and play their roles,” Richardson said.

“Membrey kicks five, I was happy with his work rate and contest. Gresham didn’t get big numbers, but I thought his physicality and his want to defend was really strong.”

Nick Riewoldt continued his brilliant start to the year, booting 3.2 from 24 disposals and 14 marks to be one of the best players on the ground. In the absence of Paddy McCartin, Richardson elected to play the champion forward closer to home in a move that paid dividends, especially when the game was there to be won.

“I think the skipper’s in good form. He’s been in good form all year really,” Richardson said.

“He was in good form the day he went out against the Maggies at half-time – he was in pretty good nick that day too.

“He was a bit more forward; he looked so dangerous early in the game that we just wanted to keep him there. He was positive.”