Saturday was a big day for Jack Billings.
He bagged a career-high five goals. He equalled his person best disposal haul of 30. He hauled in more marks than in any other game with 12. He was involved in 12 scores and accumulated 568 metres. All in his 50th appearance.
In a game that didn’t reach great heights, Billings was the highlight.
St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson has overseen all 50 of his games so far and heaped praise on the polished left footer in his post-match press conference.
For Billings, the win was the most important thing for the 21-year-old who St Kilda used their precious No. 3 pick on four years ago.
Moments that mattered: Round 8 v Carlton
“You don’t really think of it as any other game. It was nice to play well today, but the main thing was to get the win and it makes everything a lot better,” Billings told saints.com.au after St Kilda’s 19-point win on Saturday.
“I probably would have liked to get to the 50 a bit quicker. It’s a little thing but it’s nice.
“Hopefully, touch wood, I can continue to play more games and get a bit more continuity which has probably been the biggest thing for my footy over the last 12 months.”
Highly prized Billings reaches half century
Reflecting on the journey to this point, a path that was interrupted at one stage by a lingering stress fracture in his shin, Billings admits he learnt a lot from that period out of the game and the changes to his program since.
“It was really big for me, I’d never missed half of season of footy before – it sucked,” Billings said.
“I learnt a lot from that and probably last year it was still giving me a little bit of grief as it was healing.
“I’ve just tried to do as much work as I can in the gym and that sort of stuff and just getting that strength and making my body capable of playing AFL footy week in and week out.”
After playing a pivotal role in a game where St Kilda might have lost in recent years, Billings said the group has matured this season and is standing up at the right time in games.
“We’re playing pretty good footy at the moment, everyone’s started to mature as we play together more,” he said.
“I think that’s definitely played a factor and has been really good to obviously be a part of it. Now we’re able to stem the flow when sides get on top of us and we’re still able to get across the line.”
