He may have woven together the most consecutive games in his career to date, but Jack Steele doesn’t feel like he has stitched up a spot in Alan Richardson’s engine room yet.

After being starved of opportunity across two years at Greater Western Sydney, the 21-year-old has already eclipsed his personal best streak by playing the first nine games of 2017.

Steele, who crossed to Linen House Centre in exchange for a future second-round pick last October, has made the most of his opportunity in red, white and black, averaging 21.8 possessions (10.6 contested), 7.4 tackles (No. 7 in the AFL), 3.8 clearances and 64.7 pressure points per 100 minutes (No. 2 in the AFL).

But after being dropped half a dozen times during his time in the harbour city, he isn't getting comfortable.

"I'm happy with how it's going. I'm still on edge about whether I'm going to be in the team each week because there's obviously no guarantees,” Steele told afl.com.au this week ahead of St Kilda’s clash with the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.

“We have a lot of depth on our list now, so I can't be too sure. But it is a good feeling to have strung a few games together.”

Three weeks ago, Steele faced his old side for the first in St Kilda’s first game on the Friday night stage in more than two years.

While he felt comfortable in the days leading in, by the time he had navigated through peak hour traffic from Highett to Etihad Stadium, parked his car and walked out onto the ground, the nerves kicked in.

"During the week leading up to it I was fine and I'd played well the week before. But before the game I got out on the ground and saw them all out there and I got really nervous. I was thinking 'What's going to happen here?' I thought one of them would come out and knock me," he said.

"Just seeing so many familiar faces out there was a bit weird. (Shane) Mumford gave me a little bit and I gave a little bit back, but it was all good."

Steele has come a long way since he first turned up at the club with his foot in a moon boot and with an intensive rehabilitation program in his hands.

While St Kilda's other new recruits Nathan Brown and Koby Stevens got their hands dirty early in the pre-season, the boy from Canberra had to bide his time and allow his fractured metatarsal to mend before he made an impact after Christmas.

"I couldn't prove myself on the field so I had to do it off the field somehow, even if it was by what I was eating, by what I was doing, by what I was talking about. I had to be good in other ways," he said.  

"Especially with Nathan Brown and Koby Stevens coming in, and Jake Carlisle coming back to training, they could impress with their footy and I couldn't.

"That was probably the hardest thing to think about, that they could go out and show what they could do and all the boys would think they're unreal, and that I was just some little injured guy."

Moving clubs wasn’t an easy decision for Steele, but already it appears to be the right decision for a player who looms as one of the steals of last October’s exchange period.

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