St Kilda ruckman Billy Longer is thriving off the added belief instilled by Alan Richardson.
The 23-year-old was one of the Saints’ shining lights in the 40-point loss at Etihad Stadium, producing one of the best games of his 49-game career by amassing a career-high 55 hitouts, 18 possessions (11 contested) and six tackles.
While a full pre-season on the track has helped spark the first half of the season, Longer says the faith injected by Richardson has fuelled his belief after a difficult 2016 for the former top-ten pick.
“A big pre-season – one that was uninterrupted – and being able to string a few games together is obviously something that you want in your career,” Longer told saints.com.au after the loss on Saturday.
“It’s pretty hard when you’re in one week and out the other. I think ‘Richo’ is really good at if you’re getting a chance, you’re at least getting a couple of weeks to try and show what you’ve got.”
Longer, who has played the last six consecutive games after Tom Hickey led the engine room in the first month, said star midfielders Jack Steven and Seb Ross have made his life easier since he returned to the senior side in Round 5.
“The midfielders around me have made it pretty easy a lot of the time,” he said.
“I think with Seb Ross coming out of his shell this year, Jack Steven having at least one or maybe two players come and play on him.
“They are really helping me out so far this year. I’m looking forward to continuing the bond we have between us.”
With St Kilda slipping to 5-5 following two disappointing performances against the Western Bulldogs and Sydney in the last fortnight, Longer believes the Saints can still take a lot of confidence out of their overall performance across the first 10 weeks of 2017.
“That’s why it’s really disappointing the last couple of weeks because we’ve really been so good for the first part of this year, but it’s given us some glaring key areas that we can see,” he said.
“I think we’re pretty clear on the areas that we need to improve on, it gives us a bit of confidence that we can train it now and we can do a bit of reflecting.
“Hopefully when we come back (from the bye) we can fine tune and attack the second half of the season.”
