St Kilda midfielder Jack Steele has given himself a strong chance to come straight back into the team on Sunday after going back to Sandringham and executing what he needed to do, according to Saints Coach Alan Richardson.

The 21-year-old, who arrived at Linen House Centre from Greater Western Sydney last October, accumulated 34 disposals and laid nine tackles in the Zebras’ loss to Coburg last Saturday.

Speaking at Melbourne airport before boarding a flight to Perth on Friday, Richardson said the inside midfielder had put his hand up for a recall by winning plenty of his own ball, which was an area of his game that had dropped off in the weeks before he was dropped.

“Yes he did (go back and do what we wanted him to do). He played really well,” Richardson told reporters at a press conference on Friday.

“He went back and we were really pleased with the way he performed; he’s given himself a chance of coming back into the team.

“He’s really highly ranked in the competition, let alone our footy club, for putting pressure on. He just dropped off in terms of being able to get his share of the ball.

“He’s a really good user of the footy, he’s got great composure and really strong execution skills.”

Back-to-back wins over Gold Coast and North Melbourne has resurrected St Kilda’s season in the last fortnight, but Richardson is far from satisfied with where his side sits after 14 rounds.

“We want to be in the eight when the home and away season is done. It doesn’t mean a lot to be honest to be in eighth position in June,” he said.

“What is positive is we’ve been able to get our footy back and we’re sitting in eighth position with a lot of scope to improve.

“Individually there’s a fair bit of scope to improve, we think collectively our method still has room to improve; issue like conversion; issues likes making the most of our opportunities when we go forward.

“Our defence has been something that I’ve been most pleased with the last couple of weeks.”