The off-season break is nearly over for St Kilda’s first to fourth-year players.
21 young Saints will return for the first day of pre-season next Wednesday, including senior regulars Jack Billings, Luke Dunstan, Blake Acres, Jade Gresham, Jack Sinclair and Jack Steele.
With the remainder of the list not starting for another fortnight, St Kilda’s Head of High Performance, Matt Hornsby, says the next generation will have the chance to set the tone from day one.
“It creates a really good opportunity for that group to lead the program and to create the level of intensity that we expect,” Hornsby told saints.com.au on Friday morning.
“So rather than having a group of senior guys who drive that, we’ve got a real opportunity for the second to fourth-year players to drive the program.
“We’ll take them away for two nights to help set up our pre-season and show what a successful pre-season looks like for each individual and get them to think about that and plan their journey over the next few months.”
For those looking to follow a pre-season template that correlated into success in 2017, Hornsby says the younger group should look no further than Jack Sinclair and Jack Billings, who along with Tim Membrey were rewarded for their efforts last summer.
“Jack Sinclair and Jack Billings are two players who reaped the rewards of a strong pre-season last year,” Hornsby said.
“So did Tim Membrey who really drove that younger group strongly as a fourth-year player last year – he was a big part of driving the standards and that correlated into a really strong year for Tim as well.”
Hornsby said highly rated key defender Hugh Goddard will arrive at the starting line ready to go after overcoming a turf toe injury that derailed his 2017 campaign, as will young spearhead Paddy McCartin who missed the final two months of the season due to
“Hugh has been in the full off-season program and he will be unrestricted from day one,” he said.
“He’s overcome that nasty injury turf toe and he was able to get some good conditioning in late in the year and has continued that over the break. He’s ready to hit the ground running which is a great sign for Hughie.
Young gun Jade Gresham will follow a modified program for the first month of the pre-season while he recovers from adductor release surgery.
