Life has changed for St Kilda star Jack Steven since the end of last season.

The three-time Trevor Barker Award winner and his partner, Indi, welcomed their first baby, Maggie, into the world in the first week of the finals, following an up and down year for the Saints and Steven.

Despite being tagged most weeks and dealing with persistent hamstring tendonitis, Steven still finished 6^th in the best and fairest and averaged the second most disposals at the Saints.

The 27-year-old has completed a full pre-season program ahead of his 11^th season and is ready to respond to the critics who think he didn’t deliver in 2017, starting in Wednesday night's pre-season clash with Carlton at Ikon Park.

“Everyone kept telling me I had a bad year. I didn’t think it was too bad. But I had the hammy tendon issue so I didn’t have any explosiveness, which is my main thing,” Steven told the Herald Sun.

“I got tagged a few games and didn’t handle that as well, so I just had a really cruisy start to this pre-season and put all my time and effort into our new baby and now it feels fine.

“We are so happy — our baby girl Maggie is chubby and keeping us on our toes.

“I didn’t know what to expect but she is awesome and puts everything into perspective with footy.”

While the Saints aren’t loaded with household names just yet, Steven believes St Kilda might boast a few stars of the competition by the end of this season, especially if players can emulate the rise of Seb Ross and Dylan Roberton last year.

“I don’t listen too much to that talk. We have definitely got a few of the younger boys who have the potential to get there,’’ he said.

“If you start winning a few more games it changes people’s view. It is very much based on your wins and losses.”

Steven, who in the wake of the retirements of Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna and Sean Dempster is the third most experienced player on St Kilda’s list, is excited by the arrival of 2017 top-10 picks, Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield, who are pushing their cases for a debut early in the year.

“Nick Coffield and Hunter Clark, our two high picks, look really handy at the moment. Coffield has a nice step on him and a bit of pace,” he said.

“And Hunter is just really cruisy and clean and uses the ball well. They are both going well for a first pre-season.”

After sitting out of AFLX, Steven will begin his 2018 campaign at Ikon Park on Wednesday night. Watch this space.