St Kilda Vice-Captain Callum Wilkie sat down with Saints Media at the conclusion of the 2025 season, discussing the rollercoaster year and the development ahead of our next campaign.

Saints Media: Firstly, can you give your thoughts on the season that was. Obviously the ending was a really strong period but how did you find the year as a whole?

Callum Wilkie: The season absolutely had it's up and downs and it's challenges but we were able to start the season well at 3-1 before a bit of a lull period where we probably weren't playing the footy we liked and wanted to and couldn't get those wins on the board.

We finished off the season pretty strong with those four wins and a good performance against GWS where we couldn't quite get over the line.

That gives us a lot of confidence going into the off-season and into next year which is sort of what we spoke about in that these games do matter even though finals were off the cards.

We want to take steps to get back to finals and sustained success so every game does matter even though those four points aren't going to count towards making finals.

It's about building a culture of winning and getting better and I feel like we were able to do that in that last month of the season.

SM: What's your role in motivating the rest of the team to keep pushing for those good performances in the back end of the season?

CW: As a leadership group we've talked about driving the group this last month and how important these games really are to building that culture of excellence and winning.

We try to drive that hard as leaders and Ross and the coaches do a great job of that as well.

We just like to remind everyone that you can't take anything for granted in this game as you don't know how long you're going to be in it, so it's a privilege every time you do step out on that field, so you want to give it your best shot.

Those wins count within these four walls and you want to have respect for your teammates and to the fans as well as you want to give them something to celebrate.

SM: Obviously the team blooded a lot of youth this year and a lot of debutants, how did it feel to run out there with those new faces who are really hungry for success?

CW: There's just so many good young players coming through that are going to be so good for this football club.

[Alix] Tauru is going to be a very good player who I'm going to be playing alongside for a while but they are all just hungry to get better.

They're young and need to learn, it's a tough game but they want to be the best that they can be and hopefully us as leaders can help develop them and nurture them to help make them better and make us better.

It's been an interesting year blooding so many young players and players coming in and out of the team, I don't know how many players we played overall but it takes a bit of time to get the synergy going.

It's very exciting and we're really looking forward to next year.

SM: How did it feel to see those youngsters step up towards the back end of the year and really develop those skills with AFL experience?

CW: It was huge.

At the back end of the year we took it up to some really good teams and especially that last game against GWS it really felt like us.

It was awesome to see Darcy (Wilson) have a great game, he's been working really hard so really pleased for him to finish off the year the way he did.

Hugh Boxshall (and) Hugo Garcia the way they attack the contest, it's awesome and I love running out with them.

That last game really gave us some good momentum and felt like us which allowed us to finish the year on such a positive note going into a long break and those young players really stepped up.

SM:  What was the message from the coaching group to keep the heads up after those results and attack the back half of the year?

CW: The message they really tried to get across was that every decision you make can either get you closer to where you want to be or really take you away.

That was what they really hammered in every day before training and at meetings and that related to everything, from watching vision to your craft to everyday fitness and all of those days and those decisions can help take the team to where you want to go to.

There will always be steps to it even for years to come which says again that these games towards the back end of the year do matter and the weeks of training isn't just waiting until next year to get better, it's about getting better now.

The boys really thrived off that as we wanted to be better than what we were this year but we just kept getting to work and hopefully we can take that into 2025.