LENNY Hayes’ return to the St Kilda team has numerous benefits according to head coach Scott Watters.

Hayes has been brought back into the team after a three-week layoff with a calf injury.

Watters says the team’s younger players benefit from having Hayes in the midfield.

“The experience Lenny brings is fantastic and he gets an opportunity to play alongside Jack Steven and Jack Newnes. The sharing of knowledge is really important for us,” he said.

“He was in pretty good touch before going out of the side so we are thrilled to have him back in.”

[ RELATED: Selection news: Hayes comes in ]

Watters said there were no doubts about Hayes’ fitness and dismissed a suggestion he would be used as a substitute as a way of easing the 33-year-old back into the fray.

“You wouldn’t pick a player if there was any doubt at all, even as a sub. It would be a risk to bring someone in. He is 100 per cent fit and ready to play, whether that is as a sub or not. He is 100 per cent clear and looking forward to playing,” he said.

The Saints have been competitive in most of their six losses so far this season and trailed by just nine points at half-time of last week’s game against Adelaide before the Crows ran away in the second half.

“We look at our last four games and we were reasonably happy with our performance against Sydney and Collingwood was reasonable,” he said.

“Carlton was a culmination of two or three weeks and probably for a half a game against Adelaide we weren’t too bad. In the second half there were some good learnings to come from that and a lot of it is around the ability to sustain and maintain the intensity week in, week out, quarter in, quarter out, contest after contest.

“There are still some positives to take out of Adelaide early but the second half wasn’t acceptable. We need to learn from that and move on from that this week.”

Watters said there would be noticeable difference in the team’s approach to Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs.

“I think we need to continue to be aggressive with our ball movement. I think we’ve got a little bit slow over the last couple of weeks. We need to continue to back ourselves in,” he said.

“Some of that is our younger players knowing that they have the confidence and can continue to go with the game against good sides. We will continue to back them in and make sure that our forward half pressure for four quarters is maintained. We were very good early in the game last week and we faded late in the game.”