Bonding, education and reflection are the key pillars that form St Kilda’s emerging leader’s camp at the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Cerberus base this week.

A select group of the Saints youngsters – ranging from recent draftees to fifth-year players – boarded a bus from the Linen House Centre on Thursday morning, with their destination unknown. One thing was certain, what lay ahead was going to be mentally and physically testing.

In recent years, it’s been no secret that St Kilda’s football department has intensified its focus on developing the leaders of the future, with the club identifying a need to bridge the gap between the experienced leaders nearing the end of their careers and the younger brigade coming through the ranks.

For St Kilda’s Head of Player Academy and Development, Simon McPhee, learning how players not only cope, but react when put in situations outside their comfort zone is what this camp is all about.

“When you come to camps like this you’re probably chasing a few things; obviously the bonding’s pretty big – I think you always get that element when blokes are put in a position where they’re doing something difficult together,” McPhee told saints.com.au on Thursday night.

“Secondly, from a leadership point of view, we want to take them out of their comfort zone, we want to see how they act and not just towards others, but how they react to situations that they are not comfortable with – Are they calm? Are they composed? Are they empathetic?

“And I think also from this camp, it’s also got another element to it because we’re surrounded by people who live their lives by fairly strict codes, which is what we’re trying to get our players to do in relation to our trademark.

“So, we’re educating them, we’re learning about them, we’re bonding them and at the end of it we should get a profile on all of them on their behaviours and their leadership characteristics, which will allow us to develop them as people and as footballers.”

21 players participated on the opening day of the emerging leader’s camp, including Jack Newnes, Josh Bruce, Seb Ross, Luke Dunstan, Paddy McCartin, Jack Lonie and recent first round draftee Jade Gresham, with Hugh Goddard set to join the program on Friday as he continues his gradual return to training.