St Kilda Senior Coach Alan Richardson believes some of his young players are learning invaluable lessons in the early stage of 2016, in particularly emerging spearhead Paddy McCartin who missed an opportunity late to put the Saints in front.

For the second successive week, McCartin continued to display the traits that saw him acquired by the Saints with selection No. 1 in the 2014 draft. The 19-year-old took clinical pack marks, was clean around the ball and kicked another couple of goals.

He may have missed that chance in the dying minutes at Aurora Stadium, which has been magnified due to the narrow losing margin, but Richardson was thrilled with McCartin’s game and his desire to be involved when the game was on the line.

Richardson: That's the way we want to play

“That’s the journey we’re on, guys are going to get lessons,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference on Saturday.

“Paddy – that’s as good a mark as you’d want from a key forward. For a person playing his 10th game of footy, against a reasonable defence, I think we’d all acknowledge that they’ve got a reasonable group down there.

“So I don’t really care too much (about him missing the shot). I certainly wanted it to go through, there’s no doubt about that, and it didn’t miss by much.

“I just like the fact the young fella had the courage late to just continue to launch. I thought he had a pretty positive game.”

Richardson also lauded the performance of another emerging star, Jack Billings, who demonstrated the improved defensive side of his game for the second consecutive week.

Renowned for his class and poise with ball in hand, in the early rounds of 2016, Billings appears to have added an increased aptitude for pressure and tackling.

A week after laying six tackles against Collingwood; the former pick No. 3 had another six tackles, to go with 27 possessions in a strong performance against the reigning premiers.

“I thought a lot of our young guys had days like that. Billings ended up with reasonable numbers, he laid six tackles, he was pretty high in the possession count, he used the footy well – that’s good for a young guy against this team,” Richardson said.

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