St Kilda ruckman Billy Longer won’t play against Essendon on Friday, paving the way for Tom Hickey to return for his first senior appearance since Round 4.

Despite injuring his hamstring in the opening quarter of last Saturday night’s 67-point win over Richmond, Longer produced one of the finest performances of his career, comprehensively outplaying Tigers recruit Toby Nankervis to earn six coaches votes.

Saints Coach Alan Richardson confirmed the change at the captain’s run on Thursday and said he expects Hickey, who played all but two games in 2016, to come in and make the most of his opportunity.

“Billy won’t play but we are really optimistic for next week,” Richardson told reporters at a press conference at Trevor Barker Oval on Thursday.

“'Hick' gets his opportunity; 'Hick’s' been in pretty good form in recent weeks.

“We pulled him out of the (VFL) game on the weekend because we knew that Billy was going to be in some doubt given he hurt himself pretty early in the game.

“It was an enormous effort by Billy to keep playing and perform like he did.

“We’re really excited for Hick, he gets the opportunity. We know that last year he played some outstanding footy for the club and that’s what we expect.”

St Kilda has elevated mature-age rookie Rowan Marshall to the senior list and will name the tall forward as an emergency on Thursday night, with Richardson indicating that the Portland product will be a safety net for Friday night.

“We’ve elevated Rowan. We’ve just got a little bit light on for the big blokes given that Hughie Goddard is injured and Sean Dempster is retired now," Richardson said.

“Rowan gives us a little bit of flexibility, so if for whatever reason we were to lose one tonight a bit crook then Rowan is able to give us a bit of structure forward or back.

“He’s done a really good job for us in the VFL so that was the reason for the elevation.”

St Kilda announced on Wednesday night that schoolboy Josh Battle will become the Saints second debutant of 2017, with the athletic key forward set to replace the suspended Tim Membrey.