Jack Steele is feeling the sting in his legs that little bit more as a combination of elevated training standards across the board and a demanding running regimen put the Saints through their pre-season paces.
The Saints completed another intense conditioning session – a consistent finale to 2023 pre-season training – immediately after today’s match simulation block, and although left spent afterwards, have collectively returned from the off-season in shape to keep up with the taxing workloads.
Ryan Byrnes led the up-and-down charges along the boundary line at RSEA Park, tailed closely by reigning Best & Fairest Jack Sinclair, Marcus Windhager and Steele under the watch of Performance, Medical and Operations Manager David Misson and Head of Performance & Conditioning Nick Walsh.
Steele says the work put in from the entire squad during the off-season has allowed them to accelerate its desires to adopt a faster, more daring brand of football heading into its 150th year.
“The boys have come back very fit and looking good so far. They’ve really bought into what Ross (Lyon) and the assistant coaches are trying to build,” Steele told saints.com.au immediately after this morning's session.
“I feel like I am starting to get just that little bit older and I still need to impress as well. I feel like everyone’s in the same boat and need to make their position felt and prove a point. We’re all doing that collectively and it’s really brought everyone’s training standards up.
“Boys like Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager are again cracking in, but then the guys who were maybe a bit on the outer last year and didn’t get as much of an opportunity like Tom Highmore and Jack Bytel are really starting to push the standards and show their strengths on the track, so it’s great to see.”
Bradley Hill (January) and Mason Wood (December) recorded the best times at St Kilda's most recent three-kilometre time trials, with Windhager, Matty Allison and Byrnes each charting podium finishes between the runs.
The Saints will shift their focus towards in-game fitness as result of its off-season upkeep and practice matches – yet to be officially announced – being less than a month away.
“It is the fun time of the year where we’re starting to build towards games and do less of that running, but we’ve still done plenty of that today and over the past few weeks,” Steele said.
“Now’s the time to do it before we start to transition that into ‘footy running’. We’ve been able to do it well, so it’s just about doing it consistently.
“Time will tell and there will be plenty of educational walkthroughs in the weeks to come, but we’ve got to get it all right so we have a real chance to have a crack this year.”
