Spirits may be high off the back of St Kilda’s first-up win to open its 150^th year, but skipper Jack Steele is adamant on not letting his side get ahead of itself. 

Steele captained the undermanned Saints to a 15-point win over Fremantle on Sunday afternoon to begin its new chapter under Ross Lyon on a positive note, yet is well aware there’s still a lot of football to come. 

St Kilda will come up against the Western Bulldogs this Saturday at Marvel Stadium, before its historic 150th Anniversary Game at the MCG the following week against Essendon.

“It was a great win and we’re pretty pleased with the result, but at the end of the day it’s just one game of football and there’s 23 rounds left,” Steele told reporters this morning.

“We’ve got our review today so we’ll go through all the specifics as to what we did well and what we need to improve on. We all acknowledge as midfielders that we need to be better, our backline would say the same and our forward line would say the same.

“Obviously we’re down on numbers in our forward line, but I think everyone needs to keep bringing that effort that we brought on Sunday afternoon.            

“We’ve got to come here today, learn, get better and go again on Saturday night.” 

While the Saints put in a sound performance across the board in their first outing under Lyon, the efforts of the club’s injury-hit and inexperienced forward line stood tall.

With Mitch Owens and debutants Mattaes Phillipou and Anthony Caminiti locking down key roles inside the forward arc, the combined eight-game trio beat to odds to hold firm and execute over their experienced opposition.

“It’s pretty impressive when you break it down like that,” Steele said.

“It’s pleasing to see that those inexperienced players can just come in and play their role. It just goes to show if you bring that effort and drive, anything’s possible and you can get some really good opportunities from it.

“I suppose for those players they can take a lot of confidence out of what they did and what they accomplished, but they’re going to have to be able to bring it next week and back it up.”

Caminiti and Phillipou look likely to go around again with Tim Membrey’s return delayed as he replenishes his fitness base.

Jimmy Webster (hand) and Jack Bytel (knee) will come out of the line-up – the latter after his first senior appearance since Round 23, 2021 – but will be offset by the possible returns of Marcus Windhager (hand) and Seb Ross (calf).

Ross will need to pass a fitness test to put himself in consideration for Saturday night’s match against the Western Bulldogs.

While the Bulldogs will be without new recruit Rory Lobb (ankle) for Round 2, they certainly aren't lacking in the height department with Sam Darcy, Josh Bruce and Aaron Naughton able to cover their teammate’s absence.

“They’ve got a very tall team as we’ve seen last week,” Steele said.

“It’ll be an interesting challenge for us, but I think if we bring the same enthusiasm and effort as we did on Sunday, I think we’ll give it every chance.”