Renowned for his speed and penetrating right foot that can break a game wide open, St Kilda rebounding defender Shane Savage has focused on improving his endurance base this pre-season to help complement his eye-catching outside game.

Savage, 26, is at the business end of his ninth pre-season – his fourth since landing at the Saints at the end of 2013 – and is coming off two of his most consistent seasons in successive years, having played 21 games in 2016 and 20 the year before.

The dashing half-back flanker admits endurance isn’t his forte but it’s something he has worked to improve across the summer, as well as continuing to sharpen the more dazzling weapons in his arsenal.

“For the last nine years I’ve been working on my endurance, as well as working on my strengths; my speed and repeat speed,” Savage told saints.com.au on Monday afternoon.

“Endurance has been my main focus and I’ve been hitting most of my targets this pre-season. I’m looking forward to taking my game to another level hopefully.”

Savage lauded the pre-season campaign of another daring defender in Dylan Roberton, who also reached the 100-game milestone last season and who has taken another step during the summer months at Linen House Centre.

“He’s had an outstanding pre-season so far,” Savage said.

“His leadership has been really professional down there, he’s really taken the young fellas under his wing and shown them the way and how it’s supposed to be done down there in terms of communication and all that kind of stuff.

“He’s been really strong as well as Montagna, Dempster, Nathan Brown and Jake Carlisle.”

Are you with us in 2017? Become a St Kilda member today!