St Kilda’s midfield was one of the most talked about in the league last season.

But for the most part, not for the right reasons.

A lack of premium talent, a significant dependence on a select group of players and an absence of a threatening presence were all talking points thrown around during a bleak 2018 campaign.

The high-profile recruitment of Dan Hannebery has since sparked much external discussion about the Saints’ fresh engine room, but even with such a lofty name in the mix, Seb Ross knows there are other avenues for excitement and success.

“It’s going to be a much more dynamic midfield this year,” Ross told saints.com.au.

“There’s plenty of new roles that the boys are learning, so we’re not just going to limit ourselves to say myself only being an inside midfielder, or Jack Steven only being an inside midfielder.”

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Such flexibility in Season 2019 will be paramount for the Saints, who too often relied on the likes of Ross, Jack Steven and Jack Steele to do a considerable amount of the heavy lifting in the midfield.

Ross believes the individual resourcefulness of each midfielder will give the opposition its fair share of trouble, with the multitude of versatile players a crucial advantage come Round 1.

Ben Long will spend more time in the midfield in 2019.

“A lot of the guys will probably rotate through that half-forward line; players like Benny Long and Dean Kent can pinch-hit in through the midfield which gives us another different look,” Ross said.

The newly-appointed vice-captain was similarly full of praise when speaking of Matt Parker, with Ross lauding the recruit’s dangerous attributes and potential to bring a unique edge to the Saints’ centre force.

“Matty Parker, he can come through the midfield too and he’s a really hard match-up,” Ross said.

He’s sort of long and rangy, but also super quick and can really jump and take marks.  And he’s really fit, so we should be able to get a lot out of him as well."

Even with the emergence of such talent in the Saints’ on-ball brigade – further enhanced by the rapid growth of Jade Gresham and Hunter Clark – Ross has remained a constant; his experience and expertise invaluable as his side aspires to push up the ladder.

“I am probably one of the more older heads and more experienced in terms of games played in that midfield, but I sort of don’t feel like that; I feel like I’m the same age as Luke Dunstan or Jack Steele,” Ross said.

“The weird thing was it was Matty [Parker’s] birthday the other day and he’s considered a mature-age recruit and he’s only turned 23 – I’m 26 this year, so it took me a bit to get my head around that; a mature-age recruit was younger than me.”

Age aside, there’s no denying the impact Ross has had on St Kilda’s midfield over the past few seasons, with his second-place finish in last year’s Trevor Barker Award a testament to his importance to the club.

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And the veteran midfielder can’t wait to make his own mark on 2019.

“I’ve been looking forward to it since October basically; it took me probably about two weeks to move on from the 2018 Season” Ross said.

“I wanted to get that out of mind and start afresh and as soon as that two weeks were up, I really started looking forward to the 2019 pre-season.”

“I knew we didn’t perform obviously to our best last year, but I know we’ve got way more in us.”