JACK Steven may be coming off a career-best year in which he won his first Trevor Barker award, but he’s refusing to rest on his laurels as pre-season got underway for the full playing group on Monday morning.
“I think there always is [a sense of excitement] at the start of pre-season. Obviously a lot has changed around the club with a few new faces, but I’m excited to be here and excited to hook in,” Steven said.
One of these changes is the arrival of Alan Richardson from Port Adelaide and Steven’s first impression of his new senior coach is very positive after he briefly addressed the entire playing group this morning.
“He seemed really bubbly and positive. Although I haven’t had a lot to do with him yet, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in over pre-season,” he said.
“I’ll keep learning – I’ve got a lot to learn – I’ll be hanging onto Lenny [Hayes] and Joey [Montagna] all pre-season.”
While the 23-year-old will be making the most of his time on the track with the veterans, he has implored the St Kilda younger brigade to step up to the plate in 2014 and shoulder more responsibility. It’s only early days, but the signs are good according to Steven.
“A lot of the younger boys seem to be flying after getting back a week-and-a-half ago.”
“We just need to develop again,” he said. “We are in a rebuilding phase so we want all our younger boys pushing up and to start leading the group as the senior core has done for so long. It’s probably more our chance to do so now.”
The physically demanding journey to round one will continue next week when St Kilda embarks on its pre-season trip to Boulder, Colorado – a training camp that was established in 2012 and which will continue this year under the guidance of new High Performance Manager Adam Basil.
“We’ll have a good three weeks away together so we will bond there. Boulder, Colorado is a good spot and we love going over. It’s good getting away with the boys as well – it is good fun.”
Prior to flying to the USA, St Kilda will welcome another three fresh-faced youngsters to the club in this week’s NAB AFL Draft. With three live selections inside the top 20, Steven believes the Saints are perfectly poised to add to their already deep pool of developing young-guns.
“On Thursday we will get picks three, 18 and 19 so quality picks coming in the door. We are pretty excited,” he said.
When asked whether he would favour St Kilda making a play for uncontracted free agent Darren Jolly, Steven was typically honest in his assessment of the former Melbourne, Sydney and Collingwood ruckman.
“If the club thinks Darren Jolly is the right fit then I’ll be excited – he can tap some down to me.”
You can follow Tom Morris on Twitter: @tommorris32
