St Kilda's strong start to season 2025 has fans buoyed by what the club can achieve this year, but also the direction toward the future.
Sunday's win against Port Adelaide away from home was the third victory for Ross Lyon's men, despite being tipped to be among the bottom of the ladder.
But Lyon isn't afraid to throw his youth into the deep end, utilising 29 players on the list in the opening month of the season. And all to good effect.
Darcy Wilson, Angus Hastie, Max Hall, Hugo Garcia and Lance Collard are in their second years at the club.
Isaac Keeler debuted in Round 2. Tobie Travaglia debuted in Round 3.
But the mix from experienced players like Jack Sinclair, Rowan Marshall, Brad Hill, Callum Wilkie and recruit Jack Macrae has had a profound impact.
"Our last three minutes were really strong," Lyon said.
"We are young, I think we had 10 players with basically less than 10 games or second-year (in the AFL).
"Is it maturity? I think their capacity to learn ... (from) those older guys helps those guys from not tightening up and focusing on executing what you need to do in that moment, so that was good."
Although featuring in the finals in his first year back at Moorabbin (2023), Lyon admitted, that although the win-loss record didn't favour the Saints in 2024, there was still growth.
"We're just trying to grow," Lyon added.
"We've had 21 list changes in the first two years. We're the third youngest (side). But that's no excuse because we're competing.
"Last year, we didn't make the finals, but we went forward."
And there's still a host of first-string players who will make their way into the senior side in the coming weeks.
Max King should return within the next fortnight. Small forward Dan Butler and captain Jack Steele missed but could feature in Gather Round.
Butler and Liam Henry played in the VFL and impressed, putting pressure on Lyon to make changes.
Hunter Clark is progressing through his abdominal injury while high-end draftee Alix Tauru is building his loads up toward an AFL debut.
The Saints will be in Adelaide for the week, before they take on GWS at Norwood Oval in Gather Round.
