IT IS easy to still think of Lenny Hayes as one of St Kilda's emerging young guns, part of the group of talented young Saints who are ready to take on the competition. Yet his fresh-faced looks and midfield run belie the fact that the boy from Sydney is on the cusp of his 10th AFL season.

When the 28-year-old arrived at the club with Steven Baker in 1999, the only other players there who still remain are dual Brownlow medallist Robert Harvey and defender Max Hudghton. Fraser Gehrig, Michael Gardiner or Steven King were playing for other clubs. In the decade since, Hayes has played under four coaches, six captains — including himself — and a host of administrators. There has been a wooden spoon, two heartbreaking preliminary finals and a knee reconstruction.

In his decade in the game, Hayes has seen a lot.

"I remember Stewie Loewe saying to me in my first year, 'Make the best of it because it goes by so quickly', and I just laughed at him because I just thought, 'I'm 18!'. Time flies, it just seems so quickly that time has gone by and now I am 28," Hayes said.

After five years of entering every season as Victoria's great hope, St Kilda finally succumbed to injury last year. Under the new coaching regime of Ross Lyon it failed to make the eight for the first time since 2003.

Geelong picked up the mantle of the state's leading team and ran away with it, while with Collingwood and North Melbourne making it into last year's preliminary finals, Hayes admitted that some of the pressure was released.

"We haven't had a lot of press over the summer compared to other teams and that is not a bad thing," Hayes admits. "We just want to go about our business and let our footy do the talking, so to speak.

"I think that has been a bit different to previous years. There has been a lot of hype about St Kilda and I think the guys have probably enjoyed taking a back seat and just getting the hard work done," he said.

"In the past, we could probably have tended to be a little bit happy with ourselves and people have expected us to be up there, so we maybe just thought it was going to happen. This pre-season we have put in a lot of hard work and realised that it is not just going to happen, it is a tough competition."

Last year's disappointment of falling to ninth is behind the club. After another pre-season under Lyon, Hayes said the club is better placed for its tilt at glory. After a poor start to 2007, the Saints won seven and drew one of their last 11 games and hope the momentum will continue.

"We had a lot of guys on limited preparations going into last year. This year, guys have got a lot more work into them before Christmas, which I think will help. And it's just the feel around the place, it feels a lot more comfortable, it feels like the coaches are more comfortable, they know the players better. We are more accustomed to the way the coaches want us to play, we are better drilled, we have had more time to work on things, so there is a good feeling."

Punters are certainly happy to back the Saints to win big this year. Despite missing the finals last year, the club has been backed into the second line of betting for flag favouritism at $7 behind the Cats at $3.

"After last year we just have to get back to playing good basic footy," Hayes said. "We know we have got a side that can play well, we were all disappointed (last year). Speaking to the fans they expect us to be up there again, the players — while we are not saying we want to finish top two or top four or anything like that — we just want to get off to a good start and hopefully keep everybody out there."

The addition of Sydney premiership players Adam Schneider and Sean Dempster and Geelong premiership ruckman Steven King — as well as his mate Charlie Gardiner — has added considerable depth to the list.

"The teams that have done well over the recent years, look at your Collingwoods — who except for one or two or three are just so even — look at Sydney or West Coast, they just had a lot of depth and I think with getting Dempster and Schneider and Charlie Gardiner, who would have played in any other first 18 had he not been at Geelong, it is going to be hard to get into the team, which is what you want."

Spending much of 2006 out of the game with a serious knee injury, Hayes has a new perspective on the game. While the knee reconstruction left no mental scars, it is only now he believes the knee has returned to full strength. And the time out has made him appreciate the game more.

Once, Hayes might have laughed at Stewart Loewe and his warnings. Now, he is thinking about those words.

"I suppose getting to the end of my career I want to do something really special with the club," he said. "I would love to still be playing at 32 — I don't think I am going to do a Robert Harvey."