ROSS Lyon is asked about Fraser Gehrig's future on a weekly basis, and his response is always ambiguous.

Perhaps it is because the St Kilda coach knows how important the big forward continues to be to the Saints' cause when his locomotive engine rumbles to life, but also that the decision is unlikely to be a simple one.

"We will have plenty of time to sit down with Fraser. He will say, 'Let's go and sit down and have a coffee, or maybe a beer'. And, as it sits today, would I like Fraser to play on? In a perfect world, yes, but there are some issues we have to work through," Lyon said after Gehrig kicked six against Carlton last month.

As Lyon's words suggest, it is not a matter of whether Gehrig and St Kilda think the 31-year-old can play on in 2008, but whether he wants to. Those close to him are far from convinced, and say the club will have to offer him an occasional escape from football if it wants him to remain its G-force in the goal square next season.

"He's played for a long time. The game is ever-changing and it's demanding more and more of its players, expecting more in return. Frase just might see that as not his cup of tea any more," said his close friend, former West Coast teammate Scott Cummings.

"Frase is a guy who knows when enough is enough and knows what he wants to do. I think it will just come down to if he is enjoying his footy, how much is expected from him and if he has got the hunger for it. Not too many blokes train harder than him, and there's not too many who are as competitive as him. If that starts to die, he will probably just wrap it up."

Gehrig is famously reclusive, but in an interview with The Age in April last year, he said he considered retirement at the end of the previous season. "The mental and physical side is pretty hard, and doing it for 12 or 13 years wears you down. I had a good think about it, went away for a while, met with the coach, discussed a heap of things, decided I needed a bit of rejuvenation," he said.

It is doubtless a conversation he will have with himself again at season's end, and the decision may be influenced by the note on which the club finishes, which tonight's game against the Eagles at Telstra Dome will go a long way towards determining. Cummings describes him as a man of unstinting loyalty to his family, friends and teammates.

"Things can change around. They make some finals, they get another sniff or success, and that's all he wants. He wants a premiership with his mates, and I think he's earnt one," he said.

Others refer to Gehrig's hankering for obscurity and his long-held ambivalence for the notoriety football brings, reinforced when a grainy security tape recently was leaked to the media revealing his alleged involvement in a St Kilda pub brawl, which is now before the courts.

What is beyond question, though, is Gehrig's ongoing value to St Kilda. Though there were a couple of flat weeks, during which Lyon said he was "really unwell and really fatigued", the dual Coleman medallist has booted 52 goals for the season, including a bag of eight against Fremantle last Saturday. And when he fires, generally so does St Kilda. This year he has averaged 4.3 goals when the Saints win, and just 1.4 when they don't.

Cummings says Gehrig also makes life easier for Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke, for defenders know they cannot afford to leave him and double-team the younger stars as Gehrig will hurt them. "When Fraser is in the side, every defender has to be accountable."

Lyon didn't have any prejudices about the forward when appointed coach late last year, but he was intrigued enough to ask Jason Ball, a former colleague at Sydney and a firm friend of Gehrig, about him.

"He said, 'He'll train really hard. Treat him with respect and he will be fantastic for you.' That's exactly how it has been," Lyon said. "Since the (mid-season) break, our ball movement has improved and he has become more potent.

"His value to the team? Good luck replacing 60-goal forwards overnight. They are really difficult to find, so he is of enormous value. It's not only what he does on the field. Walking through the door, he surprises. He hasn't missed a session. He's one of our hardest trainers, he never complains with injury and he really leads the group well."

Gehrig is also a fan of Lyon, who this week raised the prospect that both he and ageing champion Robert Harvey could be encouraged to play on next season on the understanding they could retire halfway through the season if necessary.

His future is unlikely to be decided by his body — he has a legendary capacity to play through pain and all the physical attributes, chiefly the strength and speed, to play an Alistair Lynch-like role from the goal square well into his 30s.

"It's going to be the mind," said former St Kilda teammate Aussie Jones. "He's obviously got the ability to keep playing at the top level. It's just whether the people at St Kilda and, more importantly, himself, can motivate him to go through it all again.

"It's whether he can put up with all the outside stuff that comes with footy that he doesn't particularly enjoy."

Gehrig, after all, has always liked his space, and is expected to embark on an epic European journey after he finally calls it quits. Said Cummings: "I think he is really looking forward to going somewhere no one knows him."