Mattaes Phillipou will be the youngest player on the field when unbeaten St Kilda and Essendon clash at the MCG, but the Saints are backing the teen sensation to handle the occasion.
St Kilda will celebrate their 150th anniversary match on Saturday, with 18-year-old Phillipou and fellow youngsters Mitch Owens and Anthony Caminiti among those excelling amid a 2-0 start.
The No.10 draft pick underlined his talent with a brilliant performance in attack against the Western Bulldogs, scoring three goals including a sensational, thumping long-range effort.
"He's uberly talented," teammate Mason Wood told AAP.
"He's got a great head on him. I don't know that I've met too many kids that are that driven and he's really, really driven to be whatever he's capable of.
"It helps that he's got some talent but I think his drive's what's going to hold him apart from the rest of the guys I've seen come through the football club and other football clubs and that kind of thing.
"So it's good to know that other guys like Marcus Windhager and Mitchito (Owens) and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera are on the same page with that kind of thing and it's a really exciting group of guys.
"If anything they're the guys driving a lot of the standards from the ground up and when you've got that, it doesn't matter who's out there we're gonna be pretty hard to beat."
Funnily enough Phillipou was on Essendon's radar at draft time before the Bombers opted for Elijah Tsatas, who has yet to play due to a knee injury, at pick No.5, and he slipped to St Kilda.
Wood stressed the Saints were determined not to put pressure on Phillipou to perform.
"To say it's gonna be easy sailing his whole career - it's very hard to say if that'll happen," he said.
"But his attitude and the way he goes about football will hold him in really good stead. So if he goes through a period of slump, he'll come good."
For his part, 29-year-old former Kangaroo Wood has shone in two games on the wing while enjoying a role as a mentor to younger players at the Saints.
"Coming into the football club, I wanted to change not so much who I was but who you can be as an older guy," he said.
"I certainly would have loved to had somebody that's just stuck out the arm and said 'come around for dinner once a week or whatever or come stay with me' - that kind of thing.
"So I just try to be that guy that you would have liked to have when you were younger."
