A KNEE operation interrupted Josh Bruce's pre-season but the St Kilda forward is confident being goalkicking coach Ben Dixon's "guinea pig" should see his conversion improve.
Bruce trained at the start of pre-season but in mid-December had some floating cartilage taken out of his left knee.
The 25-year-old rejoined the main group on Monday and while he will sit out AFLX on Friday, he is targeting the Saints' opening JLT Community Series clash against Carlton on Wednesday, February 28, at Ikon Park.
AFL Tipping: Pre-registration is open now
"I was off my legs for four weeks or so and I've been running for four weeks now and I'm back in full training, so it was not necessarily the worst thing in the world," Bruce said.
The injury did not affect him throughout 2017 and it came as a surprise to the former Giant.
"I'm not sure what caused it. (It) could've been an impact thing or just an overuse thing. There was a fair bit of bruising and stuff in there, so I've had to take it pretty easy," Bruce said.
The Saints ranked 17th for accuracy last year, ahead of just the Western Bulldogs.
Bruce converted 49 per cent of his shots, ranked 44th of the top-50 goalkickers.
That has not been a trend though. The five seasons previous, he kicked goals from 59 per cent of his shots.
Got an AFL Fantasy team yet? Pick your side now
His seemingly impossible miss against Hawthorn in round six at University of Tasmania Stadium, with his side up by 60 points in the last quarter, was so bad it must have been a fluke.
"That's just a complete one-off. We were up by so much (and) I just tried to kick it back to Melbourne. It came so far off the instep it wasn't even funny," Bruce said.
"That'll go down in the history books as one of worst misses ever."
In any case, Bruce has not been short of practice.
"I was working with him (Dixon) a little bit before I went down, but I'm his guinea pig at the moment, so he's grabbing me everyday and we're doing lots of goalkicking," Bruce said.
"He's been working a lot with the forwards and some of the guys who weren't necessarily that good in that area, but are really good kicks, like Jack Billings and Mav Weller, they're not missing at training."
Bruce's approach has been tinkered with rather than overhauled.
"There's a few little mindset things, and just a few tweaks. It's essentially the same thing. (I've) just got to get more pace when I'm kicking through the ball," he said.
"Sometimes I'm falling back off the kick and my weight's not going forward, so just little simple things like that make such a difference."
Easier attempts at goal would also help Bruce's accuracy (sitters notwithstanding), and the Saints are keen to help him with this.
"We've had a focus this year on trying to get better shots on goal as well. You're more likely to kick your shots from central locations," Bruce said.
"Being unselfish like that and looking to find another teammate has been a focus for the pre-season."
