LIKE many young onballers coming into the AFL, Seb Ross spent time early in his career at half-forward and on a wing.

And despite coming off a career-best year spent largely in the engine room, the 23-year-old concedes St Kilda's beefed-up midfield stocks might force him to revisit the roles he played as a youngster.

In 2016, Ross played every match for the first time in his career, averaging more than 26 disposals per game. He did that primarily in the thick of the action, although his ranking of 14th in the AFL for total uncontested possessions showed he could still win the ball on the outside.

With Jack Steele and Koby Stevens joining the Saints in the off-season, Ross said competition for spots was heating up and he had focused on becoming more versatility.

"We recruited a few more mids over the off-season, so I'm just trying to get myself as fit as possible to potentially play a couple of different positions," Ross told AFL.com.au.

"There are only three inside midfield spots, so whether (I spend more time) out on the wing or up forward a little bit, (I'm) just trying to adjust my game a little bit.

"You've got to be bloody fit to play on the wing so if we are playing a fair few mids and I have to play wing and forward, then I'll be suited to that role." 

Becoming more adaptable hasn't been a message from the coaches – rather, Ross said the players had become aware of the need to be able to play more than one position. 

"We're a pretty experienced group of midfielders now, so we know there will be competition for spots," he said. 

"When it comes to picking a team, it's good to be able to play both those positions, because you don't want to have your one-wood and then nothing else, in case you can't get any midfield time. 

"That's the nature of the game now. You get chucked around everywhere on game day so you have to have that knowledge of what you're doing down there, because if us mids are coming down into the forward line and we're not getting the structures right, they get pretty cranky at us." 

Steele, 21, came to St Kilda after lining up in 17 matches for Greater Western Sydney in his two years at the club. He found it difficult to hold a spot in a team filled with stars and since arriving at the Saints, has had a restricted pre-season after fracturing the metatarsal in his left foot.

"He's slowly starting to get back into training. He's got his body in good shape," Ross said.

"It was hard for him to keep in shape when he had the foot injury and he also had something wrong with his wrist too, I think, so it was hard for him to do any upper-body conditioning or lower-body conditioning," Ross said. 

The player Ross nominated to impress this year was Jack Billings. While the wingman struggled to influence matches as he would have liked last year, he has been injury-free this pre-season.

"He's taken his fitness to another level and we all know the sort of class he's got, so I'm sure that should shine through in the JLT Community Series," Ross said of the No. 3 selection in the 2013 NAB AFL Draft.