ST KILDA is confident new director of coaching Luke Beveridge will honour his commitment to the club despite being linked to the vacant senior Gold Coast role.
Beveridge was secured by the Saints to fill the new role back in July on the condition he finished his third season as part of Hawthorn's coaching team.
The highly touted coach has been linked to the Suns' role, which was vacated when Guy McKenna was sacked earlier this month.
Despite the potential lure of a senior job, the Saints believe he will still head to Seaford when the club starts pre-season early next month.
"He's certainly highly regarded and we know he's had some interest but he certainly indicated before he went overseas on holidays that he wanted to continue his development to be ready to be a senior coach with us and that's terrific," CEO Matt Finnis told SEN on Tuesday.
"With such a young list, what we need is our coach coaching.
"With what we've seen in recent times with the departures of coaches, we just want to make sure we've got all the support around our coaches to do what they do best and that is to develop our young group of players."
The 118-game player was targeted by the Saints after he coached Victorian Amateur team St Bede's/Mentone Tigers to consecutive C, B and A premierships.
He also spent two years with Collingwood as a development coach before crossing to the Hawks.
The need for a director of coaching – as Alan Richardson was at Port Adelaide for senior coach Ken Hinkley – emerged mid-season.
It was one of many recommendations that came out of the Saints' mid-season review of their football department.
The Saints' post-season review saw the surprise resignation of head of football Chris Pelchen on Tuesday.
