The St Kilda utility is in his ninth year in the AFL system but has never managed to make a position his own.
Ever the team man, Blake is happy to take whatever is thrown his way, but would prefer a role in the centre above anything else.
“I enjoy being in the midfield, getting in amongst it ... That’s probably my favourite position to play,” Blake said.
“I think my role is that run-with role and stopping the quality players. That’s where I’m probably most valuable in the team".
In recent years Blake has been a back-up ruckman for the Saints, but with Steven King and Michael Gardiner on board is likely to spend less time contesting the centre bounces.
Standing just 191cm, Blake has been able to hold his own against some of the monsters in the AFL like Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands.
He says he doesn’t find it daunting to jump against the league’s biggest men.
“The trick is just to compete and to bash and crash, get in there and try to make life difficult for those taller guys, and try to hurt them on the spread,” Blake said.
Blake says he has not been entirely pleased with his form so far in 2008 and that criticism of the Saints has been justified to an extent.
“I’ve been up and down. I wasn’t really happy with the Dogs match along with quite a few of the boys, I think my effort has been there and hopefully things will start to work out a bit better,” he said.
“We were pretty disappointing against the Bulldogs and I guess people have every right to criticise our style in that match but I think we had a good crack against Geelong, apart from a few things that didn’t go our way with our ball use. We’ve just got to fine tune a few things and we’ll definitely be up there.”
Blake has played 116 matches for the Saints since being drafted in 1999, including 52 of the last 59. But he still fears that a brief bad run could see him consigned to Casey in the VFL.
“The threat’s always there that if you don’t perform you’ll be out. I think it goes for a lot of guys and Rossy’s [Coach Ross Lyon] putting it on everyone. The pressure coming through from underneath is pretty good and we’ve got some good depth there,” he said.
Blake says St Kilda’s core group of players are reaching their peak as footballers and it has shown in training habits and camaraderie around the club.
“We’ve definitely progressed from last year and started training a lot more intensely this year in pre-season. I think it comes down to maturity from the playing group as well,” he said.
“It is a very close group. We’re pretty much a similar age, we do enjoy each other’s company and care for each other. We just make sure everyone’s focussed and ready to go.”
While the AFL is littered with stories of teenagers being drafted to the other side of the country to live their football dreams, Blake is one of the lucky few, having being recruited from Beaumaris just three suburbs away from St Kilda’s home base at Moorabbin.
“You do get reminded of it every week that these guys have so much to go through and I’m very lucky to have my family and friends around me.”
