THOUSANDS OF fans greeted St. Kilda as they returned to Frankston Park with the NAB Cup trophy for the club’s family day.

The supporters were forced to don sun cream on what was a beautiful day, in temperatures almost as hot as the conditions that their NAB Cup winning team faced in their narrow five-point victory over Adelaide at AAMI stadium on Saturday night.

The players were presented with their guernseys for the season by local kids and Fraser Gehrig, who gave away his jersey to a young girl by the name of ‘Riley’ before starting his brief retirement at the end of last year, was re-united with his old buddy as she decided to return the jumper he’ll now need again.

Overall it was a day of celebration for the fans and while former captain Luke Ball admitted that the team had muted celebrations of their own, the focus is definitely round one.

“While this is all well and good and you can enjoy it for a few days, before you know it round one comes along and we’ve got the Swans,” Ball said.

“It was a good result. Anytime you go to Adelaide and win, especially in the conditions that we won in, it was very hot out there… it was a really good test for us and a few of our younger guys and we pulled through pretty well so it was nice to sit back and enjoy each other’s company.”

What’s more the 23-year-old says despite the historical hex associated with NAB Cup, he believes winning it certainly won’t harm his side’s chances of having a successful start to the season proper.

“It’s really good if you can get into winning habits early. People say it’s just the NAB Cup and you’d prefer to win round one, but I think, why not win both and why not get into winning habits early and try and have a good start to the year.”

And as opposed to 2004, when the club’s pre-season cup victory was met with stony expressions from former coach Grant Thomas and then captain Lenny Hayes, Ball says the playing group and particularly acting captain Justin Koschitzke made a special effort to embrace the occasion.

“We did tell Kossy, who got the job yesterday, and I think Lenny made a point after been given a hard time for four years, he said ‘mate if you want to stay out of trouble, at least flash a smile’ and he did.”