A CHANGE in luck, a revamped role and the responsibility of mentoring St Kilda's future key defender has veteran Sam Fisher keen to play on in 2016.

The 33-year-old is poised to sign a one-year deal in the coming weeks, which will allow him to play into a 13th season.

It's believed Fisher will remain on the senior list unlike fellow veteran Adam Schneider, who started his last year as a rookie.

"I'm keen to go on and it's looking pretty positive," Fisher told AFL.com.au this week.

"Why wouldn't you want to be a part of a young and exciting group that's improved throughout the year and played some really good footy in patches?

"I'd love to be a part of that next year, because you can see the improvement and where the group's going – why would you want to jump off now, when there's some good things around the corner?"

The 2008 All Australian has put two injury-interrupted years behind him to return to form this season, and has embraced the challenge of new roles at the Saints.

Not only has he spent more time playing on key forwards than pushing up the ground, but he's enjoyed the chance to work closely with first-year defender Hugh Goddard.

It's all enabled him to learn to love the game again after being frustrated by the constant setbacks associated with the toe, hamstring and back issues he battled in previous years.

"I've got a great bunch of coaches, I love the style we're playing, when we're up and about and our pressure game … it's an exciting brand of footy," he said.

"Having those young guys come in has just made it really enjoyable.

"I've worked closely with Hugh so it would be nice to be there next year with him to consolidate the work we've done this year."

A solid pre-season set up Fisher's year, while a hamstring and back-specific weights program devised in the middle of last season has ensured his body has held up.

While he admits playing on the competition's prime goalkickers has its mental stresses, he believes the fact he played just 31 games in three years before this season has helped his longevity.

"Maybe with those injuries I've had, I haven't had the mental stress of performing week-in, week-out through those years, and the body's been able to rest up in other areas," he said.

"Hopefully that adds a bit onto the back-end for me now."

The Saints signed Sam Gilbert to a two-year extension this week, while Sean Dempster recently recommitted for another season.

Jack Steven and David Armitage have also signed long-term extensions, with the former locked up until the end of 2020 and the latter until 2019.

Defender Jarryn Geary is poised to come out of contract and enter free agency status at the end of next year, but it's understood the Saints are confident of extending his deal before the start of next season.