STAR St Kilda defender Jake Carlisle believes he is maturing as a footballer after a scandal-plagued past.

Just hours after Carlisle was traded from Essendon to the Saints in 2015, footage emerged of him appearing to snort a white powder.

Last year, an on-field incident saw the backman sledge Carlton captain Marc Murphy in a manner that Murphy said was hurtful to his wife and showed a lack of respect to women.

However, Carlisle feels like he is growing as a person and has taken more of a leadership role in a group that has only one player aged over 30, Sam Gilbert.

"I'm 26 now, so I feel like I'm very mature and I've got a lot to give to these young guys coming through, with playing over 100 games now of footy," Carlisle said.

Carlisle is ranked No.8 in the competition for intercepts per game and No.9 for average contested marks, and is continuing to build a reputation as one of the gun key defenders in the AFL.

He didn't join the training session at Moorabbin on Tuesday, with his program often seeing him do less work than others, but instead focused on developing the young talls.

"I'll just walk around and just give a few pointers here and there and just give my point of view on how I see the game," Carlisle said.

"I sit pretty closely with (backline coaches Danny) 'Spud' Frawley and Henry Playfair in the backline, just help guys coming through like Hughy Goddard, Darragh Joyce and Logan Austin to try and get better."

Despite his impressive form, Carlisle has been under media scrutiny for poor body language earlier this season, particularly in the round three loss to Adelaide.

He admitted his behaviour needed improvement.

"It just shows that I care about how we're going and where we're going as a club," Carlisle said.

"It's not ideal. We're not playing great footy but we've got a lot of guys out of form that can change things and we can all be better in going forward.

"I feel like I am maturing, but at the same time, still learning things along the way.

"Being a leader at this club, guys are going to look up to me, and other guys as well. We've just got to change that and move forward."