ST KILDA vice-captain Lenny Hayes is confident teammate Matt Maguire can find his way back into the senior side.

Restricted to 14 games in the last two years by a foot injury, Maguire is yet to be selected by St Kilda this season despite some solid form for its VFL affiliate Sandringham.

But Hayes, with whom Maguire shares a house in Elwood, says it is only a matter of time.

"He knows that he has got to wait for an opportunity but I know from seeing it up close that he is doing everything right," Hayes told saints.com.au.

"He is not one of those blokes who will whinge and say, 'Poor old me'. He works really hard and he knows when he does get an opportunity he will do well.

"There is going to be a bit of frustration there but you wouldn’t really know it. He goes out there, he trains really hard and he is a professional bloke."

The Saints are sitting on top of the AFL ladder, undefeated after 12 rounds, but Hayes is not getting ahead of himself just yet.

"The jury is still out a little bit on us, which is probably a good thing," he said.

"Everyone is still chasing Geelong and back then we hadn’t really had a good winning streak for quite a while at the club.

"We were on top of the table back in ’04 and things fell away from there. People aren’t getting carried away because like us we know it means nothing come the end of the season."

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