Star midfielder Jack Billings believes St Kilda have the talent to take the next step to being a title force after inking a new two-year deal with the AFL club.
Ahead of their clash with North Melbourne on Sunday, the 21-year-old extended his contract with the Saints until the end of 2019, saying he never contemplated going elsewhere.
"I wasn't ever stressed or worried about it because I'm just really committed to the club," Billings said on Thursday.
"There wasn't much talk about it in the media either, because I made my intentions pretty clear."
The Saints' push for the finals hit a hurdle with a frustrating loss to Melbourne last round, and they now need to win their two remaining games and hope other results go their way to sneak into the eight.
Skipper Jarryn Geary this week also extended his term with the club until the end of 2019 and, despite the looming retirement of club great Nick Riewoldt, Billings felt the future was bright.
"First and foremost we were pretty disappointed on the weekend," Billings said.
"We're going to really focus over the summer on all parts of our game, especially defensively.
"We think we can get a lot better in that area and I think the improvement is going to come from within with guys taking their games to the next level and standing up."
The 2013 No.3 draft pick has been in career-best form season but admitted his goalkicking accuracy needed to improve with a return of 32 behinds to 20 goals.
"It's frustrating and it's something I'm working on, but it's one of those things, it's easy to have 50-100 shots during the week but during a game you are really fatigued," Billings said.
"So it's about implementing it during training after a drill when I'm really fatigued and practice in match conditions as much as I can."
Riewoldt missed the Demons match with concussion but Billings expected him to line-up at Etihad Stadium against the Kangaroos, which will be the veteran's final home game.
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