St Kilda is set to unveil its new look ruck combination of former West Coast Eagles bad boy Michael Gardiner and former Geelong skipper Steven King in next Friday night's first round NAB Cup clash against Richmond at Telstra Dome after both came through a searching intra-club practice match at Moorabbin on Friday night.

Gardiner, the 28-year-old former Eagle, had his first major hit-out for the Saints on Friday night out after missing all of his debut season with the club last year due to injury.

King meanwhile joined the Saints during last October's trade period after being a surprise inclusion in Geelong's 2007 Premiership side.

The two veterans have played over 320 games between them with both enduring injury-plagued careers but both moved well on Friday night in front of a crowd of about 4000.

St. Kilda coach Ross Lyon was pleased with the form of the veteran duo.

"It's nice to see Michael out there," Lyon said.

"He has fought significant injury problems but he has been in full training for a while now and Kingy has obviously come off a rock solid year and they both contributed well."

"I was on record as saying as long as they stood up today, they would play next week."

The other bonus for the Saints was the strong form of another injury-plagued big man Justin Koschitzke, who booted four goals and not only marked strongly but most importantly looked fit.

"He has put on two or three kilos and he has had a solid pre-season and is injury free," Lyon said of Koschitzke, who has managed just 97 games in seven seasons.

There was a host of big name Saints missing on Friday night including Luke Ball, Leigh Fisher, Brendon Goddard, Jason Gram, James Gwilt, Lenny Hayes, Max Hudghton, Matt Maguire and Nick Riewoldt with Lyon saying that only Riewoldt, Hudghton and Gwilt would return for next week's clash against the Tigers.

Other players who impressed for the Saints were experienced midfielders Nick Dal Santo, Aaron Fiora, Leigh Montagna and Stephen Milne, who spent plenty of time on the ball while the most impressive of the Saints young brigade was 19-year-old Jarryn Geary, who was promoted off the rookie list this season.