A sceptical Luke Ball is not taking for granted coach Ross Lyon's assurance that there's a spot for him in the Saints' grand final line-up, and he's admitted to fears that he would miss out altogether on the club's premiership campaign.
Lyon all but guaranteed the Ball would be selected for Saturday's premiership decider against Geelong when quizzed on the Sunday Footy Show.
"He's in, he's not going anywhere, Luke," said Lyon. "He's really elevated himself over the last few weeks and the finals are about contested ball."
"We're playing a great contested ball team and Luke's as talented an inside player as there is."
Ball, however, claimed to know nothing about Lyon's comments until a few minutes before fronting a media conference at Moorabbin on Monday.
"I didn't hear it live and, in fact, (St Kilda media manager) Matt (Vagg) just told me then that he said something like that," said Ball.
"But we'll see; we'll see what happens later in the week, won't we?"
"I'll just get out there and try and have a good week on the track and put my name up for selection."
Ball's immediate future at AFL level was cast into doubt after he was dropped to the VFL for a total of five weeks in the second half of the season with a brief from Lyon to overhaul key aspects of his game.
Repatriated to the senior side for the Saints' opening finals match against Collingwood, the 25-year-old former club captain held his place for last Friday night's preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs where he picked-up 17 disposals and laid six tackles, a performance he described as 'OK'.
Ball said he considers himself to be amongst a host of players who'll have their hand up for selection this week, and conceded there were times in July and August when he feared he may miss out on playing a role in September.
"I'm only human, yeah, no doubt those thoughts cross your mind," he said.
"But Ross has said all along that if you start, not just me, but if anyone starts getting thoughts like that use them as a trigger to refocus you one your preparation for that week."
"That'll be the case this week."