The moment Jack Peris arrived at Moorabbin to begin preseason before a 2022 rookie year, the young Iwatja, Yawuru and Gidja man, thousands of kilometres from country, felt right at home.

Not because the local Kulin word of moorooboon at St Kilda's home base translates to resting place.

The visitor to Boonwurrong lands only had to look around the locker room.

St Kilda is a club that carries inclusive pride in its Indigenous history.

The club has gone only five years – through 1981-83, and in 2001 and again in 2015 – over its past 50 seasons since Robert Muir's debut without Aboriginal representation.

Last year the Saints ran out a club record seven Indigenous players in a single match.

It fell one man short of equalling the VFL/AFL record that Fremantle set in 2017.

That day Marcus Windhager debuted against Hawthorn to join Bradley Hill, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Jade Gresham, Paddy Ryder, Ben Long and Jarrod Lienert in a side that was still the highest Aboriginal numbers from a Victorian club in 125 years.

By convention rather than chance, Peris was left biding his time on the MCG sidelines from the Saints rookie list, the only one of that mob that didn't play on April 10, 2022.

But things have turned around for the 20-year-old from Nightcliff since 14 months on strolling out in his first appearance.

Peris, in part, puts that down to a brotherhood with the sublime Wanganeen-Milera, the fierce Windhager and the raw Buddy-like Isaac Keeler.

Hill, the veteran of three AFL clubs and 230 games, looks on the young quartet like the club elder that Ryder, his first cousin, did the previous three seasons.

"We've got our own bit of a footy academy going, which is helping each other drive up standards and keep each other accountable – stuff like that," Peris says.

"We seem to be getting better every week."

Their pact is to create their own piece of history.

The immediate first step is to drive St Kilda back into playing the 2023 finals for just the second time in 13 seasons.

Peris and Keeler are doing that in the VFL: pressuring incumbent teammates from the outside.

But Wanganeen-Milera is truly one of the stars for the Saints – the club his stepfather Terry Milera ran around for a couple of years – while Windhager has returned from injury back to his pressuring best amid just their second season.

Peris says this personal academy feels, "our best can take it up to any other team in the competition".

"The best thing is to come into the club every day and really learn with each other," he added.

"There's some exceptional talents, but the amount of hard work all of us young boys are putting in every day, it's awesome to see and be a part of."