Goalsneak sells media dummy

Stephen Milne chats with Nick Riewoldt during St Kilda training. Source: Getty Images

ELUSIVE has always been the most apt description for St Kilda forward Stephen Milne.

Now more than a dozen trained observers can understand how the little goalsneak can lose an opponent in the blink of an eye on the football field.

Despite several TV film crews manning every obvious entrance, Milne slipped through undetected at the club's headquarters at Seaford this morning.

Only Saints insiders know whether he hid in the back of a teammate's car, even the boot, to avoid the media pack that descended on the out-of-the-way oval beside Peninsula Link.

Milne was nowhere to be seen as St Kilda players killed time before the start of training by doing what he loves best - taking pot shots at goals from odd angles and distances.

And he was still missing when the fitness staff summoned the players for the obligatory warm-up exercises. No, the consensus was, Milney won't show today.

Saints captain Nick Riewoldt backs under siege team mate Stephen Milne in the wake of fresh charges against the star forward.

But just as the players prepared for the ball drills, the veteran forward trotted onto the oval, again almost undetected, in the No. 37 guernsey, and he was quickly buried in the protective pack.

It was as if Milne was oblivious to the battery of cameras following his every move as he worked with the usual boundless energy and upbeat attitude.

Once Milne and his mates disappeared inside after the light session, the media contingent settled in for the long wait while a telephone hook-up of St Kilda board members decided his immediate playing fate.

A few Saints staff joined the long media queue when a food van pulled up outside the front entrance - the nearest cafe is at least a couple of kilometres away - and everyone claimed they were none the wiser on whether he would line up for a 269th game against Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

After a four hours' wait, Saints president Greg Westaway appeared through the sliding front doors to read a short and carefully worded statement that the club's four-time leading goalkicker and twice All-Australian forward's career was on indefinite pause.

For legal reasons, Westaway couldn't take questions. Anyway, he couldn't have answered the most pressing question that Saints fans are now pondering ... will they ever again witness one of their favourite players ply his evasive moves on the field to conjure that unsuspected and unconventional goal?