St Kilda pair Jack Steven and David Armitage tipped to join AFL's midfield elite St Kilda's David Armitage in action. LEIGH Montagna has declared St Kilda teammates Jack Steven and David Armitage will rise to the top of the AFL's midfield ranks this season. While the Saints have a host of veterans in the midfield including Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo and himself, Montagna said the club had a stack of young players ready to explode. "We've got Jack Steven and Dave Armitage who we both expect to become elite midfielders this year," said Montagna, who will miss Saturday' Round 1 game against Gold Coast through suspension. They've both had sensational pre-seasons, they're both in that 24 to 25-year-old age bracket where they're ready to really break out. If they can become elite, and it takes the pressure off Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo, guys like that. And Ben McEvoy's another one who's going to continue to get better. I think it's time and I think we're ready for it. Even if you look at our forward line, we have Milney who's going to keep doing what Milney does but now we've (got) (Ahmed) Saad, (Terry) Milera, Trent Dennis-Lane, if they can take a bit more of the work load, take a bit of heat off Milney, they might start getting the best small defender and Milney gets off the chain. That's the same with Dave Armitage and Jack Steven, we're expecting them at some stage this year to be getting tagged. Montagna said he was considering having a hitout in a practice match with Sandringham at the weekend. He said key defender Sam Fisher, who was suffering from a foot injury, had not yet been ruled out of Saturday's clash while Rhys Stanley (knee) was in contention.