Subdued approach for Steven

JACK Steven has been ‘managed’ twice already this season but will continue to be rested through the AFL fixture cram.

Steven played one game in 24 days — the Round 7 match against Collingwood — but was again rotated out of the side for Monday night’s game against Fremantle.

Questions have been raised over his fitness and form.

The former St Kilda midfielder played in a scratch match against Fremantle on Sunday and coach Chris Scott said the recruit would continue to be rested from AFL duties when it plays four games in 14 days.

Scott said Steven’s program would be “quite hard to understand from the outside”.

“He’s got a training program that we think will have him right to play through this little period, with short breaks, but we don’t intend to play him every week,” Scott said.

“He’s going to play a lot of footy for us but we don’t want to push the envelope too hard with him and make a mistake that still has him less than peak fitness come the end of the season, if we’re there.”

Steven has played four games this year and was also managed for the Round 5 game against Brisbane.

“We’ve just got to make the assessment of what’s more important for certain players,” he said.

“Jack’s missed a lot of footy. In some ways we played him through some of this period because we were trying to condition him through the games because there was really no other option.

“It ebbs and flows between the priority being training or the games.

“He’s just in a phase this week where we thought training was more important.”