COACH Simon Goodwin has backed Jesse Hogan to return to his best against St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday.

Hogan has had an outstanding season, but his past two matches have been quieter, with no goals coming against Collingwood or Port Adelaide, after he booted 10 goals – five each against Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs – in rounds 10 and 11.

Goodwin said Hogan was primed to return strongly against the Saints. 

“Jesse is a really prominent player inside our forward 50,” he said at AAMI Park on Thursday morning.

“We want him to be really strong in his aerial contest.

“Clearly, he’s not in the form that we’d like him to be – or he’d like to be as well – but we think he’s not that far away as well.

“He’s had a terrific season and he’s just a young player that’s going through a bit of an ebb and flow.

“He’ll be the commanding Jesse Hogan that we know this weekend.”

Goodwin said he didn’t judge Hogan on how many goals he kicked each week.

“We judge guys on how they compete in the air and how they play,” he said.

“That’s first and foremost what we want from our playing group.

“That’s how we’ll keep assessing him.”

Meanwhile, Goodwin backed his team’s game plan, despite dropping the past two games.

“We’ve continued to test our defensive system and we’ve made some really big improvements since round four or five around that area.”

“We’ll continue to try and play a forward half game.

“There is a really big balance in doing that and if we connect better inside our forward 50, we don’t look as exposed in that phase of the game.

“We’re pretty confident with where our defensive system sits at the moment.”