NATHAN Freeman’s desperate bid to make his long-awaited AFL debut is on track, with the luckless St Kilda on-baller continuing to produce strong training results.

Freeman, who has battled frustrating hamstring problems for nearly four years, was one of the most impressive performers during St Kilda’s first official training session of 2017, finishing fourth in the 3km time trial at the club’s Seaford headquarters.

Aerobic beast Jarryn Geary narrowly took out the race from utility Daniel McKenzie (second) and draftee Ed Phillips (third), while emerging on-baller Jack Newnes (fifth) finished behind Freeman.

It was Freeman’s second top-five time trial finish in just over two months at St Kilda, with the clearance machine now eyeing a spot in the Saints’ on-ball brigade for the 2017 season.

Round 18

A highly-rated junior and perennial podium finisher in time trials at both Collingwood and St Kilda, Freeman is yet to play an AFL game as he enters his fourth season in the system.

Taken by Collingwood with Pick 10 in the 2013 national draft, Freeman was traded to the Saints ahead of the 2016 season following two injury-plagued years at the Magpies, only for his hamstring issues to quickly re-emerge at his new club.

Nathan Freeman finished fourth in St Kilda’s 3km time trial. Source: Getty Images

After playing six of a possible seven games for Sandringham — across both the VFL and AFL Victoria development league — towards the backend of 2016, Freeman flew to Germany post-season to consult a hamstring specialist — a trip Saints head of football Jamie Cox described as a “good outcome”.

St Kilda high performance manager Matt Hornsby said Freeman was among several young players at the club to impress during the time trial.

“It’s good to see that while ‘Gears’ still holds the title, he is being challenged by a couple of the younger boys as well,” Hornsby told the club’s website.

“Dan McKenzie and Ed Phillips, Nathan Freeman as well and then the group of really strong runners in Mav (Weller), Seb Ross and ‘Newnesy’ were chasing hard; there’s a core group of strong runners now.”

Hornsby said a large portion of the playing group set personal best times during the time trial.

“For all our draftees it was their first time trial and we were really impressed with how they performed as a group. But taking them out of the equation, we had 13 players perform PB’s so that’s a real positive for the group straight away,” he said.

ST KILDA 3KM TIME TRIAL RESULTS

1. Jarryn Geary

2. Daniel McKenzie

3. Ed Phillips

4. Nathan Freeman

5. Jack Newnes