Just like the entire football landscape, Alan Richardson is well aware of Greater Western Sydney’s formidable depth and talent. And while St Kilda will spend ample time preparing for them, they will do so by focusing on what has worked so far in 2017.
Aside from Round 1, the Saints have been up to their necks in every game late, with fadeouts against West Coast in Perth and Geelong a fortnight ago taking the gloss off what’s been a strong start to the season.
Speaking ahead of St Kilda’s first Friday night game in over two years, Richardson said his side must not be too reactive to the Giants and must focus on playing their brand of football if they are going to take down one of the premiership favourites.
“There’s some depth everywhere. You could go through the run they get off half-back and how impressive they can be in front of the ball,” Richardson said at a press conference at Trevor Barker Beach Oval on Thursday.
“What’s really important is our guys draw on what’s worked for us, whether it be against West Coast in Perth, against Geelong for three quarters – (they are both) good teams.
“We’ve got to focus as much on us as we do GWS or we’ll end up being too reactive and we don’t want to be that way.
“We want to play strong, aggressive, bold footy and we’re going to have to go after our own game aggressively.”
Weller ruled out of Giants clash
Richardson said St Kilda heads into the encounter with Greater Western Sydney in reasonable form, but will need another even spread of midfield contribution if they are going to challenge the Giants around the ball.
“We go in with some reasonable form. We’ve probably had seven pretty positive quarters out of the last two games; our last quarter against Geelong was disappointing.
“I thought that our midfield on the weekend did something about that; we’ll need to be strong all over the ground, but if we’re not strong in the middle of the ground we won’t be in the game. They are incredibly strong and impressive through that part of the ground.”
