JARRYN Geary has backed the young St Kilda forward line to stand up in the absence of Nick Riewoldt, and top draftee Paddy McCartin to make more of an impact in his second AFL game.
McCartin was a late inclusion for the Saints last Friday night after Riewoldt injured his left calf when warming up.
He had minimal impact in the first half but worked his way into the game and finished with nine disposals and three marks.
But Geary, who will captain the Saints against Carlton at Wellington's Westpac Stadium on Anzac Day, says the youngster will be better for the run.
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"Hopefully he had a bit of a taste of it and this week he'll take another step forward in his development and play a more significant role," Geary said on Friday morning.
"Key forwards can take a bit of time. The opportunity they get they've got to take, and I'm sure Paddy will do that."
McCartin will be flanked by Josh Bruce and Tim Membrey, who have both shown positive signs in the three games this season.
With Leigh Montagna and Mav Weller also to miss with injuries, Geary said the New Zealand clash was another chance for some of the younger players to show some leadership.
Chosen by his peers in the leadership group to hold the official captain's role on Saturday, Geary said while he hadn't considered the prospect of it being a dress rehearsal for something more permanent, he was proud to do it on such a special occasion.
"I'm sure Nick would love to be out there ... but I'm really honoured to get the nod from my teammates and my coach to lead the boys out," he said.
"I just go out there and try to lead with my actions.
"We've got a few leaders that are out at the moment with Joey and Nick, over the last couple of weeks there's been a few of us that have had to step up.
"We've just got to keep building that foundation of good leaders, and hopefully in years to come we've got a good, solid bunch of us."
After being sorely beaten by Collingwood at the contest last Friday night, the Saints have had a physical week at training.
The fixture and a round two trip to Queensland to face Gold Coast has meant they've kept things light on the track for the past few weeks.
But they were able to up the ante before heading to Wellington on Thursday, which Geary believes will help right some of the wrongs from last week's 74-point loss.
"We've had a couple of six-day breaks which limits your training, but this week we were able to have a couple of good solid sessions with high intensity, plenty of tackling and collision football, blokes putting their head over the ball and controlling the ball before they got rid of it," he said.
"Our pressure was probably there last week, (but) our tackles got broken a lot, they were able to break through us then offload the ball.
"We've got to put that in place this week."
The Saints trained at Westpac Stadium early on Friday to get an idea of how the ground would feel during a day game as opposed to the evening matches they've played in the past two years.
They're locked in to play at the venue on Anzac Day until at least 2018, and Geary said the players - who have also visited the country on community and training camps - would be happy with an extension of that.
"I think the club would be really interested in having games in NZ long-term," he said.
"Obviously we've been here the last three years. I'm not sure what the next lot of games looks like.
"We love coming to New Zealand. We get over here generally pretty early, we love the city and the people here, and we love playing at the Cake Tin."
