ENSURING Lenny Hayes is afforded a fitting farewell will motivate St Kilda for the remainder of the season, Saints coach Alan Richardson says.
The 291-game champion announced on Tuesday that he will hang up the boots at the end of the season, bringing to a close one of the most admired and respected playing careers in recent AFL history.
Defining Lenny: six of the best Lenny Hayes moments
The Saints have six games left to send Hayes off in style – starting against Fremantle at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
“There will be a little bit of noise around that for the remainder of the season, but it won’t be significant,” Richardson said on Thursday.
“Lenny’s been really strong for the whole of the year – this year’s a reflection of his career.
“He’s tackled really hard, he’s defended really strongly, he’s put his nose over it and won the footy. He at times embarrasses others into great effort because of the way he attacks the footy.
Lenny Hayes' career in pictures
“We talk about it a lot, we spoke a lot about David Armitage’s performance last week (29 possessions, 10 clearances, 11 tackles against North Melbourne).
“If someone’s strong and sets a great example and we have others that can learn from that then of course we draw on that.”
Following his retirement press conference on Tuesday, Hayes immediately hit the track with the focus on engineering an upset of monumental proportions against the Dockers.
The bottom-placed Saints have slumped to 11 losses in a row, while Freo has surged to second spot on the back of eight-straight wins.
“Our focus is to give ourselves an opportunity to compete, to be at the contest,” Richardson said.
“Last week we were reasonably strong after quarter-time. We had as many scoring opportunities as the Kangaroos after quarter-time.
“We’ve got to make sure we start well…they’re a fantastic team in really good form.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re consistent for four quarters, as opposed to what we’ve been getting and that’s reasonable for parts of the game.”
Richardson flagged a couple of changes to the side which lost by 59 points to North in Hobart, although he was relatively happy with the Saints’ effort.
Key defender Sam Fisher pulled-up well from his first game back in 13 months and is one several veterans – including Adam Schneider - who will assess their playing futures in the remaining six games, Richardson said.
“It’s an important period for them to make sure that they can get through and play good footy and their bodies allow them to get up each week,” he said.
“That will be a case-by-case basis…at the end of the year we’ll sit down and we’ll have those conversations.”
Skipper Nick Riewoldt is certain to play on in 2015, however.
“He’s absolutely committed to next year,” Richardson said.
