Following on from the team’s disappointing Round 16 loss on Saturday to Collingwood, Senior Coach Ross Lyon was keen to look ahead to Round 17 where a flying Hawthorn side awaits the Saints at Etihad Stadium on Friday night for the 11th annual Blue Ribbon Cup.
Established in 1999, the Blue Ribbon Cup is played in memory of two Victoria Police officers, Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller, who were killed in the line of duty at Moorabbin in August 1998.
Speaking at today’s press conference, Lyon said; “We were really disappointed with the way we played last week and we certainly don’t want to reproduce an effort like that.”
“We’ve lost one out of our last eight so we’re hoping for a cracker (of a game) on Friday night.”
After winning eight of their last nine games, the Hawks are sitting seventh on the AFL ladder and will be coming into Friday night’s game full of confidence.
When asked about how he will prepare for the Hawks, Ross said; “They’ve got an elite midfield with some power forwards, but we feel like we’ve got the same. Plus both have really strong team defences.”
“We’re looking to hit the scoreboard a bit more (on Friday night). We really want to score and put some pressure on the Hawks.”
After a late withdrawal with back tightness from the Round 16 team on Saturday against Collingwood, St Kilda’s Nick Dal Santo is expected to return back in the side to add an extra element to the Saints midfield.
“He’ll train tonight and all going well he will definitely play. We took a very conservative approach (withdrawing him from the side) but it was the right approach - it’s been the way we have gone about it for the majority of the year and we are hoping it will pay dividends over the coming weeks.”
Hawthorn forward Lance Franklin is another expected to return for the game after he suffered a minor ankle injury at training last week.
“I expect Buddy to come back in.” Ross said, “But I think what Nick Riewoldt has proven this year is that we don’t rely on one player, and neither do Hawthorn. Whether you’re winning or losing it’s not about one player, we have 22 players to take care of.”
Following a match review from Round 16, Lyon has taken a number of elements out of the game which said he would take into the final training session on Wednesday afternoon.
“Certainly I didn’t like the way we played - we were a bit conservative with our ball use and went sideways a fair bit. I thought our second half was a bit more positive but certainly we were on the back foot from the start.”
Lyon will also use his memories of the 2008 Preliminary Final as part of his game preparation this week, where Hawthorn overpowered the Saints by 54 points. However Ross is confident that the Saints have learnt a valuable lesson from that experience.
“(In 2008) we clearly were non competitive. There was a gap between the top two sides, Geelong and Hawthorn, and we went about bridging that gap and we identified where we needed to improve and we did that.”
There is no doubting that Friday night is shaping up to be a very important game in the season of both Clubs, with only six rounds left before finals. But Ross and his staff are prepared for the contest and have confidence in their players to put on a great show.
“They’ve got very good personnel and great capabilities. But we see ourselves as a very good team, a consistent team and we are up for the challenge.”
To find out more about the Blue Ribbon Foundation please visit http://www.remember.org.au/
Make sure you get to Etihad Stadium early on Friday night and look out for St.George Bank’s official mascot, Happy Dragon. As the Round 17 match day sponsor, one lucky Saints fan the chance to have $1000 set up in a St.George Bank account. Have your photo taken with Happy on the Stadium concourse before the match and watch the big screen at half-time to find out if you’re the winner.
