Within minutes of his team's 51-point demolition of Sydney in Friday night's MCG semi-final, Thomas already had the minor premiers in his sights as he immediately began the mind games ahead of next week's eagerly-awaited showdown.
St Kilda has not beaten Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium since 1997, has not beaten them anywhere since 2000 and has lost their past six games against Mark Williams' team but Thomas said his team would relish being underdogs next week.
And despite Port appearing to bury its finals hoodoo by beating Geelong at AAMI Stadium in last week's qualifying final - Thomas declared that would count for nothing if Port failed to make the most of its home state advantage next week and reach its first grand final.
"They are a great side and they have showed that by finishing on top of the ladder three years in a row," Thomas said of Port.
"But this is definitely the year they have to win respect in relation to their finals performances and at the bare minimum they would be expecting to play in the grand final."
"But they will have to overcome us first."
And in another barb at Port Adelaide - which has often being accused of being mentally weak in finals given it has won just three of ten matches in September (despite beating Geelong last week) and has lost finals on home soil in the past three years - he promised his team would be "mentally tough" next week in Adelaide.
"We are very clearly in the position of the hunter category and not the hunted," he said.
"They (Port) should be confident playing against us, they have normally accounted for us easily in the past and we are playing them on their ground and it is tough to beat them there."
"But we are confident we can pull it all together next week."
"We will be mentally tough and give it everything we've got and when we are in that frame of mind, usually our performance is very good."
