Veterans to miss trip to face Port

ST KILDA will have an early look at life after its ageing champions this week with Nick Riewoldt to be rested as Leigh Montagna starts his comeback from a torn hamstring.

But Saints coach Alan Richardson is hopeful Montagna’s career is not over after the veteran suffered the soft-tissue injury in Saturday’s loss to Sydney at the SCG.

With back-to-back interstate matches, St Kilda planned to sit Riewoldt out of Saturday’s trip to face Port Adelaide to help him stay fresh for the final four games.

He has been carrying a sore knee and is battling a dip in form as calls for him to retire at the end of the season grow louder.

Riewoldt, 35 in October, and Montagna, 34 in November, are out of contract and are yet to be offered contracts for next season.

Montagna declined to comment when approached by reporters at Melbourne airport yesterday.

“They (hamstring injuries) are always a tricky one, you just have to wait and get all the evidence and do the scans,” Richardson said.

“He’s (Montagna) been in pretty good shape for us, so we’ll just have to wait.

“It was planned that Rooey (Riewoldt) would either miss this one (against Sydney) or next (week) given that we’ve had a couple of six-day (turnarounds) in a row.

“But we had eight days between our last performance and this one, and he’d been able to train pretty well, so there’s a chance that he’ll miss (next week).”

According to Champion Data, St Kilda’s loss dropped its chances of making September to 27 per cent.

Four of the Saints’ final five games are against teams higher than them on the ladder.

Schoolboy Josh Battle kicked four goals in the VFL on Saturday, one week after making his AFL debut, while Mav Weller booted two in Sandringham’s win against Geelong.