Recruits have Saints steeled for final test

ST KILDA coach Brett Ratten says the club’s bold recruiting strategy was designed for moments like Saturday’s elimination final against the Western Bulldogs.

The Saints enter their first finals series since 2011 confident a string of recent signings has injected enough biggame experience to overcome a lack of team success.

Recruits Dan Hannebery, Brad Hill and Dan Butler are premiership players, while the likes of Zak Jones, Paddy Ryder, Jake Carlisle and Dougal Howard have played finals at other clubs.

“It’s probably why we brought (in) all our recruits,” Ratten said.

“You look at the finals experience of Hill, Butler, Ryder, Hannebery, Howard has played in a final, even

Carlisle and (Shane) Savage at our footy club, they’ve played finals before.

“We haven’t played a lot at this footy club, but there’s been a lot of experience with finals with others.”

The Saints will make only one change, with Jones returning from a hamstring injury and Josh Battle out with foot soreness.

Hannebery used the bye week to increase his training loads after his Round 18 comeback match, while the fortnight also helped Jack Lonie recover from a knee injury. Ratten said he wanted Saturday’s final to launch a period of sustained success for his club.

“We spoke about that this is part of the journey for us, playing finals and trying to get our football club to the point where this is a regular occurrence,” Ratten said.