Saints retain attacking belief to tackle Dogs
JACK Steele says the Saints’ young forwards will take significant confidence from their 15-point win over Fremantle into round 2 against the Western Bulldogs.
The Saints will be forced to play the same undermanned attack on Saturday night that they carried into the Fremantle game, and will be without Jimmy Webster and Jack Bytel, who suffered injuries in the win over the Dockers.
Tim Membrey’s return has been delayed further, with the three-time Saints’ leading goalkicker now listed as unavailable for four to six weeks.
Neither debutant Anthony Caminiti nor Zaine Cordy were able to take a mark inside 50 as the skies were dominated by Fremantle trio Brennan Cox, Luke Ryan and Hayden Young, but Steele said they showed enough to feel confident against the Bulldogs.
“It was great to see them go down there and really play their role,” Steele said.
“It was a different role for Cords in recent years, so to see him go down there and bring the ball as he did, and same as Anthony Caminiti, it was great to see. Mitch Owens was awesome, flying for marks and bringing the ball to ground as well.”
Steele said coach Ross Lyon had been “a little bit more relaxed than I thought” in the official restart to his St Kilda coaching career and credited his simple messaging with inspiring the round 1 victory.
Steele said the cheap 50m penalties given away by vicecaptain Callum Wilkie and himself in quick succession, gifting Fremantle two goals, had been discussed with teammates after the game.
“It clearly wasn’t good enough, it was a terrible time in the game and it really started to swing the momentum in the game,” he said.
“What me and Wilks did was probably not good enough, we’ve got to be better.”
Marcus Windhager (broken hand) and Seb Ross (calf) are expected to be available to take on the Bulldogs on Saturday night, but Webster (broken hand) and Bytel (cut knee) are tipped to miss at least a week.
The leg wound is an unlucky setback for Bytel, who impressed with 16 disposals, seven tackles and a goal against the Dockers.