ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson is asking for an improved showing from his players this week as the Saints come up against the reigning premiers Hawthorn on Saturday.

Richardson said this morning that while the team was disappointed with last week’s loss to Brisbane, the club is looking forward to the opportunity to redeem itself against the Hawks.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to be a challenge; I understand that we were not great last week and we were pretty good the week before,” Richardson said.

“One thing this group has done already is that we had a really disappointing game against the Crows (in round four) and responded really well against the Bombers the week after.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t respond in a really positive way in terms of our energy and effort, particularly early in the game against the Hawks.”

Though Hawthorn will field a far more experienced outfit, Richardson is excited to see how his young team fares against the competition’s benchmark.

“They’re (Hawthorn) an outstanding football team and we need to be at our best to be competitive and be in the game,” Richardson said.

“It’s an incredibly exciting challenge and we’re going to have some really young blokes opposed against some experienced players out there and they’ll look forward to that opportunity and we do as a team.

“We think we can be competitive against most teams in the competition if we get really good effort and contribution from every player that plays.”

While the Saints will still be chasing four premiership points, Richardson says that the major focus this week will be on team defence.

“We’re not focusing on winning and losing, we just want to make sure we get our method right and play a really good team defence and be really strong with our pressure on the opposition – that will be our focus.

Hawthorn currently sits fourth in the league for tackles, averaging 64.5 tackles per-game, eight tackles more per-game than last-placed St Kilda – a stat Richardson will wants his team to improve on.

“Their rebound is as good as any team, in fact, probably better than any team in the competition,” Richardson said.

“If we don’t get our team defence strong then we’ll struggle to keep them to a losing score - so that will be a real focus for us.”

Richardson has highlighted captain Nick Riewoldt as one player he expects a strong performance from this week coming up against a formidable Hawthorn defence.

“He (Riewoldt) didn’t have a great game last week,” Richardson said.

“He, like the team, responded in terms of his wanting to get the team over the line late as a good leader would do.

“We’ve had eight days (recovery), albeit coming back from New Zealand, but he’s in pretty good shape and I’d be expecting him to be pretty strong this week.

“They’ve got some quality players in the back half – Gibson is a great player and has played on Rooey in previous encounters so it will be a good battle.”