After wins against Hawthorn, Collingwood and Brisbane, St Kilda entered last Friday night’s clash with premiership fancy Greater Western Sydney in the hunt for a big scalp, says star midfielder Seb Ross.
While the Saints had won three of their last four games, they had all come against sides who were lower on the ladder than them at the time.
That changed at Etihad Stadium.
St Kilda brought their renowned pressure game to the Friday night stage, recording an elite pressure factor reading of 1.979 (No. 2 for Round 7), including a reading off the charts in the game-defining last quarter (2.142).
“We knew coming into this game they were second on the ladder and we did talk about needing a scalp because previous to the weekend we’d only beaten sides below us,” Ross told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
“I guess taking it right up to GWS with our pressure game on show, it is good for the younger guys to see that working.
Monday Wash-Up: Round 7 v Greater Western Sydney
“Our method is really working for us. We don’t have to rely on guys like ‘Joey’ [Leigh Montagna] or ‘Rooey’ [Nick Riewoldt] anymore because the guys that come into the team they know their role in the team.
“The coaches have done a really good job in getting how they want us to play across.”
With new hard-nosed midfielder Koby Stevens set to miss this Saturday’s encounter with Carlton after accepting a one-game suspension for rough conduct, Ross is confident the Saints can cover the lost, with Luke Dunstan in contention to replace Stevens.
“He’s come in and been in really good form, but Lukey Dunstan has gone back to the VFL side and performed really strongly,” he said.
“We’ve got guys in really good form at VFL level that can take over that position.”
Despite St Kilda producing one of their best performances under Alan Richardson’s watch, Ross said there were still plenty of facets of their game to improve.
“That was the beauty of the review this week, there was still plenty of stuff to work on,” he said.
“(There was) a lot of areas in our game we didn’t get quite right on the weekend so I suppose that’s pretty a positive result getting that type of result against a top two side, but still having plenty of things to work on.”
