The NAB Challenge series can produce different agendas for different teams at different times, but for St Kilda and Alan Richardson, the Saints will use the pre-season tournament to put into practice the body of work they have compiled over the summer months.

Ahead of the Saints’ opening NAB Challenge clash against North Melbourne in Wangaratta, Richardson said the opportunity to play last year’s preliminary finalists first-up provided St Kilda with the chance to test its structures against a side that thrives on taking the game on.

“Fundamentally we want to work on what we have all pre-season and that’s the way we play: to be aggressive with our defence; to be aggressive with our attack; to be much more consistent in the contest,” Richardson told the media at a press conference at Linen House Centre on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s a great opportunity against a really good team. They’re really aggressive in the way that they play. Our ability to be able to stop aggressive teams in attack was inconsistent so that’s a really specific challenge for us.

“Our pressure defensively was quite solid last year, but in terms of being able to stop the dynamic teams when they had the ball, we weren’t consistent enough. So we’re really looking forward to having that opportunity.”

Richardson explained that whilst it was important to be as competitive as possible against the Kangaroos, it was also critical to use the practice match as a preparation tool for the season by focusing on managing workloads, as well as trying players in different roles.

“Part of our preparation is getting guys ready with how many games works for them, how many minutes,” Richardson quipped.

“We’ll look at players in different positions – I’m sure the Kangaroos will be doing the same.

“Certainly our focus is to go out and be as competitive as we can, looking to win games of footy.”

St Kilda has named an inexperienced 29-man squad for Saturday’s encounter with the Kangaroos at Norm Minns Oval, with only seven players having greater than 50 games of senior experience next to their name, and only three with more than 100 games of experience at AFL level.

In the absence of Captain Nick Riewoldt, emerging midfielder Jack Newnes has been handed the captaincy duties - a strong indication of his standing inside the four walls of the football club.