St Kilda stalwart Leigh Montagna says the Saints will embrace the pressure of Friday night football when they return to the marquee timeslot this Friday night against premiership contenders Greater Western Sydney.
The Saints haven’t featured on the Friday night stage since April, 2015, and only played twice in 2014.
But after an impressive 2016, where Alan Richardson’s men compiled their first winning season since 2012, St Kilda has been rewarded with four Friday night fixtures this year.
"That feeling of being relevant again, getting Friday night games, being spoken about with expectation, it creates a bit of a buzz," Montagna told Fairfax Media ahead of Friday night's clash with the Giants.
"It creates pressure but a welcome pressure where you need to start performing and there's no bigger stage than Friday night footy.
"We'll embrace it and enjoy the challenge and know the football world will be watching Friday night."
A veteran of 276 games across 16 seasons, Montagna has performed plenty of times on the Friday night stage, although only Montagna, Nick Riewoldt, Sam Gilbert, Jarryn Geary and triple Trevor Barker Award winner Jack Steven were on that stage when St Kilda last won on a Friday night six years ago.
Six games into 2017, the dual All-Australian believes the jigsaw pieces are starting to fit into the right spots after a long rebuild in the wake of the Grand Final era.
"We're starting to get a nice blend," Montagna said.
"Our forward line is working well and complementing each other. Our back line is really settled and our midfield is finding out ways to bring new guys into the mix.
"We're finally starting to gel with this group.
"We've been through the rebuild – that's been well-documented – and we've now got a lot of blokes that have played 20-60 games together."
