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Adelaide and St Kilda agree they would both dearly like to win tonights AFL pre-season cup grand final at AAMI Stadium.
But both put greater importance on their preparations for the premiership season.
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Saints coach Ross Lyon today said he would continue to rely on the interchange movements mapped out weeks ago, while counterpart Neil Craig said his players were programmed to win while also swallowing a considerable degree of experimentation.
“We’re experimenting and we won’t compromise that, but the attitude of the players is the key thing, and if you’re able to win under experimental conditions, that’s the way we’ve approached the cup,” Craig said yesterday.
“I’ve never sat here and said we’ll change everything tomorrow night.”
Lyon seemed more than happy to be playing Adelaide away from home tomorrow night because that’s what’s in store in round one – Sydney.
“Clearly it’s a magnificent finish to the pre-season, a high pressure game that’s just going to finish off our preparation nicely going into round one,” Lyon said.
“I’m not sure if you can extrapolate our future out of what’s happened with other clubs, but some clubs have gone on and had success.
“We’re rapt to be finishing the pre-season on this note, win or lose.”
St Kilda will go into the match without key defender Max Hudghton, who was included in the initial 30 but is not yet fully recovered from the leg (most likely hamstring) complaint he picked up a fortnight ago.
Captain Justin Koschitske meanwhile said he would not be deviating from a strict plan to play three quarters of his pre-season matches, despite his clear standing as the most dominant tall on either side.
Crows skipper Simon Goodwin and fellow veterans Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards appear to have had the time of their lives playing outside the high pressure zone of the midfield.
Despite desire at the Crows to win some silverware and start to re-build a reputation as strong September finishers, Goodwin said the team’s newfound, youthful midfield would be exposed as much as possible tomorrow.
“There’s no doubt we need to expose our younger guys, they’ve spent three weeks in the midfield now, they’re doing a terrific job, the three of us down forward or down back are enjoying our role,” he said.
“There’s no greater test than if the game’s tight why not experience that, that’s where you get your real growth as a player and as a footy club, so hopefully that challenge does arise.”
Neither side seemed overly perturbed by temperatures forecast to still be touching 37C by the time the first bounce occurs at 6.50pm CDT.
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