Saints’ actions to speak louder than words – Lyon

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says actions, not words or body language, will show the respect his team holds for Saturday night’s NAB Cup final.

Several past pre-season premiers have copped criticism for a lack of public enthusiasm towards their triumph, while both the Saints and the Western Bulldogs have this week refused to talk the final up as much more than practice for round one.

But with both clubs set to field their best available teams and declaring a serious intent to win, Lyon said the spectacle of two quality sides clashing should be enough to satisfy fans.

“What we’re proud of is the effort we bring, that should generate enough excitement, that we play really good football,” Lyon said on Friday.

“Certainly I’m not there spruiking, but if you look at our performances, we’ve been in tough tight battles that the team’s really persisted and produced exciting games for the fans that have attended the NAB Cup.

“That’s our responsibility and we’ll be aiming tomorrow night with hopefully 50,000 fans and two quality teams to bring a good show again.

“So I think that’s really paying the due respect to the game and the NAB Cup.

“And it brings great momentum to the club. We wouldn’t want to be playing anywhere else … as both teams said, we’ll both have a good crack at it.”

Saints skipper Nick Riewoldt said it was a “dress rehearsal” for their round one clash with Sydney a fortnight later.

He said it was a bonus to play a team as good as the Bulldogs.

“You want to play against quality opposition that are really going to test you both mentally and physically before round one, so you can get into that routine and that frame of mind that you need to be competitive,” Riewoldt said.

The Saints could be excused for having less urgency than the Bulldogs about picking up another piece of pre-season silverware, having won the competition in both 2008 and 2004.

But Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said his club, who last pre-season premiership was in 1970 and whose only day flag came in 1954, did not take any added motivation.

“This group’s more about creating their own history, it’s not looking into the past,” Eade said.

“You don’t walk backwards into the future, we’re about worrying about what we’ve got control of, that’s the way we go about it.”

The Saints will be without the injured Lenny Hayes (calf) and Raph Clarke (hamstring), while Michael Gardiner will play for VFL side Sandringham, but all three should be available for round one.

Bulldogs captain Brad Johnson (calf/Achilles) is expected to be missing until at least round two, with Daniel Giansiracusa in charge in his absence.

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