Roar Guru
Both GWS Giants and St Kilda will be out for their first win of the season to keep touch with the competition and avoid falling into a 0-3 hole. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 4.40pm AEST.
Greater Western Sydney have been winless, but not hapless.
They were solid in their 30-point loss to the Swans in Round 1 and were good in patches when beaten by Port Adelaide to the tune of 56 points.
Coach Kevin Sheedy said he has been impressed by the competitiveness of his team, but their showing against Port Adelaide wasn’t up to his standard.
“We were disappointed in a lot of efforts of our players,” Sheedy said.
“We could have been a little bit more physical at times when the ball was there to be won.”
St Kilda has made its worst start to a season in 13 years, and the last time the Saints were 0-2 they went on to claim the wooden spoon in 2000.
The Saints appear confident to reverse their worrying start, with midfielder Leigh Montagna saying:
“It’s a long season, you can’t start getting too down on yourself now otherwise it makes it a hell of a tough year.”
“We’ve had slow starts before and come back and salvaged our season.”
But despite any outward confidence, St Kilda will be desperate to get some points on the table.
GWS continue to suffer from injuries, with Andrew Phillips (hamstring) and Matt Buntine (lung) out for this week, while Joe Redfern (knee) and Josh Growden (lower leg) will miss the next two weeks.
Dom Tyson (knee), James Stewart (back), and Chad Cornes (knee) are all on the long-term list.
St Kilda will be without the services of Sean Dempster (hand) for the next three weeks, with James Gwilt (knee) and Jackson Ferguson (knee) also out for two weeks at least. Farren Ray and Tom Hickey are doubtful, but may return.
Both GWS fans and players are quietly confident of a win come Saturday afternoon, but the Saints were dangerous for most of their game against Richmond last week and will be no pushovers.
St Kilda’s star trio of Nick Riewoldt, Stephen Milne, and Nick Dal Santo will be playing their 200th game together but a weakened Saints defence gives the physical and hard-working Giants hope of an upset win in Canberra – their home away from home.
However, the St Kilda forward line which tore a 128-point hole in the Giants last season will be very hard to contain.
If the Giants give their all they have every chance of winning this. If the Saints don’t win, their start to the season goes from worrying to borderline disastrous.