The first game on Sunday for AFL Round 22 is between St Kilda Saints and Gold Coast Suns. The match is to be played at Etihad Stadium with the opening bounce set to commence at 1:10pm local time with home team St Kilda Saints currently holding favouritism in the market. View our AFL live scores, odds and results for the game between St Kilda Saints and Gold Coast Suns.

WHERE AND WHEN: Etihad Stadium, 1:10pm AEST Sunday, August 25, 2013

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Opening odds comparison:

St Kilda Saints	1.83	1.77	1.75	1.77	1.83	1.85
Gold Coast Suns	1.97	2.05	2.08	2.05	1.97	1.98

Preview:

The first Sunday game is between St Kilda and the Gold Coast, kicking off at 1.10pm at Etihad Stadium. Despite the slight who-cares factor for this game, this could be a close one. The Saints are in big trouble at the moment, and the Suns could take their third victory on the road for 2013. Coincidentally, that is the same number of wins that St Kilda have managed all season, and while they will be slight favourites to win here, you would have to be brave to back them.

Teams:

St Kilda Saints:
B: Jack Newnes, Jason Blake, Jarryn Geary
HB: Sean Dempster, Sam Gilbert, Farren Ray
C: David Armitage, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna
HF: Sebastian Ross, Nick Riewoldt, Clinton Jones
F: Stephen Milne, Tom Lee, Tom Curren
Foll: Tom Hickey, Nick Dal Santo, Jack Steven
I/C: Josh Saunders, Darren Minchington, Ben McEvoy, Cameron Shenton, Tom Ledger, Brodie Murdoch, Adam Schneider

In: C.Shenton, T.Ledger, B.Murdoch, L.Hayes
Out: D.Roberton (rested)

Gold Coast Suns:
B: Trent McKenzie, Steven May, Luke Russell
HB: Greg Broughton, Rory Thompson, Tom Murphy
C: Harley Bennell, Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow
HF: Jacob Gillbee, Jared Brennan, Andrew Boston
F: Timmy Sumner, Charlie Dixon, Aaron Hall
Foll: Daniel Gorringe, Danny Stanley, Dion Prestia
I/C: Leigh Osborne, Jackson Allen, Michael Rischitelli, Liam Patrick, Karmichael Hunt, Josh Hall, Jaeger O’Meara

In: J.Brennan, M.Rischitelli, L.Patrick, L.Osborne, J.Gillbee, K.Hunt
Out: J.Hutchins (hamstring), D.Swallow (knee), S.Tape (concussion)

Prestia wants strong AFL finish for Suns

Gold Coast midfielder Dion Prestia wants the AFL club to end its breakthrough campaign with a bang to give it momentum heading into 2014.

The Suns made the most of a fast finish to last season when they defeated St Kilda in the opening round of this year’s campaign.

From there the club hasn’t looked back, picking up seven wins and flirting with the possibility of finals football.

Despite that impressive effort, Prestia is warning his teammates to not undo their good work in the last two games of the season.

The Suns tackle the Saints at Etihad Stadium this weekend in Prestia’s 50th AFL appearance before wrapping up their year against basement team GWS at home on September 1.

Prestia says the Suns should expect to win both games and give themselves momentum for another improved effort next season.

“We want to finish off this year well because we finished off last year really well and it built into this year,” he said.

“Hopefully we can repeat that.”

Prestia has emerged alongside fellow midfielders Harley Bennell and Jaeger O’Meara this year to ease the pressure on captain Gary Ablett.

He feels Ablett is now in a situation where he doesn’t have to influence everything the Suns do and can focus on drifting forward to hurt teams on the scoreboard.

“We still obviously like Gary in there,” Prestia said when asked if Ablett was still needed in the club’s midfield.

“Now that a lot of the midfielders have played a lot of games he probably feels he doesn’t have to be in there as much.

“He knows if he sits forward we’re going to get the ball down there.”