St Kilda coach Scott Watters says “talk is cheap” in response to Dylan Shiel’s claim that the Giants can run the older Saints ragged.
Shiel earlier this week talked up Greater Western Sydney’s prospects against their next two AFL foes, saying the Giants could “run them (St Kilda) off their legs” and that any winless team “would be hoping to play Melbourne” for a confidence boost.
Watters on Friday labelled the comment as a “direct challenge to our playing group” ahead of Saturday’s round-three match between the two winless sides at Manuka Oval.
“I’m sure that’s been noted by the likes of Lenny Hayes, Stephen Milne – who in reality needs to jump up and play aggressive footy this week – Nick Dal Santo and David Armitage,” Watters said.
“They would have noted those comments, but talk is cheap, performance counts – we’ve got a very aggressive mindset going into this game.”
In a timely twist to Shiel’s comments, Dal Santo, Milne and Nick Riewoldt will play their 200th game together on Saturday.
“It’s an amazing statistic. They’ve been three outstanding players so to share that on the weekend will be a highlight,” Watters said.
Meanwhile, Tom Lee and Nathan Wright will make their AFL debuts after injuries to Sean Dempster (broken hand) in the Saints’ 17-point loss to Richmond and Adam Schneider (hamstring) earlier in the week.
On the other side of the ledger, Sam Reid replaces an injured Rhys Palmer (calf) for the Giants’ only change following their 56-point away loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday.
GWS co-captain Callan Ward said the combination of returning to the ground where the Giants had their first win last season and their pre-season victory over St Kilda made for a pretty good recipe this weekend.
“It does – we love playing out in Canberra,” he said.
“Playing against the Saints in the (trial) gave us plenty of confidence that we can beat this team.
“If we play the football we like to play, that will take us a long way to winning tomorrow night’s game.”
However, he said the Giants were still expecting to play host to a desperate Saints in the first match under lights at Manuka Oval.
“They haven’t notched up a win yet, so I reckon they’ll be coming out pretty hard at us tomorrow so we’ll expect a huge first quarter,” Ward said.