King influence key as Saints backs seek to shade Suns
Shayne Hope |
Key defender Dougal Howard will lean on injured St Kilda teammate Max King for intel as he plots a way to blunt Gold Coast spearhead Ben King.
Howard faces the task of standing the 202cm Suns target – Max’s twin brother – in Saturday night’s AFL meeting at Marvel Stadium.
Levi Casboult presents another aerial threat, but Jack Lukosius could be the man causing the Saints most headaches after his five-goal haul sunk premiers Geelong in round three.
Ben King kicked 1.2 against the Cats and has four goals in three outings this season since returning from a year out with a knee injury.
“They’ve certainly got some threats but it just doesn’t change … we’ll stick to the way we want to go about it,” Howard told AAP.
“(Ben King) was injured last year, so it’s been a couple of years since I’ve come up against him, but I play on Max (at training) and they’re pretty similar players.
“I’ll have to get in Max’s ear and see if he’s got any dirt on Ben that I can pull out.”
Injury-hit St Kilda have about a third of their squad unavailable and will need to find further reinforcements, with defender Jimmy Webster (fractured cheekbone) facing up to six weeks on the sidelines.
Webster, who missed round two with a broken hand, will undergo surgery after he was hurt in a head clash with Howard during last Saturday night’s win over Essendon.
Mason Wood is also under a fitness cloud and must pass tests on his injured shoulder later this week after collecting a career-best 27 disposals against the Bombers.
But an unbeaten start to the season has St Kilda sitting atop the ladder, chasing a 4-0 record for the first time since 2010 – during Ross Lyon’s previous stint as coach.
“We’re certainly building belief,” Howard said.
“Some young lads have come in and just played their roles.
“That’s what we’re doing as a team because we’ve got some big names out – King, Membrey, Steele, Billings, Coffield and the list goes on a bit.
“We’re just trying to build a culture of playing your role and that’s what we’ve done, so we can’t waver from it.”
Hype has built around Lyon’s influence on the back of a winning start to his second-coming as St Kilda coach but Howard said the 56-year-old is keeping a lid on it.
“He’s been excited from day dot to get back to the club and he’s got the support of the other coaches around him, but our post-game hasn’t changed over the last few weeks,” Howard said.
“It’s just, ‘Righto, back to the well and we go again this week’. Nothing changes.”
AAP
