St Kilda expect massive inclusions Dan Hannebery and Jake Carlisle to have immediate impact in their must-win AFL clash with Brisbane.
The Saints’ season – and coach Alan Richardson’s future – is in the balance at 6-6 ahead of the next three weeks.
After the Lions, who are a game ahead of them, St Kilda have winnable games against Richmond and North Melbourne.
Just as two or three wins would be a significant boost for the Saints, so two or three losses would set them back on their heels.
Hannebery and Carlisle will return from injury for their first AFL games this season after hitouts in the VFL.
“Those two boys wouldn’t be in the team if we didn’t think they could have impact,” Richardson said.
“We’re 6-6, our season is well and truly alive, we play against a team who are 7-5, we want their position.
“So this is just not a ‘get them in and try and get them going’ – no, we can’t afford that.
“We have absolutely minimal wriggle room in that space, so we need them to execute their role.”
Apart from their Shanghai disaster, no-one has doubted St Kilda’s effort this season and their structure also looks better.
But execution has often been their downfall and they nearly came unstuck last weekend against Gold Coast.
After a season plagued by injury and rotten luck, Hannebery and Carlisle will add poise and experience.
“If you’ve made two or three errors in a row, just to calm things down a bit,” Richardson said.
“If you’ve got five or six young blokes in one line, there can be a bit of panic set in – they don’t necessarily have the solution that experience gives you.
“We saw that from Dave (Armitage) last week – he did a terrific job in calming things down at times and to add more two more like that is just great timing.”
Hannebery’s return is also a major personal reward after the scrutiny on his lucrative trade from Sydney and his repeated injury problems.
“There were really high expectations of Dan coming to our club, we were really excited to get someone of his calibre,” Richardson said.
“Then for him to just be put on ice for such a long time, it’s been really challenging for him.
“But he’s been so impressive and endeared himself to his teammates by how he’s gone about it and we’re really excited for him.”
There have been reports that Carlisle needs to play a certain number of games this season to trigger a contract extension.
Richardson made it clear he wants the key defender to stay.
“We definitely think Jake is a big part of our future,” he said.
Richardson added that top-10 draft pick Max King, who avoided serious knee damage last Sunday, will undergo ankle surgery on Saturday and may not play again this season.