St Kilda vice-captain Seb Ross believes they still have plenty to improve on despite posting a commanding victory over Western Bulldogs in their AFL competition return.
The Saints shocked the Bulldogs with a 39-point victory.
Their next challenge on Saturday afternoon at the MCG is against heavyweights Collingwood, who drew with premiers Richmond.
Ross said the round one loss to North Melbourne, when they coughed a 29-point half-time lead, had stuck with players during the coronavirus shutdown.
“It was an exciting win (over the Bulldogs), particularly to make amends for our round one loss,” the star midfielder said on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately that had to sit in the guts for 84 days between games, so to be on the winning side of the ledger there’s certainly a good vibe around the club.”
Star off-season recruits Paddy Ryder, Zak Jones, Dan Butler and Bradley Hill were key to the victory in round two with Ross upbeat about the future as the newcomers settled in.
“They were exceptional; particularly guys like Jonesy and Hilly through the midfield,” Ross said.
“All of those guys produced on the weekend which is exactly what we expect of them
“That’s why we attacked really hard in that trade period and got them to the footy club.
“But we’re still trying to find out what those players will do to our side so we’ve still got a little bit of chemistry to work on.”
He felt they had the talent to take it to the Magpies but would need to deliver another consistent performance across the board.
Collingwood and Richmond played out a 36-all draw to reopen the season but Ross wasn’t expecting a low-scoring affair against the Magpies.
He felt it was more a case of two top-shelf defences cancelling each other out than a sign for the season.
“When they play other teams they do score well because they’ve got such great offensive players but in the last four years they’ve probably both being in the top four teams in defence,” Ross, who won St Kilda’s best and fairest last season, said.
“When they come together it’s like a grand final, which are usually low scoring as you’ve got the best defence playing the second best defence.
“That’s what I put it down to.”
