Even from the other side of town, St Kilda are aware of the commotion around the Western Bulldogs.
The two finals contenders will clash at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night, both sitting at 2-3 and at a vital early juncture of the AFL season.
But the Bulldogs, and coach Luke Beveridge, are particularly under the pump after a disappointing loss to Essendon.
Criticism has arisen for Beveridge over apparent contradictory messages surrounding whether the Bulldogs are contending or rebuilding – he says the former.
“It’s like us – is it half-full or half-empty? We’re both around the mark,” St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said this week.
“I’m not really here to talk about the Bulldogs, but I do hear the noise … they’re getting terrorised.”
Beveridge denied the claim there was dissension or discontent among his players, and said the Bulldogs still believed themselves in contention.
He hinted a response against St Kilda will partly come down to tactical modifications and partly to seeking an emotional edge, especially after failing to deal with Essendon’s pressure.
“It’s a combination of both,” Beveridge remarked.
“There’ll need to be some awareness of where St Kilda’s strengths are and making sure that we mitigate the influence of some of their personalities. There’ll be a tactical war going on.
“But there’ll be some emotion driving performance – you anticipate that every week, and the team togetherness and the spirit within the team.
“What occurs is sort of chicken or egg stuff with that energy and that passion and that yearning.
“We’ve been extremely good in the contest and last week we perhaps decreased our colours, and what tends to happen, as far of the chicken or egg aspect of it, is if just one or two are off, it sort of spreads throughout the group.
“So everyone will be up and we’ll look for that consistent spread across the group.”
Both teams will be without important forwards, with the Saints’ Max King (knee) and the Bulldogs’ Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (personal reasons) unavailable.
Ugle-Hagan’s absence comes with the Dogs also missing star midfielder Tom Liberatore, who is undergoing further tests after his spectacular collapse late in last week’s loss to Essendon.
Oskar Baker has been dropped, while ruck-forward Rory Lobb, Riley Garcia and James Harmes have earnt recalls.
Beveridge suggested he wanted the rest of his midfield to step up in terms of winning contested ball without Liberatore present to claim the lion’s share alongside skipper Marcus Bontempelli.
“We can’t expect Tom to do what he does week in, week out, and leverage totally off his influence in the game,” he said.
“Our better performances this year have been really even.”
St Kilda have recalled experienced midfielder Zak Jones in lieu of King.
