TRUE BLUEY AFL with Guy McKenna
THERE is a line of thought that St Kilda cannot win this year's AFL premiership without Nick Riewoldt.
A lot of people have said it in the wake of Riewoldt's hamstring injury against Collingwood on Friday night.
I would not be so sure about that. I think the buzz term these days is players playing their structures. You look at a team like Hawthorn at the moment, who have been ravaged by injury.
Their personnel is different but their structure still stays the same.
The centre half-forward who will take Riewoldt's position is going to be vastly different to Riewoldt.
But there is still going to be a target coming and presenting. Is the replacement going to cover the same amount of metres? Is he going to use the ball well? Is he going to kick as many goals?
The simple answer is probably no. But the structure around that is still going to be the same.
The Saints are still a very good chance to win it all, but it depends on the club itself. They were still very good in the second half against Collingwood on Friday. And that's something Saints coach Ross Lyon will be looking at.
Once they lost Riewoldt, they still fought on and won the game.
If they could do it for a half, there is absolutely no reason they can't keep doing that.
Although, it also comes down to the mental approach of the St Kilda players. I remember when I was playing with West Coast, sometimes a player would go down and if you blinked you would have missed it.
The biggest one for us as defenders was if full-forward forward Peter Sumich went off with something.
If a player like Sumich went off, you would still look for them on the lead and wonder: 'Where has he gone?'
In the heat of battle and the pace of the game, it can sometimes take a long time to realise that a player is injured until you see them with the tracksuit on the boundary at three-quarter time.
So I am sure the St Kilda coaching staff and the group will come together fairly quickly and talk about how they will adjust to life after Riewoldt.
Closer to home, the playing group are busy preparing for this week's VFL clash against Williamstown at Merrimac Oval on Saturday.
We saw some great signs in the VFL match against Port Melbourne last Saturday at Southport.
But this VFL season is more than just if we win, lose or draw.
I think of the development of the group and of the individuals.
And as the individuals get better, collectively we are going to get better.
I would think that we won't see our best results until towards the end of the season.
