Bulldogs-Saints ready for battle

The Western Bulldogs-St Kilda clash on Friday night at Etihad Stadium is the sort of
battle that can define an AFL season.
Everything will be on the table for two teams who could well next meet this season
in the grand final.
It is the perfect start to the league's rivalry round.
Since beating the Saints by 40 points in the NAB Cup final, the Bulldogs have not
enjoyed the barnstorming start to the home and away season that many pundits
expected.
They have three wins from five games, but only started regaining their best touch in
last Friday night's win over Adelaide.
The Saints quickly set aside the Cup final loss, posting four straight wins before a
surprise loss last weekend to Port Adelaide.
"(Those) four to six weeks was always going to be a tough block for us, we still
haven't played (as) super-consistently as what we'd like," said Bulldogs coach
Rodney Eade.
"But we know it's a tough comp, teams are going to be up and down - we started to
show some signs last week, which was pleasing.
"We have to play our best against the best teams and that's what you measure
yourself against.
"We know how tough a contest it's going to be and we've just got to be able to match
that intensity in a game.
"We've spoken about that, that's what our aim is."
The Bulldogs' start to the home and away season featured two six-day breaks in a row
and Brisbane away, which they lost.
But they are coming off a seven-day break for the Saints.
"Certainly it can limit you to a degree, but having said that, the players have
gotten through that pretty well and we don't have another one now until round 17,"
Eade said.
That freshness will be crucial for the Bulldogs as they try to maximise their pace
and clean ball use under the Etihad Stadium roof.
Saints coach Ross Lyon said on Wednesday that the pre-season final result was
"irrelevant" and Eade agreed with him, to a point.
New Bulldogs key forward Barry Hall was best afield with seven goals and Zac Dawson
will again start on him.
The big change from that match will be the absence of the Saints' best player and
captain Nick Riewoldt, out for more than half the season following hamstring
surgery.
"I don't know so much `irrelevant', but it's not going to have much, if any, bearing
on the result on Friday night," Eade said.
"You learn a bit more about your own group, more than anything."
Eade said Dawson's matchup on Hall was not as important as how the Bulldogs handled
St Kilda's renowned pressure around the ground.
"Their defence has been proven as one of the, if not the, tightest defences in the
competition," Eade said.
"It's more of a team defence, we know we have to get some good ball into him (Hall)
the right way - it's more than the actual opponent you're playing on."