Saints' Riewoldt sees normal week ahead - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Saints' Riewoldt sees normal week ahead

By Guy Hand 26/09/2010 05:39:48 PM Comments (0)

St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt sees a more "normal" seven days ahead for the players in the most unusual of grand final weeks.

Riewoldt believes a week with far less distractions ahead of Saturday's AFL grand final replay will be a blessing for the players as St Kilda and Collingwood prepare to reprise their 68-all epic from last Saturday.

The usual pre-match off-field build-up will be absent, with no second grand final parade and the Brownlow Medal having been and gone.

"It'll be more like a normal week of footy to be honest," Riewoldt said on Sunday.

"No parade, no Brownlow, I'm not sure about an open (training) session but you think it would be brought back to normality a bit.

"It's no different to any other week. It is round 27 ... recovery today, review the game and take out of it what we need to learn, and go into it fairly confident after what we were able to do in the second half yesterday."

Riewoldt said the Saints' fightback from four goals down early in the third term to nearly pinch a match which was Collingwood's for the taking had boosted their belief, and perhaps given them momentum going into the replay.

"I know we're a mentally strong group. We've practised mental toughness for a long time, we're certainly resilient, there's been a lot of times throughout the whole year we've been challenged, written off and we've responded," Riewoldt said.

"I've got full faith in the entire team to fight through any challenge.

"We were just really proud of the way we were able to fight back. I think everyone would have written us off by halftime.

"So the way we were able to respond, it just shows the guts and character of the group."

The match review panel will review several minor incidents arising from the grand final on Monday - most notably Collingwood defender Ben Johnson's jumper punch on St Kilda's Leigh Montagna and St Kilda's Sam Gilbert hitting Magpie Leigh Brown high.

The spectre of double judiciary points for grand final offences could turn what would normally be reprimands into suspensions for the replay - something Riewoldt hoped could be avoided.

"Obviously they'll go through the process. It was a very willing contest - a lot of little incidents within the game that perhaps pushed the boundary," Riewoldt said.

"It's halftime (in the grand final). So any decisions on the review panel should probably wait until after fulltime next week."

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

0 Comments about this article

Post a comment about this article

Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.

« All sports news