Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium, St Kilda, without Max King, takes on Sydney, who are now atop the ladder.
The Saints (5-10, 92.5%) lost their Round 16 match against Port Adelaide by two points at home. They will be without their star forward, who is expected to miss the rest of the season due to a posterior cruciate ligament injury, when they play the Swans on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Swans (13-2, 144.2%), who lost to Fremantle last Saturday at the SCG by a single point, are bouncing back from their first loss since Round 3.
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Ross Lyon swung five changes at Thursday’s selection, recalling Dougal Howard, Ryan Byrnes, Mattaes Phillipou, Tim Membrey and Ben Paton in place of King (Injured), Anthony Caminiti (Injured), Paddy Dow (Injured), Riley Bonner (Injured) and Tom Campbell (Omitted).
Conversely, John Longmire’s Swans made just two swaps, bringing back Robbie Fox and Matt Roberts for Harry Cunningham (Injured) and Caiden Cleary (Omitted).
This match gets underway at 3:20pm AEST from Marvel Stadium.
Watch live on Fox Sports Channel 503 or streaming on Kayo via Hubbl from 3:00pm AEST.
There were no late changes, with Ben Paton (St Kilda) and Taylor Adams (Sydney) named the starting subs.
After a back and fourth start, Darcy Wilson struck first blood after a fortuitous rolling bounce that got St Kilda on the board. Rowan Marshal made it two in a row after taking a big contested grab inside 50.
Fresh off signing a contract extension, Logan McDonald kicked the Swans’ first goal.
Despite coming up against Sydney’s superstar midfield trio, it appeared the Saints were opting against using Marcus Windhager in a tagging role.
Helping ignite a slow start for the visitors, McDonald would kick the Swans’ second goal in a blazing start from the young key forward.
“St Kilda has a belief they can be in this contest,” Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy at quarter-time.
Marshall nailed a tough finish from a set shot to open the second quarter and give St Kilda the lead back, but Chad Warner responded with a rampaging running goal from distance.
The Saints were able to lock the game down and make it a scrappy affair as Sydney couldn’t get its usual run and carry game going.
Justin McInerney kicked an opportunistic half volley goal that, after being reviewed. was given the all clear. A minute later Braeden Campbell followed it up with running goal to give Sydney its first lead of the day.
Robbie Fox made it three in a goal after a crafty finish to give the Swans, trailing by five points a mere minutes ago, a 12-point lead.
Warner stepped up again with another dazzling finish, kicking Sydney’s fourth in a row give it a 19-point buffer.
Tom Papley nailed a freakish goal out of nowhere on the half-time siren – Sydney’s fifth straight-goal – to give it a 25-point lead at half-time, 8.5 (53) to 4.4 (28).
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