It’s terrific to be a part of this week’s historic Anzac Day clash here in Wellington. Not only is it a great initiative to bring our game over to New Zealand, it really is a special experience to be able to play on Anzac Day.

We’ve been in Wellington for a few days now, and we’re just so excited for tonight’s match against St Kilda. It’s something we’ve been looking forward to, and after checking out the stadium on Tuesday, we’re even more excited to get out there in front of a big crowd. Coming over to Wellington has also been a good bonding exercise for the team, who have been together now for three or four days in the lead up to tonight’s match.

Westpac Stadium is a great venue and it really looks like it’s made for footy, so we’ve got no complaints at all about the ground. With all the talk about ‘windy Wellington’ we were expecting pretty strong winds out there, but after spending some time out on the ground there weren’t really too many comments about it from the players and it hasn’t been too much of an issue. There have been periods where it’s been really blowy, but then there have also be times when it’s not blowing at all.

Looking at tonight’s match, we’re expecting a quality St Kilda side with a lot of experience. Even though the Saints have had some injuries and a suspension, the nucleus of their main team will still be out there and they also have a couple more experienced players likely to come back in.

We expect a pretty good showing and there is no doubt the Saints will want to put on a good showing over here in Wellington as it’s their home game, so it will be a fair contest.

We’ll be looking to make amends for last week’s loss to the Cats this week and we particularly want to improve our defence and hunger for the footy. In last week’s match against Geelong, it probably was our tackling that let us down and I think Horse has already made that point very clear.

We felt the Cats were able to break more tackles than we’d like, so we’re looking for a good improvement in that area this week.  We feel that our tackling and defensive pressure is a real barometer, not only for our midfield group but also for the whole team.

Despite the loss last week, there are still a number of our players who have been consistent performers over the last month. Jarrad McVeigh is one who has been consistent all year and Kieren Jack is another, and they have both been leading from the front as our captains. Daniel Hannebery has been courageous as always, and I think Josh Kennedy had one of his quieter games last week, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he responds this week.

All in all, we’re expecting a closely contested match out on Westpac Stadium this evening and we’re determined to do whatever we can to come home with the four points.