Punters expect a hellish season for St Kilda starting in Round 1

MELBOURNE will enter its season-opener against St Kilda as favourites for only the fourth time in 12 months.

Nick Riewoldt trudges off after the loss to GWS.

MELBOURNE will enter its season-opener against St Kilda as favourites for only the fourth time in 12 months as punters empty their pockets in anticipation of a year from hell for the Saints.

Only Greater Western Sydney has been backed to lose more games than St Kilda this year, but the Saints are closing in fast after a nightmare NAB Challenge campaign.

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A loss to the Western Bulldogs and a horrible thrashing at the hands of the Giants have made Alan Richardson’s men the best backed team in the unwanted “most losses” market, in from $4.50 to $3 with the TAB.

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St Kilda, who have struggled in Round 1 games in previous years, will also be severely weakened for its March 22 meeting with the improving Demons at Etihad Stadium.

Triple best-and-fairest Lenny Hayes has accepted a one-match ban for striking and will join reigning club champion Jack Steven (foot), Leigh Montagna (suspended) and Sam Gilbert (foot) on the sidelines. Recruit Maverick Weller has also been rubbed out, further gutting the midfield.

David Armitage will be asked to carry the load in the engine room, with support from Jarryn Geary, Jack Newnes, Shane Savage, Clinton Jones and Farren Ray.

The Saints are in strife.

“Originally the Demons were $2.55, but they are now into $1.68 with St Kilda friendless and drifting from $1.50 to $2.15,” TAB’s Adam Hamilton said.

After the Demons, St Kilda faces GWS in Round 2. Lose those two and the outlook gets horribly bleak, with games to come against West Coast (away) Adelaide and Hawthorn in the next month.

It is an ominous forecast for long-suffering Saints fans, who haven’t seen their side win a Round 1 game in four years.

St Kilda last year lost to Gold Coast, with the Suns going on to win eight games for the season. In 2012 the Saints went down to a lowly Port Adelaide side that could only manage another four wins for the rest of the year.

The Saints, who yesterday trumpeted the appointment of new chief executive Matt Finnis, will face further onfield challenges this year — 18 months into a dramatic list reshuffle.

Since Round 23, 2012, St Kilda has lost more than 1600 games worth of AFL experience, with the likes of Brendon Goddard, Jason Gram, Nick Dal Santo, Ben McEvoy, and Stephen Milne walking out the door. It is not so much list management as a list demolition.

But Richardson isn’t hitting the panic button, insisting after Saturday’s 68-point loss to GWS that it was “far from” crisis time at Seaford.

“While you come away to games like this to use them to work on what you’ve done, to get minutes into players, we had a few guys come back for the first time ... but our second quarter, in particular, was really disappointing,” Richardson said.

‘We got beaten badly in and around the ball and under pressure so full credit to GWS, we just didn’t cope at all well with the pressure.”

MOST LOSSES 2014

$1.95 GWS

$3 St Kilda

$3.75 Melbourne

$11 Brisbane

$26 Gold Coast

$35 Essendon

$510 Western Bulldogs

$101+ Others

Odds: TAB