This was published 8 years ago
St Kilda defender Jarryn Geary likely to line up against Adelaide Crows' Eddie Betts
By Ronny Lerner
Jarryn Geary appears to have drawn the short straw ahead of St Kilda's match against Adelaide on Sunday evening with the defender likely to have the ominous task of containing All-Australian small forward Eddie Betts.
After a quiet three weeks, Betts burst into life last round with a dazzling five-goal performance against top-four fancies Greater Western Sydney which included the clubhouse leader for goal of the year – a spectacular effort from the boundary line under enormous pressure.
Crows forward Eddie Betts.Credit: Getty Images
With 27 majors to his name in 2016, the former Blue is well on the way to his third consecutive 50-plus-goal season and his direct opponent will certainly have his "hands full" at Adelaide Oval, according to Saints coach Alan Richardson.
"I've had the pleasure of working with Eddie in a former life at the Carlton footy club. He's a special player, he did pretty well against us last time ... we're comfortable we'll get the right match-up there," Richardson said.
Tough task: Jarryn Geary.Credit: Getty Images
"'Gears' has been in really good form on those sort of guys. Eddie is dangerous, (Charlie) Cameron is dangerous too."
Veteran Sean Dempster will probably also be called upon by Richardson but Betts and Cameron are just two members of arguably the most dangerous forward line in the competition that Richardson has to worry about with Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch, Mitch McGovern and Wayne Milera all posing huge challenges as well.
However, Richardson drew confidence from the way the Saints' backline performed in their narrow loss to league leaders North Melbourne a month ago.
"Their (Adelaide's) forward line is functioning well," Richardson said.
"We know that we're going to have some challenges, but we think that the Kangaroos game is a pretty good template. They've got some real firepower in the front half and we felt that, as a defensive unit and the way that we were able to defend the ball coming in, was a positive and gave us an opportunity to win that game."
Fresh from a come-from-behind victory against winless Fremantle, Richardson acknowledged that the match against the Crows would be a "step up".
Jack Billings will be in contention for a recall after overcoming an ankle injury and Jimmy Webster is in the frame too after missing last week due to illness.
Injury-plagued youngster Nathan Freeman will return from his latest hamstring setback in the VFL reserves on the weekend.
The former Collingwood midfielder is yet to play a game since being picked up in the top 10 of the 2013 draft due to a series of hamstring injuries.
Meanwhile, Richardson has thrown his support behind the idea of a draft lottery system as another measure to eradicate talk of tanking from the competition.
"I don't like the noise around our competition at the moment about, 'are teams trying?' and I think teams are trying but just the noise and the constant focus on that I don't think is good for our game," he said.
"I think that there's a chance that the lottery would alleviate a lot of that and I think that the system that's in place now where the AFL can come over the top and give a priority selection could alleviate that."