St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary admits his club is feeling the pressure to put on a good show this week in order to remain part of the newly established Good Friday fixture for years to come.
The Saints face North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium in the second instalment of the match after the Western Bulldogs were taken out of the fixture by the AFL after just one appearance last year.
St Kilda get very few marquee games per year, and while helping raise money for a very worthy cause such as the Good Friday Appeal is paramount, proving to the league that they belong in the highly-sought after fixture is also high up on the priority list, according to Geary.
"I think working together (is important)," Geary said at North Melbourne's home base Arden Street on Monday.
"Like North have invited us down here today which is great, and tomorrow both teams will go to the (Royal Children's) hospital together, and we'll ... try and create a really good atmosphere and a really good place to be on Friday and hopefully we do a good enough job that the AFL see fit that we can do it for a number of years going forward.
"We're rapt to be part of the day. We don't play in many big games - we haven't over the last couple of years.
"It's going to be a really good day on Friday and hopefully lots of North and Saints fans go along and can chip in and donate some money to a really good cause."
Participating in the Good Friday game hasn't been the only source of excitement for the Saints so far this year.
They started the season with a hard-fought 25-point win over the Brisbane Lions on Saturday and they've also received an extra boost from moving into the club's spiritual home of Moorabbin earlier than expected.
"Certainly there's been a lot of excitement leading up to the move to RSEA Park, it's great to get back to Moorabbin," Geary said.
"The community around there are really behind us and getting in there before round one was really important.
"It's probably given us a little bit of a lift only because we've been excited about it for a number of years.
"They've been talking about developing Moorabbin since I first got to the club which was 12 years ago so it's taken a while but it's well worth the wait."
Share
