St Kilda are considering backing their midfield to get the better of Carlton's on-ball brigade without sending a tagger to Blues gun Patrick Cripps in Sunday's AFL clash at Marvel Stadium.
The last time the teams met Saints tackling machine Jack Steele was given the duty of stopping Cripps.
While St Kilda thrashed the Blues by 64 points, Cripps still managed to grab 35 disposals. Steele picked up 33 touches and laid 10 tackles.
"Cripps was outstanding - in fact I reckon I gave Cripps five coaches votes and I gave Steelie four cause he couldn't have tried any harder," Saints coach Alan Richardson said.
GWS stopper Matt de Boer limited Cripps last round, however Richardson said his team didn't tag against Collingwood last weekend but still had some success.
"We didn't tag last week and for three quarters against one of the better midfields in the game we were in it," Richardson said.
"We know that midfield is Carlton's strength, with Cripps and (Matthew) Kreuzer they've got some real speed and talent, so that will be a real challenge."
The Saints go into the match on the back of four losses while Carlton have only banked one win this season.
Blues coach Brendon Bolton said his team needed to match St Kilda in the early exchanges if they were to improve on their embarrassing performance against the Giants.
"Against Collingwood, just like us they went deep but fell away late so we're under no illusions they're going to come out as well," Bolton said.
"Their pressure early in games in really, really strong so we need to match it if not beat it and we need to be able to do it for longer.
"I'm sure Richo's (Richardson) got the same message to his mob as well."
Bolton urged his midfield to lift alongside their co-captain Cripps, saying he was carrying a heavy load.
"We look at lots of ways tactically to help him," Bolton said.
"Sometimes he wants to do it on his own and you've got to admire that ... but we're trying to build guys under him so he doesn't have to carry all the load.
"Guys like (Zac) Fisher, (Sam) Petrevski-Seton, (Matt) Kennedy - the guys who are our future in through the midfield are keen to make sure they do carry some load.
"They have at times, it's just inconsistent."
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