Saints’ Gram wants to play against Collingwood
Posted by Brent DiamondJun 2. 2011 2:45 am
ST KILDA midfielder Jason Gram says he is hopeful of being recalled for Saturday night’s clash Collingwood at the MCG to help extract some revenge for the grand final loss last year.
Gram was axed from the Saints a fortnight ago but showed plenty of signs at Sandringham on Sunday, with 20 disposals, that he was primed for a return.
“It was good to get a run. I didn’t play last week so it was good to get some fitness up and looking forward to putting my hand for this week,” Gram said.
“It’s pretty disappointing when you get dropped and everyone gets disappointed when you get dropped. I had a few things to work on and hopefully I did enough to show them that I’m ready to go again.”
Gram believes the build up against the Pies won’t be as big it would have been at the start of the season considering the Saints poor start to the season.
However the past fortnight – with wins against Melbourne and Fremantle – has seen the Saints gain some momentum.
“Every time you win interstate, it’s a great win so I’m sure the boys are nice and chirpy and there’s a big game this week against Collingwood,” he said.
“It’s always big against Collingwood. It’s probably not that big a build up as what everyone thought it was going to be but the boys have got a couple of wins over the last couple of weeks, so hopefully we’re going to be alright.”
“It’s just another week. It’s only round 11 of the AFL so they’re (Collingwood) the benchmark at the moment so we have to aim to knock them off,” he said.
Sandy coach Brett Lovett said Gram was influential in the second half of the Zebras win against Werribee on Sunday.
“He was a bit scratchy just picking up the pace. It’s been a while since he’s played at this level but I thought after half time, he had a really good impact,” Lovett said.
Gram was likely to come into the mix along with a number of other Saints include Raphael Clarke (21 disposals), Andrew McQualter (30 touches) and Tom Simpkin (28 touches), who Lovett believed was close to breaking into the senior team.
Lovett said Clarke, in particular, was dominant at half back for the Zebras to win best on ground.
“He (Clarke) really helped get us back on track after that spell in the second quarter. We put him down at half back and he really controlled that area and dominated,” he said.
Meanwhile, North Melbourne midfielder Ryan Bastinac was impressive in his return from a knee injury with 28 disposals and eight clearances with the Werribee reserves on Sunday.
It is expected that he will play a full VFL match with North Ballarat this week against Frankston.
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