3 minute read
St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary says his side is focused on Monday night's meeting with Geelong after a turbulent week off the field.
St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary hopes issues surrounding players' inappropriate behaviour during team victory songs have been put to bed ahead of Monday night's crunch AFL clash with Geelong.
The Saints became embroiled in the furore when vision emerged of Dan Butler appearing to grope teammate Jade Gresham after a win over Gold Coast in round 10.
Butler apologised and Gresham said he wasn't offended, while the Saints said they would ensure the incident would not be repeated.
The AFL hit out at the practice, which came to light after Richmond players Nick Vlastuin and Jayden Short were caught in similar incidents involving teammate Mabior Chol.
"It was certainly spoken about and acknowledged it's behaviour that we don't condone," Geary said.
"Dan's spoken about the regrets that he has on the part he played in that and it's something that we won't be doing going forward.
"It was inappropriate and clearly something that should never have happened.
"I think we can put it to bed now."
The Saints are riding a four-game winning streak into the meeting with fellow top-four aspirants Geelong at the Gabba and have been buoyed by the selection of 2018 draft pick Jack Bytel to make his debut after injuries cruelled his first year at the club.
But Geary, who has played only one finals match in 13 years at St Kilda, issued a word of warning to teammates against getting ahead of themselves.
"We're performing well but for us it's about consistency and we have a big challenge on Monday night against a team that's playing really good footy," Geary said.
"We want to continue to progress and improve and we'll get a good sense of where we sit come Tuesday morning.
"We feel like we're in a pretty good position in terms of the way we're playing footy but we know that there's certainly a long time left in this season and we've got a lot of work to do to get to where we want to get to."
Geelong have been a bogey side for St Kilda, who have just one win and a draw to show from 10 meetings over the last decade.
