AFL 2025 round seven LIVE updates: St Kilda Saints, Brisbane Lions face off at Marvel Stadium; GWS Giants, Western Bulldogs resume rivalry in Sydney

After spending every day soaking up advice from two of St Kilda’s greatest ever midfielders, Hugo Garcia is ready to test his mettle against the Brisbane Lions’ champion on-ball brigade.

A youthful St Kilda outfit will attempt to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Western Bulldogs when they host the reigning premiers at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

Brisbane’s midfield, headlined by dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Josh Dunkley and Will Ashcroft, is coming off a loss to Collingwood and will pose a stern test.

But it’s not one Garcia, still just 19, will shy away from.

“It should be a good challenge for me. I like competing against the best – that brings the best out of myself,” Garcia told AAP.

“It’ll be good to compete against a Brownlow medallist like Lachie Neale

“It’ll be good to see what he does and hopefully implement that in my game for the future.

“Josh Dunkley is also one of the star players in the competition and Will Ashcroft’s an up-and-coming young midfielder, so it’ll be good to test myself against those players.”

Coming off nine games in his debut season under Ross Lyon in 2024, Garcia has appeared in the Saints’ past six games, impressing through the midfield and averaging 16 disposals and four clearances.

He’s got plenty of experienced heads to guide him.

“It’s been great to learn and grow off experienced midfielders in there like Jack Macrae and Jack Steele,” Garcia said.

“They’ve really helped me develop and become a better footballer.

“Then on the coaching side of things, Robert Harvey and Lenny Hayes have really been helping me learn midfield craft and just getting better as a whole.

“We’ve got a really talented young group coming through to push each other every day.”

Growing up, Garcia admired Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury’s composure, while he’s reaping the benefits of reviewing vision with club great Hayes.

But above anything, he credits his improvement to hard work.

“It’s a brutal competition and if you’re not working hard and not trying to improve every week, you’re not going to get very far,” Garcia said.

“I’ve just put in the hard yards and hopefully you reap the rewards

“A lot of us young players have really bought into Ross’s system and had a really good pre-season. So it’s good to see us young boys getting a crack at it.

“There’s a real hunger within the group to earn a spot in the side and then perform to keep it.

“As each week goes on I think my confidence will keep building.”

St Kilda (3-3) have already claimed one big upset this year, beating Geelong, and are ready to take it up to Brisbane (5-1).

“We’re very optimistic,” Garica said.

“We think that we can challenge any team in the competition.”

St Kilda have regained Dougal Howard and recalled Isaac Keeler while Liam Henry and Arie Schoenmaker were dropped.

Brisbane forward Kai Lohmann returns from injury in place of Sam Marshall.

AAP

Two Lions premiership players reach milestone matches today when they take on St Kilda.

From Lions media:

AH CHEE TO PLAY 150 GAMES

Brisbane Lions forward Callum Ah Chee will run out for his 150th AFL match against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium today.

Ah Chee was initially selected out of Western Australia with Pick eight in the 2015 draft by the Gold Coast SUNS.

The versatile playmaker then found his way to the Lions ahead of the 2020 season and has since become a premiership player and fan favourite.

AFL LIFE MEMBERSHIP FOR ZORKO

Premiership veteran Dayne Zorko achieves AFL Life Membership today.

Zorko receives the honour with a combined 300 games across Brisbane Lions (283 premiership games, 14 pre-season games, 2 international matches).