MY FATHER says each year, it takes him a bit longer to get into the footy. I know what he means. I usually wait for a moment of magic, a passage of play, to reignite the passion, to get that part of the brain humming that's neither strictly sane nor sensible.

Last year, the thing that really got me into the footy was a game between St Kilda and Geelong. St Kilda was mighty in the first half. In the second, Geelong came out and blew it away. Something new, something special, was happening.

Like a lot of people, I suspect, I looked to Chris Judd to get my season going. It's hard to describe just how good Judd was at his best. It was like seeing a hare running through a pack of hounds with none of the hounds quite able to bring the hare down because it's so nimble and quick-witted and, in its way, strong.

Judd was good in a way I'd never seen before. He wasn't like other former greats. He wasn't like Gary Ablett snr. He wasn't a great kick. He took few overhead marks.

But he did something else that seemed especially attuned to the game as it is now being played, with massive collisions of 10 or 12 bodies or more in the midfield. He kept getting the ball and breaking free with it.

Robert Walls, an awfully hard man on occasions, rated Judd's game for Carlton against St Kilda last week as a six out of 10. Initially, I thought he was a bit kind as he had given another player three.

Judd's not blasting games apart like he once did, but when he gets the ball, he's still good enough to hang on to it and make his possession count.

In the first term, Marc Murphy twice sliced open the St Kilda defence like a piece of fruit and I thought, "Hello! The Blues have got something new, something special, happening".

Judd gets the first defensive midfielder. Nick Stevens, who is back from injury, gets the second. Young Murphy's suddenly got the third best stopper trying to catch him, and a young team is away. But, no, the rest of the match was like seeing small vehicles running into heavy equipment. The Saints are big boys.

How are the Saints different from last year? Well, apart from being remarkably uninjured (in my mind, the Saints are always injured), they've got two very good ruckmen in Steven King and Michael Gardiner.

I thought King was one of the keys to last year's grand final. His partner that day for Geelong, Brad Ottens, did well around the ground but in the centre, where the heavy collision work was done, it was King who crushed Port Adelaide.

As for Gardiner, he looks keen to me. If I read him right in his post-match interview, he's really keen. Like a man with a great amount to prove — which he has — who also knows he has a final opportunity to prove it.

I haven't seen a lot of Gardiner's football, but it was the best game I'd seen him play. He was like a basketballer — elastic, mobile, popping up in lots of places.

And Fraser Gehrig is back. Those of us who value the game for its character and personalities owe something to Fraser. He was the last AFL player to wear a mullet.

Now he has a beard. To those of us with beards, that means something. After all, not all men are prepared to walk around with hair on their faces. Some young men nowadays walk around with no hair on their entire body! Fraser's out there. One of us hairy others.

The criticism of the Saints is that they're slow in the midfield. They don't break the lines. They have no one or nothing like Judd at his best.

Instead, they use Leigh Montagna as a sort of transporting agent. He appears, takes delivery and carries 10 or 20 metres. Xavier Clarke threatens but is still not what you would classify as dangerous.

Nonetheless, the Saints are good in the midfield because they've got so many skilful, accomplished players — Nick Dal Santo, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes.

I also like Sam Fisher in defence. Watch the number of times he's matched against bigger opponents. Show me a moment in a football match when he is not all measured class in his responses.

Last night, the Saints played the Dogs, themselves no fools but, already, I am looking forward to next week when St Kilda plays Geelong.

Imagine if Ottens doesn't play — he's out with a foot injury tomorrow. Mark Blake, the young ruckman dropped from Geelong's grand final side to make way for King, will come up against a less than happy King, who was cut from Geelong's list the week after the grand final in favour of Blake, and a rejuvenated Gardiner.

A big test for Blake? Not sure they make them any bigger.

The Saints have their best chance in years. Nick Riewoldt looks to me as if he has a premiership in his sights and, as such, is a good man to be leading the side. Alongside him, Justin Koschitzke is becoming a major presence.

But Geelong is swifter and more fluent. And, in Gary Ablett jnr, it has the only player I've seen who can split the densely crowded modern game apart to the same dazzling extent as Judd at his best.