SAINTS fans can expect nothing less than an all-out effort from a full-strength St Kilda side against the Western Bulldogs in Saturday night's NAB Cup grand final, according to defender Jason Blake.

Much of the rhetoric coming out of the Saints camp after they booked their grand final berth was along the it's-just-another-practice-match line, but it now appears grand-final fever has caught on at Moorabbin.

While Lenny Hayes will miss the game due to the corked calf he received in last Saturday's game against Fremantle, Blake said he was hoping to return to the side along with Nick Riewoldt and Brendon Goddard.

"We are really looking forward to it and we're really excited about playing in a big game against quality opposition," Blake said on Tuesday.

"We had some great battles last year and they're flying at the moment, so we're really looking forward to testing ourselves.

"I know at St Kilda we don't want to pick and choose, we want to remain consistent in our effort the whole way through.

"It's always exciting to play in a grand final and we're really looking forward to it.

"I think Nick and Brendon will be back this week and I think it will be our best 22 in. Whoever is available our best 22 will play because it is very important … to get those final preparations in before round one."   

Blake withdrew from last week's game after the warm up because of back tightness.

"It was a little bit restrictive and they didn't want to risk anything," he said.

"It was very minor but they decided to take the safety [first] approach. I'm feeling a lot better and hopefully I'll get through training tonight and Thursday and we'll go from there."

Blake rates himself an outside chance to take on rejuvenated Bulldog forward Barry Hall if he slips into the side with Zac Dawson or Sam Fisher probably more likely to get the big job.

Whoever Blake lines up on he's confident from what he's seen of the Dogs' pre-season so far that the contest will be a hard-fought one. 

"Their work without the ball has been fantastic and has been really good to watch," he said.

"It will be a great test for everyone to equal their effort and really compete.

"I think they had 80 tackles the other week so that's a great effort and shows that they've really come a long way. We're looking forward to a great contest really.

"It's going to interesting to see how they go about it. We're there to win and to get some momentum going into the season. During the season it doesn't really count for much when you come up and play them again. It's a new game and different scenarios play out, but it's always nice to win against quality opposition."