AFL round 21 live updates: St Kilda vs Sydney, Hawthorn vs North Melbourne, Port Adelaide vs GWS Giants, Carlton vs Brisbane Lions — blog, scores and stats

The Sydney Swans may be favourites for today’s game, but coach Ross Lyon will be telling the Saints that this is their time.

The Swans are second on the ladder, but they have looked vulnerable in recent weeks, losing three of their last five.

The Saints on the other hand, have won three of their four games since the bye, and getting Rowan Marshall back for today is an important in.

This is a big opportunity for St Kilda. If they can get the points here, and Brisbane can beat Carlton at Docklands tonight, the Saints would have a one-game gap plus percentage on the chasing pack for the last wild card spot.

Over to you, St Kilda.

There are no late changes for either side, and you can check out both line-ups above.

St Kilda are yet again forced to deal with an injury, as Max King’s season-ending hamstring rules him out, while Dan Butler is managed.

Impressive mid-season draftee Campbell Lake comes back in the side, with ruck/forward Rowan Marshall returning after he was a late out with back spasms last week.

The Swans are unchanged from the side that beat GWS in the Battle of the Bridge last weekend.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to ABC’s live online coverage of round 21 of the AFL.

We have a big Saturday of football ahead of us, starting with a crucial clash at Docklands between St Kilda and Sydney, where a loss for the Swans would officially make Fremantle minor premiers.

Then we have Hawthorn hosting North Melbourne in Launceston, with the Hawks pushing for a top-two spot.

The twilight game this afternoon is at North Sydney Oval, where an historic AFLW game will take place between Australia and Ireland, played with the Sherrin rather than the round ball.

Then tonight Port Adelaide will take on GWS at Adelaide Oval, before we go back to Docklands for Carlton and the Brisbane Lions.

I’m Andrew McGarry, and I’ll be taking you through today’s early action. Later Marnie Vinall will be at North Sydney for the AFLW clash, and Chris De Silva will take you through the night session.

Let’s get into it!