St Kilda coach Scott Watters is optimistic captain Nick Riewoldt will play on Sunday against North Melbourne despite lingering concern over a calf injury.

"Obviously he'll be assessed during the week. We're really positive, but it's Tuesday and we haven't trained yet. So it's probably premature to make a call either way, but he's certainly not ruled out," Watters said.

The first year coach took aim at the Roos’ last opponent Adelaide for suggesting the Saints skipper had a knee problem.

"I was pretty surprised with some of the comments from the Adelaide coaching staff who obviously thought they had some fantastic intel. Maybe they need to check the accuracy of their intel because it was miles off the mark."

Watters moved to clarify Riewoldt had "tweaked" a calf muscle early in the game and pointed out he was able to continue playing without risking further damage.

Meanwhile forward Ahmed Saad will be ready to resume after concussion.

Outside of its captain, St Kilda is well rested after the bye and has an almost injury free list to choose from for the highly anticipated clash with North at Etihad Stadium.

"We're feeling like we're in a good position, really, to launch an assault now on the second half of the year," Watters said.

"Structurally and from a personnel perspective, we're healthy. For the first time in six weeks, we'll have some key players available that are very important to our side.

"So we're well placed, we think, to move towards our best football in the second half of the year. And, realistically, we're going to have to play our best football to challenge."

"That was a big part of it. Most players from the Thursday to Sunday had an opportunity to physically and mentally freshen up. There were some players on modified programs, players who had missed some time," the coach said.

"But you've got to take the opportunity in what is a pretty gruelling season to really be able to stay physically and mentally on top of your game. They've come back really fresh, our list is healthy, probably the best position we've been in for some time.

"This is the first week for us where we get an opportunity to really get into some training.

"If you look at our last six weeks, just from a training time perspective, it has been pretty limited. So we'll get a really good session in today and another on Thursday which gives us an opportunity to work on a couple of things we've identified through our mid-season review.

"We're relishing the opportunity to train this week, we're looking forward to that as much as the game.

"When you analyse the first half of the year, there has been some good wins and probably four close losses where we would've liked to have split those results. But at the end of the day, the ladder and the results don't lie. So we weren't good enough to win those games, that was the harsh reality," Watters said.

Watters threw water over the suggestion the Saints would have an advantage over the Roos given their recent dominance.

"Every game is a crunch game and critical in defining our season. It's going to be like that for the remainder of the year, probably for the majority of sides,'' he said.

"It's an absolute street-fight this competition at the moment, so you keep on the ball, which is the next week, and that's it."