Assistant coach Adam Kingsley, set to step in as senior coach for the Saints' JLT season opener against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Thursday night, revealed on Tuesday that Montagna had hurt himself at training last week.

He was the one major name missing from a strong squad chosen to face the Power.

"He hurt his calf last week. He is not fully fit. If he was, he would definitely be in our team," Kingsley said.

"We are expecting him to be ready around JLT 3, give or take. We are expecting him to definitely be fit for round one."

Montagna remains a key cog in a team that missed the finals only on percentage last season. Complete with a revamped back line built around former Magpie Nathan Brown and Jake Carlisle, returning from a year-long anti-doping suspension, the expectations for the Saints have risen.

Kingsley said the Saints were "comfortable" internally with talk they were set to vault into the top eight.

"We are pretty comfortable with that ... we were reasonably happy with our season last year. We have identified some issues that potentially kept us out of the eight, so we have spent the summer working on those sort of things," he said.

"We felt like our offence was reasonably good last year. We need to improve our defence, so we have worked on that, and we can improve our stoppages as well. And add to the fact, really, every player on our list can improve, be it Nick Riewoldt or Ben Long, who we have just drafted.

"We have adopted that mindset over the whole summer. The external expectations are there, we can't really control them. We will just try and do our jobs to the best of our abilities and see where it takes us."

Where it appears to have taken the Saints is back to "Saints footy" – the mantra embraced by former coach Ross Lyon during the club's grand-final years of 2009 and 2010. Those teams were built on defence and a robust nature, something this new era also espouses, but with a more attacking outlook.

"We pride ourselves on some 'Saints footy' and we want to play a good, strong and attacking brand of footy, aggressive on defence, aggressive on offence and certainly in the contest," Kingsley said.

"Most teams would say the same thing. It's an opportunity for us to practise that and try and gear ourselves up for round one."

The Saints averaged 88.8 points a game – ninth best – last year, while the average number of points they conceded dropped from 98.3 to 92.8 (13th).

Carlisle will have his first official hit-out at his new club – he was given half in last week's intra-club clash – and has impressed during the summer.

"We have been really pleased with the way he has fitted in with our group. He has certainly played strong footy in the intra-club and the match simulation we have done at training," Kingsley said.

Former skipper Nick Riewoldt is set to play three quarters against the Power and will be rested the following week against Carlton at Ikon Park.

The Saints continue to tread a cautious path with injury-hit midfielder Nathan Freeman, who is now nursing a sore hip. The former Magpie, in his second year with the Saints, was sent to Europe in November to help deal with hamstring issues that have plagued him for four years.

He impressed during the pre-season, including finishing fourth in a three-kilometre time trial.

"He is back in training. We are not in a rush to play Nathan. If he is ready, he will play," Kingsley said.

"He has had a strong summer. We have been really happy with the way he has trained over the pre-season but, again, it's more of a marathon than a sprint with him, and we identify he hasn't played any footy for really three years."