Two teams from the bottom four from last year battled it out at Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon. In a tight fought contest between GWS and St Kilda the match was eventually won by GWS who held on by 11 points for a well deserved victory for the up and coming club.
The game began with both sides feeling a lot of optimism about the game and year ahead and it was the Saints getting off to the perfect start with Tim Membrey kicking the first goal of the game and for his new club. GWS however quickly responded through Lachie Whitfield and for the rest of the quarter the two teams traded goals in the a tightly contested first quarter and by quarter time it was GWS who led just by 3 goals 5 behinds to 3 goals straight.
With the Second quarter beginning and both teams wanting to break the deadlock to their advantage it was GWS who were eventually able to get a break and due to goals from McCarthy and Treloar they were able to do so, but to the Saints credit there will for the contest and their intent remained and it was because of this the Giants weren’t able to break away. However by half time they did have a handy break of 23 points. Due to the dominance that they (GWS) had in that quarter it should have been more, due to them kicking 6.4 compared to St Kilda kicking only 2.2 in that quarter of football.
With St Kilda knowing that with a 23 point deficit at half time they knew they needed to get off to a good start and they did with David Armitage getting a goal in the first two minutes of the third quarter, which bought it back to 17 points but after Jeremy Cameron kicked his 2nd and bought the margin out to 24 points the arm struggle began. Due to the fact that the sides started trading behinds and the clangers started to rack up. It wasn’t until the 18th minute mark (12 minutes after the last goal) that Cameron got his third and GWS got their lead out to a game high 30 points, but to St Kilda’s credit they got the quick reply through Josh Bruce and bough it back to 24. Then came one of the highlights of the game with Josh Bruce taking and absolute screamer over 3 GWS players, but wasn’t able to convert into a goal and then Jarred Geary had a shot from 30-35 metres out that didn’t score, so with St Kilda ruing their opportunities the 3 quarter time siren went with GWS leading by 23 points (the same as half time.)
As the last quarter began and St Kilda knowing that they had to put the missed opportunities behind them had to get of to a good start and unfortunately they weren’t able get off to that good start with Cameron kicking a goal 3 minutes into the last quarter. However with St Kilda quickly responding through Tim Membrey and then Josh Bruce and Shane Savage kicking goals within the first 8 minutes of the last quarter, you could feel St Kilda thought they had a sniff, with them getting within 8 point but unfortunately for them they couldn’t get closer than that. On the GWS side of things through the early part of the quarter you could sense that GWS could feel the pressure of the Saints coming at them, but through some luck (Saints kicking 7 behind in the last quarter and Nick Riewoldt getting injured) and cool heads GWS were able to hold on for a good win. their first against the Saints in their short history. All credit to GWS though who throughout the game were challenged by the Saints were able to stand strong and kick the goals they needed to kick to respond to St Kilda’s challenge.
All in all it was a good contest between the two up and coming sides, with both sides showing massive upside for the year and the future.
St. Kilda 3.0 5.2 7.5 11.12 (78)
G.W.S 3.5 7.9 9.12 12.15 (87)
Goals:
GWS: Cameron 4, MaCarthy 3, Shiel, Treloar, Palmer, Whitfield, Ward.
St. Kilda: Bruce 2, Membrey 2,Savage 2, Schneider 2, Armitage, Dunstan, Riewoldt
Best:
GWS: Treloar, Cameron, MaCarthy Whitfield, Mumford, Ward
St. Kilda: Steven, Armitage, Geary, Montagna, Bruce
My Votes: 3 Treloar (GWS), 2 Cameron (GWS), 1 Steven (St. Kilda)
Umpires: Harris, Ryan, Mitchell
Official crowd: 18,794 at Etihad Stadium
About Nick Weidmann
Former Honours student in Journalism at the University of Tasmania and passionate Essendon supporter
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Hi Nick, welcome to the Almanac. I was there. This is a pretty good summation of the four quarters of footy. Saints were doomed by their poor kicking but the effort was there and hopefully they can improve. GWS aren’t the babies of the competition anymore, not the easy beats. I am hoping that the Saints won’t be the new easy beats, and look forward to growing, slow improvement over the next few years. Patience is required, me thinks. Loved Lonie’s work and Sinclair, loved Bruce’s mark and Savage’s speed, Tim Membrey is bringing heaps too.
Go Saints
Yvette
Watching as a neutral, St Kilda’s first half was abysmal – poor decision-making, kicking to contests, poor communication among players in close (three Saints players spoiling each other un-opposed by a GWS player in marking contests) but the second half turnaround was pleasing – communication, backing themselves in in one-on-ones and prepared to hold onto the ball for a second or two longer while they assessed their options. Obviously bad kicking let them down (how many games experience is that for Armytage now? And he still can’t kick confidently at goal?), but signs are there for improvement.
Good seeing Luke Schneider bag a pair of goals. I’m surprised he’s turned out this year, however its good to see the boy from Wagga keep on. However I can’t see him adding to his 5 AFL Grand Final appearances, though as they say, the future is unwritten.
Glen!
Whoops, sorry about the typo, it was Adam not Luke, Scneider. Sorry speed typing is not for me.
Glen!
Glen, please tell me Adam has a talented (much) younger brother we can set our sights on.
It was an odd game, but at least we roared along at the end there.