Round 10 – Adelaide v St. Kilda: A late swing in the polls delivers victory for the Saints

 

 

Adelaide v St. Kilda

7:00PM Saturday, May 21

Adelaide Oval

 

 

This will not go down as one of the great games of the season. Both sides struggled for any sense of fluency and proceedings were particularly dour in the first half. The Crows had most of the play but seemed too scared to go forward and take the game on. When they did, the Saints were generally able to keep them at bay. The Saints, however, seemed listless and lackluster when they had possession. At half time the Crows had kicked four, the Saints three. Attending a political meeting would have been more interesting than this; even watching an election count on TV!

 

 

The game picked up in the second half as both teams lifted their play. In the end the Saints ran away with the game when it mattered with eight goals in the last quarter. With seven minutes to go they were down by two points. They then got that late swing in the polls that they had been searching for all night and kicked four in the last five minutes of the game, all from marks – three contested, to win by 21 points.

 

 

There were long periods in the game where the Crows were on top but were unable to convert their dominance on the scoreboard and poor shooting for goal. They missed at least ten very gettable goals. The Crows also gifted the Saints three goals from turnovers. The Saints, on the other hand brought their kicking boots with them and only missed two sodas from set shots and only gifted one goal from a 50 metre penalty. Oh, there was also another reason why the Saints won: Max King. He only had six kicks. They were all from marks; five contested and one on a short lead from Brad Crouch following a Crows turnover. He had two kicks in the first quarter, nothing in the second, two in the third and two in the final quarter. They all went through the big sticks for goals. In the final analysis this is why the Saints won. Bradley Hill, playing his 200th also had a fine game, as did Brad Crouch and Jade Gresham and the back half, especially Jack Sinclair and Callum Wilkie, together keeping the Crows at bay.

 

 

This was a game the Saints needed to win to maintain its momentum towards playing in the finals. Even though they didn’t play that well they lifted their tempo when they needed to and did enough to win. This was the Sir Doug Nicholls Round celebrating the contribution of Indigenous players to Aussie Rules. It was fitting that Brad Hill, carrying the Aboriginal Flag, was chaired off the ground by Paddy Ryder and Ben Long in celebration of his 200th game.

 

 

Kangaroos next week at Marvel, then the bye. Hopefully the Saints can out jump the Kangas.

 

 

Go Saints

 

 

 

ADELAIDE   1.5   4.8   6.13   9.15 (69)

ST KILDA    2.1   3.3   6.4   14.6 (90)

 

GOALS

Adelaide: McAdam, Dawson 2, Thilthorpe, Soligo, Rowe, Rachele, Walker.

St Kilda: King 6, Membrey 2, Hill, Crouch, Wood, Sharman, Ryder, Marshall.

 

BEST

Adelaide: Dawson, Smith, Keays, Laird, Hately.

St. Kilda: King, Hill, Crouch, Sinclair, Wilkie.

 

 

Crowd: 28,783 (with lots of travelling Sainters)

 

 

Malarkey Votes: Crouch 1 (StK). Hill 2 (StK), King 3 (StK)

 

 

 

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