Round 16 – St Kilda v Richmond: Saints obliterate Tigers in unbelievable performance
By Braham Dabscheck
Saturday 8 July 2017, 7.25 PM
Etihad Stadium
This has been a season were the Saints have prevailed in hard fought wins as demonstrated in last week’s game against the Dockers. Against weaker sides they have struggled more against themselves due to problems with the fluidity of their teamwork and ineptness with shooting for goal, especially from set shots. They have won dirty. Against the Tigers, they put this all behind them. They were on song from the beginning and had an almost perfect first half. At the main break the Saints were ahead 14.8 to 1.4. The Saints were ahead in the possession count 248 to 142, and inside 50s 43 to 14.
The team work, especially the use of handball to a player on the run was flawless. The Saints used a more long kicking style of play, forced the Tigers into turnovers, kicked long goals and for the most part kicked straight. Everyone contributed. Billy Longer even kicked a goal which started the nine goal avalanche of the second quarter. And Josh Bruce, with his Shakespearean actor looks, found one of the Bard’s great comedies and provided the match with some humour. He is a hard working and talented player who is developing quite a portfolio on missing goals in or just outside the goal square when he is on the run. He kicked 2.5, he could have bagged five or six.
Everyone contributed. Nick Riewoldt was more than impressive in ‘Maddie’s Game’, which in concert with Richmond and his cousin Jack, raises money for research into bone marrow disorders and commemorates the death of their sister and cousin, respectively. There was a nice symmetry to the game with Nick kicking the first goal of the game, and Jack the last, after the final siren. Saint Nick took 12 marks and surpasses Footscray and North Melbourne player Gary Dempsey in taking the highest number of marks in VFL/AFL history. There is some talk about the number of marks Dempsey took in one game as not being recorded. Well, if we don’t know what happened it is inappropriate to make up a number. Moreover, in a week or two, assuming nothing untoward happens, Saint Nick should pull in a few more marks. Another milestone along the brilliant career of Saint Nick. Well done.
Besides the breathtaking teamwork of the Saints there were a number of memorable moments. The first was Jack Lonie who kicked one on the outside of his left foot which was marked by Jack Billings just outside the goal square in the first quarter. Jack Lonie had two other important contributions in the first quarter in that opponents felt the need to push him around which resulted in two 50 meter penalties and easy goals for teammates. In the third quarter, Dylan Roberton did something magical in flying parallel across the ground, Jimmy Webster style, to win the ball. With only a minute or so in the last quarter Daniel McKenzie flew high above the pack to pull down a specky and landed heavily on his back. He kicked the second goal of his career from a Josh Bruce pass earlier in the quarter. McKenzie, together with Shane Savage and Ben Long were inclusions for the game and all performed well.
The Saints outpointed the Tigers in the third quarter five goals to three. The last quarter was an anticlimax. The game had the feel of circuit training with the Tigers kicking six goals to two to provide some respectability to their score. The only downside for the Saints is that Tim Membrey may be in trouble for a clash with the Tigers Dylan Grimes. Membrey kicked five, four in the second half.
The Bombers next week in a Friday night clash at Etihad. They are a bit up and down. Would be a good game to win; not that there has ever been a bad win.
Go Saints!
St. Kilda 5.3 14.8 19.8 21.12 (138)
Richmond 1.3 1.4 4.9 10.11 (71)
Goals
St Kilda: Membrey 5, Riewoldt 3, Bruce 2, Stevens 2, Gresham 2, Montagna 2, Ross, Billings, Longer, Steven, McKenzie.
Richmond: Castagna 2, Cotchin, Caddy, Grigg, Martin, Butler, Lloyd, Ellis, Riewoldt.
Best
St. Kilda: Ross, Steven, Montagna, Stevens, Riewoldt.
Richmond: Grigg, Lambert, Caddy, Ellis, Astbury.
Umpires: Mollison, Ryan, Schmitt.
Crowd: 47,514.
Our Votes: Ross 3 (St. Kilda), Steven 2 (St. Kilda), Montagna 1 (St. Kilda).
About Braham Dabscheck
I think that Seb Ross can win the Brownlow, and if he did, I would love to see him dedicate it to his cousin at the bombers..just a thought..
Saints now have another must win against Essendon this Friday, followed by Port and Swannies on the road……….July will test them! Have watched that second quarter 3 times now, never get tired of watching it!
I’d be pretty happy if I were a Saints supporter, but I’d still have chucked something at the TV during the game.
What an atrocious commentary. Even as your guys were powering ahead, the talk kept coming back to the Tigers. What was wrong, could they come back, what should they do, what did this mean for the season, Rusty this, Dimmer that…
It really is time that the talking heads realised that there are more teams in Melbourne than the Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon and Carlton circus (trust me, the Hawks and Cats might seem to get a lot of attention, but you watch it drop off if those clubs have a few bad years).
Between them the circus has won two flags in 20 years, are a joke most years and this season (again) have only one team in the top half of the ladder – and it is failing.
The irony is that all this sycophancy is actually hurting the teams and players that get it. Take Dusty Martin for example. He’s a good player, a very good player, but a “superstar”? A superstar that doesn’t go into packs and shuts down when he doesn’t have the ball? If you were picking teams for backyard footy, would you take him before Dylan Shiels or Dayne Zorko or Luke Shuey or Lachie Neale? Really?
Yvette ! Where are you ? Still celebrating ?
G’day Braham,
Nick Riewoldt deserved much on the match. Kicking three goals and breaking the most marks records of the sport were so great for his late sister. Maddie would smile in the heaven.
The match was so impressive and I was so satisfied. Our brand of attacking footy was everywhere. Nothing to worry during watching the game at a footy pub in Osaka, Japan.
And hi there David. As the commentatoring was muted in the pub sadly, I hadn’t known they talked about Richmond so negatively until you mentioned us. What a loads of crap. I hate ignorance on the mighty Saints. Evening news on 7 News in Melbourne chased the Bulldogs during the finals in September and before the Grand Final last year. I can’t believe how the same TV Station treated differently between Footscray and St Kilda. Bloody dying commercial journalism.
Cheers
Yoshi