Round 19 – St. Kilda v North Melbourne: Saints win somehow

 

 

 

St. Kilda v North Melbourne
4:40PM Sunday 23 July
Marvel Stadium

 

 

You have to be a saint to be a Saint. Being a Saint is not so much about supporting a football team as an exercise in dealing with uncertainty and the vicissitudes of life. You never know what is going to happen; and when it does one is both surprised and knowing it was going to happen all along. This is why Saints have such a deep understanding of the mysteries of life and know how to deal with adversity with a devil – oops, Saint – may care attitude.

 

 

So, here we are taking on the second-from-bottom team the Kangaroos after being scorched by the Suns last week in a lack lustre display. To add a bit of spice to the game the Kangaroos are being coached by Brett Ratten who the Saints had ceremoniously dumped as coach last year after extending his contract. Remember promises your parents made when you were a kid and never kept!

 

 

The game starts and the Saints are hoping all over the Kangaroos. They kick two early goals. Then everything goes haywire. The Saints become obsessed with a quick short pass game with dinky kicks and hand passes which either miss the target and if they don’t put a teammate under pressure, surprise him and drop an uncontested mark and/or fumble. It was a mixture of turnover city and the Keystone Cops without the humour. To make matters worse, Brad Hill who looked to be on, was badly crunched with a bump early in the first quarter and was sent to hospital for examination. The Kangaroos got a sniff they could break their 15 game losing streak and started to get their game together. They kicked a couple of goals and got back into the game. The Saints were up by nine points at the first break.

 

 

The less said about the second and third quarters the better. The Saints managed one goal for a half of footy-and that was from a free. When they managed to get the ball forward they invariably missed the target with nine behinds and several out of bounds on the full. The Kangaroos who feed off Saints’ turnovers kicked six. It was a miracle that the Saints were only down by 16 points at three quarter time.

 

 

The last quarter starts. The Saints push ruck Rowan Marshall forward in the hope that someone can take a mark. The Saints then suddenly remembered how they had played earlier in the season and played a more direct style of play. Jack Sinclair laid on a bullet pass to big Rowan who kicked truly from the 50 metre line. Cooper Sharman decided to copy what big Rowan had done a few minutes later. Jack Steele intercepted a pass out of the back line and kicked another 50 metre goal. The Saints were back in front!

 

 

Then came the best goal of the game. Anthony Caminiti either took a contested mark or ended up with the ball in his outstretched hands outside the forward 50 and was either told by the umpire to play on or couldn’t be bothered to find out if he could have a set shot (he had missed two earlier in the game) played on and with Kangaroos either side of him landed a bomb from outside the 50 and was he a happy lad. The Kangas got one back with just under seven minutes on the clock.

 

 

The game was up for grabs. The Saints were up to the challenge. From a set play on the wing Zak Jones grabbed the ball and kicked it forward. Mitch Owens somehow managed to secure it and was in the process of falling over in attempting to dodge a tackle and hand passed it forward to where the Professor, Jack Higgins failed an audition for a contract with a soccer club as he hit the ball with the lower portion of his leg above his foot and the ball slowly worked its way into the goal square and bounced through for a goal. The Professor was over the moon with fellow Saints rediscovering their belief in footy heaven.

 

 

The Saints somehow managed to win. Hopefully, they can replicate this last quarter form in coming games and keep their place in the eight.

 

 

The Hawks next week. Go Saints!! What have you got in store for us? Can you make it a less character building experience?

 

 

 

ST. KILDA          3.3   3.7   4.12   9.15 (69)

NORTH MELBOURNE    2.0   6.1   8.4   9.7 (61)

 

GOALS

St. Kilda: Owens, Higgins 2, Sinclair, Marshall, Sharman, Steele, Caminiti.

North Melbourne: Larkey, Thomas 3, Ford, Xerri, Ziebell.

 

BEST

St. Kilda: Steele, Marshall, Windhager, Sinclair, Wood.

North Melbourne: Davies-Uniacke, Sheezel, McKay, Thomas, Tucker.

 

Crowd:  18,279

 

Malarkey Medal: Davies-Uniacke 1 (NM), Marshall 2 (StK), Steele 3 (StK).

 

 

 

 

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