Round 2 – Gold Coast Suns v St Kilda: Saints block out Suns at night
by Braham Dabscheck
7.10 PM Saturday 11 April
Metricon Stadium
The Saints’ brains trust has pursued a policy of assembling a young list and installing a culture of maintaining pressure on opponents and the ball. Pundits predicted that the Saints would finish last and not win a game for the year. The clash with the Suns has put the latter to rest, and the young Saints look good for more wins this year.
The game started with Ahmed Saad, back from his second game after an 18 month ban for mistakenly taking performance enhancing drugs, being marked by the Suns Adam Saad. These two speedsters seemed disinclined to discuss whether or not they were related. The Saints started the game with Nick Riewoldt playing as a midfielder leaving space for Josh Bruce and Tin Membrey up forward. This turned out to be a masterstroke. The Saints’ Saad kicked the first goal of the game from a snap. The Suns then dominated the first half of the opening quarter with three goals, based on ruck dominance, especially from the centre bounce. Billy Longer turned this around and became the dominant big man of the game with 39 hit outs.
Luke Dunstan got the ball rolling with a long range soccer goal, the equivalent to anything Lionel Messi has ever scored! The Suns then conceded two 50 meter penalties which gifted Nick Riewoldt a goal. From the centre bounce the Saints swept the ball forward for Tom Curren to goal after a mark. From then on the Saints were in control and could have been further up at quarter time.
Then there was the second quarter; 30 minutes of heaven for Saints fans! The Saints were in total command kicking 8 goals to 1. In fact, from half way through the first quarter to half time the Saints booted 11 goals to 1. Josh Bruce had a purple patch kicking 4 from strong marks; 2 were miracle left foot bananas from on the point post. Saad kicked a second from a neat Riewoldt tap, Jack Sinclair and Jack Lonie, two young guns who have football smarts, both kicked their first AFL goals, respectively, and Dylan Roberton chimed in with a bomb. The Saints had over 20 forward 50 entries to the Suns’ 7 in the second quarter. With a couple of minutes left to go the Saints seemed to slow down, they were tired from having had so much of the ball! This quarter even surpassed the 6.8 shellacking the Saints inflicted on the Dockers last year.
The second half was an anti-climax. Both sides only managed a goal apiece in the third. Bruce and Riewoldt kicked early goals in the last. The Suns came back and looked somewhat threatening. But it was too little too late. Sinclair got his second late in the quarter to seal what always looked like a Saints win.
The Saints of 2015 are more assured than those of 2014. The back line again held up well. The game was a fitting win for Sam Fisher who was chaired off following his 200th game. Most importantly, the Saints did not provide the Suns with any gift goals, which was the bane of so many games last year. The team was more fluid going forward and, with a more competitive midfield and a forward line which seems to have found a way to be less dependent on Nick Riewoldt. Josh Bruce is the first Saint in a long time since Riewoldt and Steven Milne to have got a bag of six goals. The last to do so was Fraser Gehrig. The five Jacks, Stephen, Billings, Newnes, Lonie and Sinclair bobbed up all over the ground. The signs are good; the Saints are back in town. This may be the game which we will look back on as launching a new era for the Saints.
Gold Coast Suns 3.5 4.6 5.13 10.16 (76)
St. Kilda 4.3 12.5 13.8 16.8 (104)
Goals
Gold Coast Suns: Lynch 3, Prestia 2, Hallahan, Rischitelli, Garlett, Bennell, Ablett.
St. Kilda: Bruce 6, Riewoldt 2, Saad 2, Sinclair 2, Dunstan, Curren, Lonie, Roberton.
Best
Gold Coast Suns: Rischitelli, Prestia, Bennell, Swallow.
St. Kilda: Bruce, Riewoldt, Armitage, Newnes, Fisher, Longer.
Umpires: Jeffrey, Ryan, Schmidt.
Crowd: 13,649.
Our Votes: Bruce 3 (St. K), Riewoldt 2 (St. K), Armitage 1 (St. K).
The Saints are ruining my entry in Gigs’ ladder comp… along with Port, Geelong, Richmond, Footscray, GWS and Gold Coast
Which is all “good for football”
At the end of 2013 I was a bit surprised (and somewhat disappointed) when Josh Bruce said he wanted to move; he was one of the original pre AFL Giants and a local recruit too.
I’m really pleased that he appears to have found his spot in the St Kilda team and is doing the things that he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do at GWS.