Round 23 – St. Kilda v Fremantle: Saints lock out Dockers in striking performance

 

St. Kilda v Fremantle

12:15pm Sunday August 22

Blundstone Arena

 

 

The Saints and Dockers played off in a game where the Dockers had a faint chance of making the finals if results went their way in other games. This home game for the Saints was transferred to sunny Tasmania. The game started with the Dockers kicking with a strong wind. The first few minutes were scrappy with both teams looking out of sorts. Then the Saints produced a fine passage of play out of the back line which resulted in a mark to Jack Higgins, close to the goal square, which he duly converted. This was the first of a series of goals initiated from the back half with fleet of foot and slick team play. The Saints added two more, one from Dan Butler and another from Cooper Sharman who dominated the first quarter. He finished the game with four in a best on ground performance. He leads to the ball well, takes contested high grabs and doesn’t get the jitters in front of goal. The Dockers only kicked one for the quarter with the Saints up by eight points at the first change.

 

 

The second quarter was more of an arm wrestle with the Saints struggling to convert their forward 50 dominance into goals. This was probably the best quarter for the Dockers who held St. Kilda to three goals while kicking two of their own; though one was from a dubious 50 meter penalty. The highlight of the quarter was a long bomb from Dean Kent which sailed through from well outside the forward 50. To prove it wasn’t a fluke he produced the same trick in the last quarter. In the second quarter the Dockers suffered a number of injuries which terminated their chances for the rest of the game.

 

 

The Saints dominated the second half 11 goals to three. Probably their best was the third quarter where they kicked four into the wind, and only conceded one. The headline moment in the third was where a kick off the ground by a Docker which sailed through for what looked like a goal was disallowed as it had flicked the forehead of Callum Wilkie on the way through. Heady stuff! (Sorry, I can’t help myself). In the last quarter the Saints kicked five in a hurry which basically turned playing out time into training drills for both teams. The ball travelled up and down the ground and both teams kicked another two. Jack Bytel in his 16th outing for the Saints kicked his first goal from a mark, and discovered kicking goals was better than dishing off hand balls and followed it up with a second from a long snap to finish off the game. The final siren sounded and the Saints celebrated, congratulated the Dockers and wished them well, and contemplated a season where they were on the verge, but hampered by injuries and inconsistency.

 

 

Well done to all concerned for giving us Sainters something to cheer about and providing enough moments for hoping that the Saints will be a force in 2022. Enjoy your break, relax and have a bit of fun. Bring on the AFLW with a longer season.

 

 

Go Saints!

 

 

ST. KILDA      3.0   6.2   10.5   17.5 (107)

FREMANTLE   1.4   3.5   4.8   6.13 (49)

 

GOALS

St. Kilda: Sharman 4, Membrey 3, Kent, Higgins, Butler, Bytel, Marshall 2.

Fremantle: Crowden, Switkowski, Taberner, Henry, Banfield, Treacy.

 

BEST

St. Kilda: Sharman, Steele, Marshall, Jones, Coffield.

Fremantle: Serong, Brayshaw, Young, Ryan, Logue.

 

Crowd: 3,082 and failed comedians

 

 

Malarkey Medal: Marshall 1 (StK), Steele 2 (StK), Sharman 3 (StK).

 

 

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