by Tim Ivins
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portlygentleman Crunch game, can the St Kilda defence stifle the free-running Dogs? and will the Dogs prove that they can match it with the best?
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portlygentleman Saints unchanged in Dal Santo’s 150th, Everitt in for Williams. Goddard on Higgins looks like a great match up.
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portlygentleman The Saints unbeaten run continues – Riewoldt wins the toss
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portlygentleman Goddard bombs the kick out, Hill marks on the boundary but can’t take advantage. Dogs up 2-0 and Goddard hits the target the 2nd time
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portlygentleman Dal Santo dead in front from 45 kicks the first goal. Saints up 7-2.
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portlygentleman Dogs are very cautious and not playing their natural game, rushing and kicking to contests. The Saints have them rattled
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portlygentleman Finally a dogs break on the wing. Kick to Eagleton in a vacant 50, he outplays his man and runs in for the Doggies first, down 11-8
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portlygentleman Doggies are finally starting to move the ball quickly and it’s starting to work as they start getting inside 50. Saints up 11-10
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portlygentleman Both teams going through the corridor now, Against the run of play Goddard runs on to a handball from 55 and slams it through STK 17-10
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portlygentleman Riewoldt slams it into the post from the pocket for his 3rd behind. Saints up 2.6.18 to 1.4.10. Accuracy could be the difference today
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portlygentleman Liam Picken saves a goal, lunging in the goal square to knock it through in front of Montagna Saints up by 9 but it should be a lot more
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portlygentleman A comedy of errors, Milne handballs to the goal square and McQualter somehow manages to soccer it through between 2 defenders
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portlygentleman 1/4 time STK 3.7.25 WBD 1.4.10. Goddard has 8 possies and a goal, Harbrow has 8 for the Dogs. This game could bust open in the 2nd qtr
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portlygentleman Cooney runs inside 50 kicks to Johnson who handballs to Akermanis. Great team goal to open the 2nd. Saints 25-16
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portlygentleman Fisher is benched with a shoulder injury, it looks like an AC Joint. The Dogs fans are making themselves heard too
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portlygentleman Ball inside Dogs attacking 50, Hill tries to take a contested mark, misses but knocks it forward and kicks it through. STK 26-22
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portlygentleman Fisher still inside the rooms and the Saints seem to be missing him. Strangely the Dogs kick forward to Murphy who’s outnumbered 4 to 1
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portlygentleman Great play here, end to end stuff but nobody can goal. Saints up 29-22 but the Dogs are pressuring the defence halfway through the 2nd
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portlygentleman Gardiner kicks the Saints 4th and quickly follows it with their 12th behind!!! Every time the Dogs get close the Saints kick away.
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portlygentleman Dogs use the corridor, Minson marks & is hit late, the 50m penalty gives him an easy goal. Saints up 36-28 as we go into red time
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portlygentleman Desperate defence by Baker stifles the Dogs on the wing, the Dogs get it back and Hargrave rushes his kick and misses. Saints up 37-29
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portlygentleman Riewoldt finally kicks his first, dead in front from 50 this time and the Saints jump clear again. 14 up but double the scoring shots.
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portlygentleman Schneider snaps another one late for the Saints as the Dogs undo all their hard work. Eade will give them a deserved spray at halftime
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portlygentleman Huge final 5 minutes for Riewoldt, hard in the pocket, no light between the sticks as the siren goes. Can he kick it?
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portlygentleman You bet he can, HT: STK up 7.14.56 to 4.5.29. Riewoldt has 10 posns, 9 marks and has kicked 2.4. Ray 18, Goddard & Dal Santo 16 posns
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portlygentleman Cross is handball happy with 10 from 11 posns. The Dogs are beaten in every stat category so far but noticeably can’t mark inside 50
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portlygentleman Start of the 3rd. Can the Dogs make it close or will the Saints run away with it? My feeling is that the Saints will win by 40+
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portlygentleman But Rocket’s rocket at half time pays early dividends, Gilbee wins a holding the ball call and Hill takes a strong mark and converts
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portlygentleman But the instant reply comes in, A bomb inside 50 sees Gram under pressure do the team thing handballing to Schneider who easily goals
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portlygentleman The floodgates have opened, I can barely keep up, Cooney gets it inside 50 and Higgins gets the 3rd in 2 mins. Do we have a shootout?
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portlygentleman Yes we do! Goddard gets the ball to Gram who runs unimpeded inside 50 and drills the goal. It’s a game of 2 halves as STK lead 68-42
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portlygentleman Gilbert takes a strong mark and gets a defensive stat, the first of anyone for the Quarter after 5 minutes of play. Breathe everyone!
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portlygentleman The crowd though small are really getting into the game now as Cooney gets crunched by Minson. I hope he’s not concussed
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portlygentleman Goddard swerves around and finds Riewoldt despite 3 defenders. He kicks it, STK by 33 and the Dogs got nothing from an intense few min
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portlygentleman The Dogs get an immediate reply, breaking from the middle and finding Higgins 45m out on a 45 degree angle but he can’t convert, ouch!
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portlygentleman It’s going from bad to worse for the Dogs, Cross is incorrectly pinged for a throw dead in front. Gwilt kicks it and they’re up 80-42
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portlygentleman The Saints defence is so good, Addison gets the ball and is immediately crunched by 3 Saints, the Dogs have to be gone now
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portlygentleman Farren Ray is obstructed by Fisher and Minson runs into an open goal, the Dogs will take it anyway they can right now. STK 82-50
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portlygentleman The umpire has a new favourite song – The Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Doggies as Minson is holding the ball to all bar the ump
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portlygentleman Not that it matters Koschitzke (a nightmare name when there’s a 140 character limit) kicks his first from outside 50. STK by 39
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portlygentleman 3/4 time, STK up 12.18.90 to 7.8.50 and it’s a bad sign for the Doggies finals aspirations, the Saints are a class above
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portlygentleman Goddard best on ground with 27 posns, 7 marks and 6 tackles. Ray has 23 with 7 marks and Riewoldt has 10 marks and a wasteful 3.5
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portlygentleman No stars for the Dogs, Boys with 20 posns the best of a bad bunch. If they can win the Quarter it might give them impetus for next week
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portlygentleman But an awful start, Riewoldt kicks his 4th after Harbrow puts the knees in a Saint back. The question now is St Kilda by how much?
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portlygentleman BIG MINSON! A marauding run through the middle as he out runs Lenny Hayes. One bounce and a handball to Hill who gets his 3rd STK 97-56
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portlygentleman A Rose by any other name is a Lake out west, the defence push the Dogs wide before they centre and find the wet one. Who misses.
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portlygentleman Schneider nails his third and Saints fans are in heaven (at least the kid in the 3rd row is). St Kilda crack the ton and lead by 46
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portlygentleman Higgins shows off. One on one he holds the ball out before jinking back. The kick’s smothered and it sums it up. All flash no substance
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portlygentleman Thankfully for him Akermanis gets a holding the ball decision and pulls one back after a quiet day for him. Saints up 103-63
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portlygentleman Here come the Dogs but it’s too little too late. Griffin makes it 2 in a row as the Saints shut off. Ross Lyon will not be happy
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portlygentleman 36,302 people show up to Etihad which has to be disappointing given that the Saints were aiming for 6 in a row. Poor form Melbourne
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portlygentleman Final 5 minutes now and you would think that both teams would just be playing it out for the final siren but Riewoldt just won’t quit
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portlygentleman If I have one criticism of the Saints today it’s of Milne, he just didn’t seem to attack the ball. Riewoldt off, maybe 3 votes?
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portlygentleman Gilbee kicks one from the pocket to bring it back to a very respectable 28 points. It’s not a fair refection of the game
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portlygentleman All over bar the siren as the crowd give the Dogs the ultimate indignity and sing the song early
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portlygentleman That’s it. St Kilda 14.20.104 def Western Bulldogs 11.10.76 taking them to 6-0 and leave the Dogs in the pack at 3-3
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portlygentleman No real stand outs for the Dogs but they won the final qtr so all’s not lost. Hargrave best with 24 posns, 7 marks and 5 tackles
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portlygentleman but Riewoldt, 4.5, 17 posns and 14 marks for 3 votes. Goddard gets 33 posns and goes on Brownlow watch for 2 and Ray 31 for 1 vote
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portlygentleman Thanks for following everyone, Saints v Collingwood Monday week whilst the Dogs head to Adelaide on Sunday. Portlygentleman out
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Twitter is a lot like a text message on your mobile phone but for the web. It allows you to post messages or status updates to your own website. By adding hash tags (i.e. to every message I would add #afl) anybody who searched for “afl” would see my posts and so theoretically anybody could follow the match commentary online and by their phone. For a better explanation though, check out http://tweeternet.com/