This was published 1 year ago
That brings to a close our Saturday night blog. It was a day of ups and downs. Essendon have plenty of soul-searching to do after being thrashed by Adelaide, Ken Hinkley’s Port Adelaide made a statement by belting Richmond, and St Kilda upset the more fancied Geelong. Check out the post-match comments from Ross Lyon and Chris Scott below.
Bye for now.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon placed an emphasis on the Saints’ “spirit and effort” after their seven-point victory over the Cats.
“I really loved watching the Bulldogs-Collingwood game [on Friday night], like the contest and the tackling, and I think it’s a fundamental of where football is at the minute,” Lyon said.
“Because you can move the ball when you get it. You never used to be able to because of the new rules. So it puts a premium on winning the ball.
“So, for the first two quarters, we won the ball. In the third quarter they got on top in clearances.”
Lyon felt the entire St Kilda team contributed to the win, stretching out to a 40-point lead during the game and then withstanding a Geelong onslaught in the end.
A pointed Cats coach Chris Scott has delivered a mini-drive-by at football commentators after Geelong’s upset seven-point loss to St Kilda at Marvel Stadium.
Scott was adamant it was the Saints’ cleanliness with the ball, and not their pressure, that caught out Geelong across the first three quarters on Saturday night.
“Forget all the cliches that you hear from commentators that don’t know what they’re talking about around intensity,” Scott said in his post-match press conference.
“I just thought they [the Saints] were clean. I thought we couldn’t get the ball forward enough, but when we did, they were able to bounce it out really quickly, and it was obvious to everyone that they’re kicking skills at this venue are at a really high level.”
Ex-Bulldog Jack Macrae credits St Kilda’s pressure for delivering him his first win in Saints colours.
Macrae, a 2016 premiership player who struggled to break into the Bulldogs’ team last year, had a game-high 35 disposals and 11 tackles. He was pivotal to St Kilda’s upset seven-point win over the Cats at Marvel Stadium.
He said St Kilda’s work rate and ability to outnumber the Cats at the contest in the opening five minutes set the scene for the game.
It came off the back of a disappointing opening round when they lowered their colours by 63 points to Adelaide.
St Kilda have survived a rampaging comeback from Geelong to cause a seven-point upset at Marvel Stadium.
The Saints led at one stage by 40 points and had to hold off a late surge from the Cats to win.
The Saints led by 27 points at quarter-time, 29 points at half-time and 27 points at three-quarter time. But the Cats outscored them four goals to one in the final term to almost pinch the win.
Jack Higgins led the scoring with four goals to help set up St Kilda across the first three quarters. Ex-Bulldog Jack Macrae was huge with 35 possessions - 17 kicks and 18 handballs.
St Kilda’s pressure was the difference. Their intensity caught out the slow-starting Cats and made them play catch-up all night. Key playmakers Patrick Dangerfield and Max Holmes were well held in the first half.
Geelong have had a goal overturned.
Brad Close claimed he had booted the ball off the ground for a major and the goal umpire agreed. But a review ruled it came off the St Kilda boot of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.
They trail by eight points with four minutes remaining.
The Saints have flooded back and look to be in survival mode.
Patrick Dangerfield marked strongly but his 40-metre shot at goal fell short. It’s unusual for the Cats skipper not to get the distance.
Then Jhye Clark missed a tough snap. This game really could go either way. Wow.
St Kilda 15.8 (98) lead Geelong 13.11 (89) with five minutes remaining
Oh dear. The Cats have kicked yet another – a Shannon Neale long bomb – and they are within just 11 points of the Saints. There’s less than two goals in this.
Geelong have kicked seven of the past nine goals and Neale has two for the night. That one came after a mark and a 55-metre drop punt.
Another goal to Oliver Dempsey. Now the St Kilda lead is shaky – they are ahead by just 17 points.
They have held a buffer of more than 20 points since quarter-time. We have 11 minutes left in this fascinating game.