Disappointed by the missed opportunity, but flush with belief from the stirring performance against the reigning premiers, St Kilda rebounding defender Shane Savage says the Saints have been instilled with confidence despite narrowly losing to Hawthorn on Saturday.
St Kilda held an 11-point lead early in the last quarter before being eclipsed by the Hawks at their home away from home, extending their winning streak at Aurora Stadium to 16 consecutive matches.
Savage continued his blistering start to 2016 in Tasmania, collecting 30 possessions and three Coaches Association votes and said if the Saints sustain that effort they can compete with any team on any day.
“It was disappointing, we thought we could have it in the end,” Savage told saints.com.au following St Kilda’s three-point loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania.
“If it wasn’t for costly errors early in the game we would have been a lot closer.
“But we’ll take a lot of belief out of the game and go into next week.
“We know when we play our way we’ll be close with any team in the competition so it was an impressive performance today.”
With the scores level at three-quarter time, St Kilda booted the first two goals of the last stanza to look ominous, before the Hawks responded.
From there, Alan Richardson’s side become reluctant to take the game on in the manner they had in the first three quarters, something Savage rued in the aftermath of the heartbreaking loss.
“We knew in that last quarter we had to still be bold like we had been in the first three quarters,” he said.
“We knew Hawthorn were going to come at us, but we knew we had to play our style of footy. We just weren’t able to hold on. But we’ll take a lot of belief out of that.”
