Experienced St Kilda utility Sam Gilbert has little time for gallant defeats, stating that the Saints are capable of matching it with anyone and shouldn’t be satisfied with anything other than winning.

The 29-year-old was one of St Kilda’s best players in Sunday’s seven-point loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, producing arguably the strongest performance since emerging from an injury ravaged few years between 2013 and last year.

Gilbert collected 24 possessions, 626 metres of gained territory, seven inside 50s and six rebound 50s, whilst also nullifying North Melbourne key forward Ben Brown in the process.

But despite the Saints impressive effort against premiership contenders North Melbourne and on the back of St Kilda’s near upset over reigning premiers Hawthorn last month, Gilbert said noble losses aren’t acceptable for the Saints.

Monday Wash Up: Round 7 v North Melbourne

“We definitely feel that we can match it with anyone, but we’ve got to start winning at the end of the day,” Gilbert told saints.com.au following St Kilda’s heartbreaking loss to the Kangaroos on Sunday.

“We’re not here to be close second. We want to start getting across the line and that means we’ve got to work a bit harder and have a bit more belief and hopefully we can do that.

“Obviously they’re undefeated, so we knew that going in that they’re very good side, we felt we fought the game out very well so we can take a leaf out of that. But at the same time, we gave ourselves an opportunity to win and we didn’t quite get over the line.”

'He's in good form isn't he?'

St Kilda’s effort in the defensive third of the ground almost led to the Saints’ third win of the season, with Gilbert and stalwart key defenders Sam Fisher and Sean Dempster assigned formidable tasks.

Whilst Gilbert limited the influence of Brown, reducing him to just two goals, Fisher did a job on 300-gamer Drew Petrie (two goals) and Dempster quelled in-form key forward Jarrad Waite (one goal)], in a superb collective effort against the second highest ranked scoring team in the AFL.

“They’ve got three really good tall forwards. Between ‘Chip’ and myself and ‘Shinner’ we definitely wanted to support each other and I think throughout the day we achieved that,” Gilbert said.

“I think the boys defended really well. Credit to Geary, Jimmy Webster, ‘Joey’ and ‘Sav’ as well, they all defended really well and helped support us on the ground.

“I was on him; he’s a very good runner Benny Brown. In a similar role to ‘Chip’ and ‘Shinner’ whoever went higher we just wanted to get back and support the other one that was deepest. It was good; I think we all played our role really well.”

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