St Kilda’s midfield was blown away by the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday, particularly on the outside where the Saints were ‘smashed’ according to Senior Coach Alan Richardson.

Sometimes the numbers only tell part of the story, forcing you to delve a little deeper. Despite winning a handful of key indicators – clearances, inside 50s, tackles and contested ball – St Kilda was resoundingly beaten on the outside, allowing Rodney Eade’s side to methodically plot forays forward from defence.

Gold Coast accumulated the highest mark tally in their clubs history (149) – 88 more than the Saints – to go with 81 more uncontested possessions as the Suns dictated terms and used the ball at an elite efficiency rate of 80 per cent.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s 40-point loss, Richardson lamented the poor effort by his engine room and was disappointed by his side’s inability to remove Gold Coast’s dominance.

“The outside stuff we got smashed. Their midfield just blew our midfield apart really. I think we won clearance, I think contest we won by 20 odd, so the inside stuff was reasonable,” Richardson told reporters in his post-game press conference.

“I thought Dave [Armitage] did a pretty good job on [Gary] Ablett but other than that we just got beaten to the ball, we got beaten on the spread both ways and we just weren’t able to get the pressure on that we’d like to.

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David Armitage went head-to-head with Gold Coast superstar Gary Ablett and limited his influence.

“They were able to get the game on their terms; their uncontested marking is testament to that. It’s very hard to pressure when they’re kicking and marking the ball.

“That was probably our greatest disappointment that we weren’t able to get the game back into a game where we had the opportunity to put on pressure.”

Despite not winning a game since Round 3, Gold Coast had been building across the last month, producing strong efforts against Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney.

Richardson praised the Suns’ drought breaking performance post-game, indicating that the Queensland side taught the Saints a lesson on Saturday.

“What I think is really important to acknowledge here is how good they were as a team,” Richardson said.

“We certainly knew that they were building; their last three weeks have been pretty positive; they’re starting to get some real talent back in their team and they taught us a bit of a lesson today.

“We were disappointed in our performance but they were hard to play against today.”

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