At half-time of Sunday’s win over Melbourne, deep in the bowels of Etihad Stadium, St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson wrote the number 22 on the whiteboard. The number referred to his want and need for everyone to make a contribution.

Unlike last week against Essendon where St Kilda relied on too few to get the result, the Saints received an even spread of contribution across the board against the Demons, in what was one of the more positive outcomes of the win.

Tom Hickey, Jack Steven and Seb Ross were good around the ball again, Tim Membrey and Mav Weller kicked goals and Leigh Montagna and Jarryn Geary got the job done down back. But there were no standouts, you could throw a blanket over them all.

“We touched on that (even spread of contribution). At half-time we wrote the number 22 up on the board,” Richardson told the media at his post-match press conference on Sunday night.

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“Last week it was really Jack Steven and Jarryn Geary, Riewoldt was still pretty positive, I think Membrey kicked five, but it was much more consistent. I haven’t looked at the numbers individually.

“Blake Acres is a good example; he had periods in the game in and around the midfield where it didn’t quite work for him. He went forward and looked really dangerous for us. We felt that we got pretty strong contribution from all our players.”

After a five-goal to zero second quarter, St Kilda produced a sublime third stanza but weren’t able to capitalise on their dominance, kicking only two goals despite having a plethora of good opportunities in front of goal.

The Saints kicked six behinds, including two posters from Tim Membrey, before Melbourne kicked three late goals to breathe life into the game at the final change.

Despite losing the quarter on the scoreboard, Richardson was thrilled with his side’s performance in the third term, indicating that it was as good as the Saints have played all year.

“I don’t reckon we’ve played better footy. I’m not sure we won the quarter. We just couldn’t capitalise, so that was frustrating. On the whole, the boys were pretty strong,” Richardson said.

“We got as good a looks inside 50 in terms of shots on goal on the back of really strong defence to win the ball back.”

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