“I just tried to keep it as simple as possible and just go through my normal routine and kick through the ball. I also tried to ice the clock as well, so I took almost my full 30 (seconds). I was lucky it went straight through.”

Those were the words of Jack Billings, less than an hour after he kept St Kilda’s season alive with the most important kick of his burgeoning career.

On a day where his ball use forward of centre was brilliant, but his finishing in front of goal had been wayward up until that point, Billings made no mistake when it mattered most.

He wound down the clock, soaked up the pressure, before splitting the middle to execute the Eagles.

A week after St Kilda let a 10-point lead slip in the last couple of minutes at Adelaide Oval, Billings said the Saints weren’t going to allow lightning to strike twice.

“It was really devastating last week; Monday and Tuesday were pretty flattening because obviously we went through the game,” Billings told saints.com.au on Sunday night.

“But at the same time, we played really well for the majority of the game last week so we made sure we didn’t forget that.

“Coming in today at the end we weren’t going to let it happen again.”

In a year where he has regularly demonstrated why St Kilda paid such a high price for him in 2013, Billings produced another eye-catching display on Sunday, finishing with 25 disposals, 14 score involvements – equal 3rd most of any player in Round 20 – five goal assists and 2.3.

With so little separating so many between 5th and 11th, and only a few games left, Billings said the Saints are simply focused on controlling what they can control, starting with Melbourne at the MCG next Sunday in what looms as a ‘mini final’.

“We’ve obviously spoken about how tight the competition is but we can only control what we can control and that’s us performing each week. We pretty much need to win all three and that’s the aim,” he said.

“Each game is never a pencilled in win so you’ve just got to come with that attitude every week and that’s what we’re going to do for the three remaining games and that’s what we’re going to do.”