Several Saints stood out as Sandringham ran out 51-point winners over Werribee on Sunday afternoon.
Experienced midfielder David Armitage worked tirelessly across the four quarters, amassing 39 disposals and 10 tackles to ensure his name features heavily at the selection table.
Draftee Ben Paton continued his strong VFL form with another 24 disposals, while Nathan Wright and Darren Minchington piled on the pressure all afternoon, combining for 11 tackles.
Young spearhead Josh Battle firmly staked his claim for an AFL return after a three-goal haul, while utility Hugh Goddard returned to defence to finish with 15 disposals and seven marks after his stint as a forward last week.
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In what was the Zebras’ highest score of the season, Aaron Hamill’s side showed no signs of slowing down after an explosive six-goal start.
“It’s been a really tough month for us, so today we needed to focus on the things we haven’t been doing well in the clearances and stoppages,” Hamill told saints.com.au.
“Converting inside 50m to give ourselves a chance of winning games was a real focus, so to finish with 21 goals from 31 scoring shots was a great result.”
Hamill was impressed with how his team matched it with the opposition, but the head coach maintained there’s still work to be done.
“We didn’t have one player dominate with a big bag of goals, so to have 13 individual goalkickers across the afternoon was really pleasing,” he said.
“We let ourselves down a little bit late in the game where Werribee kicked a few goals in a row, so we need to improve with some strong opposition to come.”
The Zebras remain at Trevor Barker Beach Oval in Round 9, where they host the in-form North Melbourne at
Sandringham 6.3 11.7 17.9 21.10 (136)
Werribee 4.0 5.1 10.4 13.7 (85)
GOALS Battle 3, Smith 3, Connellan 3, Haidon 2, McLean 2, Marshall, Cook, Paton, Sziller, Langlands, Noone, Minchington, Longer
BEST Armitage, Battle, Goddard, Connellan, Paton, Minchington, Smith, Seccull
