Saturday’s nine-point win over Richmond rounded out a clean sweep of victories at the MCG this season for St Kilda, prompting Saints Coach Alan Richardson to praise his side’s confidence and belief at the home of football.
While Etihad Stadium has gradually been built into a fortress this season, the Saints have looked comfortable on the game’s most iconic stage, adding the Tigers to wins over Collingwood in Round 3 (29-points) and Carlton in Round 20 (71-points).
Richardson was pleased with St Kilda’s work in the contest and application of team defence, after the Saints restricted Richmond to their second lowest score of 2016 – 6.10 (46).
“We spoke about that after the game. It’s important to have a game plan and a style that stacks up here and we’ve played some pretty strong teams here and that’s important,” Richardson told reporters at his post-match press conference on Saturday.
“There were some areas of our game that were really strong for us, our contest was strong and our defence was strong; our offence has a bit of work to go.
“But it’s good to win on this deck; it’s good for the players to believe that their style and their method stacks up; even if we don’t get everything right, that’s pleasing.”
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But while the Saints were defensively strong at the MCG, they failed to impact the scoreboard despite having a magnitude of scoring opportunities, particularly in the first half. St Kilda led the inside 50 count 17-4 at the first break, but held just a 10-point lead, emphasising their wasteful use of the ball on attack.
“We didn’t get it quite right offensively today; we were just too slow from the back. We went back behind the mark way too often. We like to be pretty aggressive with the ball and we didn’t do that today,” Richardson said.
"There were moments in the game that were frustrating, probably the first half really to be so dominant in terms of field position and entry and opportunity to score.
"Whilst we had a reasonable break it didn’t quite reflect the dominance in the performance. So that’s always frustrating when the guys have worked their backsides off and haven’t been able to make a bigger gap."
Richardson lauded the performances of a handful of young guns, including Ian Stewart medallist, Seb Ross, who earned best on ground honours after collecting a game-high 34 possessions, six clearances, six tackles and six inside 50s. He also singled out ruckman Jason Holmes for his first effort at senior level in over 12 months.
“For Ross to be really positive, for [Jack] Billings to bounce back – he didn’t have a great game last week, Jack – I think he’s had 25 and five, [Jack] Newnes was really strong again,” he said.
“I thought ‘Holmesy’ (was positive) because [Shaun] Hampson’s been in really good form, Blake Acres again was pretty positive. Like all of our young guys, they’ve got a bit of work to do but it’s very exciting.”
