At a glance:

• Skipper Jarryn Geary and coach Brett Ratten have praised Jack Steele's starring performance from Thursday night.
• Steele notched up a best-on-ground 23 touches and nine tackles while engaging in battle with Carlton co-captain Patrick Cripps.
• Ratten says despite Cripps' influential second half, Steele "got the points" in the fifth on-field encounter between the two.

Jack Steele’s tremendous performance on Thursday night opposite Carlton co-captain Patrick Cripps has earned further respect from skipper Jarryn Geary.

The uncompromising Saint was right on from the opening bounce, amassing nine of his 23 disposals in the first quarter, before rounding out the match with nine tackles and four centre clearances in the 18-point triumph.

But the defining aspect of Steele’s prime-time affair came from his first-half shutdown role on Cripps, with the former’s physicality, pressure and outmuscling of the dual-All Australian keeping him to just five touches at the main change.

After being swung forward throughout the first half, the Blues’ co-captain started the third term in the goalsquare to wriggle free of Steele’s clamp and finish the match with 22 touches and a goal.

Even with Cripps’ efforts in the game’s second stanza helping swing the momentum in Carlton’s favour, the early influence from St Kilda’s No. 9 proved to be pivotal in steering the red, white and black toward its third win of the season.

“You know Cripps is going to have his moments, but I thought they had a really good battle tonight,” Geary told saints.com.au.

“He’s a good player, Patrick Cripps, but we love what Steeley does for us.

“He’s done it again tonight, and he’s been doing it for a long time.”

The podium-finisher from last year’s Trevor Barker Award has had starring – and notably physical – roles from his past five encounters with the Blues.

With Thursday’s result taken into account, Steele has averaged 27 disposals (11 contested), 10 tackles and five clearances, all while going up against his opposite number at the coalface.

Both Steele and Cripps have dived head-first into salivating battles throughout the past few seasons, with bouts of explosive bursts and inseparable deadlocks during their fierce encounters resulting in a similar outcome from Thursday’s match.

One gets the motor running while wearing his opponent like a glove, the other eventually breaks free of the stranglehold as the match endures, and so the cycle goes.

Both players finish with high and hard-earned numbers on the stats-sheet by the final siren.

While the Saints lead the win-loss table 4-1 when the two No. 9s have butted heads, splitting the points between the midfield bulls hasn’t been so clean-cut from an objective standpoint.

But senior coach Brett Ratten was sure to weigh in post-match and have his say on who came out on top this time around.

“Cripps is just a great player, he deserves enormous respect and Steele did a fantastic job on him early,” Ratten said.

“Cripps got going a little bit late too and gave [Carlton] a little bit of momentum, so it was a great battle, but I think the work that Steele had done early gave him the points.”

Steele will turn his gaze to next Saturday afternoon, when the Queensland-bound Saints face Fremantle at Metricon Stadium at 12:35pm.

Jack Steele v Patrick Cripps

Swipe across to see all five encounters between Jack Steele and Patrick Cripps.