At a glance:
- Co-vice-captain Dougal Howard says St Kilda hasn't let thoughts of a late finals tilt creep in and distract its focus on improving its consistency.
- The Saints caused a shock upset on Friday night, ousting the reigning Premiers by 40 points at the MCG.
- Howard finished the evening with 21 disposals, 10 intercepts and nine marks.
Co-vice-captain Dougal Howard says St Kilda hasn’t let thoughts of a late finals tilt creep in and distract its focus, despite a dynamic win against the reigning Premiers last night.
The Saints held Richmond to just two goals for the entire game – the Tigers’ lowest score at the MCG since 1927 – to record a shock 40-point upset and keep within touching distance of the top-eight.
But Howard says the Saints’ primary objective remains about bridging the gap between their best and worst.
“To be honest we haven’t really spoke about finals because of the way things have been going,” Howard told SEN this morning.
“It hasn’t probably been high on our radar (because) it’s just been about building our consistent performances.”
The Saints currently sit just one game outside the top-eight with a 6-8 ledger, but a lesser percentage of 82.1 has it towards the back of the logjam of sides looking to crack in.
It would be a slightly different tale had St Kilda emerged on top in two of its most recent encounters, with wayward goalkicking and a final-quarter capitulation spelling deflating losses against Sydney and Adelaide respectively.
A hypothetical 8-6 tally would place them just inside the top-eight.
“The Sydney and Adelaide ones, look, they could hurt us later in the year which is going to be hard to swallow but it’s those sort of games that you can’t let slip,” Howard said.
“It’s such a tight competition and we’ve just got to be better in those close ones and get over the line in them.
“(Last night is) going to give the boys a lot of confidence, so who knows what could happen.”
