The Analyser - Round 23 St Kilda vs North Melbourne

The Analyser – Round 23 St Kilda vs North Melbourne

The Saints, who hadn’t lost at Etihad Stadium on a Saturday night since 2003, took on the Kangaroos in a battle that would either cement a St Kilda finals spot or give North a real chance of September action.

After leading at quarter time, the Saints found themselves 20 points down halfway through the second quarter. But five unanswered goals to the Saints before half-time gave them a 14 point lead at the break. From this stage, North didn’t give a whimper with the Saints running out 65 point winners after an exhilarating second half of football.

This week’s edition of The Analyser will dissect the Saints ball transition, Nick Riewoldt, our taggers and much more.

EL CAPITANO
After being criticised all week by opposition fans, media personalities and even his own supporters, Nick Riewoldt answered emphatically with a 5 goal best on ground performance.

Nick hasn’t had his best season, even by his own admission, but he is still capable of match-winning performances as shown by Saturday night.

What helped him excel was the improvement in the delivery inside 50 and also the presence of Justin Koschitzke, who provided a great target up forward.

Riewoldt started slowly with a stutter in his run-up as he missed his first set shot. From then on he looked confident when kicking through the ball and converted his next five set shots.

In an impressive performance, Riewoldt also collected 12 contested possessions, 10 marks (3 contested), 4 inside 50’s and 4 goal assists.

Getting the captain into form so close to finals is an exciting prospect for St Kilda supporters.

SEAN DEMPSTER
Dempster has regularly featured in this column for his defensive shut-down roles and I think this really shows his importance to the Saints structure.

Brent Harvey must have dreaded seeing Dempster run to him just before the bounce and for good reason. The Kangaroos veteran spent more time complaining to the umpires and shoving opponents than winning the footy as Dempster completely shut him out of the game.

Harvey finished with only 16 touches and no clearances as the clamps were put on by the ex-Swans tagger. This meant that Harvey has only averaged 16 disposals over the past 5 games as Clinton Jones and Dempster have kept him in their “pocket”.

Having Dempster performing a shutdown role on the opposition’s most dangerous player will be a massive string in the Saints bow come finals time.

CLINTON JONES
Whilst he didn’t find a lot of the ball, I thought Jones deserves a special mention for his shutdown role on Roos playmaker Daniel Wells.

Even though he only accumulated 13 possessions, Jones managed to restrict Wells to only 18. What made this figure remarkable was that Wells gave Jones the slip in the first quarter and had 9 possessions.

It was some very good coaching by Ross Lyon at quarter time when he went to Jones and showed him how to position his body against Wells.

Clinton then did the ultimate team “thing” and completely sacrificed his game to keep Wells quiet and this was a big reason why the Saints got on a roll.

BALL TRANSITION
There has been a definite change in the Saints ball transition from defence to attack over the past 10 weeks. It has been evident the Saints have been trying to move the ball quickly from defence to attack and have kicked a number of goals this way. Stephen Milne and Adam Schneider have profited from this tactic in particular.

I first noticed the difference in ball transition against Gold Coast. It was then a huge factor in the majority of goals we kicked against Sydney in the first half. Despite the fact I thought the Kangaroos had the better of the first quarter, we led at first break due to our quick ball transition and the taking of opportunities.

The coaches and the players have obviously worked very hard to improve the ball transition. Most finals teams are solid at locking the ball inside their own attacking 50 arc and Ross pinpointed that we had trouble getting the ball forward when teams do this. A clear example was Hawthorn earlier on this year.

Watch out for the Saints using the tactic against the Blues. Notice that it is almost always Milne or Schneider streaming into the forward 50 to run on to the footy.

JASON GRAM
It isn’t often that a player can have only 2 kicks and be one of his team’s best players. Especially when it’s a player noted for his attacking run off half-back. But Jason Gram has added another string to his bow: he is a very effective stopper.

After a brilliant performance a few weeks ago in shutting down Fremantle ace Nat Fyfe, Gram did a superb job in limiting the influence of Lindsay Thomas.

The dangerous Kangaroos goal sneak was kept to only 2 behinds and 10 possessions despite buzzing around at Drew Petrie’s feet the whole night.

While Gram only had 2 kicks, it’s great to see him sacrificing his game to be a defensive stopper as it’s something we haven’t really seen from him.

He has added versatility to his game that means he can shut down a dangerous opposition attacker as well as being an effective rebounding half back flanker.

DAVID ARMITAGE
After giving Armo a bake in a recent edition of The Analyser, I thought it was worthy to note the quality of his performance against the Roos.

He played his in his designated half forward role and kicked a crucial goal in the second quarter during the Saints comeback. It was through pure desire to win the footy that he got his hands on the ball and banged through a goal from a metre out.

Armo had 21 possessions, 6 inside 50’s, 8 tackles and kicked the crucial goal. These are the exact kind of statistics that you want to see him having in playing his role.

It’s a shame that David is suspended for the game against the Blues. The sling-tackle that got him suspended was a well executed tackle. I would expect, however, that he will be an addition into the finals side to play Sydney barring an extraordinary performance from this replacement.

LOOKING TOWARD THE CARLTON GAME
Despite being in a poor patch form, the Saints led the Blues with 90 seconds to go in their last meeting earlier this year. This time, the stakes of the game are completely different.

A win for the Saints will guarantee a home final against the Swans at Etihad Stadium while a loss will mean the Saints have to travel north to play at ANZ Stadium in a rematch of Round 22.

On the other hand, the Blues don’t have anything to play for at all really. They can’t go up or down on the ladder and may be flat coming off last week’s bye. Essendon have the bye this week so their players will be fresh for the elimination final against the Blues in week 1 of finals. Surely, Carlton will want to be as fresh as possible for the cut throat final as well.

Taking the motivations into consideration, the Saints should have the clear edge over the Blues when it comes to the crunch on Saturday night. However, there still will be some Carlton players fighting for their position in the finals side and winning form is always good form.

At selection on Thursday night, there will be one definite omission with David Armitage being suspended for one match. I’d expect that either Ryan Gamble or Steven Baker will be his replacement. With careful thought and the fact the Blues have a few dangerous small forwards, I think Baker will come in to specifically play on Jeff Garlett or maybe even Chris Yarran.

It will be interesting to see whether Ross replaces Armitage with a forward or a defender. The player chosen will be on the cusp of a spot in the best 22 and will need to put in a good performance to retain their spot come next Saturday’s final.

THE FINAL WORD
Any questions, opinions, comments can be directed underneath this piece, to @kieran_francis or kewfrancis@gmail.com.

All feedback and improvement suggestions are welcome.
I’m really confident for a Saints win on Saturday night. I think the fact the Saints have a lot more to play for will get them over the line and book a home final next week. Carlton will definitely be more concerned about being prepared for their elimination final the week after.

Bring on the MCG on Saturday night. Hopefully it won’t be the last time we appear at the home of football this season.