Round 19, 2021
West Coast Eagles 2.2, 8.6, 11.7, 14.10 (94)
St Kilda 2.1, 4.2, 7.6, 13.8 (86)
Crowd: 43,657 at Optus Stadium, Saturday, July 25th at 4.35pm AEST
Get up off your lounge room couch and move the coffee table to the side. We’re back to doing the dance we’ve done several times over the past few years – a last month of a home and away season that presents a mathematical but very unlikely path to the finals, and we have to ride every mundane and uselessly hopeful minute of it.
In the lead-up, the club wheeled out the remarkable Sunday afternoon in early 1998 in which Daniel Healy and Peter Everitt both kicked six goals on their 24th birthdays as the Saints stormed home over the Eagles at Subiaco to pinch a two-point win (never mind that we lost to eventual wooden spooners Brisbane at home a week later). I thought first-game-as-sub Cooper Sharman might have supplied the novelty material, but while our first-tier players were mostly reduced to bystanders, Max King kicked six goals for the first time in his career to almost pull off a similar heist.
When the Eagles’ lead hit 33 points during the third quarter – as it had earlier this year – I absurdly believed it more likely that we would win. I scanned fantasies of headlines and Fox Footy discussions about the Saints pulling off a pair of 33-point comebacks against the Eagles in the same season, and the tweets referencing 33 points something times two something equals 66 (something equals 1966?). (Worth also mentioning this would have echoed the difficult 2017 late season run that saw a stunning last-minute collapse against the Power and then a juddering win against the Eagles the following week.) There was a constant exchange of feeling like we were in it, that Eagles had an extra gear every time, that they were going to completely blow it open.
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Perhaps for the first time this year we’ve posted a loss that actually lifted our feelings about the future of this team (it only took 19 weeks). This was mostly built on Max King, Zak Jones, Dan Butler and Brad Hill. The St Kilda group chat at three-quarter time discussed how quiet the captain had been during the game, while also acknowledging his massive last term against the Lions a fortnight earlier. He opened the last quarter with the break out of the centre, helped by Butler timing his run into the middle from the forward line with perfection, and weighted the kick perfectly into the oncoming hands of Max King. As much as I was willing for a bunch of history to repeat itself, Steele never quite got going. Despite 13 tackles, a late forward-50 entry between Saints players and straight to an Eagles defender was more reflective of an un-Jack Steele-like performance.
He, Crouch and Dunstan had just 53 disposals combined and were constantly outworked by the Eagles’ own midfield. Kelly, Sheed, Gaff and Yeo were all prolific, while Kelly and Sheed kicked goals when the Eagles made their move and when the game needed someone to step up in the final minutes. It also meant the larger US College Jocks got to have their way in the forward line. Kennedy and Darling had five between them by half-time when the Eagles led by 28.
Zak Jones was our biggest presence across the ground, repeatedly bodylining the ball and taking hits, looking to take the opposition on and get the ball moving. Hill used up his almost-obligatory funny disposal for the match early on with a squirted handball but otherwise racked up another busy game off half-back in which he did what he could to get things moving around and ahead of him. King kicked six to make the absolute most of everything that went forward (we’ll get to that) and Butler put in his best performance of the year by far. The quick-thinking, slicker Butler we saw last year was back – good finishes, hard running, and some smart ball work up the ground (including a complete halt and turn around to kick backwards to Billings that allowed for an entry to set up King’s floating mark early in the third; also he pounced on Rotham’s wayward bounce which was a universal lol).
There were some ok moments. Paddy Ryder, in a St Kilda jumper, snapping around the corner to get things going in the first quarter. Billings kicked a goal on his right. Long put on some heavy tackles. Byrnes and Connolly again looked comfortable at the level.
Quieter games and blunders weren’t just for top-liners. Oscar Clavarino made four (maybe five?) outright turnovers by foot that gave the ball straight back to the Eagles in all sorts of the ground. This was a day of few real winners.
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Which made the result all the more surprising, and perhaps at a second glance – certainly going over the numbers – makes Max’s game all the more impressive. An aimless opening had a pantsing written all over it; no real structure, no real purpose in the forward entries.
For all the issues going forward over recent years, his teammates did the right things by him by putting the ball into the right places. But this was more about a young forward putting on a thrilling display that justified all the hype. He repeatedly flew for marks and they stuck. Edwards being put on him felt a little bit arrogant on West Coast’s part, although there is sense to it. Counterintuitively, I felt personally affronted almost for the same reason when the Eagles put McGovern on him to close out the game. Instead of wilting, he turned McGovern inside out after being outworked in the marking contest, sprinted onto the bouncing ball, got down low and gave off to Butler who brought us back within 13 points, and then a few moments later ran into space on the hill and marked the Brad Hill kick at its highest point, stared down the 43,657 interstate crowd and kicked the goal.
From his first goal – a faultless kick from outside 50 – he threatened right to the end. He got separation on his opponents, he drifted across packs, he launched over defenders. For the first time, the seemingly lackadaisical line-up, the unchanging facial expression and calm action were borne out of confidence, rather than the self-doubt we’ve been projecting that he must be feeling since the Geelong game. We now have images and footage of him flying in the afternoon shadows for a mark over multiple opponents when the team and the season really did need someone. We know what Max King being dangerous and damaging looks like.
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Paul Hunter giving away a free-kick from the throw-in just seconds before three-quarter time was quietly stunning. Spectacularly St Kilda. All that had to happen on the wing was a break-even contest; instead the US College Jock Captain pushed the margin out to 25 points.
That was barely the reason we lost. Even in the final quarter, for all of Max King’s contested marks and straight kicking, the inability to back up goals was brutal; aside from the obvious scoreboard impact, it never allowed any serious momentum to build. Three of the last quarter’s six goals were replied to within 105 seconds, 100 seconds and 76 seconds – and that includes the time for the ball to go back to the middle and the ground to reset.
Anyone who listened to Grant Thomas on the excellent Unpluggered podcast a few weeks ago heard the former coach suggest how all of the near misses over St Kilda history really just accumulate to something inherently wrong with the club rather than 148 years that can be reduced and summarised as just entirely “bad luck” or “if onlys”. The 2012 season saw four games in which we had more scoring shots than the opposition and/or lost by less than a goal. Turn those results around, and instead of finishing ninth, we finish fourth. Throw in the game in which we kicked more goals than Collingwood and lost by six points – with Armitage running into goal in the final seconds and the umpire paying a free kick against us that the AFL said was a mistake – and we finish third, ahead of premiers Sydney. We could make the same case – as those moments become part of history, the nuances wash away and we’re left with a fossilised core. The bones spell out one premiership since 1873, they spell out a ninth finish in 2012 that no-one need bother remembering.
Imagine if we had all the guys out there! Marshall, Gresham, Clark, Higgins, Highmore, D-Mac, Paton, Battle, Geary. Other teams have injuries too, and waiting around for the perfect moment has never really worked out. If only Max had kicked straight against the Cats, if only Jack Higgins has kicked straight against the Swans, if only we’d used the ball better against Port, if only we were awake in the first part of the game and didn’t fall back asleep during the second. How would a neutral view St Kilda in the context of the wider 2021 AFL season? We wouldn’t really play any major part. There probably isn’t enough upside or time or logistical space for the season to turn from here. Our expectations for the last few weeks are coloured grey. Resurrect the St Kilda Messiah Complex – beyond that, they do look rosier.