Only to defy

Round 4, 2022
Hawthorn 3.3, 5.8, 7.11, 10.13 (73)
St Kilda 6.1, 12.3, 15.8, 22.10 (142)
Crowd: 30,926 at the MCG, Sunday, April 10th at 3.20pm

A big part of this week was learning to trust St Kilda. It’s going to be a big part of the coming week, too.

Even saying “learning to trust” implies that it’s on us as fans to do the heavy lifting. Prior to Sunday I would have said, no, string together two good full quarters (let alone two full matches) and maybe I’ll come on board. It’s a bit like the 2019 membership campaign that asked us “what would you do, if you were called upon?” when we’d just seen the Road to 2018 jackhammered.

Well, we’re all very pleased to be sitting here in the knowledge that the Saints went a whole lot better than two good quarters on Sunday. We got one of the most impressive performances from a Saints team since the first half of 2020, and this was probably more complete, more dynamic and more promising. It’s a performance that has already created a shift in media narrative, for whatever that’s worth. The Age was prepared to call Max King’s three last quarter goals a “trademark” last quarter burst. That’s three games in three weeks he’s kicked at least three goals in one quarter, and he’s equal leader in the Coleman with Tom Hawkins, but I’m not sure if he’s yet quite earned the title “King of the World” that they gave him on Sunday night. Gerard and Robbo discussed on 360 whether or not we were the real deal. Gerard said he’d wait three weeks but there was something more immediate. Robbo seems convinced. Gerard also said he’s taking talkback calls on SEN about Jack Sinclair. They opened 360 with Paddy Ryder being suspended for two weeks. Very suddenly – for a week anyway – St Kilda matters again.

After however many years of heartbreak and disappointment we still need to get a kick out of these things. There’s a very, very, very fine line when supporting St Kilda in enjoying the positives – a big win, a good start to the season, promising young players – without getting too far ahead of ourselves. But we’d be silly not to indulge just a little bit at the moment. Just a little bit.

***

I’m one for melodrama and fatalism. During Round 2, I pondered if we were the worst team in the competition, and if not, considered us to be at the very least the worst-placed team. At 3.21pm last week I uttered the words “Clarkson 2023” to Matt and Dad sitting next to me in Row S. This week, the auto-generated push notification that comes through from the Saints app at the start of every game actually hadn’t had the chance to appear by the time Dylan Moore kicked the first. By 3.22pm he’d kicked another and if The Age can call Max King’s last quarter flurries a “trademark” then we’ve also registered and patented the two-goals-in-two-minutes head start to the opposition. Maybe we’d Saints blown all the goodwill of the past week already.

But this felt more of a levelling start; it brought us back to earth rather than dragging us below the surface. We knew that this scenario (eventually) turned out OK last week. We didn’t have to rely on powerhouse forward Callum Wilkie to steady things this time around; this week it was Paddy Ryder, in a St Kilda jumper, with ruck tapwork-as-art from a ball up just inside 50 near the boundary to the unmarked Gresham. Gresham, on the move and on his opposite foot, just as artfully curled the ball through for our first. It was gorgeous, and very un-St Kilda like. And there was a whole afternoon of un-St Kilda like fun to be had.

Max made his introduction to this one a whole lot earlier. All told he didn’t quite have the singular impact on the game as he did in the previous two weeks, but that said more about the rest of the team than him. But he was there when the game was live. He saluted next with his reprisal of last week’s long set shot goal after casually receiving the ball from the air via Brad Hill. It would take a long strike from just inside 50 on the difficult side for a right-footer, but again he backed himself in from the difficult spot, and again it came off. A few moments later just outside 50 he won a free kick in a one-on-one (although the mark he simultaneously took would have been one of his best for the day), swung around onto his right and bulleted a pass to repay the favour to Hill for Hill’s first of four (yes, that’s right).

The Hawks showed what they were capable of with Ward running laterally off the mark from half-back and slicing a pass across to opposite flank to Day, and Breust was instantly out at half-forward. His long kick forward saw Gunston fly for the mark, Moore was at the fall and a handball to Mitchell Lewis in the forward square had the Hawks back in front. It wasn’t the only time the Hawks looked threatening this way, but it was the only time it came off and threatened the balance of the game. The next time they tried slicing through the middle Newcombe’s kick to Frost was interrupted by D-Mac, and with the help of Marshall and Gresham at the fall D-Mac got it back and found Butler in an open goal.

By this time Seb Ross had taken a dashing run off the back of the centre square and evaded Howe, took a bounce and found Paddy Ryder (St Kilda player) in a two on one but with a dangerous enough pass that he drew a (borderline) free kick for somewhere in between. Ryder wheeled around and had put us in front. We weren’t seriously challenged again.

***

Gerard said on 360 that we “ambushed” the Hawks. Our set-up across the ground halted the Hawks’ ball movement and we dominate the ball in play; the tackle count was won easily and while ground ball gets were led by Tom Mitchell, the stat was otherwise headed by Saints (Sinclair, Steele, Crouch, D-Mac, and then Butler and Gresham up forward). Our own fast ball movement across the ground caught the Hawks off guard and they couldn’t get their good early season turnover game going. Hill up forward took away one of the Hawks’ biggest weapons in keeping Jiath and his rebounding in check (and to the point where the relatively undersized Hill actually outbodied CJ on multiple occasions).

The ball movement and forward line were functioning beautifully – to the point at which we finished the day with the highest-ever score by a team with 46 or fewer forward entries. After looking static in Round 1 and toothless for a lot of Round 2, we’ve very quickly become very watchable and dangerous. The speed with which we moved the ball allowed for space forward targets to move into and we finished with 22 marks inside 50 to 10; otherwise Butler, Gresham and Hill were getting to work at the fall of the footy (when Max King was invariably bringing it to ground). It all amounted to plenty of shots from good range and good angles and we went into half-time at 12.3. Some awkward Hawthorn moments helped too. Gresham ran into an open goal after Scrimshaw didn’t realise he’d marked a touched ball, and Seb Ross intercepted a short kick from Hardwick out of full-back and set up Membrey.

Butler played one of his better games since 2020 and he too was prominent when the game was live. His cute stuff was coming off; King created a contest off a Lienert spoil than landed in Wilkie’s hands on the wing and Butler was at the fall, and his perfectly weighted kick found Hill between Jiath and Hardwick at the top of the square. Butler was then at the fall of a stoppage just 20 metres out and as he cruised past the ball ricocheted off him and back into the hands of Paddy Ryder (in a St Kilda jumper), who curled it through for his second (I might be kind crediting Butler’s involvement here). Butler and Steele nailed set shots from no angle. At the other end, Mitchell Lewis at one stage had 1.5, which had a lot to with Hawthorn taking shots out wide. We were denying the Hawks space in the corridor and any movement off half-back was stilted. Howard hasn’t been at his best this year but together with Lienert, Wilkie and Battle we have a tough defence to crack. Either side of half-time the Hawks kicked five behinds in their last real look. We replied with a run of misses in the third ourselves (it would have been great for NWM to kick that set shot) but it only delayed the inevitable. The Saints were humming.

***

Jack Steele is gradually returning to Jack Steele 2021 Mode. He kicked a goal in the first quarter from a strong mark on the lead (a proper running, full-chested lead, not a Max King ambient separation) and would be filthy with himself for not converting a second in the third quarter. He is assuming the role of captain again in the way he is playing and the way is with his teammates. He pulled Paddy aside after the Will Day bump and Paddy giving away a 50-metre penalty that ended with a Hawks goal, and gave him a very considered one-on-one talking-to to refocus him. As per the St Kilda Football Club (1873-present), of course the AFL decided to overcorrect after fluffing their lines with Tim English and gave Paddy two weeks. I’m sure the prosecution will argue that Paddy should have welcomed Day running directly into him. There’s no conspiracy, but of course it would be St Kilda in this situation.

We relied almost exclusively on Steele, Ross, Crouch and Gresham at centre bounces this week. Windhager had a handy post-car crash debut and was the only other midfielder to attend a centre bounce (only six for the day). Crouch was fantastic again, leading all comers with seven tackles and generated eight clearances, while Ross played some of his best footy in years. There was no Jack Sinclair at centre bounces this week; instead, he did the damage in open play, darting off half-back and up to half-forward, delivering multiple perfect passes to Membrey and Max, including an intercept in the middle of the ground (after a comedic Brad Hill stumble) and a deft running kick on the outside of his boot to Max (who set up the recovered Hill with the next kick) that elicited an audible “Oh!” from the crowd. Maybe Champion Data was onto something when they rated him “elite” on the eve of the 2018 season (and did so again earlier this year). Wearing a famous number (with a career-best 35 touches to match) and a wild mullet, he’s motored into fan favouritism and the wider footy consciousness.

Gresham went from a 32-possession game last week to a 20-possession, four-goal game, including setting up goals for Max and Hill in the last quarter. He’s been getting better every week this year and we now have a midfielder that can accumulate possessions and kick goals. Nick Dal Santo described him as our Petracca or Dusty equivalent (nearly eight years later for the former). His work in the midfield is a big reason why Sinclair can start off half-back and Hill can go forward at the moment. So much that needed to change on the run after Round 1 has done so. Gresham, King, Crouch, Steele, Sinclair, Butler, Battle, Lienert (there’s something about the SANFL, the Saints, and composure at the moment), Ross, D-Mac, Ryder and Hill, all in different ways, have been part of it.

Last week Brad Crouch finally played the kind of game through which St Kilda fans could get attached to him. This week it was Brad Hill’s turn. He’s had a few games where he’s racked up some decent numbers and has created a lot from behind the ball, but these had been littered with too many moments that frustrated (see several dropped marks under heat, multiple scrubbed kicks). On Sunday he played a game that showed tangible, more immediate results for his work: 23 disposals, nine marks, five inside 50s, and yes, four goals; excellent reading for anyone in any position. It’s obviously not the only reason we’re playing this way but his move forward during the third quarter last week directly coincided with this team’s turnaround.

***

It felt as though the stadium was expecting a big last quarter from Max from the moment Sinclair honoured the 35 on his back with a perfectly weighted chip kick into his path near 50. Max kept up his good long-range record this year and then Butler repeated the Sinclair dose a couple of minutes later with a near-identical kick to a near-identical position, except this time Max had held space on his opponent who was caught goalside and he simply stepped towards Butler.

Max finished with a career-high 17 touches, took 11 marks and dropped a few that he could have taken, but his threat draws multiple defenders and he brings the ball to ground at the very least. He’s never beaten in a contest. He was the target in three entries in the last quarter that ended with goals, including drawing an extra defender from Ben Long’s entry to the top of the square and that allowed Membrey to stay down on his own and snap his fourth goal from close range.

Admission: I haven’t yet come to fully enjoy watching Max King because my first thought is always “Please don’t do your knee”. Yes, that obviously stems from the time he literally did his knee but it’s also renewed Ben King-induced anxiety, as well as the fact that this is the St Kilda Football Club and history proves we’re simply not allowed to enjoy any things (don’t get me started on Gresh and Paddy’s respective Achilles). Prior to the Buddy 1000 game, Tom Browne suggested Sydney go after Max King, and we do have form offloading big forwards to the Swans for big results (their first Grand Final in 51 years, and then their first premiership in 72 years), so there’s that to worry about in the future too I guess. Either way, I just hope no one touches him, ever.

For the first time in years – probably since the prime of Nick Riewoldt – we again have a player whose presence we all anticipate ahead of the ball. You can hear the crowd volume rise as the ball goes into attack, the collective sound of thousands of people exclaiming “Max King!” Party time really began as soon as Max kicked the first of the final term. Another seven goals, three of them his, and a hand in nearly all of them. Every forward foray looked dangerous. One of the better moments of hte year was Max bringing the ball to ground, chasing after it low down and handballing to NWM hard up against the boundary; NWM spun away from Scrimshaw and gave off to Gresham, who feigned a kick and stepped inside CJ and snapped his fourth. Max has become the de facto standard-bearer for the best parts of this team.

Max’s last was probably everyone’s favourite, simply for the theatre of Butler running down CJ (who had to wear a lot in defence), and Gresham kicking to Max by himself near the top of the goal square in front of the Saints end. Everyone could enjoy the flight of the footy on the way to his hands for the day’s crowning moment (he’d had a similar moment a few minutes earlier but dropped the footy, then gathered the ball and kicked it on the full). Max was there again a minute later to compete in the air for the ball that ended up with Gresham and then Hill for his fourth on the run, and a bit of well-earned Me Time with the crowd.

For the third week in a row, Max fucking King.

***

We’ve kicked 32.14 to 11.13 since halfway through the third quarter against the Tigers. Sunday was our highest score since Round 23, 2016, when Roo was wearing the number 12 and kicked nine goals and took 21 marks. Sunday equalled our 69-point win over the Hawks last year (and this one was topped and tailed by the Hawks kicking the first two and the last two goals), to share the title of our biggest win since the 71-point win over the Blues just a few weeks earlier than that last game of 2016. Courtesy of Swamp, this was the first time since Round 12 in 2016 that a team had four players kick four goals (that was Fremantle against Brisbane). The previous time before that was…Hawthorn against St Kilda at the MCG in Round 7 of 2014, when we managed to lose by 145 points on a slippery day, and that was a week after coming within a kick of going 4-2 to start Richo’s tenure.

Sunday felt a combination of Rounds 4 and 5 of 2019. Round 4 of that year was the last time we went 3-1, with a win over Hawthorn, before a remarkable win over Melbourne at the MCG the following week that had us equal top of the ladder. There was a shift in media narrative then, too. Gerard said on that Monday what we were doing was “sustainable”, and The Age called us “the story of the year”. Richo was sacked 12 weeks later.

***

Absolutely nothing beats a day game at the MCG. Our home ground is a Concrete TV studio, where games of footy are filmed on what amounts to a stage with professional lighting and sound (too much of it). At the MCG you see and feel the change in daylight as the game evolves throughout the course of an afternoon. No matter the weather, you feel like you’ve been somewhere. And there is nothing like an MCG crowd in full appreciation of a St Kilda team. The last time that genuinely happened might have been the 2010 Preliminary Final. It was a fitting result in our first outing in front of the Shane Warne Stand.

This was also the first time since 2016 that we heard The Fable Singers after a win at the MCG. It appears the club has listened (after four years) and made the change back to using the original version at all grounds (The Fable Singers was used in Perth as well). It feels like some order has been restored, and it was almost nostalgic to hear it at a day game at the MCG with crowds in all the stands. There’s a cheeky thrill in entertaining the idea of whether the Saints are back, too (but let’s not get too cheeky).

COVID made a mockery of “there’s always next week”, and Putin is threatening “there’s always next year”. What absolute decadence to sit in the open air of the MCG on a beautiful autumn afternoon in Melbourne and watch the Saints win.