Round 11, 2022
St Kilda 5.2, 6.5, 12.7, 16.7 (103)
North Melbourne 2.2, 2.3, 4.4, 7.8 (50)
Crowd: 23,464 at Docklands, Sunday, May 29th at 1.10pm
What was it with this week?
In the fortnight since I last waffled on about the Saints (thanks Rich for covering for me) and treated myself to a birthday trip to the magnificent Adelaide Oval and a rare win a) at the ground and b) against an Adelaide team anywhere, St Kilda came back into vogue. The media bandwagon had returned. Josh Gabelich was on. One day he was writing about “Why it’s no longer panic stations at Saints” in the absence of Jack Steele, two days later it was former accountant Callum Wilkie is a “bounty hunter” that “might be the League’s most underrated player”. David King was back to breaking down our selfless running patterns up forward to give space for Max King (this time it was Zak Jones). After we eventually got past the Crows, David King frankly took it too far and said on Max, “I think If this guy lights up in September they can win it, there’s no doubt about that, they can win the flag”. Looking ahead, Damien Barrett went with ““a Marvel Stadium home game against the hapless North Melbourne presents as a fill-up for him in his Coleman Medal chances” in his Sliding Doors column that isn’t really about sliding doors moments.
Brett Ratten’s contract was a talking point. If you’d have told me we’d be taking about at the halfway point as we walked out of the Concrete Dome following the Collingwood loss I’d have assumed that he was gone and we were angling for #Clarko2023; instead we’re apparently looking at extending him as we sit in the top four at the midway point of the season. Dwayne opened the lines on Midday Madness wanting to hear more from us about it all. Talk about Rowan Marshall’s contract was enough to have him on 7 news. Ratts and David Rath did the sports radio rounds.
On On the Couch, Paddy Ryder himself (in a St Kilda polo) said he’s the third-best ruckman in the comp and quite openly said we’re aiming for top four by season’s end. So, surely, against second-last, struggling North Melbourne, here was a chance to show the maturity of the team. To be un-St Kilda-like. To do this without fuss, to get the job done, to dispose of a side that had lost their last six games by 68, 60, 50, 78, 69 and 47 points, with a 108-point loss before all of that.
Then Caro decided to bring back the North to Tasmania debate and Footy Classified trashed their recruiting, while Garry Lyon had put the umpires on notice by saying “Melbourne (against North) got the greatest run from the umpires I have seen for a long, long, long time”. Sam Edmund then reported that all of Mark Finigan, Glenn Luff and Ben Birthisel from the recruiting department had all handed in their resignations on Tuesday, “frustrated at the club over its management”, and he doubled-up with the goss revealing that Jason Horne-Francis travelled to Adelaide without the club knowing, and he may or may not have missed a game with a hamstring related to racking up frequent flyer points.
North got the moody vignette treatment on Tuesday’s 360 and Gerard called the club an “old-fashioned tyre fire”, before they got another howling vignette on the Wednesday. The ABC termed them “embattled”. There’s no conspiracy; but this would only happen to St Kilda. St Kilda, who had done most things right this year, was finally about to face a lower-rung team ahead of a steamy second half of the year, only to find that said struggler had surely engaged Us Against Them mode.
***
Then we decided to drop Jack Billings, and I wasn’t sure how much more this whole situation could be tempting fate. I say it every week, but we have 149 years of trust issues. All good to send a message to the players about accountability, but would we have dropped him if we were playing Melbourne or Brisbane or Fremantle or Carlton?
His on-paper replacement Mitchito had more of a presence at the first centre bounce than he did for the entirety of Round 1 with a tackle, smother, smothered clearance, getting down low to the ball, forcing another stoppage with a tackle on McDonald, and then getting down low and getting it out to Crouch for the clearance. That might have settled some nerves about personnel for the twitchier among us; this line-up had three guys in their first season, no captain, no Snags, no recently-returned pick 3. By afternoon’s end, we would be revelling in the fact.
Murmurs McKenzie has made a funny habit of bobbing up for our early goals over the past 12 months. He kicked our first with a great solo effort running laterally along the 50-metre arc with Taylor; chasing a clearance he tapped it to himself, reversed and broke out of the Taylor tackle, outran Curtis and finished neatly on the left. Maybe he’s cleaner than we (mostly I) give him credit for. This is how guys like him have elevated their game to take us to 8-3.
Highlights for the first half were almost exclusively confined to the first few goals of the game. North took it straight out of the middle and Zurhaar offered a solo effort of his own, burning Sinclair and dodging Wilkie in the pocket, before we nabbed our second thanks to Max taking another step to fulfilling our wildest desires with a one-handed juggling mark in front of goal.
North were matching us early. Yet again they came up with the instant reply, straight out of the middle again, and this time it was Todd Goldstein with a nice banana from the same pocket as Zurhaar’s goal. North would actually win the clearance count 45 to 31, and it would have a lot to do with why Brad Hill and Jack Sinclair finished with the numbers they did. I’m going to do a disservice to them by not mentioning them enough this week, but surely Sinclair is leading the Trevor Baker Award right now and Brad Hill is becoming the player we hoped he’d be (Blake Acres is too, funnily enough, but on the other side of the country).
North’s short game of keepings off – at one stage it was 74 disposals to 50 as they shared the ball around – was undercut by a few moments put things where they should have been. When we actually did win a stoppage Ross accidentally kicked a goal from 65 metres out, but it came from Paddy Ryder (in a St Kilda jumper) with ruckwork-as-art at a centre wing throw-in. Ross faked a handball, outran Horne-Francis, bounced, shirked Luke Davies-Uniacke and the kick went over Long, past Max – who knows where it was supposed to go – and rolled through.
Mitchito got involved again for our fourth, with a tackle from a forward pocket throw-in, Crouch won the ball in traffic and gave it out to Paddy Ryder (for the Saints), who actually hadn’t contested the preceding ruck throw-in and he snapped the goal around the body.
Membrey won a holding-the-ball free-kick and converted and a three-goal lead had opened up without us having brought any real heat. We’d have to wait for after half-time for anything to really happen. The second quarter was really just a lot of St Kilda having the ball and a lot of missed goals; the game could have been wrapped up by half-time given we had multiple set shots from no difficult angles and North could only manage one behind. King took a now-almost-trademark grab at the unreachable point thanks to an excellent pass from Membrey, in a chain created from a – dare I say it – NWM-esque pass by Seb Ross out of defence to Windhager, but he ended his run of seven straight kicks; Zak Jones shanked one to the left and Windhager shanked one harder and put it out on the full. Sharman finally snuck one through, taking a high mark (Derm in special comments was very impressed) and a give-off to Sinclair, and like Max he marked the ball at the highest point. He did his absolutely best to force it left too, but it snuck in.
***
You wouldn’t want this kind of game at 4.40pm on a Sunday. Having this on a beautiful late-autumn afternoon at 1.10pm tucked under the roof in TV studio lighting was already treating it with the disdain it deserved, but it would be a true grind if this was played in the depths of the weekend (and I don’t have kids; that’s a whole other planet of footy logistics for me).
It wasn’t all dour footy, it was just played at a middling pace, with one team keeping the opposition at arm’s length. Hill and Sinclair were everywhere and providing some liveliness (David King declared we have the best half-back pairing in the competition in the wash-up). Their numbers by the end of the game were fantastic (32 disposals, 10 marks and 764 metres gained for Sincs; 33 touches, a goal, 664 metres gained and 10 coaches’ votes for Hill), perhaps partly because of North winning the clearance providing more work for the back half, but we had accountant-turned-bounty hunter Callum Wilkie roaming around and taking 12 marks, Josh Battle running back into the path of Larkey, and Dougal keeping Larkey to two touches. This wasn’t sizzling, there was no sizzle, but there also wasn’t anything to worry about.
The bull run did eventually come, but not in the thunderous way it did against say the Cats a few weeks ago. Windhager made up for his miss and kicked a set shot goal; his teammates got around him more for his second-ever goal than his first, perhaps making up for barely acknowledging his first against the Dees a few weeks ago. The margin had snuck out to 33 points by this point. A wayward Sinclair ball ended up with Ziebell lining up for goal in his 250th. Dwayne, ever the optimist for low-key matches in poor timeslots in artificial lighting, declared “this is huge, this is massive”. Dwayne brings energy, sometimes he brings too much energy and sometimes too much misplaced energy.
We replied with another goal that felt more like another accident than the unadulterated silk that was about to be on display. Paddy Ryder (St Kilda) and Wood broke on the wing and Max halved the contest and Gresham was at the fall running towards the boundary and got tackled without it by Hayden. He lined up to curl it around from the pocket and his shallow kick unimpressively fell over the line. It was still enough to elicit a smile from goal umpire David Rodan, and enough to elicit a “That’s crazy good!” from Dwayne, even though it went through largely because Rowan Marshall just happened to be physically existing in the way of Hayden and Walker, and Goldstein forgot where he was.
It was time for a few highlights. It’s hard to get our head around the party tricks of 2004 being that long ago now but this was the first time since then we had this many young guys making a fun impact on the game (although the Riewoldt generation this is not). The most replayed moment, rightfully, has been NWM’s kick to Max. Some traffic in the forward 50 line had pressure on the North defenders coming from all of Jones, Mitchito, Long, and Gresham, and Scott’s rushed kick out was marked at 60 by NWM. He patiently waited for some movement and Max was again set for one of his leads from the pocket, but it took a fingerpoint from NWM (in his ninth game) to get him going. The bullet kick barely scraped Max King Reaching Height and was one of the prettiest things that happened in red, white and black since the GT and Ross eras, echoing the best of Hayes and Harvey to Riewoldt and Gehrig; Harvey to Lockett; Winmar to Lockett. It was the kind of kick that literally and metaphorically cuts through a game. This match hadn’t been hitting any fantastical highs but the urgency lifted from this point. Max took it right out in front, and went back and gave it the finish it deserved. It would be part of four goals in eight and a half minutes and 6.2 for the quarter.
NWM’s game also included a four-bounce sprint along the members’ wing before he ran into trouble (although there wasn’t anyone really giving him anything), and almost a thrilling first quarter goal from a crumb from a high spoil, before he turned left, then right, and then right some more and lined up but missed (for some reason, he just can’t quite settle in front of goal). He also offered an already-trademark bullet to Marshall on the wing in the last quarter. Yowza.
The next was a little more fortuitous but had a fun result. There was not quite a Max King quarter – there was as much a Max King quarter as much as there was a Mitchito Owens quarter, as much as there was a Mitchito Owens minute, that took the margin from 39 to 51 points and well and truly shut the game. All three of this year’s debutants were involved in varying ways for the first. Windhager was caught holding the ball at half-back, Hayden went laterally and the footy fell straight to NWM on the arc. He had King available with an arguably easier kick than what was required a few moments earlier, or he had Long over the top, and he kicked it straight to Turner in between them. Turner spilled it, in only a way that a defender playing for a team anchored so low can (we’ve been there before ourselves), and Long swooped and fed it out to Mitchito, who calmly, off a step, curled the ball through for his first goal. A light show and a team celebration for the 18-year-old.
At the following bounce, Horne-Francis came through the middle but was worried out of it by Paddy Ryder (of the St Kilda Football Club) and Paddy collected the ball that was meant for Tarryn Thomas and gave off to Jones. Young stuck out a hand to Zak’s kick and gathered the ball but it came out in a Long tackle – possibly before or after Young outright spilled the ball himself, and Mitchito reacted fastest and kicked the ball off the ground through for his second in just over 20 seconds of play. As it goes these days it was time to immediately come off the ground, and this time he got a light show an ovation from the crowd. As well as the two goals he finished with 10 tackles, playing the kind of game we thought he’d play when we called him a “bull” and “contested beast” (a little bit like Windhager).
Goldstein put in his shot for mark of the year over Mason Wood, getting as high as someone that big probably can. Trying to shake the stepladder stigma, Mason found the ball on the wing and launched forward to all of King, Marshall, Ryder, Sharman and Membrey. None of them could take the mark but in the traffic Marshall cut off the handball to Hayden and gave it out to Max. Max pirouetted onto his left and slotted it around his body, yet again doing the things we’ve been projecting that he’d be doing since we drafted him, this one a moment of agility belying his size.
Rich and I discussed after the game that it is becoming possibly apparent (??) that this rope-a-dope business might actually be by design. As the Melbourne game showed (Collingwood too), there is huge risk involved if you let a team get too far ahead, but we’ve pulled out several game-changing third quarters (Rounds 1 – even though we used up all our magic – and 2, 3, 6, 9 and now 11) and fourth quarters (Rounds 3, 4 and 10). We’re obviously backing our fitness to run out games, but seven of our eight wins (plus the Collingwood game, plus some decent second-half footy against the Dees) have had a defining second-half run. Through a quasi-retrospective mid-season review lens: It’s been fun, once it’s actually materialised.
***
The final quarter was played at the pace of an afterthought, as if we everyone was really just waiting to take in the last bit of sunshine before winter officially set in. Hill (courtesy of an excellent Gresham double attack and Mitchito aerial effort) curled through a nice goal; Marshall roved and kicked a replica after Ben Long chased the ball hardest and spun on the spot; D-Mac gave away another 50; Long helped set up another goal by attacking the ball from a throw-in and taking the tackle, a fast handball to Mitchito, and quick hands from Seb to Zak Jones and an excellent pass to Membrey on the lead. Curtis kicked straight to NWM in the last 40 seconds, Sinclair ran past and lobbed a high ball, Membrey was goalside and marked and gave to Gresham running past into an open goal. Gresh actually ended up with the ball on the siren and played on (his kick was nowhere near it either way); for hardcore fans of score lines this created the first-ever game in VFL/AFL history that finished with a final score of 103 to 50.
We probably could have gone a little bigger with the margin if we’re wanting to be totally uncompromising and ruthless. What decadence to have this moment in which we are able to say that. We won the first quarter by three goals and won the third by 25 points, but the second and fourth were a little tighter. Not tighter in the way that it was a highly pressurised game, just tighter in the can-we-really-be-arsed way. We didn’t have to fear the repercussions of the media pile-on or a club in crisis ready to lash out or a tyre fire getting out of hand. We did what we had to do.
Freo appeared to have denied us the chance to claim the very small marker of being in the top four at the halfway point of the season, but they temporarily allowed just that little bit of belief that yes, the Dees can be beaten, and rather than a race of one with a trailing group it’s a race of one, still, but that trailing group might be a little closer. Then the Blues lost anyway. So yes, we are in the top four at the halfway mark of the season.
The absence of Jack Steele will be more telling after the bye but there is plenty to like. Right now, we have Max King (who I still can’t fully enjoy because I’m worried he’s going to get injured), we have a team playing selfless footy, we have everyone playing their role, we have players improving, we have three first-year players making genuine impacts. Save for pissing away a win in Cairns we’d be a game off top spot. To boot, Sandy is third on the VFL ladder, behind only Melbourne’s Casey and, uh, Southport.
***
It’s about this time of year we get to the “every week” of “supporting the team every week”. Feeling the cold. Catching the tram to the game. Meeting the people you watch the game with on the Bourke Street bridge. Getting a Parma at Platform 28. Getting the drinks. Lining up for too long to go to the bathroom because Marvel’s getting redone. And there’s no guarantee of an enthralling game, or a Saints win. By now, the game itself doesn’t have its early-season novelty. Days of listening to Whateley into Midday Madness and nights of watching 360 bleed into each other.
And just as we settle into it all, we run into a bye. We’re going to need it. And I mean, we as fans are going to need it. The second half of the year isn’t going to be easy in any way. We’ve set it up so that if we finish top four it’s going to be exhausting and emotional, and if we fall out of the top four it’s going to be exhausting and emotional. We haven’t exercised this supporting muscle for a long time.
Two seasons ago we were second on the ladder after Round 10 of a 17-match season; last year it was a second-half turnaround that had us within touching distance of the finals. Here’s hoping we can put together both halves, plus finals, this year.
In the meantime, make the most of the bye.