Round 7, 2022
St Kilda 2.3, 3.6, 3.13, 4.18 (42)
Port Adelaide 0.2, 1.4, 4.6, 5.13 (43)
Crowd: 6,645 at Cazalys Stadium, Saturday, April 30th at 7.25pm
For St Kilda supporters, the early part of this season has been about learning to trust this team, and about enjoying what that brings.
That probably reached a peak last week with a fighting win against GWS in a cold Canberra in what was arguably our best of the year. But rarely have I been more certain of a St Kilda loss than heading into Saturday night; 149 years of trust issues will trump five weeks of feel-good footy.
GWS in Canberra presented a big enough banana peel. But a 1-5 “Port Adelaide” in “Cairns”? Are you shitting me? That’s a recipe for St Kilda disaster. One win over Port in 11 years, including very tight losses in 2012, 2013, 2017, and last year. We weren’t going to get away from gravity two weeks in a row.
For anyone who was an impressionable child in the early 1990s (or older), interstate games have been fraught with all sorts of danger. Last week I reeled off a list of those late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s losses where we lost the ability to play Australian Rules football and were overwhelmed by anxiety. Round 15 in Adelaide in 1997, Fremantle in 1998, Brisbane Lions in the last game of 1998, Sydney a week later in the Qualifying Final, Fremantle in 2002, losses in Tasmania to Port in 2004 in 2005 (and then a win in 2006 courtesy of a shanked Motlop kick after the siren), “Whispers in the Sky” against Freo in 2005, West Coast in the season opener of 2006, Freo twice in 2006, including Sirengate. These were mostly played in years in which we were a much more competitive team. The Richo era was all about dire performances interstate with a hallmark of slow starts; games that were done by quarter- or half-time. Big losses at the Adelaide Oval in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, to go with the heartbreak of the Port loss in the latter year; big losses in Perth in 2015 and 2016, Canberra in 2019 – hell, even Geelong was horrible – but a more nuanced foe emerged in recent years: novelty stadiums, mostly via games (and consequently) premiership points that we sold for cheery dollars. Launceston failed while Hawthorn made it work. Wellington was zero wins from three losses. Gold Coast in Townsville in 2019 barely went OK, Shanghai not so much. Melbourne in Darwin in 2020 was a two-point loss to a (then) lesser opponent as the season spluttered. Adelaide in Cairns last year was a disaster, a 36-0 lead given up as we spent the second half waiting to lose, and St Kilda simply had to keep us in suspense until the final seconds, just to really string us along.
History was going to repeat.
The fantastical St Kilda F.C. Archive posted the entirety of that 2017 loss to Port Adelaide during the week. I had to steel myself for this week. I watched from the stoppage on the wing with about 90 seconds left, as we held a 10-point lead after a stirring comeback that should have made for what would have been the best win of the season. I watched Seb Ross put in a weak inside 50 that went straight to a Port defender, I watched Port rebound, I watched all the weak one-on-one contests that led to Aaron Young’s goal that put the rest in motion. I watched more weak and anxious one-on-ones, and then Paddy Ryder’s wonderful hit from a throw-in to Robbie Gray for a goal with seven seconds left, also made possible by a trailing Seb Ross and a disappearing Blake Acres.
Yes, history was going to repeat.
***
The journo who opened up Ratts’ press conference after GWS with “6-1, how do you feel?” jinxed this one a week out. I absolutely jinxed it further in a meeting during the week when someone brought up the Saints and I joked “You get sick of winning”. I was obviously, obviously joking – I am a St Kilda supporter for fuck’s sake – but even before I opened my mouth to say it knew I would be tempting fate. The Footy Gods won’t allow you to even indulge in humour at your own expense without punishment. I put money on Port Adelaide out of guilt, but also out of supreme confidence that we wouldn’t be able to dodge a second banana peel in two weeks. Things just don’t work like that at St Kilda.
The media hype this week wasn’t in the same overdrive, but it started to focus on a few specifics. Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Higgins moved into the footy consciousness – one of David King’s top five in-form players in the comp; Nathan Jones was talking about him on Dwayne’s World, and he drew enough attention for Leigh Matthews put a question mark over his work rate. Andrew Wu ran a feature on Snags that described him as “the talk of the football world for his goals”. For the right reasons we were the subject of David King’s analysis; this week it was Brad Hill’s work in the forward line to make space for Max King, after he’d been praised during the broadcast on Friday for working hard to stretch the field as we tried working the ball forward. Even D-Mac got the club website treatment. David King said if we brought our defence to offence transition to mid-table we’d have the best Champion Data profile in the league.
***
The Bureau of Metereology offered typically warm Cairns conditions with a 70% chance of showers. The humidity at night on its own would make for very similar conditions to another Saturday night game against Port a few years ago. Why would the AFL schedule a game for this time of year in Cairns if they want to showcase not just the game to a non-heartland market? Of course, Port had been played into form the week before by West Coast, and they would avoid us at home in front of fans for a ninth straight year. We’ve gone to Tasmania, to Shanghai and to Cairns, and brought on a pandemic to make it all happen. This time, we’d return to the scene of one of last year’s biggest crimes (out of several whoppers).
Signs were good early despite the slippery conditions. After spending most of the year giving up the first few goals we owned the first quarter everywhere but 30 metres within goal and on the scoreboard. Tom Campbell, who for some reason plays for St Kilda now, welcomed himself by kicking the first behind. In hindsight it may have been folly to push for a second ruck to come in given the conditions. Otherwise, the Saints had a good early run with the umpires across the ground, really. Max won a soft pushing free from his most hated part of the ground – 25 metres on next to no angle – but a dissent 50-metre penalty took him to the goal line. It was the perfect chance to get his confidence up early after the 1.7 in Canberra.
Our structures and contested work were looking solid. Port could barely string a couple of possessions together and were forced into going down the line to little or no effect. By the same token, we couldn’t quite get the link up between players and much fluid ball movement happening, and even if we did, a lot of our entries were long hurried kicks that brought Aliir Aliir right into the game. We broke through by slicing through the middle to Hill, who took on Houston and Amon from the handball and delivered to Higgins, delivering exactly what he was brought to the club for. Higgins missed the set shot.
In our quest to stretch the ground, Hill was again finding space on the wings, and added to his physical game with a big hit on Jonas. Long was reprising his reliable role off half-back, and NWM was also offering some speed and run out wide. But nothing was really changing with the entries. Repeated entries, sure, and D-Mac gave us some reward for effort with a nice goal, but even with Max King launching at everything he just wasn’t bringing them down, and there wasn’t enough coming from our guys at the fall. We were too predictable.
We finished the quarter up 24 to 8 in inside 50s, but only for a quarter-time for a 2.3 to 0.1 lead. There was no way we going to have the same amount of space for Higgins to trying blasting the cover off the ball and Max to miss easy set shots on this night.
The second quarter started a little better. Aliir was everywhere still, but we managed to avoid him by cutting through the middle off half-back via Steele and Ross, who found Hill who again provided the perfect pass to a leading Higgins. Snags honoured Hill’s good work this time and a 19-point lead had been opened up.
***
Port got their first just a few moments later when D-Mac let the ball go straight through his hands and Ollie Wines shat out a goal from the spill. They were the opportunities that needed to be taken.
The ball movement dried up again as Port muscled their way into the contested ball. Ratts was starting to look frustrated in the box. Ryder missed a shot out of the ruck with more time than he thought he had. Sinclair and Hill off half-back kicked it straight to Aliir; Aliir lost his feet a few moments later and still won the crumb from Campbell’s kick. Butler and Hill had the break on the broadcast side and the ball slipped out; Gresham twice blazed away and missed. Membrey and Steele dropped sitters around the ground as the ball became almost unusable. Campbell managed to pick out three Port players. Membrey finally found space off Aliir and kicked to two one-on-ones but to no one’s advantage. NWM made a mockery of the conditions with an awesome pick up just inside 50; but he still hasn’t quite settled with ball in hand inside 50 yet. His hurried kick was turned over.
Port were good enough to change things up at half-time. As soon as the Channel 7 graphic showed “St Kilda has outscored their opposition by 146 points in second halves this season”, the Power had found Robbie Gray on the lead. They were moving the ball faster; the quarters began with a much for usable footy and they made the most of it, working into space, kicking short and sharp and fast. Farrell was hit up just a couple of minutes later, and all our inside 50s and domination of the first quarter and parts of the second had just about been wiped.
Again, we were face-to-face with 149 years of trust issues. In the lead up to the GWS game, part of me had started daring to trust. I’d dared to trust that Max King would kick goals from all angles; that Seb Ross and Dan Butler to get arsey handballs out of traffic, that Nasiah would hit targets; that Jack Steele would lead from the front; that Jack Sinclair would be used in the right part of the ground; that Jade Gresham would pop up at the right time. Simply, we have to win these. A tough draw is coming up. Melbourne, Brisbane twice, Sydney twice, Geelong twice, Fremantle again, Carlton to come. The early season honeymoon period is now giving way to games really counting for something. While Luke Dunstan is getting a game with the best team in the league, The Bizarro Rivalry Cold War with Freo took another turn during the afternoon as the Dockers announced themselves as the real deal and Blake Acres got the post-match interview treatment on Fox as one of their best. We want to announce ourselves, too. We’ve been waiting for a long time.
But the leaders weren’t really leading. Steele and Crouch weren’t at their best when we needed some more presence in the contest against Wines and Boak and Rozee. Sinclair was effective but dulled. It felt like the magic was gone. Butler went the banana that has come off in recent weeks through Gresham and Crouch, but it drifted wide. Ryder’s long set shot missed, so did D-Mac’s low percentage kick from the pocket. Butler chose to not pass to Higgins all on his own 40 metres out. Ken was looking smug in the box. Gray was gifted a 50-metre penalty that was incorrectly if it was given for Dougal moving off the mark and incorrectly given if it was for Steele running inside the protected zone. He kicked the goal. Scores were level.
***
There wasn’t a Max or Snags quarter this week, but there were Max and Snags patches.
A long entry finally came off (sort of ) when Max was dumped at the fall by Bonner and won a free kick 20 metres out. Finally, a chance to get one our way. He tossed and turned the ball in his hands repeatedly as he was walking in and fluffed the ball drop, and the weak kick went to the left. We’d gone from 3.3 to 3.11.
A spoil on 50 was forced from Port’s kick-out, and Windhager turned beautifully out of the fall and bulleted a kick to Higgins just on 40 metres out, on little to no angle. Snags missed again. 3.12. Windhager and Hill worked off half-back a couple of minutes later and it was down to a foot race between Gresham who won the free, but the banana missed again. We would go into three-quarter time at 3.13 (we were 3.12 in the 2017 game). Luke Darcy’s mic started cutting out as the game hit a penultimate crescendo, as Motlop ran in and bananaed a miss. A one-point lead at the final change with nothing trustworthy or sustainable about what we were doing. This was a horrifying mash-up of the 2017 game and the 2009 Grand Final.
There’s a magnifying glass on every moment in a loss like this. We have a second loss of this season that we can attribute largely to poor disposal and poor kicking at goal; and yet another game that for better or much worse revolves around Max and Snags. In Round 1 they combined for 1.7 and a lot of dropped marks. On Saturday night they combined for 2.5 with multiple easy shots at goal missed. We’ve had wins this year we can owe to them; we’ve also had multiple losses last year and this year we can owe to them.
Max actually opened the final quarter with a goal – it came from a Brad Hill tackle, and then another Brad Hill another excellent forward entry to Max on the lead, 25 metres out on a slight angle. Max sent it through. The margin was seven points, and we won the ball out of the middle with a Steele tackle on Rozee, Gresham hit up King again in nearly an identical spot. He had the chance to all but bust open the game then and there; to open up a 13-point lead and give the team belief that yet again we would be able to run the opposition off their legs. His shot drifted across the face.
***
Given a reprieve, Port wrestled back the game. An unlucky ricochet out-on-full free-kick led to Todd Marshall converting a very decent set shot, and then it was Port’s turn to miss opportunities. Amon delivered the perfect pass to Farrell who missed from close range, and then the ball came straight back in and Robbie Gray swooped. It was made for him; he turned around the corner but missed. Scores level. But he would have his moment yet. Of course he would.
Has anything been so pathetically inevitable? Perhaps last year, against the other South Australian team at the same ground. This was the same process – a sad, two-and-a-half-hour march knowing exactly what would happen, just waiting for it all to physically happen out so we know how it played out and what it looked like on the footage. A lot of the trust built up in the previous five weeks was being burned with every weak kick off the ground, every harried long kick into the forward line to no one in particular’s advantage, and every missed shot at goal. You keep thinking, ok, maybe someone will bob up. Maybe Gresham. Maybe Higgins. Maybe Max. But apart from that brief moment when Max had the ball in his hands with the chance to open up the game, this felt like a countdown to disaster. Certainly when a string of Port Adelaide behinds put them in front and Bonner looked set to stretch the margin beyond a goal, and even when we found ourselves in front thanks to our own run of behinds. No one was stepping up. Howard in defence tried playing on around Marshall and danced his way into trouble and a smothered kick that fell over the boundary line. Steele spilled another short hit-up, Crouch finally found time and space on the edge of 50 but grubbed the kick to King on the lead. NWM, clearly one of our best and most daring all night, put in a fantastic chase along the wing that gained the best part of the distance between the arcs but Ross fluffed his lines.
There was a turn to attack again. NWM, again, rushed himself with the sticks in sight and tumbled a ball through from just inside 50 when he probably had a little more time than he thought. Ryder followed up his own ruck contest from a forward pocket throw-in and gave off to Higgins whose kick faded to the left and hit the post. Howard and Wood did well as Port came out of defence, as they chose to go shorter from the kick-in after long kicks hadn’t worked all night. Ross’s long ball to the square came off Membrey’s hands; Battle, thrown forward out of desperation, couldn’t get to it and Aliir rushed the behind. Scores level.
There were two moments in which we had control of the ball in the final minutes that in isolation could have gone a long way to us winning the game. Long at ground level, D-Mac and Seb Ross won the ball back on the defensive side of the wing and Ross’s pass fell through Hill’s fingers, but he reacted quickly and kicked the ball off the ground and the ball went straight to Max, by himself just inside 50. Maybe he was gassed from reaching a contest in the same spot a few moments earlier, because he hadn’t moved; he picked up the ball and immediately turned and sliced it high, either unaware of or too tired to take the opportunity to take a few steps and straighten up given all the space he had around him. In the goal square, Burton had Higgins covered and rushed the ball. We were in front; it didn’t feel like it.
Port won the ball from a harried kick from Paton and skirted the broadcast side to go deep into attack. Rozee found the ball in the pocket but was chased out of it, and Butters’ snap just went across the face. Scores level again.
The second moment was actually played out in two parts. Howard went long from the kick-in to a two-on-one (that’s in Port’s favour, mind you), but the ball fell to the front into the hands of Ryder. He found Gresham on the wing, but even with plenty of space he couldn’t manage to kick it to advantage at half-forward (or into space over the top) and the ball came back. Membrey effected a spoil from Duursma’s torp and followed up his own work and we were able to relaunch of the defensive side of the centre square again. Long had time and gave off to Ross running past. Ross, whose weak kick forward in 2017 began the calamitous minute of football, had been arguably our best on this night. He only had to hit Higgins on the lead with a 30-metre kick and we’d have the ball in our hands at the top of the 50-metre arc. But his kick fell short; Higgins was left scrambling on the ground to retrieve it. Burton, Wines and Farrel worked it away and out of the disputed ball Rozee gave off to Butters, and Houston’s kick wide into the 50-metre arc found Robbie Gray, of all people, who just like five years earlier was somehow all by himself in space. The ball sat up for him and he steadied on the boundary line. Any score would probably do with just over 30 seconds on the clock. He kicked the point. Howard’s kick-out into the middle was won back by the Power, and back into Robbie Gray’s hands.
***
They’re the best games to win and the worst games to lose. They’re a lot worse when you kick yourself out of it. There was nothing honourable in this one. Just an awful of anxiety that yielded 4.18, our most inaccurate performance since…well, last year, when we kicked 5.17 against the Cats’ 10.8 in the game where Max dominated but kicked 1.5.
Richo said after the 2017 loss to Port that it was “a bloody costly way to learn your lesson”. Did we actually learn anything? Five years later, we’re still making stupid basic mistakes interstate against Port Adelaide, leaving Robbie Gray free in the dying seconds and giving Ken a licence to look smug.
The five-game winning streak is dead, long live the possibly three-game losing streak that’s heading our way. Our excellent April finishes in ignominy. This was the third of Gerard’s three weeks before he wanted to make a judgement on whether or not we were the real deal. A mini-blockbuster on a Sunday afternoon at the MCG against the Demons on a Sunday afternoon beckoned – what would have been our biggest home and away game in Melbourne perhaps since playing for top spot against Collingwood in Round 16 in 2010. It would have been better for the club than some quick dollars in Cairns could ever make up for. Those dollars certainly wouldn’t make up for finishing in certain parts of the ladder by the end of the season, if that’s what Saturday night costs us (indeed, on Monday morning, Gerard opened his show saying “St Kilda is counting the dollars and the cost”). In the pre-match, Channel 7 had played some upbeat highlights about the Saints guys enjoying themselves on their few days away in Cairns. I hope the two-minute puff piece that this game allowed for was worth it for everyone at the club, the AFL, Cairns Regional Council and the Queensland government. Playing in Cairns wasn’t the reason we lost – the Herald Sun’s expected score was 67 to 54 in our favour; we kicked 1.15 from our last 16 shots, and Port were playing on the same ground – but playing in Cairns is the reason why we played on a neutral ground in conditions that absolutely made this game a 50/50. Even with those odds, you know which side St Kilda will fall on. We’re just left to replay all those last moments in our head hoping they turned out differently.
The ghosts of 2017 remain. I posted on Twitter early on Saturday afternoon “Tonight is absolutely the kind of game St Kilda loses.” Someone replied, “I’m so tired of the whole loser narrative surrounding St Kilda. It’s about time the supporters stopped perpetuating it”. We’re tired of it too. But we’re not the ones out there. We pay for memberships and for tickets and go through the logistical rigmarole to attend and watch games and provide the clicks for the club’s feel-good content. We don’t get hundreds of thousands of dollars each year or media careers out of this. The club’s had 149 years to change our minds and build our trust. Saturday night was another chance. Again, they blew it.
Looking forward to “shat out a goal from the spillage” becoming part of the Ch7 commentary team’s lexicon.
Great write up Tom.
We aren’t out there…..we have virtually nothing to do with it! When blokes are missing from 20 metres out directly in front in critical games in critical moments it’s pretty bloody hard not perpetuate the ‘loser’ narrative.
I’m confident that the core of this team is the one that will take us deep into September though we are seemingly ‘good’ for some ridiculous losses in the meantime.
For what it’s worth, I was really disappointed with the games of Higgins and Butler. I felt that Higgins really failed to embrace the conditions and kept trying to be cute. Worsened by the fact that repeatedly kicked it to him in 1 v 1 situations. I felt like he needed to just keep the ball in front instead of trying to turn his opponents around. Case in point being the still shot accompanying this post. I have no doubt that he has the skill to turn that ball into a stoppage or scrimmage and not clean turnover. Butler was virtually non-existent.
Still pissed…..
Thanks Cam. I’m still……so pissed.
This is St Kilda, we’re always good for some ridiculous losses. I admire your ability to still hold some optimism at this time.
Going by Brendon Lade’s comments in Andrew Wu’s Jack Higgins article the other day, Butler apparently does a whole lot of stuff I’m not entirely aware of so I won’t pan him too much but…he was, uh, quiet, and really didn’t use his moments with the ball.
I thought Higgins would really thrive in this game. I’m hoping this just a blip for him and Max in front of goal rather than an extended confidence slump.
Fark.
As much as Snags has been in a brilliant patch of form, like some pundits have highlighted, he does always tread that line between being-daring vs being idiotic. Leigh Matthews put it down to ‘work rate’ (meh?); trying to always get out the back. I think the conditions on Sat night demanded that players be able to play the percentages a bit more, but even more so in those last 1-2 dying minutes.
I think the real knife-twist aspect to this loss is, in those last 3-5 minutes, you sat there thinking “OK, who is going to go up a gear here to get us over the line”. And like you mentioned, some of our more seasoned players had those opportunities to put nails in the coffin. Seb Ross waltzes through the corridor (fair play he had a good game) and has to execute a 30 meter pass that he would carry out at training in that same manner like 50 times a week. Seb wasn’t the only culprit. But Seb is symbolic of…(I believe) we’re still missing those players who can consistently be very good under pressure.
Also…I’m not sure if you mentioned the Snags snap (in the last…3 min?) which I think would’ve put us back up by a goal-ish. It was from 15 meters out. It is the exact opportunity that a small-forward makes their living off of. I was staggered by that miss. With Snags…it just always seems to be feast or famine.
Our public proclaimed X-Factor Guy has been Gresham. He was extremely quiet – possibly carried an injury. Did not have an impact. Again, like snags, probably was guilty of trying to be too cute a lot of the time too.
Another aspect to this was that, I felt like (particularly after 1/4 time) we just had too many players that were poor. Membrey really struggled all night, plus he struggled to nullify Aliir. Wood was anonymous. Brad Crouch was ineffective – and remember, these are the weather conditions that a Brad Crouch is made for. Tom Cambell….is he AFL standard? Webster and Paton were really poor with the footy. I didn’t think Paddy Ryder had an impact.
Fair play to Brad Hill. He seems to be every Saints fans’ favourite whipping boy. He was in our best again on saturday night. And was one of the few that under pressure could pick the ball up, find space and had the poise to hit a nice drop punt.
Interestingly, we had 61 inside 50s (a season high?). But unlikely our wins…we weren’t able to maintain field position much at all after quarter time. We had a lot of entries that went in and bounced straight out.
You’re right, Snags is one way or the other. Should have nailed a few shots but that last one was really disappointing. That’s what a player like that is there for.
No one really stepped up. Gresham needed to kick it to someone’s advantage when he was in space on the wing, Seb needed to hit that pass, Crouch (a night made for his type) needed to just put it in front of Max, Membrey almost had a good moment at the end (which Seb ruined) but was otherwise very, very quiet.
Hill had some great moments.
So predictable going forward. Nothing was happening at ground level. We looked great one the small handful of occasions in which we played our game and linked up with each other and waited for the opportunity to present (namely with the ball in Brad Hill’s hands).
Totally agree re Snags and Seb.
I think we’re at the high point for Sebs output. I’m firmly of the view that we’ll have a higher ceiling (in a vacuum) if his spot is taken by a Clark or Jones.
For snags, he hasn’t nailed that line you mention but I guess we simply don’t win the GC and GWS games without him.
Spicy comment, Cam!
Jones – yes. Sadly, I don’t really see Clark making it.
Jones gives us something different (similar to Gresh). He’s quicker, can play inside and outside – which I think is where the game is now. There are very few, very good midfielders who just do one thing.
I’d see Jones come in for Windhager (who had some nice moments on Sat night, mind you)
Clark…similar to Billings (and Coffield)….we’re several years into his career, and it’s still a question of “OK, what position can we actually say he’s good at?”. Plus (similar to Billings and Coffield), he’s slow.
I guess with Clark, he’s just so incredibly skillful, on both sides, he’s invaluable. As we all know, he’s a bit of liability early in the game when it’s frenetic and finds his feet in Quarters 2,3 and 4.
The Bombers game in the pre-season he played on ball and was really good until he was injured. Unfortunately, with Crouch, Seb and then Clark – there’s just too many slow mids.