ST KILDA 4.3 6.5 9.8 12.13 (85)
CARLTON 4.0 6.1 9.3 10.6 (66)
GOALS: St Kilda: Billings 5, Bruce 2, Ross 2, Steele, Riewoldt, Membrey. Carlton: Silvagni 2, Murphy 2, Cripps 2, Gibbs, C Curnow, Weitering, Williamson.
BEST – St Kilda: Billings, Ross, Carlisle, Steven, Newnes, Steele. Carlton: Cripps, Murphy, Kreuzer, Simpson, Docherty, Marchbank.
Umpires: Simon Meredith, Dean Margetts, Nicholas Foot.
Crowd: 38,014 at Etihad Stadium.
Twice St Kilda looked set to run away to a comfortable win against Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Twice the Blues found enough not only to prevent a hiding, but to actually hit the front.
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St Kilda resist spirited Carlton Blues
Twice St Kilda looked set to run away to a comfortable win against Carlton at Etihad Stadium but the Blues fought not only to prevent a hiding, but to actually hit the front.
That's the sign of a team with a new-found sense of resolve. But a sign of a team perhaps on its way to a first finals appearance in six years is one which can handle things not going according to script and eke out an important win regardless. And that was the Saints.
St Kilda probably should have had this game iced as early as the first term. The Saints had four of the first five goals on the board. They looked slicker, moved the ball better and got out to a near four-goal margin.
The third quarter was almost an action replay. But to attribute St Kilda's failure to land the killer blow would be doing Carlton an injustice, the Blues on both occasions digging in admirably.
So well that when Patrick Cripps, a bull for the Blues around the stoppages marked and kicked straight five minutes into the last quarter, yet another upset, in a season full of them, seemed more than possible.
Perhaps the St Kilda even of last year might have, at that point, allowed the creeping sense of "one of those days" to overwhelm them.
But Alan Richardson's team has really found some more maturity even over the last few weeks. Seb Ross, a tireless midfield worker all day, stopped the mucking around with a bomb from outside 50. Josh Bruce took a timely grab and rammed home. And an unfortunately-timed 50-metre penalty conceded by Carlton finally made things safe. It had been some scrap to get there, though.
Richardson couldn't have been pleased at quarter-time. The Saints had dominated much of the opening term, the inside 50s at the first break a very lopsided 20-6 their way, but they led by just three points.
You could have had decent odds on that sort of margin halfway through the term, by which time it was four goals to one, St Kilda looking like they were going to do it on the bit.
Jack Billings had two and Tim Membrey and Bruce had both got on the end of lovely long kicks inside the scoring zone from Luke Dunstan and Jack Newnes. The Saints were slicing through the middle of the ground without much opposition at all.
But Carton has been good this season at hanging tough, and managed to do so again here until the Blues got their own game going. And that happened in a bit of a hurry.
Jack Silvagni brought the gap back to 14 points, then just two, his brace coming either side of a strong mark and conversion from Charlie Curnow goal. The Blues had not only managed to thwart St Kilda's run, but were now creating plenty of their own.
Billings remained a constant for the Saints, his third and fourth goals coming before half-time, the last of those following a sensational piece of hard running when he kept pace with the ball from the back-pocket right up till he accepted a mark 35 metres out.
But he had an opposition equivalent in Carlton skipper Marc Murphy, steadfast as his side slipped behind, but damaging as the Blues started to work their way back into it.
His goal in the second term brought Carlton again within a kick, and when he accepted a handball from another impressive Blue in ruckman Matthew Kreuzer, balked and dobbed his second, the Blues were in front.
By half-time, there was barely a statistical area in which St Kilda weren't ahead, the yawning gap in forward entries now 32-14, yet still the difference remained only four points.
And so the see-sawing continued. Three straight goals to the Saints to open the second half, three in response, Carlton's momentum reaching a peak when Bryce Gibbs landed a long shot late in the third term, Murphy sparking what might be a costly scuffle involving plenty of players after running past the prone figure of the injured Jake Carlisle to give the Saint a mouthful.
Carlton will get bolder and brasher yet as their win tally begins to tick over more regularly. And the signs on that score are good.
Where the Blues are now is where the Saints were not all that long ago. And that extra step along the developmental curve means that honourable losses instead become the sort of wins the Saints now expect.
VOTES
Jack Billings (StK) 9
Seb Ross (StK) 8
Patrick Cripps (Carl) 7
Marc Murphy (Carl) 7
Jake Carlisle (StK) 7