Media articles & stats: Tigers downed by Saints by 56 points

[one-eyed]

Tigers downed by 56 points
richmondfc.com.au
By Matthew Clayton 7:20 PM Sun 28 June, 2009

St Kilda        0.3    5.5    11.9   13.14 (92)
Richmond     2.3    2.3     2.3     5.6 (36)

GOALS
St Kilda: Koschitzke 5, Riewoldt 2, Goddard, Dal Santo, Geary, Ball, McQualter, Schneider
Richmond: Morton 2, Cousins, Hislop, Riewoldt

BEST
St Kilda: Goddard, Dal Santo, Gram, Riewoldt, Koschitzke, Geary, Hayes, Ball
Richmond: Foley, Thursfield, Tambling, Cousins, Tuck

INJURIES
St Kilda: Hudghton (ankle)
Richmond: None

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Grun, Kamolins, Avon

Official crowd: 38,196 at Docklands

----------------------------------------------------

RICHMOND has failed to score for two consecutive quarters against top-of-the-table St Kilda at Docklands on Sunday, eventually going down by 56 points after leading at quarter-time.

The Saints trailed by two goals at quarter-time, but booted 11 consecutive goals thereafter to turn a close contest into a rout, eventually running out 13.14 (92) to 5.6 (36) winners. Richmond remarkably failed to score at all in the second and third quarters. The win was St Kilda’s 11th consecutive triumph over the Tigers, a streak that began in 2003.

For the Saints, now 13-0 on the season, Brendon Goddard had 35 touches, while Jason Gram added 34. Justin Koschitzke was on song all game long, finishing with 5.1.

Richmond, who fell to 3-10 after a dispiriting display in Jade Rawlings’ second game as caretaker coach, was led by Shane Tuck’s 33 possessions, while Nathan Foley added 30. Mitch Morton was Richmond’s only multiple goalkicker with two for the game.

The third term produced a dominating display from the Saints, who booted 6.4 to no score to take an 11.9 (75) to 2.3 (15) lead into the final change. Remarkably, the Tigers failed to score for the second consecutive quarter after failing to add to its tally of 2.3 (15) after the first term.

Goddard got the Saints rolling in the second half with a trademark long goal, which set the stage for key forwards Nick Riewoldt and Koschitzke to flex their considerable muscle. The power pair combined for three of St Kilda’s six goals for the term, and with Jarryn Geary and Andrew McQualter also adding their names to the ever-increasing list of Saints goal-kickers.

The Tigers barely got the ball inside 50 for the term, with St Kilda’s trademark hard tackling and running style completely dominating the contest. Goddard had 14 touches for the quarter in a standout display.

The only interest in the last quarter was when – or if – Richmond would score another goal. Morton provided Tigers fans with some relief at the four-minute mark when his centred ball to Robin Nahas sailed straight over Nahas’ head – for a goal.  It was Richmond’s first score since the 13-minute mark of the first term, and its first goal since the eight-minute mark of the match.

St Kilda added further majors to Adam Schneider and Koschitzke (his fifth) in the last term, while the Tigers added some late respectability to the scoreboard with further goals to Morton and Tom Hislop as the match petered out in the last 10 minutes.

Earlier, the Saints overcome a goalless first term and an injury to key backman Max Hudghton to take a 5.5 (35) to 2.3 (15) lead into the main break, with Richmond failing to score in the second quarter.

St Kilda kicked five unanswered goals in the second term to take control after Richmond led by 12 points following an enterprising first term.

The Saints whittled away Richmond’s quarter-time lead in the early stages of the second term, with Nick Dal Santo finally getting the ladder leaders on the board with a set shot after four minutes.

Luke Ball then gave the Saints the lead for the first time at the nine-minute mark when he snapped a goal after Tuck spilled a defensive mark for the Tigers, and with the Saints tackling creating chaos in the middle, skipper Riewoldt booted their third for the term with a set shot from just inside 50m after 11 minutes.

Fellow key Saint forward Koschitzke then got in on the act, booting the last two of the quarter, the second of them with just three seconds remaining in the half.

In no sign of what was to follow, the Tigers led 2.3 (15) to 0.3 (3) at quarter-time.

Jack Riewoldt, who missed a goal that could have stolen a win for the Tigers over the Saints in their most recent meeting in round seven last season, opened Richmond’s account with a dead-eye set shot after four minutes. In some ways, the Tigers let the Saints off the hook early, the lively Riewoldt managing just 1.2 from three relatively simple set shots in the first 10 minutes of the quarter.

St Kilda’s slow start became a momentary afterthought when resolute defender Hudghton was carried off on a stretcher after injuring his ankle in a marking contest with four minutes remaining. The 32-year-old surprisingly came back to the bench in the second term and went through some run-throughs with the St Kilda fitness staff before coming back on the ground with 90 seconds remaining. With the win in the bag for the Saints midway through the third term, Hudghton iced his ankle for the remainder of the contest on the bench.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/6301/newsid/79556/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

Team Stats

Disposals:        356 - 378
Efficiency%:       71 - 74
Kicks:              171 - 196
Handballs:        185 - 182
Con. Marks:         7 - 11
Uncon. Marks:    85 - 98
Tackles:             60 - 77
Clearances:        23 - 30
Clangers:           50 - 34
Hitouts:             29 - 42  ( Graham 20, Vickery 8 // Gardiner 21, McEvoy 17 )
Frees:                10 - 22 
Con. Possies:    114 - 113
Uncon.Possies:  240 - 263
Inside 50s:         27 - 53 
Assists:             10 - 19

Individual Stats

player                  D       EFF%  K     H     G     B     CM     UM     T     CL     C
      
Tuck, S                    33    79    11    22    0    0    0    6    6    5    1
Foley, N                   30    63    11    19    0    0    0    4    1    2    4    
Jackson, D               27    48    15    12    0    1    0    4    7    3    5    
Polo, D                    25    80    12    13    0    0    0    9    1    1    5    
Tambling, R             25    76    15    10    0    0    0    8    0    1    1
Newman, C              24    75    15    9    0    0    0    3    2    0    1
Deledio, B                21    62    7    14    0    1    0    7    4    1    2    
Moore, K                 18    78    10    8    0    0    0    3    3    0    3    
Silvester, J              18    67    11    7    0    0    1    6    0    0    1
Cousins, B              15    60    6    9    1    0    0    2    7    1    2
Nahas, R                 15    100    4    11    0    0    0    4    5    2    0
Riewoldt, J              15    53    11    4    1    4    3    4    4    0    3
Morton, M               14    71    7    7    2    0    0    4    3    0    2
Rance, A                 13    85    3    10    0    0    0    3    1    2    3
Cotchin, T               11    64    5    6    0    0    0    1    1    4    3
Edwards, S             11    64    5    6    0    0    0    0    2    0    3
Hislop, T                 10    70    6    4    1    0    1    4    4    0    4    
McGuane, L             10    80    6    4    0    0    1    4    0    1    3
Thursfield, W            8    88    4    4    0    0    1    4    1    0    0
Graham, A                6    100    4    2    0    0    0    3    5    0    1
Oakley-Nicholls, J       4    25    2    2    0    0    0    1    0    0    2
Vickery, T                  3    100    1    2    0    0    0    1    3    0    1

player     FF     FA     CP     UP     I50     A      
      
Tuck, S                0    0    13    18    0    0    
Foley, N               0    1    8    22    3    1    
Jackson, D           2    1    10    18    0    0    
Polo, D                0    3    6    19    0    0    
Tambling, R         0    0    0    25    4    2    
Newman, C          0    0    8    13    4    1    
Deledio, B            0    1    7    14    4    0    
Moore, K              0    1    5    11    0    0    
Silvester, J           0    0    5    12    0    0    
Cousins, B           0    1    4    11    1    0    
Nahas, R             0    0    4    12    0    1    
Riewoldt, J           3    1    10    5    3    0    
Morton, M            0    2    2    12    2    2    
Rance, A              0    2    6    8    1    0    
Cotchin, T            2     1    7    5    2    0    
Edwards, S           0    0    3    9    0    0    
Hislop, T               1   3    3    7    1    2    
McGuane, L           0    2    3    6    0    0    
Thursfield, W        1    0    4    5    0    0    
Graham, A            1    0    2    4    0    0    
Oakley-Nicholls, J   0    2    2    2    1    0    
Vickery, T             0    1    2    2    1    1

http://superstats.heraldsun.com.au/gamestatslive/5015611.html   

[one-eyed]

St Kilda Saints thrash Richmond Tigers
Mark Robinson | June 28, 2009 09:47pm

 IF FRIDAY night was The Battle of Little Bighorn, tonight was The Alamo. Massacres, both of them.

Tonight, however, some of combatants got away; the thousands of Richmond fans who left at three-quarter time.

Truly, this was frightful for its ineptitude.

St Kilda's unbeaten run continued unabated at Etihad Stadium, winning by 56 points, but not before they - and pleasantly surprised Tigers fans - endured a bizarre opening to the game.

Indeed, bizarre and Richmond continue to be bunkmates.

Incredibly, the Tigers kept St Kilda goalless in the first 30 minutes and, while kicking two goals themselves, they should have led by at least four goals, save for Jack Riewoldt's right foot, which continues to soil his progress.

He kicked 1.2 as the Tigers won every important indicator in the first quarter - possessions, hard and looseball gets, clearances and inside-50s (10-9).

The query was: Could they finish it? That was answered soon enough.

Whatever Saints coach Ross Lyon asked for at quarter-time he got - first use, clean delivery, pressure - and the Saints, who had just lost their third first quarter of the season, kicked 11 unanswered goals.

That feat was remarkable enough.

To keep Richmond scoreless while doing so tells us: a) St Kilda can be defensively brilliant if they care to be; and b) the Tigers' fragility kicks in after six tackles, a missed goal and three turnovers.

From 10 inside-50s in the first quarter, Richmond went four, three and 10 over the next three quarters.

Just seven in the second and third quarters is appalling for the Docklands stadium.

Football here is like the first day's cricket at the WACA Ground; slick, bouncy and exciting, and their 27 inside-50s overall was the lowest of the season by anyone --and that includes Melbourne.

As the Saints gathered some practice before next week's heavyweight encounter with Geelong at the same venue, interim coach Jade Rawlings got a reality check.

No matter how enthusiastic the coach, or how encouraging, or how new, he can't paint Monets with crayons.

The Tigers did not score between the 13th minute of the first quarter and the fourth minute of the final quarter.

In between, they conjured every mistake imaginable as they amassed 240 disposals, most backward of centre.

They were overwhelmed and not even three goals in the final quarter was any sort of consolation.

In just his second game, Jade the Blade was sliced by his own team.

For St Kilda, the machine wound up after quarter-time.

The five top ball-winners - Brendon Goddard, Jason Gram, Nick Dal Santo, Luke Ball and Lenny Hayes - dominated the midfield and Justin Koschitzke and Nick Riewoldt kicked five and two goals respectively. It was typically St Kilda.

The Saints menaced the ball carrier and his supporting runners, were able to dictate from the back half through Zac Dawson, Sam Gilbert, Sam Fisher, Steven Baker and the midfield shared and ran and had to many options.

As a team, they closed down Richmond's offence.

Tigers first-gamer Jarrod Silvester was unlucky.

He played on Kosi for most of the match and managed to win his own ball, got his fist to contest after contests, but when the turnovers came, the ball came to Kosi to easy and lace out.

The Saints big man still managed a couple of trademark contested grabs, but Silvester wasn't disgraced. Likewise Luke McGuane, who mainly took Riewoldt and stopped the skipper from marking 14 times and kicking five himself.

The Tigers had a host of poor performers.

Brett Deledio didn't stamp himself, Ben Cousins was got at by Clinton Jones, while Tyrone Vickery, Tom Hislop, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Angus Graham, Shane Edwards, Trent Cotchin were below par.

Their better players were Will Thursfield, who stopped Stephen Milne being a pest, Shane Tuck and Nathan Foley in the midfield and Daniel Jackson, who harassed Leigh Montagna for large portions.

The rest of them swung between acceptable and unacceptable on a night when St Kilda took no prisoners.

ST KILDA 0.3 5.5 11.9 13.14 (92)
RICHMOND 2.3 2.3 2.3 5.6 (36)

Goals:
St Kilda: J Koschitzke 5 N Riewoldt 2 A McQualter A Schneider B Goddard J Geary L Ball N Dal Santo.
Richmond: M Morton 2 B Cousins J Riewoldt T Hislop.

Best:
St Kilda: B Goddard N Dal Santo L Hayes J Koschitzke Z Dawson J Gram L Ball.
Richmond: N Foley S Tuck.

Injuries:
St Kilda: M Hudghton (ankle).
Richmond: L McGuane (leg) A Collins (illness) replaced in selected side by J Oakley-Nicholls.

Reports: Nil.
Umpires: Chris Kamolins, Michael Avon, Stefan Grun.
Official Crowd: 38,196 at Etihad Stadium.


http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25702877-5015611,00.html

[Stripes]

Did highlight that Vickery is still too small to compete in the ruck against stronger ruckmen like tonight. I would rather Vickery to stay forward and try Browne and Putt in the middle for a few games each.

[one-eyed]

Saints finally put end to scoring fiasco
Michael Gleeson | June 29, 2009

IF YOU were watching this game at home and decided, as Richmond scored midway through the first term, that you might flick over onto something else, you could have put on a DVD of Charlotte's Web, watched the whole thing with the kids, turned the footy back on and still not missed a Richmond score. That's score, not goal.

In fact, you could have watched Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and not missed anything either, and it might have given you a better handle on the game.

Allowing for the 20-minute half-time break the Tigers went 97 minutes without scoring a goal. That is 77 minutes of actual playing time without scoring anything at all, not even a rushed behind.

More than an hour with no score. Lindsay Lohan served 84 minutes of a prison sentence for drink driving and it doubtless seemed to pass faster than watching Richmond fiddle with the ball.

It is reportedly the first time a side has failed to score for two consecutive quarters since Fitzroy v Essendon in round one, 1995.

Richmond had only 27 inside-50s for the match, the fewest by any team this year. Last night the statisticians were uncertain what the lowest number of inside-50s in a game was but Richmond's effort yesterday must surely be a contender.

For perspective, St Kilda had more inside-50s to half-time. And that was from a team that — get this — didn't kick a goal in the first term. Amazingly St Kilda, the shut-down merchant of the competition, was shut down in the first quarter by Richmond, still riding high on its wave of coach-change momentum and playing with passion and force.

It was the first time all year the Saints were kept goalless in a quarter.

They have, in the same period, kept nine other sides goalless in a quarter — 11 now if you count Richmond's second and third terms.

It was a bizarre turn of normal events. There was one side that was goalless and harried whenever it had possession; the other had Riewoldt at the other end taking grabs, kicking one or two and missing a couple of set shots.

Things on this basis appeared to be following a familiar pattern. Except that the Riewoldt in that first term was Jack, not Nick, and the goalless team was St Kilda. In a match that began with a form of role reversal, Richmond was the aggressor running St Kilda off its feet.

It is difficult to measure a side that is playing with a fill-in coach and players being trialled in positions they have not routinely played. There was a loose Richmond player behind the ball early, which had good effect and indeed the Tigers should have been four or five goals up by the 13th minute of the first term.

Richmond was moving the ball quickly and covering the ground better, while St Kilda had Max Hudghton go down with a serious-looking ankle injury.

St Kilda then put an end to the nonsense in the second term by effectively dispossessing Richmond. With Justin Koschitzke imposing himself in the forward line and kicking a few goals and creating others, the Saints rapidly recovered their presumptive lead and reinforced the view that Richmond had done too little with its early ascendancy.

Brendon Goddard had moved forward and throughout the day showed Brett Deledio to be a good player — one who last year won the best and fairest at age 21 but has done little this year to advance his game.

He has been playing the game on his terms and yesterday did too little to stop and hurt Goddard. Daniel Jackson on the other hand had done his job on Leigh Montagna but there were too few others able to stop the likes of Nick Dal Santo and Jason Gram, even allowing for Gram's slightly erratic disposal.

The loss of Hudghton might have deeper finals-type ramifications, but Zac Dawson continues to impress.

Dean Polo showed signs that he might yet be a player, Robin Nahas worked busily but Shane Edwards, moved from half- back, discovered what many presume, that his body is not mature enough yet for life on the ball.

ST KILDA 0.3 5.5 11.9 13.14 (92)
RICHMOND 2.3 2.3 2.3 5.6 (36)

GOALS St Kilda: Koschitzke 5, Riewoldt 2, McQualter, Schneider, Goddard, Geary, Ball, Dal Santo. Richmond: Morton 2, Cousins, Riewoldt, Hislop.

BEST St Kilda: Goddard, Dal Santo, Koschitzke, Gram, Gilbert, Dawson, Geary. Richmond: Tuck, Thursfield, Jackson, Foley, Polo, Moore.

INJURIES St Kilda: Hudghton (ankle). Richmond: McGuane (leg).

UMPIRES Kamolins, Avon, Grun.

CROWD 38,196 at Etihad Stadium.

MAIN MEN
Saint Brendon Goddard was a ball magnet, clocking up 35 possessions for the day, which included one goal two behinds. Teammate Jason Gram was also effective and had 34 disposals while Justin Koschitzke delivered five goals. For Richmond, Shane Tuck was persistent with 33 touches while Nathan Foley managed 30 in what was a dismal team performance.

TURNING POINT
For a team that has routinely beaten every other club it has come up against this season, St Kilda remained surprisingly goalless for the first 32 minutes of play. Richmond looked impressive and had more of the ball than the ladder leader in the first term but failed to make the most of its scoring opportunities. The Saints then came out of the first break firing and applied relentless pressure thereon with an amazing 53 inside-50s to the Tigers' disappointing 27 for the match. The Saints kicked 11 unanswered goals as Richmond went 84 minutes of playing time without scoring. And while the Tigers kicked three goals to St Kilda's two in the final term, it was way too late to matter.

THE UPSHOT
St Kilda remains undefeated and convincingly on top of the AFL ladder and will go into Sunday's much-anticipated clash with Geelong knowing it is in premiership form. The Tigers have another tough week ahead as they go to the Gold Coast to take on Adelaide, which is coming off another win.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfmatchreport/saints-end-scoring-fiasco/2009/06/28/1246127428981.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1