St Kilda 5.3 7.5 8.9 12.12 (84)
Essendon 8.2 13.4 19.5 21.10 (136)
In a Sunday twilight match at Etihad Stadium Essendon defeated St Kilda for the fourth consecutive time in a home and away match dating back to Round 20 2009. Circumstances were far different on that day with St Kilda entering the match on a 19 game winning streak and assured of a top two finish. St Kilda were below their best in this match and in what was considered a massive upset the Saints lost to Essendon by two points after Nick Riewoldt missed a shot after the siren.
During the 2010 season Essendon won both their matches against St Kilda, by 12 points in Round 8 and 33 points in Round 18. During the 2009 and 2010 home and away seasons St Kilda were one of the benchmarks of the AFL, having 35 wins, eight losses and a draw. Despite Essendon finishing no higher than eighth in either of these seasons they were able to defeat St Kilda in all three matches during this time, with their leg speed and quick ball movement troubling the Saints.
Essendon started the Round 3, 2011 match brilliantly to kick the first three goals of the match and open up a 19 point lead but the Saints responded with four of the next five goals and the match was all tied up 23 minutes into the opening term. The Bombers gained the ascendancy to kick away late in the quarter and led by 17 points at quarter time.
Riewoldt goaled two minutes into the second quarter to reduce the margin to 11 points but from this point on Essendon dominated proceedings to open up a 35 point lead at half-time and ran out comfortable 48 point winners.
Midfielder Nick Dal Santo continued his very good start to the 2011 season to pick up the three votes in the True Sainters Player of the Year award and gain the overall lead with five votes, two clear of injured vice captain Lenny Hayes and young midfielder David Armitage.
Dal Santo was very effective at winning the hard-ball, picking up team-highs in contested possessions (11) and clearances (six). Nick remained composed with his ball use, having a disposal efficiency of 79% and finishing the game with 15 kicks, 14 handballs, five marks, a goal and one goal assist.
Jason Gram had a team-high 33 possessions comprised of 21 kicks and 12 handballs. Gram was prepared to take the game on and be creative, however he wasn’t as damaging with his disposal as he would have liked. Gram took nine marks, kicked a goal, had six inside 50s and one goal assist.
Farren Ray had 13 kicks, 10 handballs, five marks and laid six tackles and with his hard running was able to put himself into dangerous positions.
Given their recent head to head history and the fact that it was Essendon not St Kilda that were the form team going into their Round 3 encounter Essendon’s victory did not come as a surprise however the manner and ease of the win certainly did.
St Kilda won the disposal count, having 381 possessions to Essendon’s 343 in Sunday’s match however the Saints were nowhere near as damaging with their ball use as the Bombers were. Throughout the 2011 season it has been common for the Saints to make poor decisions and to make skill errors but most disturbing off all they have not appeared to be as hungry as their oppononts.
Many people within the football world have already written St Kilda off as a premiership contender for the 2011 season however the Saints bouncing back from a seemingly precarious position and then going onto finish in the top four and make at least the Preliminary Final as has been a regular occurrence during the last decade. In the True Sainters WordPress article ‘St Kilda has a habit of being a premiership contender despite being written off’ I will go into into more detail in relation to these instances in the 2005, 2008 and 2010 seasons.
Whilst St Kilda have got off to a slow start in 2011 they have shown in recent seasons that they are a very resilient group which is able to quickly turn around their on-field fortunes and re-emerge as a premiership contender.
For much of the past decade results of the head to head matches between St Kilda and Essendon have not provided an accurate indication of how the two clubs have fared over the course of the entire season. Only time will tell if this continues to be the case in 2011.
True Sainters votes Overall leaders
3 Nick Dal Santo 5 Nick Dal Santo
2 Jason Gram 3 David Armitage
1 Farren Ray 3 Lenny Hayes
2 Jason Gram
2 Stephen Milne
TS|Journal 
Leave a comment