The theme of Hawthorn's 1989 AFL grand final win, is becoming the bedrock of St Kilda's 2007 season.

The Saints outdid Sydney at its own game on Saturday night, winning the tackle count 55-39 in the 26-point Telstra Dome win.

St Kilda co-captain Luke Ball racked up 14, while forward Xavier Clarke had five to go with his two goals and 13 touches. Fierce tackling was also a feature of the Saints' round-one win over Melbourne.

"When you look at those games, we can probably say we won them with our tackling and pressure," Clarke said of the Melbourne and Sydney wins.

"So that's going to be the theme for the rest of the year - tackle and chase."

Clarke said the team watched how the Kangaroos had beaten the Swans at the same venue the week before and it was no surprise that pressure was one of the keys.

"That's one thing we worked on, we watched the Kangaroos last week - their forward pressure was really good, so we thought that's the way to beat the Swannies and we worked on it a lot," he said.

"To execute it was great and we got a few goals from it.

"I was setting myself for just a hard-tackling game and I was a bit disappointed last week, I didn't really do too many tackles in the forward 50.

"It was something I really wanted to work on tonight and if I got a few goals, that was a bonus."

After spending most of his first five AFL seasons in defence, Clarke has played more as a small forward this season under the new regime of Ross Lyon.

Lyon said Clarke was showing the benefits of a solid summer. "That was a role (forward pressure) he played and he's another one who's been able to get a pre-season into him," Lyon said of Clarke's game.

"It's good for St Kilda, it's good for Xavier - he's starting to find his feet maybe in league footy."

St Kilda yesterday confirmed that Brendon Goddard's season was over because of a knee injury the defender sustained in Saturday night's win.

Goddard left the field in the first quarter after what seemed to be an innocuous clash in a marking contest and spent the rest of the game on the sidelines on crutches.

"He has ruptured his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and he'll see a surgeon for some reconstructive surgery later in the week," St Kilda spokeswoman Georgie Fidge said.

AAP