ST KILDA finished the year in fourth spot in a Steven Bradbury kind of way: those ahead of them skidded stupidly to their demise and the path ahead opened neatly for the Saints to slide in for the double chance.

Did that make the Saints the fourth-best side? Arguably yes. But bear in mind that St Kilda finished fourth with eight fewer wins than Geelong. What does eight wins equate to when you play that side in a final? Fifty-eight points seems about right. Or about eight players in depth.

The manner of its arrival in the top four would help comfort St Kilda with what occurred yesterday. Firstly, the double chance keeps it alive next week. Secondly, it would acutely aware that while it might have been fortunate to find itself in fourth spot, there was nothing fortunate about where Geelong finished.

What we witnessed yesterday was the expression of difference between these teams.

Geelong won the contested ball. The Cats won the clearances. They won nearly every statistic that matters, and most that don't. They were tougher, harder and more intense.

"They are a very good side," St Kilda's Lenny Hayes said. "A lot harder than us but the beauty of the double chance is we have to turn it around now, we have six days to get it right and they outplayed us in every area today.

"We can't afford to dwell on it too long because we have to get ourselves up for next week.

"They have proven, big, hard bodies and they just outworked us today, ran harder and in most facets of the game were better than us.

"One positive out of it is if we did happen to win next week, we don't have to play them again until later on (in the grand final)."

Which is a fair assessment, but the most compelling difference between the sides was ball usage. St Kilda — whether because it was harried by Geelong pressure, real or implied — executed its skills poorly. Geelong moved the ball as cleanly as, well, as cleanly as Geelong. It is, after all, the yardstick.

Geelong wins contested football, so sloppiness by either foot or hand is seized upon and exploited. Yesterday was like like playing Andre Agassi his grand-slam tennis prime. Geelong does not make unforced errors but sweats them out of an opponent.

The measure of the difference of the sides is not only the 10 goals but the reality that Geelong is a side of stars and depth of talent, while St Kilda possesses Nick Riewoldt and a gulf.

Riewoldt was poor yesterday. This was partly a product of his own doing, partly one of poor delivery but also of Geelong's comfort that regard need only be paid to Riewoldt and not his forward teammates. Thus he was double- and triple-teamed.

While Luke Ball and Matt Maguire were absent yesterday, arguably 10 of St Kilda's side would not make it into Geelong's team. While there is the subjectiveness of a pub argument about this, the evidence was compelling. True good sides make stars of average players but the spread of talent at Geelong is vastly different to St Kilda's.

As Hayes said: "They are a very good side and very durable and have pretty much got their best team out on the paddock. They are the best team in the comp and they showed that today. We got beaten in the clearances. In the contested ball, we got smashed … they just outplayed us."