THIS was close, one-on-one, hard-tackling, low-scoring football. An old-fashioned arm wrestle. At times, there were 10 players not only surrounding the ball but piling on top of it. Schoolyard stacks on the mill.

Much of the talk last week had been the St Kilda forward match-ups — who would pick up the triple towers of Nick Riewoldt, Justin Koschitzke and Fraser Gehrig.

The answers were not as you would have expected, with Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Leo Barry late omissions and Luke Brennan, Craig Bolton and Ted Richards getting the tough assignments.

Yet, the most interest was always going to be further afield, because much of what happened in the midfield would dictate whether St Kilda's talls could take full toll of their size advantage.

In the first half, Nick Dal Santo was picked up by Jarrad McVeigh, who had Steven Baker for company early in an attempt to break the tag.

But typical of the Swans' discipline, McVeigh stuck like glue, forcing Baker to move elsewhere.

Leigh Montagna, who has been one of the Saints' most prolific ball-getters this season, was picked up first by Nic Fosdike and after half-time by McVeigh, whose job on Dal Santo was taken by Luke Ablett.

Jude Bolton stood Luke Ball and stayed there all night, while Adam Goodes started on Lenny Hayes but soon handed the task to Brett Kirk, who also remained there for the duration.

With the scores level at half-time, Saints coach Ross Lyon would have been pleased. The game was being played on Sydney's tempo football terms — control the ball, break hard from the stoppages with gut-busting run when you can, work the ball forward with precision when you can't.

Sydney wrote the book on this sort of play. The Saints are merely apprentices but learning fast.

St Kilda's ability to deliver the ball forward to its talls was hampered by the midfield pressure of the Swans. With the ball coming in so slow, Peter Everitt was able to drop back into the slot.

Such was the lack of delivery, Gehrig, with only three possessions, spent a large chunk of the last quarter on the bench as Lyon searched for a way to win the ball further afield.

But it was to no avail. The Swans throttled the Saints to death. To its credit, St Kilda played well, wasn't wasteful and its errors were few.

But Sydney put the foot down in the last term as the Saints ran out of legs, kicking two goals ahead for what was then the biggest lead of the game.