IT WASN'T pretty, not by any means. Not silky skilled, although there were some fine efforts — a couple of Corey Jones goals as good as you'll see. Not greatly exciting, the game at times resembled circle work with only 19 goals scored between the two teams.

But this match, as Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley later suggested, was certainly uncompromising. Tough, courageous and never deviating from contesting each ball. The Kangaroos ran and hit hard and, as a result, for most of the match they simply outplayed the disappointing Saints.

"We played an uncompromising style of football today and that's what we've spoken about for a long period of time now and I thought we did it over four quarters and again the boys got reward for effort. So, I'm very pleased," Laidley said.

The 22-point win, the Kangaroos' seventh in a season many thought would see them languish at the bottom of the ladder, has them entrenched in sixth place going into the second half of the season. Dare they dream that finals await them?

Considering their shellacking at the hands of West Coast last week, the win was all the more satisfying. Many thought the wheels might have started to come off the cart, but the side regrouped during the week and managed to kick the first two goals of the match and not relinquish the ascendancy for the entire game.

This victory did not belong to the midfield, forward line or the backs but was a tribute to an across-the-ground effort.

The midfield pressure meant the Roos could time and again send the ball forward and prevent the Saints penetrating. The defence, with Michael Firrito brilliantly outplaying Nick Riewoldt, with Drew Petrie keeping Fraser Gehrig to only two and Glenn Acher looking like he could go round another year, seldom looked vulnerable. The forwards, especially Jones with four goals, owed their success to their willingness to work as hard defensively as they did offensively.

Jones, in particular, was a standout. His ability in the air for a medium-sized player, as much as his kicking from all distances and angles, made him an attractive and reliable target and a very difficult proposition for the St Kilda defence.

Across the midfield, the old firm in Brent Harvey, Jess Sinclair and Adam Simpson were as good as ever, as were youngsters Daniel Harris, Andrew Swallow and Jesse Smith.

In each quarter St Kilda held on, but continually were brought undone by butchering the ball going forward and getting torched on the rebound.

Typifying that nothing was easy about the Saints' game, even when Brett Voss tried to leave the ground after a heavy hit that clearly concussed him, he found himself in the play again as he headed for the bench. Running onto a loose ball, he staggered, got off a wobbly kick, turned, then basically fell over the interchange line into the arms of the trainers.

That about summed up the Saints' day. They tried hard, but for the most part seemed dazed and confused about the game plan they are being asked to play.

Not that it is a particularly difficult one to grasp, it's just that for an attacking side used to playing a more individual, free-flowing game, the type of sacrifice to the essentially "team at all costs" plan is going to take a fair amount of adjusting to.

Added to this, St Kilda had too many players who were simply ineffective.

Nick Dal Santo, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna and Sam Fisher stood up but were sadly lacking support from a list of passengers too long to mention.

Firrito's game on Riewoldt was possibly the most decisive match-up, Riewoldt getting one goal in the first quarter and 17 touches for the game, but having to push way out to find them and when he did, not particularly hurting the Roos as a result.

Coming into the last term the Saints had to virtually double their score to that stage to have a chance of winning and managed to burst out of the blocks.

Could all the Kangaroos' good work to that point come undone with yet another errant last quarter? After last week's blow out against West Coast, the fear was rising when first Jason Gram and then Justin Koschitzke kicked goals to somehow drag the Saints back to only eight points down.

Where the Saints had been chasing, suddenly they had their tails up and were leading the Roos to the ball. Firrito had switched to Gehrig and Petrie went to Riewoldt, but thankfully for only a short time.

Aaron Edwards had the chance to stem the momentum shift but hit the post. An ineffective Stephen Milne got the ball at the other end but failed to make the Roos pay.

It took first-gamer Ed Lower to steady the ship with a long bomb. He had marked an errant Dal Santo kick outside 50 metres and played on with the mark unattended. The lead then extended to 21 and the result assured when Hamish McIntosh kicked the next one.

KANGAROOS 4.2 7.8 8.11 11.14 (80)
ST KILDA 1.3 4.5 5.7 8.10 (58)
GOALS: Kangaroos: Jones 4, Archer, Hale, Lower, McIntosh, Simpson, Sinclair, Swallow. St Kilda: Gehrig 2, Attard, Gilbert, Gram, Gwilt, Koschitzke, Riewoldt. BEST: Kangaroos: Harvey, Harris, Rawlings, Jones, Pratt, Petrie, Archer. St Kilda: Dal Santo, Fisher, Hudghton, Montagna.
UMPIRES: Margetts, Allen, Sully.
CROWD: 34,569 at Telstra Dome.