THE real interest in yesterday's Richmond-St Kilda game evaporated about the time Adelaide's Brent Reilly sealed Collingwood's fate with a late goal at Telstra Dome on Friday night. And by the time Richmond coach Terry Wallace had spoken on radio pre-game yesterday about the tanking issue, this clash seemed a real lemon.
St Kilda woke up yesterday knowing it could deliver the performance of a lifetime and still have the finals series off to pursue other interests.
Wallace conceded it wasn't in his or his club's interests to win, the Tigers standing to lose a priority draft pick should they win. There can't have been (until Carlton plays Melbourne this evening) too many games in living memory where either side had less incentive.
Which is about how things panned out. For most of St Kilda's eventual 10-point win, you would have found more intensity at an Auskick clinic, or in retiring Saints' spearhead Fraser Gehrig's little jostle with a member of the Richmond cheer squad over the fence just on the half-time siren.
The running players, save for Richmond's Nathan Foley, well held by Leigh Fisher early, then Shane Birss, were granted not just metres, but hectares of space. The missed tackle attempts were more frequent than those that stuck. The disposal was sloppy. And the kicking for goal woeful.
At least the last factor kept what contest there was alive. It should have been completely dead by quarter-time, when St Kilda had racked up 12 scoring shots to just four, and 16 inside 50s to six, but led by only three goals rather than the 10 its mortgage on possession dictated it should have.
Richmond had a winner in Chris Newman, and triers in Shane Tuck in Nathan Brown, but it had neither the height, strength or experience to counter St Kilda's trio of talls in Gehrig, Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke, the latter of whom had three goals to the first break. It looked like it was going to be a massacre. And it might have been, had the Saints not clearly believed their day's hard work was done.
The first signs of life for Richmond were shown in Kayne Pettifer's exuberant celebrations after his second goal. It seemed a little over-the-top at the time, with the Tigers still more than three goals down.
But it triggered something. That goal came a tick into time-on. By siren time, Richmond trailed by just one point, after follow-ups from Tuck, Richard Tambling and Pettifer again.
The pattern would be repeated after half-time. By midway through the third term, the margin was back to four goals. Koschitzke and Gehrig, Stephen Milne and Leigh Montagna within 10 or so minutes making a rout appear inevitable. Which was again the signal for the Saints to take the foot off the pedal. And Richmond to sense that while it might cost a priority draft pick, here was a chance to make a statement of sorts.
That came through acts like Brett Deledio's tackle on a lazy Sam Fisher amble out of defence, Matthew Richardson pouncing on the spoils. A terrific goal to Newman. Another to Brown after the Saints' Aaron Fiora had spilled a sitter of a mark at the other end, then another to "Richo", which put the Tigers in front for the first time all day.
When that lead had become nine points after Pettifer's fourth goal at the start of the final term, and an inspiring chase on the wing from Richardson forced a St Kilda turnover, the Saints looked shot. It was a pretty poor send-off looming for the "G-Train" and fellow retiree Andrew Thompson.
Cue the only good news story of the afternoon.
A Gehrig handball bobbled on the goal line long enough for Riewoldt to get a faint touch. The G-Train's fourth put his team back in front. And with the siren having sounded, Gehrig's fifth made the margin a cosier 10 points.
A nice touch to finish. And one that at least ensured that this game would be remembered for something.
ST KILDA 4.8 7.12 11.15 14.18 (102) RICHMOND 2.2 8.5 12.12 13.14 (92)
GOALS — St Kilda: Gehrig 5, Koschitzke 4, Riewoldt 3, Montagna, Milne.Richmond: Pettifer 4, Deledio 2, Richardson 2, Newman, Brown, Edwards, Tuck, Tambling.
BEST — St Kilda: Koschitzke, Montagna, Riewoldt, Gehrig, Dal Santo, Birss. Richmond: Pettifer, J Bowden, Newman, Tuck, Deledio, King.
INJURIES — St Kilda: Ball (groin) replaced in selected side by Thompson.
REPORTS — Richmond: Jackson by field umpire Goldspink for allegedly engaging in rough conduct against Montagna (St Kilda) in the second quarter.
UMPIRES: Kennedy, Allen, Goldspink.
CROWD: 42,472 at the MCG.
