Saint Nick Silences Critics, Sets Sights On Hawks Showdown

The Age

Monday September 15, 2008

Tom Arup

IT WAS a happy and content St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt who fronted the media yesterday lauding his side's efforts against Collingwood and preparing the battle ground for an upcoming preliminary final against Hawthorn.

The Saints skipper stole the show in the 34-point win over the Magpies, kicking five straight and taking 15 marks, four of them contested.

Riewoldt copped criticism for his performance a week ago against the Cats after the Saints were smashed by 58 points in the qualifying final.

That performance even had some pundits questioning his form despite a stellar year likely to bring him an All-Australian spot when the team is announced tonight.

Yesterday Riewoldt was having none of it, sticking to the old adage of a "solid team performance", and avoiding commenting on his personal performance.

"It is good to contribute in any game but all week our focus was as a team not on any one individual's performance," Riewoldt said. "We need the majority of players contributing - not kicks, marks and handballs-wise, but effort and we had that last night."

Riewoldt was not the only Saint to reverse his form on Saturday night, with the St Kilda defensive half coming in for a positive appraisal from their happy captain.

"Defensively we were very good. (We) seemed to take a lot of marks from their kicks, which suggests that, one, our pressure up the field was pretty good and, two, our backs were able to tag off and read the play pretty well," Riewoldt said.

"Hawthorn have got a couple of handy players in the forward line." He then added with a laugh, "so it would be nice to replicate it again this week."

The Saints will look to stretch the Hawks' back line with twin towers Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke, assuming Koschitzke can get past the AFL match review panel on a report for rough play.

Koschitzke was reported for slinging Shane Wakelin to the ground in a tackle after he had got rid of the ball.

In the second half of the season the AFL has attempted to crack down on "dumping" tackles, suspending Geelong defender Darren Milburn for one game after he pinned the arms of Richmond's Shane King and drove him into the turf.

Yesterday Riewoldt said he had been blind-sided and had not seen the incident.

On Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show former umpire Darren Goldspink said he believed the incident would not be taken further by the match review committee because "it is very hard to stop yourself in the middle of a tackle".

St Kilda's win also prolongs the career of retiring legend Robert Harvey for another week.

Sporting a trimmed back version of his famous haircut, Harvey was instrumental in the victory, having a hand in the Saints' first three goals with trademark 30-metre passes to Saints forwards and Riewoldt agreed the Saint legend was not ending his AFL career with a whimper.

"With that fresh haircut it looks like he could go around another couple of years," he said. "He probably had two to three kilos less to carry around as well so maybe that's why he looked a little spring of foot."

FIRST PRELIMINARY FINAL

GEELONG v W BULLDOGS

Friday, 7.40pm, MCG

SECOND PRELIMINARY FINAL

HAWTHORN v ST KILDA

Saturday, 7pm, MCG

GRAND FINAL

September 27

(Winner of two preliminary finals)

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home