Saint Nick's Redemption

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday September 15, 2008

Tom Arup

IT WAS a happy and content St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt who yesterday lauded his side's efforts against Collingwood and prepared the battle ground for their preliminary final against Hawthorn.

Riewoldt stole the show in the 34-point win over the Magpies, kicking five goals and taking 15 marks.

Earlier, he had copped criticism for his performance in the Cats' drubbing of the Saints in the qualifying final.

"Look, it is good to contribute in any game but all week our focus was as a team not on any one individual's performance," he said.

"We know on our measurements every week [that] 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, with the St Kilda defensive half coming in for positive appraisal from their happy captain.

"Defensively we were very good. They [Saints defenders] seemed to take a lot of marks from their kicks which suggests that 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 ..." Riewoldt 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 tribunal on a report for rough play.

He was cited for slinging veteran Collingwood defender Shane Wakelin to the ground in a tackle after he had disposed 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 Edwards and drove him into the turf.

Yesterday, Riewoldt said he had not seen the incident.

THE RACE FOR THE FLAG

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR

Week 1 (Sept 5, 6, 7)

QUALIFYING FINALS

QF1 Geelong 119 d St Kilda 61

QF2 St Kilda 61 d Western Bulldogs 76

ELIMINATION FINALS

EF1 Collingwood 125 d Adelaide 94

EF2 Sydney 110 d North Melbourne 75

Week 2 (Sept 12-13)

SEMI-FINAL 1

SF1

St Kilda 106 d Collingwood 72

SEMI-FINAL 2

Western Bulldogs 106 d Sydney 69

Week 3 (Sept 19-20)

PRELIMINARY FINAL 1

PF 1 Friday Sept 19, 7.40, MCG

PRELIMINARY FINAL 2

PF2 Saturday Sept 20, 7pm, MCG

Week 4

GRAND FINAL

Winner PF 1 v Winner PF 2

Saturday, September 27, MCG

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home