WHEN you're based in Seaford and you've been a cellar dweller for much of the last five years, you're about as off-Broadway as it comes in league footy.

But the Saints are back in the spotlight, and deservedly so after beating the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

That's seven straight wins at Etihad – a scary proposition for North Melbourne ahead of the 'Boomer' clash – and seven of their last nine altogether.

They sit two games and a healthy dose of percentage outside the eight and truth be told, they will probably fall just short of making the finals. But it has been an excellent season, save perhaps, for some blemishes when they play outside Victoria.

The Saints are starting to reap the rewards of a series of well-made decisions, starting with selecting Alan Richardson as coach at the end of 2013. Richo paid his dues as a coach and yes, he had been through more clubs than Jack Nicklaus, as the old gag says, but he ticked every box upon joining St Kilda, having coached teams in his own right. He then worked his way through the AFL system as a development coach, line coach, senior assistant and director of coaching.

The Saints needed to be rebuilt from the ground up, which made Richardson the correct choice. 

The drafting and trading has been first class. They picked Mav Weller and Tim Membrey, virtually off the scrapheap. Weller is now in the leadership group and one of those heart-and-soul types. Membrey has booted 34 goals from 12 games this year. In theory, he is St Kilda's third key forward behind Paddy McCartin and Josh Bruce, but he's going a bit better than that. 

The young Jacks – Billings, Lonie, Newnes and Sinclair – have all been excellent selections, while Jade Gresham, pick No.18 last year, has the makings of a special player. He knows how to find the goals.

Membrey is one of a number of Saints whose improvement is plain to see. Already a great midfielder, Jack Steven is now elite and his first All Australian selection surely beckons. Seb Ross is a better footballer this year, so too are Blake Acres, Luke Dunstan and Tom Hickey. 

Hickey has enjoyed a fantastic season and is moving rapidly towards the upper echelon of ruckmen in the AFL.

St Kilda's backline is holding things together. Dylan Roberton has become an important component and Jarryn Geary and Sean Demspter add experience. Not having Jake Carlisle for the year hasn't been quite the hindrance it might have been.

Saints fans are loving the physical intent and the quick and decisive ball movement. The team has been built for Etihad, which is great at this stage of their development. At some stage they'll need to translate that elsewhere against the better sides, but they'll be happy to be back at Etihad Saturday night to try and spoil Brent Harvey's party, when the Kangaroos veteran breaks the VFL/AFL record for games played.

They're more than capable of it.

A Dog of a day

It was a mature performance from the Saints on Saturday night, but the flipside was the Dogs, who would have thought losing skipper Robert Murphy in the manner they did back in round three was enough trauma for one season.

Sadly, they were wrong. In the space of an hour, down went Jack Redpath with the third ACL rupture of his career and Mitch Wallis, whose broken leg was as gruesome as it gets in footy.

WARNING: Graphic vision

On a practical sense the Dogs aren't done for the season. Jake Stringer and Luke Dahlhaus are likely inclusions for the huge Friday night trip to Geelong. So tight is the battle for the double chance that the Dogs are still in it up to their necks.

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But their mental state is the unknown. The TV vision of the players surrounding Wallis in the rooms post-match before he was taken to hospital was heartbreaking. From all reports, tears were openly shed.

Coach Luke Beveridge conceded post-match that Saturday night's events will take some time to sink in, perhaps as late as Tuesday afternoon's training, which doesn't leave a lot of time to mentally prepare for the Geelong game.

They're a resilient bunch, the Bulldogs, and they held up well after injuries to Murphy, Jason Johannisen and Matt Suckling threatened to derail the first half of their season.

But you wonder how many more blows they can endure before it all gets a bit too hard this season.

A win for the ages

The trophy cabinet sits empty at the Homebush headquarters of Greater Western Sydney, but before the first premiership cup arrives, the club would well do to commemorate Sunday's fantastic 19-point win over Port Adelaide.

The Giants have had some fine wins of late, but it is hard to remember a more tenacious win than this, trailing Port Adelaide on the road by 20 points at half-time in Arctic-like conditions, yet to comprehensively turn it around, get the win and move into second place on the ladder.

It was a win in which the prodigious young talent of the likes of Josh Kelly, Stephen Coniglio and Dylan Shiel came to the fore, but it was also one full of old-fashioned guts and determination, led by Shane Mumford with 10 tackles.

If ever there was a game tailor-made for their spiritual leader, the big Mummy, this was it.

It was only a fortnight ago that we were lamenting the lack of maturity by the Giants in their loss to Collingwood. But clearly, much has changed in the last fortnight and it should hold them in good stead when things ramp up in September.

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Other observations

1. Four goals each from Tom Hawkins and Daniel Menzel in Geelong's win over Adelaide. Geelong's forward line remains a work in progress, but that's an excellent return – equal season bests from both - as the finals approach.

2. Squeezed into the Saturday twilight timeslot, the West Coast-Melbourne clash never rose to great heights as a spectacle, but the tight finish made it interesting. West Coast has won five straight, but appears nothing like the grand finalists of last year. Melbourne won every stat but the scoreboard and you wonder whether Paul Roos would have taken the glass half-full or empty approach. Me? I would have tipped the drinks trestle over.

3. General consensus is that Collingwood's backline has been the weak point in 2016 and a contributing reason to a third straight season out of the finals. And indeed, the Pies conceded 18 goals to North on Friday night in the 40-point defeat that pretty much put paid to them for the year. So it was interesting to note that coach Nathan Buckley put much of the defeat on his forwards, calling them out for a lack of work rate and energy. Nothing in this part of the ground is set in stone at Collingwood in 2017.

4. Not sure what led Essendon to kick so poorly on Sunday against the Brisbane Lions? Perhaps it was the weight of all the punters' money. The Bombers went into the game as the favourite for the first time all year, but their conversion was poor, and it has been a theme all year.

5. Nice to see the Lions win and nice to see the warm support for Justin Leppitsch post-game. Whether that means anything come the end of season review remains to be seen, but he is one of the good guys and he is entitled to enjoy the win.

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6. The wins have dried up for the Blues, but they continue to play hard for Brendon Bolton. They lacked the experience and the polish to steal the win at the SCG on Saturday, but it wasn't for a lack of endeavour. The Swans were headed to yet another close defeat, but were saved by Lance Franklin's brilliance and Josh Kennedy's hardness. The win gets them back into the top four, but that's about all they got out of Saturday afternoon at the SCG. 

7. Apart from milestone man Sam Mitchell, all eyes at the MCG were on Brad Hill, linked with a return home to Western Australia next year and a reunion with his brother Stephen at Fremantle. He responded with his best game of the year, a season-high 31-possession effort replete with his trademark hard-running. If the media storm over the previous 24 hours had any effect on Hill, he didn't show it.

8. Dustin Martin had 39 touches on Sunday, yet he probably wasn't in the best five players on the ground. Cameron Ling didn't think so when voting on 3AW and even coach Damien Hardwick was hesitant with his praise. We should remember these sorts of moments come Brownlow night.

9. Changes will be coming at Port Adelaide. No more mulligans for the team that was the flag pick of many just 18 months ago. Too many go missing when it really matters, and to blow a 20-point lead at home in a must-win game will spark a brutal assessment, both this week and in the post-season review.

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