This time last year, Jon Patton was still recovering from surgery in Sweden on his left knee. With zero pre-season and a poor fitness base, the man known as the General struggled through seven matches in his rookie year. But a full pre-season this time around had him fit and firing - until his right leg crumpled underneath him in a tackle with Rhys Stanley on Saturday night. Patton screamed in pain and the injury is still to be diagnosed, but GWS officials did confirm it is a knee injury. All involved hope it isn't too serious for the former No.1 draft pick.
2. Sticking the boot in
Featuring in just their 25th AFL game, the Giants are a long way from establishing much in the way of history in the competition. It was somewhat cheeky of St Kilda, therefore, to send out the following tweet when GWS failed to trouble the scorers in the opening term. "The Giants' opening quarter was their lowest since Round 17, 2012, when they registered 2 behinds against Freo" the tweet read. It was in fact the third time GWS had failed to score in a quarter, a feat it also managed against Melbourne and Carlton in its debut season.
3. Trio reach 200 games together
Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne first played a game alongside each other way back in round four, 2002. They lost to Geelong that day by 122 points. On Saturday against the Giants, they brought up game No.200 together, the eighth trio in AFL history to reach that mark. This time it was a more memorable occasion as they cruised to a 72-point victory over the Giants. They still have some way to go to reach the record of 253 games by a trio, held by the Western Bulldogs' Rohan Smith, Scott West and Brad Johnson.
4. Blue Shiel
Young GWS midfielder Dylan Shiel earned the ire of St Kilda by suggesting in a newspaper article his side would try to run the Saints off their feet and was confident of an upset in Canberra. Predictably, Shiel earned plenty of attention in the middle of the ground, bumped and bruised throughout the opening half. GWS failing to register a point in the first term would have added to St Kilda's enjoyment as they set about making Shiel eat his words.
5. Promising start from some young Saints
There has been plenty of talk recently about exactly where St Kilda sits in the AFL pecking order, with coach Scott Watters alternating between suggesting they will remain competitive and flagging the possibility of a rebuild. Either way there was some future promise for St Kilda fans in the figures of Nathan Wright and Tom Lee, who both made their AFL debuts against GWS. It was against relatively modest opposition, but both showed good signs and indicated they are well up to senior football.
