ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson has blasted his young team for standing by and letting others do the hard work in Sunday's 47-point loss to Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium.
So brave in last week's last-gasp loss to Hawthorn, the Saints slipped to 1-4 after the Giants produced a withering 13-minute burst at the start of the fourth quarter and piled on six goals with little resistance.
Richardson said his players came up short with their intensity, urgency and willingness to support each other, failing to match the Giants when the visitors took their game to a new level in the fourth quarter.
"There was a bit too much of, 'I'm not going to be a player today that's going to help us win. I might be a player that helps us win by more if someone else does the work'," Richardson said.
Watch Alan Richardson's full media conference
"I'm going to generalise or exaggerate to make the point, but there was a little bit of, 'I'll let someone else do it and I might be able to get on the end of it'."
"We had the conversation with the players, we just had way too many passengers today … we had some leaders not quite get it done, some of the younger leaders."
Richardson said he went through every player's performance with the team post-match and was not excusing the result as part of the building process the club is embarking on.
"Instead of waiting for the normal review if you like, we went through it so they can do something about it now," he said.
"They can go home tonight and do what they would normally do, but having been given some feedback on their performance and what's expected when they play in the senior team."
After winning their share of the ball for the first three quarters, the Saints lost the possession count to the Giants 123-86 in the final term and the contested possessions 45-26.
Richardson highlighted that six players didn't lay a tackle for the game – Shane Savage, Leigh Montagna, Tom Lee, Sean Dempster, Jack Lonie and Paddy McCartin – and a further three only laid one each.
Ball use was also a concern after kicking at less than 60 per cent efficiency for the majority of the first half.
Poor kicking going inside 50 meant the Saints converted scores from just nine of their 29 inside 50s in the first half (compared to 15 from 26 from GWS).
"We just butchered the footy going forward," Richardson said.
"That's probably as poor as we've used the ball.
"It was sloppy and we'd certainly had enough time to prepare … but we have to respond, that's the industry we're in."
Richardson praised captain Nick Riewoldt, who was the team's best player with four goals from 25 possessions and 11 marks.
The skipper left the game briefly with an ankle complaint late in the third quarter but played on after the final change having the injury re-strapped.
"He's been a little bit sore in the ankle but nothing major, it's just pain, not really an injury now," Richardson said.
"He was very positive wasn't he, he looked likely on the wing. He did some good work up there and his use was pretty positive."
Veteran Leigh Montagna was also cleared of serious injury post-match, with Richardson declaring he had been pulled from the game as a precaution with hamstring tightness.
"He could have kept playing, in fact his want was to keep playing, but given the game was out of our grasp we decided to get him out of the game," the coach said.
