After two losses and a draw in the past three weeks, the Saints reignited their charge to a top-four finish in no uncertain terms as they outclassed the visitors to win 23.13 (151) to 8.9 (57).
The Power desperately needed to put some scoreboard pressure on early if they were to pull off an upset, but their errant kicking quickly put paid to that notion.
Port opened the match with four straight behinds while the Saints registered five goals to set the tone for the afternoon.
The intensity and accountability of Port Adelaide under Matthew Primus was sadly lacking as St Kilda moved the ball inside 50 with apparent ease throughout the day.
Stephen Milne (four goals) and Adam Schneider (three) were an ever-present danger in attack, while skipper Nick Riewoldt continued his journey to peak fitness with four goals on a day when his side had 13 different goalkickers.
A 24-point quarter-time lead was built upon at each change as the Power offered little in the way of resistance.
Lenny Hayes (34 possessions), Leigh Montagna (30) and Clinton Jones (28) provided the midfield grunt with Jones’ efforts all the more impressive when his superb negating role on Danyle Pearce was taken into account.
Playing mostly as a loose man in defence, Brendon Goddard marshalled the Saints’ back line with great poise on his way to 34 damaging possessions with Sam Fisher and Sam Gilbert providing excellent support.
St Kilda appeared to take the foot off the accelerator when Port kicked back-to-back goals for the first time late in the third quarter, but coach Ross Lyon was having none of that, with a 64-point three-quarter-time lead blowing out by the final siren.
On a desperately disappointing day that ensured the Power will be spectators come September, the visitors had few - if any - four-quarter contributors. Travis Boak and Kane Cornes finished with 24 and 25 touches respectively, while Troy Chaplin battled for 25 disposals in a besieged back line.
The only possible sour note for St Kilda was the sight of Michael Gardiner, with his right hamstring iced, watching most of the second half from the sidelines.
However, Lyon said after the game that the move was more precautionary than required, and expressed the hope that the big ruckman would be fit to take his place against North Melbourne next week.
The coach was delighted with the manner in which his team attacked the contest after an off few weeks.
“It was a good, positive display. I was confident we’d come here and have an improved display, which was the aim,” he said.
“We had a really meaningful week and really concentrated on ourselves and how we play footy.
“We thought we had a super week [on the track] and then it was a matter of coming here and putting it in practice against an opposition that I was really concerned about coming here [against].
“It looked more like the St Kilda football team we’ve come to know over the last year and a half.”
Primus, who is now four games into his audition for the top job on a permanent basis, admitted the team had suffered a serious setback.
“It was a lesson in how you have to consistently come up every week and play a certain style no matter if you’re at home or away, or whether you’re playing against a top-four team or a bottom-four team,” he said.
“We’ll learn some really good stuff out of this tomorrow, but that doesn’t sit well. We’ll learn something out of it, but it was really unacceptable the way we were torn apart defensively by the Saints.
“They gave us a really good lesson in where we’re at.”
St Kilda 5.4 10.10 16.12 23.13 (151)
Port Adelaide 1.4 3.5 6.8 8.9 (57)
GOALS
St Kilda: Milne 4, Riewoldt 4, Schneider 3, Hayes 2, McEvoy 2, Montagna, Koschitzke, Goddard, Fisher, Ray, Eddy, Gram, Jones
Port Adelaide: Schulz 2, Gray 2, Logan, Westhoff, Hitchcock, D Stewart
BEST
St Kilda: Hayes, Goddard, Jones, Schneider, Fisher, Dal Santo, Riewoldt, Milne
Port Adelaide: Boak, Chaplin, Brogan, Cornes
INJURIES
St Kilda: Gardiner (hamstring)
Port Adelaide: P Stewart (hip) replaced in selected side by Banner
Reports: Nil
Umpires: McLaren, Wenn, Avon
Official crowd: 22,467 at Etihad Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
