STEPHEN Milne has bagged five goals in his 250th game to lift St Kilda back into the top eight and stun premiership aspirant Essendon by 71 points at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The depleted Saints were fanatical in overcoming a recent form slump and a three-year drought against the previously rampant Bombers, winning 21.7 (133) to 8.14 (62).
Five talking points: St Kilda v Essendon
Essendon kicked two of the first three goals to lead by nine points, but the Saints shocked everyone by piling on 20.7 to just 6.12 for the remainder of the match.
In an electrifying third term, Milne kicked four of St Kilda's six goals as the team stormed to an unassailable 46-point lead by the final change.
Click here to see the best match pics
Aggravating matters for the Bombers, who donned their predominantly grey clash strip for the first time, were injuries to star forward Michael Hurley, who was subbed out late in the third term with a left hamstring injury, along with Kyle Hardingham (shoulder) and Kyle Reimers (concussion).
Essendon stopper Heath Hocking is also certain to come under scrutiny for an off-the-ball bump that left St Kilda favourite Lenny Hayes momentarily dazed.
In two separate incidents, spectators entered the arena, with the second almost becoming involved in the play before being tackled by security.
St Kilda hadn’t beaten the Bombers since round eight, 2009, losing their four subsequent clashes by an average of 25 points, and the pre-match consensus was they would struggle just to be competitive this time, given they had lost three of their previous four games in high-scoring shootouts.
They were also without Brendon Goddard and big men Jason Blake and Rhys Stanley.
Essendon dominated early but frittered away opportunities while the Saints scored with great efficiency.
The Saints' pressure was relentless. Despite trailing 17-7 early on the inside 50s they led the tackles 34-15 and caused numerous Bomber errors.
Thirteen of St Kilda's goals came from turnovers.
The blowout margin was a surprise given that each of Essendon's previous three losses had been by a total of 11 points.
Ben McEvoy was a giant for the Saints around the ground, repelling many Bomber attacks, while at ground level Nick Dal Santo, Hayes, David Armitage and Leigh Montagna provided superb service to a multi-pronged attack led by Milne, skipper Nick Riewoldt (four goals), Justin Koschitzke (two in the first quarter) and Beau Wilkes (two).
St Kilda coach Scott Watters said his team had struck a great balance between defence and attack.
"Defensively we were pretty strong and offensively we've probably been pretty consistent for most of the year, so it was a well-rounded performance," he said.
The Bombers barely had a winner, though Dyson Heppell and Courtenay Dempsey were solid.
St Kilda only concern was the report of Koschitzke for alleged rough conduct on Dempsey.
Essendon coach James Hird lamented his side's worst performance of the season.
"We were disappointing, weren't we? We didn't play well, we got beaten in just about every area of the game by St Kilda. They turned up to play with a game plan and they stopped us doing what we wanted to do," he said.
The Bombers travel to AAMI Stadium to play Port Adelaide before a tough run home against five top-eight sides, while the Saints take on the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
St Kilda 4.3 9.5 15.6 21.7 (133)
Essendon 3.5 5.6 7.8 8.14 (62)
GOALS
St Kilda: Milne 5, Riewoldt 4, Koschitzke 2, Siposs 2, Wilkes 2, Saad 2, Schneider 2, Gilbert, Gram
Essendon: Hille 2, Melksham 2, Carlisle, Hurley, Reimers, Davey
BEST
St Kilda: Milne, Dal Santo, Hayes, Riewoldt, Siposs, McEvoy, Simpkin
Essendon: Dempsey, Heppell, Watson, Melksham, Lonergan
INJURIES
St Kilda: Nil
Essendon: Hurley (hamstring), Reimers (concussion)
SUBSTITUTES
St Kilda: James Gwilt replaced by Farren Ray in the fourth quarter
Essendon: Michael Hurley (hamstring) replaced by Ricky Dyson in the third quarter
Reports: Justin Koschitzke for rough conduct on Courtenay Dempsey in the third quarter.
Umpires: Stevic, Meredith, Mitchell
Official crowd: 45,838 at Etihad Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.
