ALAN Richardson says St Kilda must learn to make its tackles stick after allowing too many opposition players off the hook in the opening two games of the season.
Richardson was speaking after St Kilda's 57-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The Saints coach said the performance had been disappointing, citing the contested possession count (137-103 in the Bulldogs' favour) and his team's poor delivery to its forwards as two of his biggest concerns.
St Kilda won the tackle count 67-55 against the Bulldogs, but Richardson suggested the Saints' tackling had been no better than it was in round one when Port Adelaide laid 106 tackles to their 72.
"Pressure is a measure of our ability to try and put pressure and have an influence on someone's disposal. I reckon that number will be high but it will be misleading," Richardson said.
"That's two weeks in a row that [opposition players have] been able to stand up in tackles.
"We just weren't able to stop that and if we have someone go to lay a tackle and that tackle is stuck then we're going to look to get numbers there. And if they are able to stand up as they did, we are going to be defensively out of position and that happened way too often.
"On the flipside they stripped us, so while they laid less tackles … they would have been much more effective in their tackles.
"So the guys, their energy, their want, their understanding of that we're trying to do, was reasonable, but our ability to be really aggressive and stick it and make it work was disappointing."
WATCH: Alan Richardson's full post-match media conference
Richardson also lamented some '12-point' plays that occurred through the Saints' poor ball use and decision-making.
He gave the example of Jack Lonie's wayward pass to Paddy McCartin in the last quarter when the spearhead was free deep in attack, a turnover that resulted in a Jake Stringer goal down the other end.
"Some of our stuff on entry was really poor. If there was one play that typified that if would have been Lonie just needed to kick it to McCartin and we score," Richardson said.
"And not only do we not score, it goes down the other end and they score."
There was also first-year midfielder Jade Gresham's attempted handball over the top that should have set up teammate Jack Steven to run inside the Saints' forward 50, but which instead was intercepted by Bulldogs defender Jason Johannisen, who promptly burst down the ground and set up another Stringer goal.
"It's frustrating. We've got some young players, they do too. We need to learn from that," Richardson said.
McCartin was playing his first senior game of the season after returning from a pre-season hamstring injury in the VFL last weekend.
McCartin kicked seven goals for Sandringham in that game, but was held scoreless by the Bulldogs.
"Paddy struggled. There's no doubt we could have given him potentially some better looks at it, but he didn't have a great night," Richardson said.
"He had pretty good form in the VFL. It's a pretty big gap between VFL and AFL footy, but Paddy will learn from that, he's a good young man."
