The Kangaroos won 25.11.161 to 4.10.34.
A crowd of around 6,000 people - of which 80 per cent were St Kilda supporters – attended the first AFL match at Moorabbin, since the Saints played their last ever home and away game there in 1992 against Fitzroy. Whilst the majority of the crowd would have left the old venue disappointed with result, everyone who was there witnessed an awesome performance from the Kangaroos.
The Kangaroos’ onslaught started with Ben Robbins and Daniel Harris dominating in the middle and continued with a four-pronged attack of Wayne Carey, Saverio Rocca, Byron Pickett and Jason McCartney destroying an undermanned and inexperienced St Kilda defence.
Robbins, manned up on St Kilda captain Robert Harvey, in his first game back from a knee reconstruction, was everywhere, using creative handball and even drifting up forward to kick three goals, one in each of the last three quarters.
The talent amongst the Kangaroos’ forwardline today would match it with the best in the AFL. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Saints’ young backline.
Daniel Wulf, Troy Schwarze, Jason Blake and Matt McGuire are only in the early stages of their AFL careers and could not have been expected to beat their highly-credentialed opponents on the day.
While the Kangaroos were also not at full strength, with Leigh Colbert, Anthony Stevens and John Blakey on the sidelines, St Kilda had 12 of its best 22 unavailable.
Aaron Hamill, Nathan Burke, Andrew Thompson, Austinn Jones, Heath Black, Lenny Hayes, Fraser Gehrig, Peter Everitt, Steve Lawrence, Jason Cripps, Stewart Loewe and Justin Koschitzke will each make the Saints’ side stronger on their return.
The Kangaroos began with a six goal to none first quarter and never looked back. McCartney marked strongly to boot the first two majors, Harris chipped in with the third and some Pickett magic contributed to the next three. The first two came from his own boot, while the last saw Carey kick truly after being on the end of a 60 metre torpedo.
