You often hear about the romance of the FA Cup and other Cup competitions across Europe. In these games, a single moment of genius can define a result. Sometimes the lowliest bunch of park hacks can take it up to the big boys and cause an upset.
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In the AFL, that doesn’t happen quite so often.
Instead a team in rebuild mode is usually packed with promising young kids and a few veterans who’ve seen better days. Every now and then they can pull out that special moment, but the sheer weight of numbers usually counts against them as a mature, top-eight side ultimately wipes the floor with their opponent.
Which is what makes Saturday’s win for the Saints so special.
Right from the word go, the odds were stacked against St Kilda. Coming off eight straight wins, the Dockers looked about as unstoppable as those clones from the Nike World Cup advertisement as they looked to equal a club record of nine consecutive victories. In the last five games, Freo was even travelling better than Sydney, having scored the third-highest number of points in the competition and having conceded the lowest tally of any side, in 292 points.
The Saints were the polar opposite. Alan Richardson’s team had lost 11 straight and appeared set to equal a run of 12 consecutive losses from 1986. In their last five games, they had an average score of 56 points; their opponents’ 119.
But the psychology of footy is a funny thing and with St Kilda looking to honour retiring veteran Lenny Hayes, the Saints produced their best performance since Ross Lyon departed for the Dockers back in 2011.
Their pressure caused Fremantle to fumble and turn the ball over time and again. There were sacrificial acts right across the park as players launched themselves into the most desperate of smothers.
The Saints’ efforts were a stark contrast to Fremantle’s dubious work-rate as they allowed their opponents’ 141 more uncontested marks. It was like watching the shocker Dockers of old, not the finely-tuned Ross Lyon model, an unbackable favourite heading in.
There are no easy days in the AFL Lyon would later lament.
“We were beaten by a better team today with greater effort and considering what was at stake ...
“On the surface, you’d have to say our attitude wasn’t great was it? But again I haven’t got an attitude barometer except the actions that are put in front of me. So the barometer, if we’re measuring attitude by action, was clearly at the low end ‘cause our action was poor.
“So, certainly not panic stations but it’s not ideal,” he added. “I would have liked to go to the break with a better feeling than this and we all would have but our guys have done a lot right for a long time. There’ll be some prices to pay but we’ll give the majority the opportunity to go again.”
Not ideal hardly begins to cover how damaging this may be for the club’s premiership aspirations.
To begin, the 58-point loss prevented Fremantle climbing to the top of the ladder. Indeed with the club facing fellow top-four aspirants in Geelong (Simonds), Hawthorn (Patersons) and Port Adelaide (Patersons) in their last five games, their spot in the top four may be in doubt.
More likely, though, the result may mean the Dockers miss the top two and have blown the chance of playing consecutive home finals, Instead, they could face trips to face Sydney or Hawthorn on their home patches in the first week of finals and no one wants to do that. Worst of all, now everyone knows, no Ballantyne, no Freo forward line.
But in a season tainted by a dodgy draw and more drama at Essendon, one that appeared predictably careering along towards a Sydney v Fremantle Grand Final, the result was just what the AFL needed.
The hash tag #aflsaintsfreo went top of the Melbourne trend list on Saturday evening as everyone bar Freo supporters delighted in one of the competition’s all-time great under-dog stories, one to rival the Bulldogs beating Essendon in 2000.
All of a sudden, there was something to love about the AFL again. It was a result that stirred emotions and brought people together to celebrate how the game can throw up a curve ball every now and then.
And, for Saints’ fans who have suffered through the days of Watters v Pelchen, of dwarf burning and the pain of the 2010 drawn Grand Final, here was a win they could talk about for a long time. The day the club did it for Lenny as Nick Riewoldt produced his greatest ever game. The day a youngster like Luke Dunstan announced himself as a future skipper by defying the pain of an injured shoulder and having 26 touches. The day Rhys Stanley clicked into gear with one booming goal after another.
After 11 straight losses, as Richardson said, it set a benchmark for his side and showed them just what they were capable of achieving with the right spirit.
And, sure they may lose their last five games, but no one can take this away from the St Kilda footy club.