ADELAIDE: 4.2, 11.5, 15.5, 22.9 (141)
ST KILDA: 2.2, 3.3, 8.7, 9.8 (62)
GOALS
Adelaide: Betts 5, Sloane 3, Walker 3, Taylor 2, Kerridge 2, Lyons 2, Dangerfield, Podsiadly, Smith, Douglas, Matt Crouch, Mackay, Rutten
St Kilda: Armitage 2, Stanley, Schneider, Jones, White, Ray, Montagna, Murdoch
BEST
Adelaide: Sloane, Betts, Jacobs, Dangerfield, Talia, Smith
St Kilda: Hayes, Fisher, Steven Dempster
INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
St Kilda: Nil
What Happened
They may have narrowly missed out on finals for a second straight year but that didn’t stop the Crows ending St Kilda’s miserable season with a thumping 79-point win that sees the Saints finish 2014 with the wooden spoon.
It was a far from fitting farewell for Lenny Hayes, although the retiring St Kilda champion went out a winner as he posted 13 tackles to overtake Jude Bolton’s 1490 career tackles and finish with an AFL record of 1496 over a 298-game career.
The Saints did open this encounter like a side determined to do it for Hayes as they led by eight points midway through the opening term.
But when Rory Soane nailed the first of three goals for the game to give Adelaide back the lead, it started a run of eight unanswered goals either side of quarter time that blew the match apart.
Trailing by 50 points at half-time, things looked like they could get seriously ugly for the Saints in the second half but to the credit of Alan Richardson’s side they threw a couple of punches of their own as they outscored the Crows in the third term.
Adelaide fired up again in the last quarter to cruise out to an easy win but the natives will hardly be pleased after they missed out on finals by a single game once again.
At least Crows fans will be pleased by Eddie Betts’ five goals and with a nice little moment at the end as retiring defender Ben Rutten returned to the forward line where he started his career to kick the game’s final goal.
Fallout
No injuries from this match so we’ll just have to wait on the MRP’s verdict.
Hope he's in my fantasy team
Rory Sloane was inspirational yet again, producing 30 possessions and three goals in another superb display. And, in a fair indictment on St Kilda’s youngsters, Hayes finished equal top in terms of AFL Fantasy points alongside fellow veteran Sam Fisher for his 21 possession, 13 tackle display.
What's next
The Saints will be trying not to set too many dwarves on fire this Mad Monday while Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson is playing the spoilsport and has apparently organised player interviews for the next two days.