Saints hold Dockers at bay

St Kilda honoured its promise to play with a higher intensity on Friday night when it defeated a typically limp Fremantle by eight points in an uninspiring affair at Telstra Dome.

In a match characterised by errors you would expect from two of the competition's underachievers, the Saints won - 10.5 (65) to 8.9 (57) - because they were prepared to work harder and for longer.

The Saints, without omitted stars Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne, lacked polish and excitement but their tenacity proved too much for a Dockers outfit which showed last week's win was an aberration rather than a portent of things to come.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it would be Luke Ball who underlined the Saints renewed commitment for the contest in the first quarter when he marked courageously backing into the unknown.

He copped a late hit from giant ruckman Robert Warnock, then rolled his ankle, but set up a team-lifting goal for his team. The dye had been cast.

Both sides had plenty of opportunities to win a game which failed to exceed lowly pre-match expectations, and if not for Nick Riewoldt and Matthew Pavlich - the two best players on the ground - and the tight margin, it would have been a truly forgettable match.

Riewoldt played his best game of the season, hauling in 18 marks and kicking three goals, while Pavlich was again a lone hand for his side with five goals.

The latter was moved into the midfield in a bid to turn Freo's flagging fortunes in the second half but one player, no matter how good he is, cannot carry 21 team-mates.

The Saints started strongly, thanks to a 16-posession first quarter from Lenny Hayes, who then sat out the rest of the match with a hamstring injury, and led by 27 points early in the second quarter.

But the game belonged to Fremantle during the second term and the early part of the third, during which the Saints were held goalless for nearly 29 minutes.

Meanwhile, Pavlich turned the match on its head for the Dockers, kicking four of his five goals.

When Josh Carr goaled eight minutes into the second half it looked as if the Saints' 2008 would sink to a new low, but as is Freo's wont this season it simply cannot throw the killer punch.

With Hayes sitting on the bench and the opposition's confidence wavering, the Dockers either refused to or could not up the ante.

A piece of play involving Michael Johnson, so promising when the Dockers made the preliminary final in 2006 but disappointing since, summed up Fremantle's night.

After two-grabbing an uncontested mark at half-back, Johnson froze under little pressure from Robert Harvey, who was standing the mark, handed the ball to the Saints veteran, who then started a chain of touches which resulted in a St Kilda goal.

Then after drawing within a kick in the final quarter, the Dockers applied enough pressure on the Saints to have the home crowd jeering its side but still left the door ajar enough for St Kilda to slip out the back.

Fittingly, it was Riewoldt who finished an ordinary passage of play with an exceptional snap from 45 metres out.

ST KILDA: 4.3, 6.3, 9.5, 10.5 (65)
FREMANTLE: 2.0, 5.2, 7.6, 8.9 (57)

GOALS: St Kilda: Riewoldt 3, Goddard 2, Gram 2, Hayes, Montagna, Gilbert.
Fremantle: Pavlich 5, Crowley, Carr,