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2005 - AFL Home and Away Season

Round 16 - Results and Post-game Articles

Richmond: 3.2, 4.4, 4.6, 5.7 (37)
St Kilda: 1.4, 6.5, 9.8, 16.10 (106)
Goals – Richmond: Richardson 2, Hilton 2, Deledio
St Kilda: Koschitzke 5, Milne 3, Gehrig 2, Guerra, Peckett, Ackland, Thompson, Jones, Powell
Saints - Free 5; Play 5; Mark 6, Richmond - Free 1; Play 2; Mark 2
Distance Of Goals: Saints - 0-15m 1; 15-30m 0; 30-40m 6; 40+M 9
Richmond - 0-15m 2; 15-30m 1; 30-40m 0; 40+M 2
Best – Richmond: Tuck, Coughlan, Deledio, Chaffey, Bowden
St Kilda: Koschitzke, Dal Santo, Hayes, Peckett, Jones, Maguire, Fisher, Hudghton, Powell
Hitouts: Saints 15, Richmond 59
50m Penalties: Saints 0, Richmond 2
Injuries – Richmond: Gaspar (Hamstring), Campbell (Calf), Simmonds (Hip)
St Kilda: None
Changes – Richmond: None
St Kilda: None
Reports - None
Umpires - Margetts, Grun, Stevic
Crowd - 40,043 at The MCG

Saints will carry Big V flag into September
. . . Actually, it was Grant Thomas who was in their sights, for the maverick coach prompts more vitriol than anyone in his field, now or previously. Despite his unflustered public persona, those who should know say he was shaken recently. His team sat ninth with a 6-7 record after a humiliating loss to Essendon. Things were becoming serious for the pre-season flag favourite. 'Butter Boys,' the Herald Sun screamed. Three rounds on, St Kilda and Thomas have earned themselves a lot of respect, a little respite. mAll of a sudden, the Saints are sixth, one win outside the top four. They have won four from four at the MCG this year. With Collingwood to come at the 'G on Friday night. With Nick Riewoldt, Aaron Hamill and Robert Harvey to return in the next couple of weeks.
The Article Mike Sheahan/HeraldSun/18Jul05

Coach tells hamstrung Saint to get on his bike
Young St Kilda defender Leigh Fisher loves his football. After that, he loves cycling. So when a severe hamstring tear in early June ended his season, he asked coach Grant Thomas if he could go overseas to watch the Tour de France. Thomas was disappointed when the 21-year-old badly tore his left hamstring in a training drill - having sustained the same injury last year, but to his right hamstring - and had no hesitation in agreeing to Fisher's request to join a bike tour at the tour. The injury-plagued footballer counts American Lance Armstrong, bidding for his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory, among his heroes and last Wednesday, Fisher, having ridden part of that day's mountainous course to Courchevel before the race came through, found himself a spot by the road to watch Armstrong pedal past with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde as they battled for stage honours. Armstrong finished second.
The Article Melissa Ryan/TheAge/18Jul05

Maguire reflects on 'eight-point' win
For the second week running, St Kilda staged a massive second half to comprehensively bury its opposition on Saturday, when the Saints knocked off Richmond in alternating conditions at the MCG. While last week's victory over Carlton may have provided a bigger winning margin, defender Matt Maguire said defeating the Tigers by 69 points was worth much more, keeping in mind the run to the finals. "I think it meant a lot more to us this week, obviously Carlton is down the bottom end of the ladder, and I suppose you can't take anything away from a big win against them, but it meant a lot more to beat a top eight side," Maguire told afl.com.au. "It really was an eight-point game for us. If Richmond had of won it would have been two games in front of us, but now we're percentage in front of them, so we're very happy."
The Article Jennifer Witham/saints.com.au/17Jul05

Even spread drives Saints
St Kilda coach Grant Thomas believes the even spread of contribution from his players is the biggest positive to draw from the Saints' recent return to form. Having won their last three matches by a combined total of 167 points, the Saints are clearly beginning to hit their straps – but Thomas believes there is still room for improvement. "We've still got a long way to go, but I think we're making good steps in the right direction where you are getting a real evenness of contribution from players, which is what we're after," Thomas said, after the Saints' 69-point win over Richmond.
The Article Jennifer Witham/saints.com.au/17Jul05
Saints march past Tigers Katie Franklin and Luke Pentony/ABCSport/16Jul05

Saints eye finals
St Kilda is back on track for a berth in September and is back in the top eight, after an emphatic 69-point victory over Richmond at the MCG on Saturday afternoon. The Saints 16.10 (106) defeated the Tigers 5.7 (37) to notch up their fifth win in a row, while it was also the first time since round 14, 1992 that St Kilda had beaten Richmond at the MCG . . . Although both St Kilda and Richmond will enter round 17 with a nine/six win-loss ratio, the Saints have won their past three on the trot, while the Tigers have notched up two victories from their previous seven matches. St Kilda set up the victory with nine majors in a row, from the 19-minute mark of the second quarter until the nine-minute mark of the final term. And it was acting captain Justin Koschitzke, who stood tall for the second week, with another outstanding match.
The Article Matt Burgan/saints.com.au/17Jul05

Thomas tips Saint surge
The Saints are making an ominous charge towards September, booting 15 goals to two against Richmond from quarter time to set up a third consecutive win yesterday. St Kilda coach Grant Thomas said there was much to look forward to, considering key players Nick Riewoldt, Aaron Hamill and Robert Harvey would return from injury in the next three weeks. "We've still got a long way to go, but I think we're making good steps in the right direction," Thomas said. "We have an edict that we want to give 100 per cent effort from 100 per cent of the team 100 per cent of the time . . . It's a bit early to tell, but Riewoldt and Hamill, if they're not right next week definitely they'll be right the week after, and Harvey might be right for that game, too . . . So if our luck can just change in that area and we keep our best players on the park, we'll build momentum at the right time of the year."
The Article Jackie Epstein/HeraldSun/17Jul05
Past shows way forward for Saints Scot Palmer/HeraldSun/17Jul05

'Scary' Saints on the rise
. . . . "We've still got a long way to go but we're making good steps in the right direction. We're getting a real evenness of contribution from players, which is what we're after . . . the last three weeks, from 12 quarters, there's probably been 10 where we've done that, so that's all we can do, give that level of effort and get some good results," Thomas said. With St Kilda having destroyed the Tigers by 68 points in their last encounter in round five, Wallace said the possibility of a full-strength Saints at the business end of the season was frightening. "I still call St Kilda an A-grade side. We've seen them at their very best both times that we've played them this year and they've had a lot of players out, and that's a scary thing for other sides in the competition if they could get those back together again," Wallace said.
The Article Melissa Ryan/TheAge/17Jul05
Tigers fall into the wide gulf of class TheAge/17Jul05
Sluggish start, but Saints hit their straps Peter Hanlon/TheAge/17Jul05
Richmond's hopes take a battering Melissa Ryan/TheAge/17Jul05

Saints' Moorabbin best
St Kilda's 1966 premiership coach Allan Jeans and skipper Darrel Baldock have been awarded leadership honours in the inaugural Moorabbin All-Star team named at a function at Flemington Racecourse on Saturday night. The Saints greats were named in a star-studded team to mark the 40th anniversary of the club's move from the Junction Oval to its home base at Linton St in Moorabbin. Jeans, who coached 575 matches - the third most in VFL/AFL history - guided St Kilda to 194 wins and had a winning record of 59 per cent when he was at the helm from 1961-76. One of the all-time greats of the game, Baldock played 119 matches from 1962-68 and was a three-time best-and-fairest winner. The majority of the side was made up of St Kilda's team of the century, with Nathan Burke, Bob Murray, Trevor Barker, Verdun Howell, Barry Lawrence, Nicky Winmar, Ian Stewart, Baldock, Stewart Loewe, Barry Breen, Kevin Neale, Tony Lockett, Carl Ditterich, Robert Harvey, Ross Smith, Alan Morrow and Daryl Griffiths all included.
The Article Matt Burgan/Sportal/saints.com.au/17Jul05

Going for the 'Doc'
It remains one of football's most famous images - Darrel 'Doc' Baldock on the premiership dais in full voice heralding St Kilda's first flag. But the crowning moment of Baldock's fabulous career still makes the great man squirm. The masterly ball-handler, named on Friday as one of Tasmania's first football icons, said swapping jumpers with his Collingwood counterpart Des Tuddenham seemed perfectly natural in the euphoric moments after St Kilda's timekeeper Fred Farrell triumphantly blew the siren several times on VFL Grand Final day 1966. But constantly seeing pictures of himself in the vertical stripes of Collingwood is a moment which haunts him almost 40 years on.
The Article Ken Piesse/HeraldSun/17Jul05

Butterss dismisses rumours
St Kilda president Rod Butterss hotly denied rumours yesterday that an early falling out with coach Grant Thomas involved the purchase of the house in which the coach and his family now live. Butterss said he had heard the rumours, but described them as "rubbish". He was asked about the rumour by Sam Newman on TripleM's pre-match show.
The Article Scott Spits/Sportal/saints.com.au/13Jul05

ROUND 13 PRE-GAME - 2005 INDEX

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