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The Outcome

While the opening may have been surprisingly subdued, outside a bumping confrontation between Eagles defender Adam Hunter and key Saints Nick Riewoldt and Aaron Hamill, the remainder of the term was a gut-busting running affair. And the man who led that charge was West Coast's All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox. Put simply, St Kilda didn't have a match-up to suppress him up forward where he kicked two first-quarter goals and they could not run with him around the ground. But there were also ominous signs with Riewoldt on the lead up forward for the Saints, although he let his side down with some poor kicking at goals and cost them a bigger lead than the four points at the first break.
Steve Butler, West Australian

St Kilda's inability to cover the ground was increasingly evident during the second term – its defence was brave, but couldn't clear the zone because the running options weren't forthcoming up the ground. Subsequently, the Eagles kicked the last three goals of the half through Embley, Brent Staker and Cousins to turn a five-point deficit into a handy 15-point lead.
Digby Beacham, Herald Sun

For 45 minutes, St Kilda was ferocious in its attack on the ball, and dogged in pursuit of Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr, Andrew Embley and the rest of the West Coast runners. The tackling of both sides was unforgiving. Not even the quick-step talents of Judd and Nick Dal Santo could keep them out of harm's way. From midway through the second quarter, however, the Saints began to flag. Judd broke the lines and Kerr found time and space in which to work. Jaymie Graham, playing just his third game of AFL football, worked in tandem with Darren Glass to hold two-time Coleman medallist Fraser Gehrig to one first-half goal.
Chip Le Grand, The Australian

"As the game went on they (West Coast) grew in confidence and they played some very good patches in the game," Grant Thomas said. "We had patches where I think we drew with them, but we didn’t have enough patches where we were actually winning."
Simon Moore-Crouch, saints.com.au

Despite a courage-filled third quarter spark for St Kilda by the AFL's oldest player and two-time Brownlow medallist Robert Harvey, West Coast just kept packing too many running guns. The Saints cut the lead to 12 points during that term, but a win always seemed out of arm's length. West Coast took a punt on five underdone stars - Chad Fletcher, David Wirrpanda, Daniel Kerr, Darren Glass and Ashley Sampi, who was a late inclusion at the expense of Travis Gaspar. While the opening may have been surprisingly subdued, outside a bumping confrontation between Eagles defender Adam Hunter and key Saints Nick Riewoldt and Aaron Hamill, the remainder of the term was a gut-busting running affair.
Steve Butler, The Australian

West Coast led by more than five goals in the third term, but couldn't break the Saints. With Hayes, Riewoldt and Luke Ball lifting, they forced their way back and got to within two goals with just a minute left in the third term. But a brilliant, opportunistic snap from Ashley Sampi – a late inclusion for Travis Gaspar - restored the margin to 18 points at three-quarter time. That was the final margin, with the fading Eagles managing seven behinds and the Saints just 1.1 in a struggle of a final term.
Ashley Browne, saints.com.au

"They have had a horrid pre-season off field, and we have been in that position ourselves - and we won 14 games in a row a couple of years ago from a bit of adversity," Thomas said. "Full credit to Woosh (John Worsfold). He has been under the pump a bit, and he solidified the group really well." With St Kilda set to play two of its next four matches outside Victoria, Thomas said he had to address his side's form on the road. "We have had another loss over here which is not that palatable, so we have just got to improve those," Thomas said. "We cannot afford to be a side that just wins home games.
Tim Clarke, The Australian

All night the Weagles kicked and handballed to running players in space and while they were rusty too in delivery their player positioning was FAR FAR better than ours. We often kick to contests and in some cases even to Saints players outnumbered . . . Once again our opponents were allowed to have an attacking HB who had great freedom and little manning up. The Saints seem to specialise in allowing players such as Wirrpanda and Macleod to run around as they please . . . Cox. Class act . . . what can one say. We were never going to beat him, but he would have been negated more with some closer checking. BALL: Went missing and don't know why. Was most un-Ball like. Pressure! or was he crunched? MILNE: while i do like him spending some time in the midfield I do not want him their all the time. Our opposition coaches must love this approach. what worries oponents, scares them in fact is Milne near goals kicking "unexpected goals". just think Sampi . . . held for most of the game but then bang at a critical time! Milne is potentially the best crumber we have and he needs to be within range of goals . . . so yes have him upfield but he needs to be running towards goal to crumb the spilt G or H ball. FISHER: as I have posted many times, he may have height and so gets pressed into playing as a third tall in the BP, but he is not currently good in this role. what he is very good at his the running HB role. saintsRrising, saintsational.com

WEST COAST: 3.1, 7.5, 11.11, 11.18 (84)
ST KILDA: 3.5, 4.8, 8.11, 9.12 (66)
GOALS – West Coast: Cox 2, Embley 2, Stenglein, Staker, Cousins, Kerr, Selwood, Lynch, Sampi
St Kilda: Hayes 3, Gehrig 2, Harvey, Riewoldt, Watts, Voss
BEST – West Coast: Cox, Embley, Wirrpanda, Kerr, Judd, Glass
St Kilda: Hayes, Harvey, Dal Santo, Riewoldt, Gram
INJURIES – West Coast: - St Kilda: Baker (cut head)
CHANGES – West Coast: Gaspar replaced in selected side by Sampi
REPORTS -
UMPIRES - Allen, Vozzo, Woodcock
CROWD - 40,036 at Subiaco Oval