St Kilda goalsneak Terry Milera cops a high tackle from Melbourne enforcer Nathan Jones. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
WHAT coach Mark Neeld described as a "non-competitive quarter" cost Melbourne dearly in its showcase NAB Cup game at Casey Fields Saturday.
The Demons fell away dismally in the second term, allowing St Kilda to outscore them 54-8 to set up the 25-point win in sapping heat.
Melbourne gave its supporter base around Cranbourne plenty to cheer with the first three goals of the game with a stiff northerly wind at the players back.
But the Saints' onballers, led by Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo and Jack Steven, smashed them in the second quarter, despite the centre bounce dominance of Demon big man Mark Jamar.
"Honorable losses, you get sick of them," Neeld said after acknowledging the fight of his players to stay in the contest in the second half.
"The downside was the second quarter. Another indication of where we're at. If we have a non-competitive quarter, it will cost us the game.
"When you're playing against good, experienced sides, if you drop your guard, or in our case, dropped our workrate, they'll take advantage. And the Saints were really good at taking advantage of that in the second quarter."
St Kilda was able to ease captain Nick Riewoldt and best and fairest winner Lenny Hayes through their first NAB Cup games, although the elite pair spent almost the entire second half on the interchange bench, leaving the Saints with effectively only four players to rotate under the AFL's heat rule.
"It is a challenge. You're trying to still get the right amount of minutes into players leading into round 1 and that little bit of flexibility today was really important. It was a really good decision by the AFL (to scrap the 80 interchange cap)," Saints coach Scott Watters said.
"Lenny and Roo have done a lot of training and we just wanted to get them through a modified game where they played a tick over a half and they will build on that next week."
The Saints defence stifled Melbourne after that fast start. Young Demon key forward Jesse Hogan managed only five touches against James Gwilt. While Gwilt and Sam Fisher worked deep, Jarryn Geary, former Docker Dylan Roberton and Sam Gilbert rebounded from half-back.
The only downside for the Saints was leg tightness forcing Sean Dempster out in the first quarter.
"He's a player we have to be really careful with and we were always going to modify his game time today," Watters said.
Lynden Dunn of the Demons tries to cool down during the round three NAB Cup AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the St Kilda Saints at Casey Fields.
Nick Riewoldt (R) of the Saints celebrates after kicking a goal with Terry Milera during the round three NAB Cup AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the St Kilda Saints at Casey Fields.
Stephen Milne of the Saints celebrates after kicking a goal during the round three NAB Cup AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the St Kilda Saints at Casey Fields.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Saints too good for Demons
Dengan url
http://semangatboss.blogspot.com/2013/03/saints-too-good-for-demons.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Saints too good for Demons
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar