How you view this game will largely depend on your allegiance.
If you’re a Saints supporter, you would have loved what you saw – accountable midfielders, stingy defenders, and a key forward that was capable of taking a mark and hitting the scoreboard.
If you’re a Fremantle supporter, you may have just watched your hopes for success in 2025 go up in flames. Good teams do not perform like that. They just don’t.
And if you’re a neutral supporter, my hope is that you endured a trying first half of footy and started to warm to the no-bullshit St Kilda Football Club after halftime, as they systematically dismantled the Dockers to the point of embarrassment.
Yes, embarrassment.
The Saints won this by ten goals, which is punishment enough, but in terms of control of the ball, momentum, and talent on display, they were a 100-point better team. I am not really sure what Freo were attempting to do, or how they were attempting to do it, but with their prime movers being closed down a little too easily for my liking, and their key forwards unable to impact the contest, they were rudderless, and the Saints feasted on their errors.
There were not many winners for the Dockers – I reckon you could count them on one hand and still have a couple of fingers left free. As for the Saints, well, there were plenty of standouts, and we’re gonna start with the bloke who had some soft journalists rushing to his defence last week when that nasty old Ross Lyon told him off for not playing the role the way the coach wanted. He didn’t need your defence – he just needed a chance to demonstrate that he could make amends.
Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Heroes and Zeroes.
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