Australian Football

Match Report

St Kilda has pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in VFL/AFL history to record a stunning victory over the Western Bulldogs at Docklands on Saturday afternoon. When the Bulldogs' Jake Stringer kicked the first goal of the second half the Dogs led by 55 points and looked it be heading for a possible 100-point victory. But from that moment St KIlda turned the game on its head to grind down the Bulldogs over the next hour with scintillating, running football, to record an amazing seven-point win. Only four matches in history have seen a team come back from a greater deficit to win, the most recent being Essendon's amazing win over North Melbourne in 2001 when it won by 12 points after trailing by 69 in the second term.

The Bulldogs had the better of the early stages of the match, with Easton Wood, Jake Stringer and Brett Goodes all goaling before Nick Riewoldt finally put the Saints on the board at the 23-minute mark of the opening term. The Dogs' Tom Boyd had also missed two very easy shots at that point and the Bulldogs should have been further ahead than the 13 points they were after Riewoldt's goal. Adam Schneider added another for St Kilda just before quarter time, and it was the Dogs by just seven at the first break. 

In the second term, the Western Bulldogs turned on the sort of scintillating play they have quickly become renowned for in the short time new coach Luke Beveridge has been at the helm. The hunted and tackled in numbers and swarmed forward in droves when possession came their way. The net result of this was a brilliant seven-goal quarter, two of the majors going to Stringer, two to Liam Picken and one each to Luke Dahlhaus, Stewart Crameri and Koby Stevens. In response, the shellshocked Saints could muster no more than a single behind, kicked by Josh Bruce at the seven-minute mark.

Nothing looked to have changed when the third term began and when Stringer kicked his fourth at the three-minute mark, nobody at the ground could have guessed the utter transformation that the match was about to undergo. It began with a couple of goals to Tom Hickey and David Armitage, after which Stringer had an opportunity to arrest the Saints' run with a snap off the back of the pack, but his shot missed. St Kilda then turned up the intensity. Suddenly it was the Saints tackling and running in numbers and in the last 20 minutes of the term, they added five straight goals, one each to the Jacks - Billings, Lonie and Sinclair - another one each to Luke Dunstan and Bruce. By the time the three-quarter-time siren sounded, the Saints were only two goals behind and holding all the momentum.

When the last quarter begin, goals to Ayce Cordy and Mitch Honeychurch took the margin out to 25 points, and the Dogs appeared to have weathered the storm. But the Saints came again, led brilliantly by young Jack Billings. He kicked majors at the seven and 13-minute marks and Jack Sinclair added another five minutes later it reduce the Bulldogs' lead to just five points. Five minutes later again, Tom Hickey marked and converted to give the Saints the lead for the first time since the two-minute mark of the first quarter. At the 26-mninute mark, Billings kicked his third of the term it give St Kilda one of its greatest victories in a long time.

For the Saints, David Armitage (45 disposals, five tackles) and Billings (four goals, 22 possessions) were brilliant, as was Jack Steven (11 marks and 32 touches) while the Dogs were well served by Picken (28 possessions, two goals), Jason Johannisen (24 touches) and Easton Wood (10 marks, 21 disposals). 

St Kilda will take on the Crows at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday chock full of confidence, while the Dogs will live their wounds and look to bounce back when they host top team Fremantle next Sunday.

GOALS 
Western Bulldogs: Stringer 4; Picken 2; Goodes, Stevens, Wood, Crameri, Dahlhaus, Cordy, Honeychurch 
St Kilda: Billings 4; Sinclair, Hickey 2; Schneider, Riewoldt, Lonie, Dunstan, Bruce, Armitage 

BEST - THE SUNDAY AGE
Western Bulldogs: Picken, Johannisen, Wood, Stringer, Stevens, Dickson.
St Kilda: Armitage, Billings, Steven, Sinclair, Schneider, Montagna. 

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Western Bulldogs: Picken, Stringer, Johannisen, Dickson, Macrae, Goodes 
St Kilda: Armitage, Billings, Steven, Schneider, Fisher, Newnes, Sinclair 

INJURIES 
Western Bulldogs: Smith (right knee) 
St Kilda: Savage (head) 

SUBSTITUTES 
Western Bulldogs: Lachie Hunter replaced Clay Smith (right knee) at half time 
St Kilda: Jack Sinclair replaced Shane Savage (concussion) at quarter time 

UMPIRES: Farmer, Stephens, Schmit

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Sandy Roberts, Dermott Brereton, Jonathan Brown, Cameron Mooney