Frustrated and disappointed, but buoyed by another spirited performance against one of the premier sides in the competition, St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson lamented a poor start against North Melbourne in the aftermath of another narrow loss to start the season.

St Kilda finished the stronger of the two sides, arresting a 26-point deficit ten minutes into the final quarter to draw level in the dying stages before a behind from Todd Goldstein put the Kangaroos in front by the smallest of margins. A goal from Mason Wood after the final siren extended North Melbourne’s victory to seven-points.

Brad Scott’s side started the better of the two sides and kept the Saints at arms distance for the bulk of the encounter. But after kicking 4.0 to 3.4 in the third quarter and slowly clawing the momentum back in their favour, St Kilda kicked four unanswered in the second-half of the last quarter to finish like a freight train.

Despite four invaluable premiership points evading the Saints for the second time in a month, following the three-point loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania, Richardson said the performance against the only undefeated team in the game will instil confidence in his emerging side.

“I thought there were some periods where our guys played some good strong footy and should get some belief or to continue to get belief against some good quality teams,” Richardson told reporters in his post-match press conference.

“We were out of the game early really. It was just catch up after a disappointing first quarter, particularly at clearance.

“To the boys’ credit they looked like they fought their way back into the contest. We didn’t look like we were going to overpower them until late.

“It looked really positive in the last quarter. We really did start to get on top. It was certainly all our way in terms of entry and opportunity when we drew level.

“So from that point of view, when you get yourself in that position after working so hard against quality opposition, to then lose is obviously frustrating and disappointing.”

Entering Sunday’s game as the second-highest scoring team in the AFL averaging 112-points per game, North Melbourne’s forward make up of 300-gamer Drew Petrie, Ben Brown and in-form key forward Jarrad Waite presented one of the toughest defensive jobs in the game.

But just as they have done many times before, the Saints key defensive men came to the party. Sean Dempster quelled Waite. Sam Fisher did a similar performance on Petrie. And Gilbert produced the best performance of his season, stopping Brown and providing plenty of drive out of the back half.

Gilbert finished with 24 possessions, seven inside 50s, six rebound 50s and 626 metres gained, prompting Richardson to laud his performance, along with the defence in his post mortem.

“I thought our three big guys [Fisher, Dempster and Gilbert] did a really good job,” Richardson said.

“I thought he was outstanding on the night, he was probably our best player ‘Gilbo’.

“Defensively we were pretty strong tonight, they only went coast-to-coast and scored on us once and that’s been an area of concern for us.

“I think the big three [Waite, Petrie and Brown] only kicked five goals between them and they’re an experienced crew; we had an experienced crew on them, so that was positive.”

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