St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson lauded his side’s fluent ball movement against Carlton on Sunday, with the Saints’ slick transition leading to their second highest score (19.8 122) of the season at the MCG.

The Saints provided their forwards with a plethora of decent looks at goal, converting 54 entries into an amazing 27 marks inside 50 - more than double the AFL average of 12 per game - which allowed key forwards Tim Membrey (five goals, six marks inside 50) and Josh Bruce (four goals, seven marks inside 50) to impact the scoreboard profoundly on Sunday.

In Round 20, St Kilda was ranked No. 1 for transferring rebound 50s into inside 50s with 16 of them against the Blues, prompting Richardson to praise that facet of the game in his post-mortem after the Saints’ 71-point win on Sunday.

“I thought our rebound from defence, even though we were able to nullify the Blues to 41 entries, when we did get opportunities to come back it was pretty positive,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference.

“Our rebound numbers were positive. I think we marked the ball inside 50 a lot on the back of good entry.

“We probably had a better inside 50 ratio last week but we couldn’t score. We were much more positive in terms of being able to score and being effective in the front half so it was good our guys got some reward.”

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Richardson also showered emerging star Jade Gresham with praise after the 2015 first-round pick produced the strongest performance of his career to date.

Gresham thrived on increased time in the midfield, collecting a career-high 25 possessions (13 contested), a game-high eight clearances and five inside 50s.

In the second quarter alone, Gresham amassed ten touches and six clearances to help put the Saints in a commanding position heading into the main break.

“He’s been good, there’s no doubt about that. He’s quickly becoming, and this is certainly putting the cart before the horse really, but he’s becoming one of those guys that we want in and around the ball,” Richardson said.

“When we were struggling with clearance we put him in there. His second quarter when he had six clearances and ten possessions, really did start to really positively turn it our way.”

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