It may not have been pretty, and it’s a game never likely to feature on Fox Footy’s ‘Chooseday’ night football, but it snapped a six-game losing streak against Richmond and polished off a full complement of wins at the MCG this season.
And for St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson, they’re two positive outcomes to emerge from Saturday afternoon’s nine-point win over Richmond; a win that shuffled the Saints back up into ninth, four points below the AFL’s equator.
“I like the fact that we won the game. We hadn’t beaten Richmond in six times. We’ve done a bit of that this year; teams that have beaten us for a fair while now we’ve been able to get over the top,” Richardson said post-game on Saturday.
“The Hawks we didn’t (win) but we got really close, the Kangaroos we didn’t (win but got close), so we’ve been able to bridge the gap a bit on some of the teams.
“If you want to win a premiership you’ve got to end at the top and you’ve got to go past teams. So that’s been part of the build this year.”
Join the players and coaches at the 2016 best and fairest and celebrate an exciting season
Clearly, it’s been a year of strong progress at Linen House Centre. The Saints have nearly doubled their win tally this season, moving from six wins in 2015 to 11 in 2016, with a game to come against 17th placed Brisbane on Sunday.
Richardson conceded that Saturday’s unspectacular performance wasn’t a true reflection of this season, but as a whole, the third-year coach said there’s been blatant progression and the Saints’ best footy has improved again.
“I think our best footy is much better, I’m not saying for one minute we saw that today; there’s still a gap between our best and worst. We know we’ve still got a fair bit of work to do, but it’s been a positive year,” Richardson said.
“It’s been a year where our guys (have clearly progressed), whether it be where we play at the MCG and win three out of three or beat teams who we haven’t defeated for the last six game like Richmond.
“There's some pretty clear demonstrations of heading the right way. We think we’ve got some opportunities to grow and improve. Clearly [Jake] Carlisle will be one that will come back in next year, we need to do a bit more work with our list.”
