St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson admits wasted opportunities in front of goal came back to bite the Saints in Saturday night’s loss to West Coast at Domain Stadium.
Despite having six more scoring shots, leading at every break and holding an advantage until the 21-minute mark of the final quarter, St Kilda was overrun by a fast finishing Eagles outfit who kicked the final five goals of the game to win by 19-points.
A disappointed Richardson said the Saints were made to pay for not putting Adam Simpson’s side away earlier in the game when they had the chance.
“We’re pretty disappointed to get overrun late. There’s no doubt against good footy teams, of which West Coast are one, you need to make the most of your opportunities,” Richardson told reporters in his post-match press conference on Saturday night.
“We were really pleased with our ability to be able to setup scoring opportunities – we thought we got some really good looks.
“It’s positive to get the shots, it’s frustrating to not capitalise.
“We possibly could have been in a better position and put them out of the game, but full credit to them, their last quarter was a bit too good for us.”
Despite the disappointing finish, Richardson said he was pleased with the performance by St Kilda’s defence, led by Nathan Brown who held dual Coleman medallist Josh Kennedy to one goal and minimal impact for the majority of the game before the star forward booted three late goals to snatch the win for West Coast.
“We thought our defence was pretty strong for a big part of the game. I thought by and large we did a pretty good job back there,” Richardson said
“He [Brown] was flat; he’d done a really good job and we just lost pressure through the midfield and we didn’t get anywhere near the clearance opportunities that we wanted and they got most of those.
“Their midfielders got some opportunities late to spot Kennedy up and that’s always difficult to defend. But he was pretty positive for us Browny.”
