If ever you needed to see how much a win meant for an under-siege brigade, you only had to look at St Kilda’s raw reaction once the final siren sounded on Sunday afternoon.
It had been 336 days since the Saints’ AFLW side last belted out the club song following a dominant display against West Coast to close out Season 2021, but the weight finally lifted off the shoulders after their exhilarating three-point win against Gold Coast.
For most of 2022 however, the vocal cords have been on ice.
The Saints were left without a mark in the W column after seven seesawing weeks, despite coming close in the preceding weeks. Hair-raising encounters against West Coast and Brisbane – both decided by less than a goal – almost snapped the winless streak, before victory was cruelly snatched away after the siren against GWS this Wednesday just gone.
Sunday’s relieving win against the Suns marked the club’s maiden win of Season 2022, as well as the first under senior coach Nick Dal Santo.
“I don’t know how many emotions there are by definition, but I reckon I lived a few of them in the last five minutes,” Dal Santo told SEN.
“I went a bit greyer and maybe lost a little bit of hair, but it’s really nice to wake up off the back of a win and still know there’s clearly so much to learn and so much to work on.
“It’s really difficult to replicate that in the ‘real world’, in normal jobs. That one moment to say (we’ve) put in this amount of work... it doesn’t always get results instantly, but these girls have been working their backsides off for a long time.”
There were, admittedly, only a matter of inches which proved the difference between the Saints' long-awaited win on Sunday afternoon and another crushing loss.
Two late misses from key forward Sarah Perkins – including one to win the game with less than a minute on the clock – allowed St Kilda to hang on in the final few moments and narrowly avoid a repeat of last Wednesday’s heartbreaking defeat at the death to GWS.
“It was about getting back on the horse and going again. I think the four-day turnaround was exactly what we needed,” Dal Santo said.
“I did have a split second where I thought ‘how do I communicate this to the group off the back of what we went through on Wednesday night?’ (and) almost being in the same situation four days later.
“I was emotional too, we’re feeling it as well and have had some big challenges this year, but the group has been exceptional.
“This is for every athlete in the women’s program, but I respect all of them. I don’t know if I’d be capable of it; to do the hours that they all do in their day-to-day jobs and then to walk in with a smile on their face when they shut that car door and they come into the football club prepared to learn, to improve, to be challenged and to find ways to be better footballers.”
The uncapped emotion at Sunday’s final siren was one a special moment in of itself, but a proper chance to reflect was undoubtedly needed after a whirlwind few weeks complete with a compressed fixture and a slew of changes, injury blows and limited on-field success.
By happenstance, the side had organised to return to RSEA Park that night for a social catch-up; an evening which came with an added touch of joy off the back of the nail-biting win.
“I love and adore football, I love the connection with this group and the way I feel about them,” Dal Santo said.
“At any level of football you’ve got to enjoy it. You can’t take any of these things for granted and we definitely didn’t (on Sunday), but within that, the coach in me says we still need to get better.”
