In the minutes after St Kilda’s gutsy five-goal win over Collingwood on Saturday, Alan Richardson was asked if that was his best win in his short time at the Saints. In a considered reply, Richardson described it as his finest, and further elaborated on the point in an interview on Sunday, labelling the victory as the most courageous in his time at the club.

With St Kilda reduced to just two on the bench for the entire second-half, due to concussions suffered by key forwards Nick Riewoldt and Paddy McCartin, and then only one man for the last quarter when Dylan Roberton departed the game, it was the Saints determination that drew widespread praise after the final siren.

For Richardson, St Kilda’s first win of 2016 and first win since July was more significant than four premiership points, due to the elevated level of contribution from a collection of emerging young players in the three to five-year bracket, including McCartin who despite playing less than half, showed glimpses of his prodigious talent.

“I was really proud. If it’s not our best win, by a long way it’s our most courageous in my short time at the club. That’s what made it so significant for me,” Richardson told Melbourne radio station SEN on Sunday.

“I reckon to have the next group coming through – Ross, Weller, Newnes, Dunstan, Billings, even Paddy what he did for us early before he went off, and whilst he certainly wasn’t dominating in front of the ball, that’s as good as he’s looked. So that was certainly satisfying, that makes the victory even better.

“But for us to be two down, and to lose a fair bit of structure in front of the ball against [Nathan] Brown and [Ben] Reid that look to win the ball in the air – that was going to be a challenge.

“For those guys not just be involved in that sort of four-quarter victory but to have a really significant influence on it was the most pleasing thing.

“We need those sort of results to go forward and that will give us hopefully a new look at what a benchmark is for our footy club and for individuals and the roles that they play. So it’s a great opportunity now to take on the league’s best next weekend.”

And it wasn’t only the wave of youth that contributed to the impressive win over Nathan Buckley’s side. It was the experience of Leigh Montagna, Sean Dempster and Sam Fisher that helped pave the way, with the all three wise, old heads making sizeable contributions.

Montagna collected a game-high 40 possessions and used the ball superbly to turn defence into attack all day, whilst Fisher silenced Travis Cloke and Sean Dempster manned Darcy Moore before being an intercepting machine in defence.

With four points in the bank, as Richardson alluded to, the focus now shifts to Tasmania and taking it up to Hawthorn at their home away from home.

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