Finally, the pre-season has come to a close, now all eyes turn to the build up to Round 1 following St Kilda’s up and down final NAB Challenge match against Melbourne, which ended in a 24-point defeat at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

With no premiership points on offer, the focus was on fine tuning player workloads and structures, not on the end result ahead of the season opener against Port Adelaide on Easter Sunday. The Saints started the better of the two sides, before Melbourne took hold of the lead in the second quarter and maintained some breathing distance for the remainder of the contest.

The sight of Nick Riewoldt on the bench with ice strapped to his lower leg is a concern and sure to generate plenty of debate ahead of Round 1, but initial reports suggest the issue is a precautionary more than anything else.

By the final siren, with a solid hit out now in the bank for a collection of senior players including Riewoldt, Sam Fisher, Leigh Montagna and David Armitage, the Saints departed Docklands with plenty of positives and some areas to focus on in the next two weeks.

Lively small forward pair Jack Billings and Jack Lonie were dangerous in the opening half, particularly Billings early who was everywhere in the first quarter, booting three goals and having one disallowed to cause the Demons defence plenty of headaches.

In a similar vein, Lonie was full of energy across half forward, using his classy left foot to create a number of scoring opportunities. He finished the afternoon with 19 possessions, five tackles and three goals assists, to be one of the Alan Richardson’s best.

With Riewoldt spending periods high up the ground and on a wing at times, Josh Bruce was the focal point in attack, attracting the lion share of inside 50 entries.

Last year’s leading goal kicker started brilliantly taking three marks inside 50 in the first quarter, including two contested grabs in strong marking contests. Wayward kicking let him down though as he failed to convert two opportunities from inside 30m, before finishing with 2.2 for the day to add to his pair against North Melbourne.

The midfield department was in need of a run, especially after last Sunday’s cancellation in Mackay, as well as a final opportunity to iron at the wrinkles ahead of the season opener in a fortnight’s time at Adelaide Oval.

Leigh Montagna (27 possessions), Jack Steven (30 possessions), Seb Ross (28 possessions) and David Armitage (23 possessions) gathered plenty of the ball around the ground, whilst Jack Newnes (20 possessions) patrolled the wings to provide a damaging option on transition.

An early Harry Potter style gash to Armitage’s forehead courtesy of a collision courageously running back with the flight of the ball highlighted his intent early: His one and only NAB Challenge game was to be treated as a full blown hit out ahead of Round 1.

Stalwart defenders Sean Dempster and Sam Fisher rotated through Melbourne’s prized possession Jesse Hogan with good effect. Widely regarded as the games next best forward, the wonder boy was kept quiet for the first three quarters before coming to life in the final term, booting two goals late to awaken from a slow day up forward.

After spending the entire first-half on the bench, first-round draftee Jade Gresham and ruckman Jason Holmes were injected into the fray at the start of the third quarter and made a quick impact.

Gresham took little time to work into the game, being involved almost instantly in a scoring chain before laying a strong tackle to signal his appetite for the contest. He finished with 11 disposals in limited game time to demonstrate why he was regarded as one of the premier ball winners from his draft class.

Holmes’ tap work was emphatic at times, with the American putting the ball down his midfielder’s throats in a devastating fashion to further demonstrate the progress he has made this pre-season.

MELBOURNE      0.4.1   0.8.5   0.11.12   1.14.14    (107)                  
ST KILDA            0.4.5   0.6.7   9.10.0    0.12.11     (83)          
 
NAB SUPERGOALS
Melbourne: Salem
St Kilda: Nil
 
GOALS
Melbourne: Garlett 3, Watts 2, Oliver 2, Kent 2, Hogan 2, Kennedy, Pedersen, Bugg
St Kilda: Billings 3, Bruce 2, Armitage, Montagna, Hickey, Steven, Newnes, Weller, Dunstan
 
BEST 
St Kilda: Steven, Lonie, Ross, Montagna, Billings, Newnes and Fisher

Official crowd: 8621 at Etihad Stadium