St Kilda defender Dylan Roberton says the Saints’ inability to match Western Bulldogs in contested ball was one of the main areas of concern Alan Richardson addressed following their ten-goal loss on Saturday night.

Following an emphatic opening round victory over Fremantle, the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium presented a testing assignment in Nick Riewoldt’s 300^th match.

But it was Luke Beveridge’s side that put their noses to the wheel, dominating around the ball to win the contested possession count (137-102), to draw the dismay of the Saints’ coach after the final siren.

“It was mainly just contest (Richardson pointed out after the siren). We knew that they smashed Fremantle last week in that area so we really wanted to match them in that area,” Roberton told saints.com.au after the game.

“We thought we were matched up well inside to do that, but unfortunately I think we were -33 in contested ball so that was really disappointing.”

Charged with the task of quelling All Australian power forward Jake Stringer, veteran key defender Sean Dempster was one of St Kilda’s most influential players.

The 32-year-old nullified the budding superstar, holding Stringer to just a pair of goals despite the Western Bulldogs boasting a +16 inside 50 discrepancy.

“After the week Stringer had last week it was going to be a big job, he was always going to kick a couple,” Roberton said.

“But ‘Shinner’ was really strong on him and made him earn his goals. ‘Shinner’ does that every week for us so it was another really good game from him.”

After rolling his ankle in St Kilda’s intra-club in February, Roberton missed a chunk of training and the Saints opening NAB Challenge game, before also missing out on invaluable game time with the match cancellation in Mackay.

But after stringing the last three games together, including the Saints final NAB Challenge match, Roberton said he is quickly regaining match fitness.

“It felt alright today, I cramped a bit last week, which was probably on the back of that and not playing in Brisbane,” Roberton said.

“I’m feeling good at the moment; I’m two games at the moment so the match fitness is starting to come.”

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