St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson praised the collective contribution of his young players in Saturday’s 39-point win over Melbourne, suggesting it was their finest performance as a group during his time at the club.

Whilst Nick Riewoldt was one of the best players on the ground and Leigh Montagna and David Armitage made sizeable contributions, it was the efforts of Seb Ross, Jack Newnes, Luke Dunstan, Jack Billings, Blake Acres, Mav Weller, Tim Membrey, Jack Sinclair, Tom Hickey and Jimmy Webster that pleased Richardson most.

Opposed to one of the most exciting up and coming sides in the competition, the Dees were coming off back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly five years, it was St Kilda’s stable of youth that steered the Saints to victory.

Monday Wash Up: Round 6 v Melbourne

“It was probably as good as our younger players have played as a whole. For them to have such an influence on the play was pleasing. So that’s pleasing to get an impact from those guys,” Richardson said after the Saints’ important win.

“Our senior players were still strong, but we didn’t need them to be as dominant, so that was pleasing.”

A week after being taught a football lesson by Greater Western Sydney and comprehensively beaten in both contested and uncontested ball, St Kilda responded in an emphatic manner, winning both the contested (+10) and uncontested possession (+33) counts, as well as the tackle tally (+15).

It was exactly the type of response Richardson was seeking after the disappointing performance against the Giants six days earlier; the only poor effort across what has been an impressive month of football for St Kilda.

Perfect 10 for Roo

“It was good to see the guys get back to really hunting the opposition and getting in their face and being bold to leave their man and going to support in contest. It was something that we’d focused on all week,” Richardson said.

“We had a block of four games, there was the Collingwood game, the Hawthorn game, and the GWS game and there was a real standout. It was the GWS game that we just didn’t get it done for whatever reason. I was really pleased that the guys responded the way they did.”

Despite losing clearances (-12) to one of the best stoppages sides in the competition, Richardson lauded his sides ability to follow up from stoppages and singled out Tom Hickey’s performance against Max Gawn, who entered Saturday’s clash in a rich vein of form. 

Hickey reduced the Melbourne stars influence around the ground, and fought out a strong battle in the ruck, narrowly losing the hitouts count 38-36, to continue his own impressive start to 2016.

“We got beaten at clearances pretty badly, although I thought Hickey did a really good job for us but we lost clearance by 15, but won the contest overall. So our ability to be able to spread and get to the next contest was as good as we’ve been for a while,” Richardson said.