Two days short of eleven years ago, St Kilda hosted the Swans at what was then known as Colonial Stadium. It was a cool Saturday night; Mark McGough had won the Anzac Day medal 48 hours earlier in torrential conditions at the MCG.

The Saints were belted by 122 points the previous week at Kardinia Park, and had a host of big names on the sidelines.

Aaron Hamill, Fraser Gehrig, Heath Black, Robert Harvey, Peter Everitt, Steward Loewe, Nathan Burke and youngster Justin Koschitzke were all either suspended or injured. Nick Riewoldt was in his 11^th game, Xavier Clarke his third, and classy on-baller Nick Dal Santo was playing just his second AFL match.

29-year-old Justin Peckett was the Saints most experienced player with 175 matches, whereas Sydney had four veterans who had played 200 games or more and five players who were aged 30 or older.

Recognising the uphill task that confronted his youthful team, Grant Thomas, in just his 13th match as coach, flooded the backline from the outset.

St Kilda began with a three-man forward-line and a loose player in defence. At every opportunity the tireless Saints would kick towards the boundary line with few options further afield.

The tactics worked for the first three quarters with Sydney registering just two goals as the Saints took a 17 point lead into the final term.

25-year-old Barry Hall was irritated at the lack of room to move in the forward 50, and finished with just five disposals for the evening. At one stage his fustrations transcended into a scuffle with Lenny Hayes, the lightly built Saints ball-winner refusing to take a backward step against the powerful full-forward.

Inevitably, with a degree of fatigue the last quarter opened up and Swans Andrew Dunkley and Scott Stevens booted two early majors to reduce the margin to less than a goal.

However the Saints weren’t going to allow Rodney Eade’s men to stomp all over them, Craig Callahan and Peckett booting the next two before Sydney pegged the margin back again.

At the 30 minute mark, St Kilda held a narrow lead. At the centre bounce every single Saints player was behind the ball. Nevertheless, Hall shepherded home a Darren Cresswell long bomb to put the Swans ahead.

Ninth gamer Daniel Wulf had an opportunity to win the game for the Saints a moment later when he attempted to banana a goal from no more than 20 metres out. It hit the post and the scores were even. 

18-year-old Dal Santo, who had collected 25 disposals, won a free-kick 65 metres out from goal as the siren sounded. His unloaded an almighty torpedo which fell agonisingly short, and the result was a draw.

After the game Andrew Thompson told Channel 10: “We just somehow managed to find a way to snatch a draw out of a victory.”

“I thought the boys just stuck to our guns. We had a game plan, stuck to it all night and I suppose the Swans were always going to kick a couple at some point – it just had to be in the last few minutes of the game. We don’t want to talk about honourable draws or honourable losses or any of that type of crap … we just want victories.”

Stephen Milne collected three Brownlow votes, while Thompson registered two and Riewoldt got one. Troy Schwarze was the only multiple goal-kicker on the ground, booting the first two goals of the game.

St Kilda has five surviving members from this game (Riewoldt, Milne, Blake, Hayes, Dal Santo) while Sydney has Jude Bolton and Adam Goodes.         

You can follow Tom Morris on Twitter: @tommorris32