St Kilda will carry great confidence into its season opener against the Western Bulldogs following a gritty, hard-fought performance in today’s practice match against Carlton.

The Blues held sway in the opening half, before Peta Searle’s Saints flipped the script in the third term through fierce tackling and pressure-driven passages to edge in front heading into the final change.

Despite the inspiring turnaround, three final quarter majors from Carlton – the match-winner from Breann Moody in the final two minutes – confirmed the 6.4 (40) to 5.8 (38) result at Ikon Park.

“When we play our way it’s really exciting, and to the girls’ credit they re-energised themselves and fought back,” coach Peta Searle told saints.com.au.

“Even though we didn’t win it in the end, the endeavour and guts were all there.

“I think in the second half we started to play a bit more team footy, started to trust in each other a bit more, share the ball, hit the angles and get the handball receives, so when we play with each other we play better.

“Carlton are Premiership favourites, so to go close to them – they had a few out, we had a few out. – it was good to see how we measured up after not playing footy for nine months.”

Georgia Patrikios was of the Saints’ chief barometers from siren-to-siren, with her unrelenting attack, crunching tackles and drive through the middle pairing excellently with the pace and flair of new recruit Tyanna Smith.

The No. 21's partner-in-crime Nicola Xenos was effective up forward (two goals), while winger Molly McDonald and defender Ali Brown were solid in their respective areas of the ground.

Brown, who helped lead St Kilda’s resolute defence alongside half-backs Hannah Priest and Cat Phillips, were particularly effective in keeping Carlton to just one inside-50 in the third term.

The line-up boasted all eight of St Kilda’s new recruits, along with Tarni White and Nadia von Bertouch, who made it through their comeback game from long-term injury unscathed.

A suspected collarbone injury to defender Bianca Jakobsson was the only sour note from an otherwise positive outing.

The Saints will look to carry their momentum into Round 1 against the Western Bulldogs, pencilled in for Friday 29 January at RSEA Park.

CARLTON  1.1  3.3  3.3  6.4 (40)
ST KILDA  0.0   2.1  4.7  5.8 (38)

GOALS
Carlton: Gibbs 2, Vescio 2, Jones, Moody
St Kilda: Xenos 2, Vogt, Patrikios, McCarthy

BEST
Carlton: Prespakis, Gee, Vescio, Gibbs
St Kilda: Patrikios, McDonald, Smith, Brown, Xenos, Phillips

FINAL SQUAD

1 M McDonald, 2 A Brown, 3 A Burke, 4 C Whitfort, 6 T Smith, 8 B Jakobsson, 9 K McCarthy, 10 J Vogt, 11 I Shannon, 12 K Shierlaw, 13 R Saulitis, 14 H Priest, 15 N Exon, 16 P Kelly, 17 C Greiser, 18 T Lucas-Rodd, 19 J. Matin, 21 G Patrikios, 22 T Luke, 25 R Dillon, 27 N Xenos, 28 N Von Bertouch, 29 T White, 34 T Meyer, 35 C Phillips, 36 J Van Dyk