Saints surge to upset win against Bulldogs

Ross Lyon’s second coming at Moorabbin has St Kilda surging, and Saints fans buckling up for the ride.

The Saints are the early season bolters, and the Western Bulldogs are stuck in the starters’ box after Lyon engineered another upset victory at Marvel Stadium.

Dogs coach Luke Beveridge has plenty of questions but few answers after another ordinary performance by his men, following up a 50-point hiding last week with a 51-point loss on Saturday night.

Winless from the first two rounds, the Dogs are staring at a 0-3 start with a five-day break before taking on Brisbane at the Gabba on Thursday night.

There is suddenly a spark at Moorabbin – and their youngsters are the fire starters. Teenagers Mattaes Phillipou, Mitch Owens and Anthony Caminiti booted eight goals between them in a forward line expected to struggle without Max King.

If they don’t already, Saints fans will soon fall in love with Phillipou, who kicked three vital goals when the match was at its hottest. In just two games, the No.10 pick from South Australia has already shown why he was such a highly rated junior, energising what was a staid forward line last year with his ground level verve and nous around goal.

Mattaes Phillipou. Credit:Getty Images

Or perhaps the kids will iron the No.10 of Owens on the back of their jumpers. Like Phillipou, the second-season Saint also booted three.

If they like their cult heroes, Caminiti is their man. Signed as a pre-season supplemental selection just over a month ago, after Jack Silvagni unwittingly tipped off his Saints list boss father, Caminiti snagged two, troubling the Dogs with his height and speed.

This was an excellent performance by the Saints, who, apart from a brief period late in the second term, were clearly the better side.

They were too tough and too hard for a Dogs outfit playing with little of the spirit they showed in their march to the 2021 grand final.

Their senior quartet of Jack Steele, Brad Crouch, Seb Ross and Rowan Marshall outmuscled the Dogs at the stoppages.

The Dogs were once kings of the contest but were found wanting in that area again. Bailey Smith, Tom Liberatore and Marcus Bontempelli and co are generating numbers on the stats sheet, but their forwards are starving.

From 37 entries, the Dogs managed just five goals. Their vaunted tall timber aren’t marking it, and the ball is spilling out far too easily.

The hard-nosed, defensively sound football synonymous with Lyon was on show in a brilliant opening by the Saints, who had the greater appetite for the contest.

They were harder at the ball, and if not in possession pressured the Dogs into costly errors. Players such as Smith and Ed Richards, who are normally assured with the ball, coughed up shockers which led to Saints goals.

It was not until about midway through the second term before the Dogs, through leaders Bontempelli, Liberatore and Smith, belatedly matched the Saints’ intensity.

Goalless for the first 47 minutes of the game, the Dogs booted three in a hurry, and when Tim English converted after the siren a game that appeared well under the Saints’ control was wide open.

TEMPERS FRAYED

English’s goal after the half-time siren sparked a melee in which two players familiar to both clubs figured centrally. Josh Bruce was in the thick of it, along with English, but it was the heated words between Zaine Cordy and Dogs pair Bontempelli and Aaron Naughton which will make for an interesting discussion when the former teammates meet next for a coffee. Whatever the banter was riled Cordy enough for him to keep yapping as both parties went their separate ways.

CORDY LAUGHS LAST

Cordy was an unlikely game-breaker for his new club. Though he played forward in the Dogs’ 2016 premiership, Cordy is better known as a defender, but he played a key role in the Saints’ charge in the third term. From his six touches and four marks, Cordy booted two vital goals in a makeshift forward line missing injured spearhead King.

BEST
Western Bulldogs: Smith, Naughton, Bruce, Jones.
St Kilda: Steele, Marshall, Sinclair, Crouch, Wood, Owens.

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