IN A match that had momentum swings for majority of the first half, St Kilda lifted late in the second quarter to win by 18 points at Whitten Oval to gather its second win of the season.

Like in Round 4 against the Gold Coast Suns, the Western Bulldogs had the momentum in the early stages of the game, but the Saints found territory from the midfield and wings to the forwards, scoring 3.1 to 1.0.

Whilst the Bulldogs kicked four goals in a row in the early stages of the second quarter, the Saints lifted, kicking four goals in the later stages of the quarter, with the likes of Jaimee Lambert, Grace Kelly, Georgia Patrikios and Hannah Priest lifting in the defence and midfield respectively, whilst Jesse Wardlaw was solid in the forward.

In the third quarter, the Saints, kept the Bulldogs to one goal for the second half, whilst the Saints kicked two goals, setting the game and tempo on their terms to seal the victory.

The stats were even across the board, with the disposal efficiency 62 per cent to both teams. The Saints dominated the efficiency inside 50, 70 per cent to the Bulldogs’ 35. The Saints dominated the contested possessions, 106-102, whilst the Bulldogs won the uncontested possession, 151-131.

While multiple players had a standout game for the Saints, Priest finished the game with 28 disposals, 18 kicks, 10 hitouts and 10 tackles.

St Kilda coach Nick Dal Santo spoke about how pleased he was with his sides performance.

“It was a good performance, but got areas to work on. In the second quarter, the run on the Dogs had. We knew they were going to challenge us,” he said. “They did right to the end. Their stoppage work was really aggressive and challenged us.”

Dal Santo said they were going to be challenged by the Bulldogs and how his talls stood up.

“We knew the Bulldogs haven’t won a game and been playing some solid football. We were well aware of the style it was going to be,” he said.

“I thought Jesse Wardlaw getting on the scoreboard twice in the first quarter gave us belief that our system was going to work and hold up. “Erin McKinnon came into the side and I thought she performed really well in the ruck and gave us some really good use.”

Dal Santo spoke about the areas of growth his side is continually working on and connection they are building on.

“I’m just really pleased with our connection and building on for a couple of weeks and it came into form tonight which was great.”