ST KILDA coach Nick Dal Santo said there were some clear areas to improve on from his side’s 26-point loss to Carlton at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, with a 33-point half-time deficit, high volume of turnovers and inability to capitalise on forward 50 entries were all on the agenda. Dal Santo’s Saints suffered a 9.12 (66) to 6.4 (40) defeat at the hands of the Blues, and while they drew within 10 points early in the fourth, their high-risk, high-reward focus to get back into it, ultimately fell short.

“Late we probably had to roll the dice a little bit and we had to find two to two and a half goals in the last eight or so minutes,” Dal Santo said. “The risk of that is if you don’t get it right you’re probably going to concede and then ultimately we did. We had to risk to lose it to win it. “That’s probably what happened. We’re disappointed we felt like we did some really good things but ultimately not enough.”

The Saints kept touch with the Blues in terms of forward 50 entries, but they were not able to capitalise on those chances, unlike their Navy Blue opponents. Instead, all three of Carlton’s majors in the opening term came from forward half intercepts, frustrating Dal Santo.

“You look at the some of the key numbers, inside 50s for example we’re actually in a good space, we did a lot right and just didn’t capitalise at all. On the flip side in the first half one in every three was a goal, one in every two was a score so that was pretty much the game early.

“We felt like we didn’t give ourselves a great opportunity to turn the ball over where we wanted to so I touched on those inside 50s. Up until three quarter time we were even in the inside 50s but we were still down by four or five goals.”

The Saints registered 12 inside 50s in the opening term for one behind, and while the Blues booted another three goals to one in the second term, still were around the mark. At half-time, Dal Santo said they had identified “a couple of defensive things” that needed to be improved in order to get back into the game that was slowly slipping away.

“We felt it was more our defence,” he said. “How do we turn the ball over in the right spot? Ultimately how do you use it when we win the ball back? I think the turnovers in the 70s, they were about 60, so we gave the ball back 11 more times than they did.

“But it’s also where do you win it back and how do you use it? We corrected it and got back on top and gave ourselves a really good look and halfway through the last it was a goal and a half or two goals, but not enough. It wasn’t our version of footy for long enough.”

St Kilda looked a lot better after the main break, kicking five of the next six goals to storm back from 33 points to just 10 in the sixth minute of the fourth quarter after back-to-back majors from Amber Clarke. Ultimately though, that high-risk, high-reward gamestyle left the defensive half vulnerable and Carlton was able to ice the game with a pair of late majors.

“To the Blues’ credit they’re a good team and we knew they were going to challenge us in a few areas,” Dal Santo said. The frustrating thing was the areas we identified we weren’t able to slow it down, particularly early. When we were able to make those adjustments and got it done in the second half it looked like a completely different game. “

While Tyanna Smith (24 disposals, six tackles, eight clearances, six inside 50s and two goals) was a clear best-on for the Blues and the likes of Georgia Patrikios (27 disposals, seven marks, five tackles, four clearances, three inside 50s, three rebound 50s) and Serene Watson (20 disposals, four marks and nine rebound 50s) were terrific, the Saints’ struggled forward of centre. Clarke and Smith kicked four of the team’s six goals with Hawks recruit Sophie Butterworth and J’Noemi Anderson the other two.

When asked if the forward chemistry was a conversation to be had given the high-volume of entries but lack of scores, Dal Santo said it has to be.

“If you’ve got the ball inside forward 50 enough and you’re not putting it on the scoreboard, is it the kick? is it the leading pattern? Is it who you’re kicking to? Is it the matchup?” he said.

“We’ll work through that, and it can be a combination of all of them, sometimes the delivery’s not perfect, but the game rarely is, so it’s about how do you get it your front half, and if you’re not going to score, lock it in there for a period of time and I just thing my review post-game about looking through the numbers specifically we probably didn’t do that well enough.”

St Kilda has a 13-day break before heading down the highway to GMHBA Stadium to take on Geelong with the Saints having the fortune of playing in back-to-back AFL Men’s used venues.