{"id":204618,"date":"2025-10-16T10:15:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=204618"},"modified":"2025-10-16T10:15:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:15:50","slug":"high-five-for-mature-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2025\/10\/16\/high-five-for-mature-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"High five for “mature” Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ST KILDA is making history in season 2025 as the Saints march on towards a finals berth under coach Nick Dal Santo<\/em><\/strong>. The former Saints and Roos AFL star was pleased with his team’s “mature performance” during their win over Collingwood at RSEA Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Kilda weathered the Magpies’ inside 50s then smacked them the other way to secure a low-scoring 5.5 (35) to 1.6 (12) victory. The win made it five on the trot for the red, white and black, achieving the feat for the first time in women’s club history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dal Santo said he was unaware that it was the first time the club had won five on the trot describing the form as “fantastic” and the feat as “really pleasing” for the organisation as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Clearly we’re trying to win every single week we just haven’t done that consistently,” he said. “But that’s really nice to put ourselves in a position to be eligible for finals in a month or so’s time so we’re really excited about the possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We understand there’s a lot of work to be able to do between now and then. “I would like to think the group’s getting some belief about when we play somewhere near out best and we’re well aware we’ve got a lot to work to do, then we can compete with everybody.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the win itself, Dal Santo said he did not want to “undersell some of the challenges” the group has faced this season, and praised the “maturity levels” that helped the side tick over the wins despite losing a number of key players to injuries in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It wasn’t our best brand of footy, I think the Pies will speak something similar with the amount of inside 50s they had,” Dal Santo said. “We’ve clearly got a lot of work to do, but I was pleased with the players who came in and were being challenged with some injuries which we accept and we’ve always spoken about every person’s valued and we need every person throughout the course of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s exactly what we’re doing so I was really pleased with our application to the challenges today and I thought for the majority we accepted it and controlled a lot of those areas that we were focusing on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dal Santo joked that the team should have “invested in moonboots and crutches” because we’d “probably be rich by now” such was the amount of players utilising them with St Kilda polo tops on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are being challenged there’s no hiding the fact that we’ve had some really important and key players go down and we had some through the course of the week again with Jaimee Lambert<\/a>,” he said. “None of its ideal, you can’t hide the fact that it’s not ideal, but as I touched on, we’ve been really pleased with the players who have come in throughout the course of the year and have played their role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nothing over the top, nothing exceptional but have just done exactly what we’ve asked them to do and they’ve done that so we’re happy with that part.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collingwood coach Sam Wright<\/em><\/strong> said it was a “frustrating” loss because the Magpies did a lot right, but just failed to capitalise on overwhelming inside 50s early without number one draft pick Ash Centra<\/a>, and a sore Kalinda Howarth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t know if its what went wrong, it was a frustrating one for us because I think they had six inside 50s to half-time, they’d scored two or three times,” he said. “We had the dominance there with the amount of ball that was coming in, best pressure side in the comp they are. “We matched it the whole day, thought our shape behind the ball was good, we just couldn’t capitalise in front of the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s a medium-term thing for us I think. “I think it’s going to take some time with what that looks like. Cench (Centra) out today, Kalinda carrying a little bit of a corked quad, so a lot of positives to come out. “It looked more like us, the progression that we’d shown in weeks one to six. It looked like more like that, so we were pleased with the bounce back, we’ve just got to capitalise more going forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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