Saints keen to correct their faults against Magpies

They did not stand up when it counted, were unable to win enough of the hard ball, and failed to follow their structures last week.

But St Kilda are confident they can correct their faults in Saturday night’s cut-throat AFL semi-final against Collingwood at the MCG.

Such were the Saints’ deficiencies in their 58 point qualifying final loss to Geelong, the club decided to not review their second half performance.

Midfielder Leigh Montagna said the Saints understood what went wrong against the Cats but claimed recent history showed they could make amends on Saturday night.

“Some of our structure set-ups we got away from and basically Geelong beat us in the contested footy - that’s where the game really starts,” he said.

“We’ve identified them and moved on pretty quickly and we know that we can rectify them because we’ve done that previously this year and if we get back to doing the basics we’ll be in the ball game.”

Montagna, who could only manage two touches in the first quarter and finished with a far from damaging 25 possessions, admitted his own performance was sub-standard but said he wasn’t the only one.

“I was a bit disappointed in my start. I didn’t get my hands on it enough and there were a lot of players in a similar boat,” he said.

He added the whole group did not cope with the heightened level of pressure of finals football, agreeing with coach Ross Lyon that the club had lost some respect from the football world.

But he said the club had quickly put the poor effort aside and would take full advantage of the finals double chance.

“We were on a big stage playing against a top team obviously we didn’t deliver,” he said.

“So in some regards, we did lose a little bit of respect but we’re lucky that we get a chance to do it again this week and that’s what we’re focused on now.”

Montagna expected captain Nick Riewoldt to bounce back against Collingwood after a disappointing effort against the Cats.

The key forward could only manage nine touches and booted just one goal.

He said the Magpies deserved to be favourites, given they had beaten the Saints in the their last three meetings and were coming off a good win interstate.

But he said there was no secret formula to winning.

“There’s no real secret to beating teams like Collingwood,” he said.

“We’ve just got to get our hands on the footy first, use the ball well and give our forwards a chance, and when they’ve got it, put a lot of pressure on them.

“They’re good at doing that and they’re a proven finals team.”

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