Friday night football takes us to Melbourne, as a (sorta) resurgent St Kilda Saints take on the fearsome Richmond Tigers. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog from 7:50pm (AEST).
The last time Richmond met St Kilda at this ground – mid last year – it was a bloodbath. The eventual premiers had an 82-point deficit at halftime, on the way to a thumping loss.
There’s been no such repeat of that in the two clashes since – with both sets of points going to the Tigers, albeit both being across town at the MCG.
This is an intriguing clash, nonetheless. The Tigers lost for just the fourth time this season last week – a narrow defeat at the hands of the Giants – while the Saints dominated Carlton for their fourth win of 2018.
Thus, we’ve got one struggling team aiming to keep a good patch of form going, and the competition’s premier team staggering after a loss. Still, you’d expect the latter to comfortably win this one.
Selection wise, St Kilda lose Jack Lonie and Jimmy Webster to injury, seeing Josh Battle and Sebastian Ross rejoin the team.
For the Tigers, Bachar Houli, Shai Bolton and Corey Ellis are all out – the latter two omitted, the former injured – as Nathan Broad, Connor Menadue and Kamdyn McIntosh return.
Prediction
The Tigers might be challenged at times, but they’re too good a team to lose this one. Famous last words, though.
Richmond by 29 points.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 7:50pm (AEST).
St Kilda and Richmond are raising money for Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision, raising funds to find new treatments for Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes. You can donate to the cause here.
Slane
Guest
And the AFL wonder why less people are watching. Roaming Bryan = cringe
Kane
Guest
How good was it seeing Nankervis give BT the cold shoulder? Maybe he thinks the same about BT as much as a lot of other people do.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Thanks, man. I wish I could keep blogging until the very end of the season - I did blog the granny last year, so it would've been great to repeat that! - but I'm going overseas for the rest of the year in eight days so unfortunately this was the last weekend I was available to blog. As for this game, the Saints did (thankfully) increase their intensity and thus put in a better performance after the main break. Richmond might've eased off a little bit, but really this game was done very early in the game. And yes, the Saints did outscore the Tigers in the second half. The good ol' mantra "too little, too late" springs to mind though.
Doran Smith
Roar Guru
That is a good question.
Doctor Rotcod
Guest
Thanks AD for your work during the season.Keeping a lid on Docker-related elation must have been pretty difficult at times and reluctant praise of that other West Australian side rang all the more true coming from you. Does my maths tell me that the Saints outscored the Tigers in the second half? I could only catch up with the game till about 10 minutes into the second quarter,when I thought that a 100 pt drubbing was booked in.Did the Tigers ease off on the throttle or did the Saints get better? Excellent blogging despite having some dire games as your lot
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
That's all from me on this Friday night. Thanks for joining me. I'll be back on Sunday for Carlton v Hawks, in what will be my final live blog of the year. Enjoy the weekend of footy - stay here on The Roar for plenty of footy news + blogs of every game! St Kilda: 8.9 (57) Richmond: 16.15 (111)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
There's full time. Big, big win for the reigning premiers, as they demolish a poor St Kilda by 54 points. The Saints will be very disappointed by their performance, especially after a few great weeks. St Kilda: 8.9 (57) Richmond: 16.15 (111)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '0 BEHIND RICHMOND Short with a late, late shot - which hits the post. St Kilda: 8.9 (57) Richmond: 16.15 (111)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '0 BEHIND RICHMOND Into the last minute now, and Castanga takes the grab. He sent through 0.5 last week, and with this latest miss, he's 0.1 tonight. St Kilda: 8.9 (57) Richmond: 16.14 (110)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '1 GOAL ST KILDA Patience pays off, as Gresham eventually pounces on a loose ball to sneak through his second major of the evening. St Kilda: 8.9 (57) Richmond: 16.13 (109)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '5 BEHIND RICHMOND Good play from Richmond, and Vlaustin will nail a great kick deep inside 50, and Rioli will take the classy contested mark. He'll line up for a tough shot, but he's missed. St Kilda: 6.9 (45) Richmond: 16.13 (109)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '7 GOAL ST KILDA Oh, nice. Weller out-manoeuvres Rance with some good physical work, and he takes the grab. He then finishes off the play with a goal. St Kilda: 7.9 (51) Richmond: 16.12 (108)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '8 BEHIND RICHMOND Dumb brain fade from Bailey Rice, and that'll reward Vlaustin with a 50m penalty. The Tiger is taken within range, but he can't manage a goal, with his shot heading to the left. St Kilda: 6.9 (45) Richmond: 16.12 (108)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '10 GOAL ST KILDA Oooh, Membrey's snuck home his second. Late goal for the Saints. St Kilda: 6.9 (45) Richmond: 16.11 (107)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '12 BEHIND ST KILDA Battle going for goal, but that'll be a miss. St Kilda: 5.9 (39) Richmond: 16.11 (107)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '14 GOAL RICHMOND Bit of patience by the tigers, and, as most will expect nowadays, they'll eventually find a way to goal. This time, it's Edwards sending the long range shot home. He's their tenth individual goal kicker. St Kilda: 5.8 (38) Richmond: 16.11 (107)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '15 BEHIND RICHMOND Riewoldt is going for five. Riewoldt doesn't get five. That's his first miss this evening. St Kilda: 5.8 (38) Richmond: 15.11 (101)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '16 BEHIND ST KILDA Jack Steele with a nice-looking kick from the set shot, but he doesn't have the distance and it's fallen short. It'll be punched through by Richmond's defence. Minor score, then. St Kilda: 5.8 (38) Richmond: 15.10 (100)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Q4 '17 GOAL RICHMOND And Richmond hit the 100 point mark with the first goal of the final term! Shaun Grigg sending that one through. St Kilda: 5.7 (37) Richmond: 15.10 (100)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
We're off again, for the final time tonight. Fourth quarter is underway. I'm somewhat intrigued to see how this quarter will go. St Kilda: 5.7 (37) Richmond: 14.10 (94)