Winless St Kilda have produced the equal lowest score in AFLW history, failing to kick a goal in a 46-point thrashing from Carlton.
The under-strength Saints started brightly and Jessica Matin hit the post from a set shot in the opening stages.
But it was as close as the visitors got to booting a major in the 7.6 (48) to 0.2 (2) defeat at Ikon Park on Saturday.
St Kilda’s final score matched the record-low tally posted by Gold Coast against Brisbane last year.
“It was clearly disappointing,” Saints coach Nick Dal Santo said.
(Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“At times we showed some signs of how we want to move the football and also how we want to defend.
“But for the majority of the game we didn’t do that and the Blues were really good at times and really challenged us, particularly with ball in hand, and they capitalised when they went forward.”
It was the Saints’ sixth defeat in as many matches during Dal Santo’s first season at the helm and a poor return after they went within a kick of beating both West Coast and Brisbane in their previous two outings.
“The message for the group post-game was that we’re in this together,” Dal Santo said.
“Clearly we’re not where we want to be yet, but we need to find ways.
“We have some focus areas that we need to get better on and we can’t fix everything at once.”
Carlton were dominant in the first half, piling on five unanswered goals to surpass their previous highest score of the season before reaching the main break.
Darcy Vescio and Breann Moody kicked two goals each as Madison Prespakis (20 disposals), Georgia Gee (20) and Mimi Hill (18) racked up touches at will.
Darcy Vescio. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Vaomua Laloifi and Gabriella Pound were rock-solid in a Carlton defence that gave little away throughout the match.
“We haven’t kept a team goalless in my time here … so that’s a really big effort in any game of footy, particularly at this level, because there’s real quality from every team that you come up against,” Blues coach Daniel Harford said.
“It wasn’t so much a focus. Our focus was on winning the contest and winning more of those than we lost.
“That gave us a chance to get field advantage and made it harder for the Saints to get back to goal.”
Tilly Lucas-Rodd (24 disposals and nine tackles) worked tirelessly for the outclassed Saints, with teammates Catherine Phillips (22 disposals) and Bianca Jakobsson (17) winning plenty of the ball.
St Kilda have a chance to bounce back when they take on GWS in a rescheduled fixture in Blacktown on Wednesday night.
The Giants, who have managed just one goal in the last two weeks, will host Carlton in Canberra four days later.
Elsewhere, Richmond skipper Katie Brennan has continued her amazing goal-scoring run as the Tigers snapped a five-match losing streak with a 23-point AFLW win over West Coast.
The Tigers booted four unanswered goals in the opening term to set up the 10.8 (68) to 7.3 (45) triumph in stifling heat at Perth’s Mineral Resources Park on Saturday.
Brennan finished with 2.1 from 15 disposals, marking her 13th consecutive game that she has kicked at least one goal.
“I think it’s just her consistency in her work rate,” Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson said of the streak.
“She keeps putting herself in positions where eventually at some point in the game she’ll get a goal because she keeps pounding away.
“It’s a great standard to set for the rest of the team.”
Midfielder Monique Conti (24 possessions, nine tackles, one goal) and forward Tayla Stahl (three goals) were also crucial in helping lift Richmond to their first win since their 38-point flogging of St Kilda in Round 1.
In Sydney, Ebony Marinoff has become the first AFLW player to surpass 1000 career disposals, steering Adelaide to a crushing 40-point win over GWS.
The Crows suffered a shock one-point defeat to the Western Bulldogs in Round 6 but were never seriously challenged in a 5.15 (45) to 0.5 (5) victory on the rebound at Henson Park on Saturday.
The margin was great enough to lift the premiership favourites back to the top of the ladder on percentage above Fremantle, with both sides boasting 6-1 records.
The only downside for Adelaide was a knee injury suffered by superstar Erin Phillips, who will be assessed on Sunday.
Phillips, who has a history of serious injuries to both knees, came away hobbling from a marking contest during the fourth quarter and played no further part in the game.
Gun on-baller Marinoff gathered 22 disposals to surge into four figures, taking her overall tally to 1005 in a sparkling career.
© AAP
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