Justin Koschitzke

Brook “Boris” Kilpatrick reporting for AFANA from Australia

In an unlikely “match of the round”, form teams St Kilda and Richmond met at Etihad Stadium in front of a pumped up Friday Night Footy crowd. The Tigers had not beaten St Kilda since 2003, though they came painfully close in the corresponding match just 12 months earlier when the game ended in a tense draw. The Saints were instilled as slight favorites with the bookmakers, in part due to the Tigers' poor form at Etihad and the aforementioned head to head record. St Kilda has been transformed into a more attacking team under new coach Scott Watters, giving the match all of the ingredients for an enthralling contest.

Australian Rules Football lost one of its legends this week when Allan Jeans passed away. Jeans was the coach who took St Kilda to their only Premiership in over 100 years. It was going to be an emotional game for the Saints and these occasions can make for either inspiring wins or lamentable losses. St Kilda took the bull by the horns and ripped right into the West Coast Eagles in a cracking first quarter.

Both Collingwood and St Kilda have made minimal changes to the teams which will line up for the Grand Final replay. One good news story is Saint Ben McEvoy, who played 18 games this season as a back up ruckman to Michael Gardiner.

A controversial interchange penalty against Hawthorn could well be responsible for denying the Hawks victory against St Kilda. Cyril Rioli had just kicked a goal with two minutes remaining in the final term to give Hawthorn a 13 point lead. However, the goal was disallowed due to Hawk Grant Birchall briefly putting a foot across the interchange line before a teammate had come off the ground. The emergency umpire signaled the infringement to the field umpire who then awarded a 50 meter penalty to the Saints.

COLLINGWOOD
Brad Dick, shoulder, 1 week
Anthony Corrie, knee, 1-2 weeks
Nick Maxwell, calf, 1-2 weeks

Nick Riewoldt will take his place in the Saints' team for Round 15. Although still on St Kilda's official injury list earlier in the week, he has been training well enough to be named in this week's team. Riewoldt suffered a badly torn hamstring in Round Three and required surgery.

Charges Laid:

Bradd Dalziell (WCE), tripping Richmond's Daniel Connors: assessed as reckless conduct (two points), low impact (one point), and body contact (one point), equaling four activation points, a Level One offense, 80 demerits, and a reprimand. He has no record and accepted, reducing the penalty 25% to 60 demerits, still a reprimand with the demerits held over toward his future record.

In the highly anticipated Round 12 game between third and fourth placed teams on the Ladder, St Kilda traveled to Perth for the second time in a month to take on the in form Fremantle Dockers. The home side was the slight favorite with the betting money but the Saints' powerhouse should never be underestimated.

Over the last few seasons St Kilda has been a team that you could bank on to win just about every game they played. This season, with the loss of their key goal kicker Nick Riewoldt, they have been shaky, losing three out of eight games. The West Coast Eagles have not fared much better but they were coming off two wins in a row and playing at their home ground in front of 38,000 faithful fans. The bookmakers had the game evenly balanced and there was an air of belief in Perth that the Eagles could knock the Saints down a peg or two.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

Charges Laid: