St Kilda too good for Brisbane Lions

ST KILDA 2.3 9.6 12.9 16.12 (108) BRISBANE 7.1 8.2 11.6 13.8 (86) 
Goals: St Kilda: Riewoldt 4, Armitage 2, Dunstan 2, Schneider 2, Weller 2, Lonie, Steven, Bruce, Roberton. Brisbane: Lester 4, Rich 2, Robinson, Bewick, Rockliff, Green, Robertson, Christensen.
Best: St Kilda: Armitage Riewoldt Schneider Montagna Steven Dempster. Brisbane: Beams Martin Lester Taylor Christensen Rockliff. 
Injuries:St Kilda: T Hickey (ankle).  Brisbane Lions: D Beams (knee), J Adcock (calf), R Harwood (concussion), D Gardiner (calf) replaced in selected side by R Bewick. 
Umpires: Shaun Ryan, Heath Ryan, Brendan Hosking.
Crowd: 16,898 at the Gabba.

For about 20 minutes, the Brisbane Lions made footy look easy. They ran, they found space, they took their chances – five goals straight, and a 28-point lead before Nick Riewoldt posted St Kilda's first – and generally played like a team that had rediscovered its mojo.

And then things got a lot more complicated. For a start, the Saints began providing a real contest: David Armitage, who did more than anyone to turn the tide of the game, admitted after the match that his team didn't turn up until the second quarter. And then, for the Lions, it all started to fall to bits.

Jack Lonie celebrates with Nick Riewoldt. Photo: Getty Images

They took wrong options, became tentative, were anything but direct in their ball movement, and began to give the ball back to their opponents at an alarming rate. Not that St Kilda were much cleaner: 15th versus 16th on the ladder was never likely to add up to a football exhibition.

The best players on the field, tellingly, were the most experienced. Armitage, having the season of his career, had two goals and 11 clearances to go with his 31 quality touches. Riewoldt did what Riewoldt always does: he ran, he worked and he led. And Adam Schneider played a vintage game, clever, creative and opportunistic.

The Lions had Dayne Beams, who won a swag of the football, Stefan Martin, who is among the top bracket of ruckmen in the competition at the moment, and Tom Rockliff beginning to show glimpses of form after a rough start to the year. Allen Christensen is also building towards the sort of player the Lions wanted to recruit.

What they didn't have on their side was luck – losing Ryan Harwood to concussion and Jed Adcock to a calf injury hurt their rotations, and Darcy Gardiner was a pre-game withdrawal – or genuine targets to kick to, though tall midfielder Ryan Lester did well as a makeshift forward.

But they couldn't match St Kilda for desire. They were smashed in close (credit, again, to the ferocious Armitage) and the Lions laid just 40 tackles to 56. Under more pressure, they also couldn't hold onto the pill, with the Saints punishing their many turnovers heavily.

All this after the Lions torched the Saints with a seven-goal opening before the visitors found their feet, players like Daniel Rich and Dayne Zorko being given far too much latitude. It wasn't until the 18th minute, when Schneider found Riewoldt with a perfectly centred ball, that the game was genuinely "on".

The Saints kicked seven goals of their own in the second quarter, Armitage the first two of them; Riewoldt the last, after being brilliantly set up by a clever Schneider tap to Jack Billings. Within half a quarter, the Lions had surrendered the lead. By early in the third, the Saints were out by 19, Schneider kicking two himself.

It was Schneider who put the finishing touches on both his own and his team's game, involved twice in the play that saw Dylan Roberton snap the sealer. Not bad for a re-drafted rookie who's just turned 31.