Saints defeats Demons, catching up with the Kangaroos

St Kilda Saints continued its dominance over the Melbourne Demons with a 36-point win at Etihad Stadium last Sunday, allowing them to join the race to catch North Melbourne Kangaroos.

According to the Saints website, the team overcame a slow start before recovering in the second quarter where they broke the game wide open. The Saints booted five goals to zero in the quarter then followed it up with two more goals in the third quarter for a 27-point lead.

The game was expected to be wild as both teams are not playing well this season and are fighting for positioning. But it only happened early in the game when Max Gawn booted a goal to reduce St Kilda’s lead to under a goal.

The win extends St Kilda’s streak to 14 against Melbourne and ended the Demons’ season. It also pushed the Saints in the race to catch the Kangaroos

The Herald Sun reports that St Kilda is now tied with Port Adelaide with an 8-8 record, behind North Melbourne, which has a 10-8 record. The Saints still has four games left and all of them will be played at the Etihad Stadium, where seven of the team’s eight wins came.

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson said that he is not yet considering whether his team could push its way to the finals. But he then said “that’s certainly what we want to do.”

“(Have I considered making finals?) Not really,” he said. “We’ve won eight, we’ve lost eight. Some of the games we haven’t played the way we’ve wanted to play.”

He also said that the Saints are more focused on being “much more consistent” with their performance.

St Kilda has not played in the finals since Ross Lyon’s era, which ended in 2011. But their 2016 season is already guaranteed to be the best season under Richardson.