ST KILDA medical staff feared Sam Gilbert had suffered a neck injury after he was crunched head-first in a tackle by Dockers forward Cam McCarthy.

Gilbert was stretchered from the field wearing a neck brace during the third quarter before he was assessed on the bench. 

The 30-year old took no further part in the game, but was in good spirits after the nine-point win.

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"That was my understanding early – that they were a little bit concerned about moving him with his neck," Saints coach Alan Richardson said. 

"Evidently as soon as he got off the ground, he got off the stretcher and was up and about.

"I haven’t got a report from the doctors yet but he looked OK.

"It might’ve been that he was just a bit dazed." 

Richardson refused to comment on whether McCarthy should receive any scrutiny for the tackle, saying his focus was on filling the void left by Gilbert.

Five takling points: Fremantle v St Kilda

"I think it was just a collision from what I saw," Richardson said.

"I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at it.

"The angle that I looked at, it wasn't great, but you quickly switch on to getting the game tight in terms of what you’re going to do."

After conceding a 16-point quarter-time lead, the Saints responded strongly in the second term on the back of industrious efforts from midfielders Seb Ross (33 disposals), Koby Stevens (28 disposals, seven tackles) and Jack Steele (17 tackles). 

Small forward Jade Gresham was dangerous inside 50 and finished with three goals, while Josh Bruce (three goals) and Tim Membrey (two goals) played vital roles in a see-sawing final term. 

But Richardson said it was his team’s defensive efforts and toughness at stoppages – aided by a season-ending hamstring injury to giant Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands –  that clinched the victory.

"I thought our defence in the second half probably ended up getting the result," Richardson said. 

"When one person basically kicks their score in the second half (Michael Walters’ four goals) there’s some positives in that.

"We’re disappointed we weren’t able to control (Walters) – he had an outstanding performace – but from a team perspective, we thought we were good.

"It probably helped that Sandilands was out of the game really early – we all know what a dominant player his is and can be.

"There’s no doubt we got a bit of luck there." 

Prior to Sunday, the Saints had lost 11 of its past 12 interstate games and were winless in six visits to Domain Stadium since 2011 with the club's most recent win under Ross Lyon. 

"It was part of our focus going into the year that it was something we needed to fix," Richardson said. 

"We felt our performance over here in round two (a 19-point loss against West Coast) was a reasonable performance.

"We had a good win against the Hawks down in Tasmania after that West Coast performance so we think we’re starting to get things back on track. 

"The reality is we haven’t been a great footy team in that period and often the teams that we’ve travelled and played against have been better teams than us."