The Kangaroos have suffered their second successive loss, providing no match for ladder leaders St Kilda at Telstra Dome, in a 65-point blow-out.

Missing veterans Anthony Stevens, Glenn Archer and running defender Troy Makepeace, the Roos had no answer to a seven-goal onslaught in the opening quarter, with the St Kilda midfield dominant.

The Saints’ 20.10 (130) to 8.17 (65) victory ensures they remain the only unbeaten team after five rounds, with the match watched by a record home-and-away crowd of more than 38,000 between these two clubs.

St Kilda’s victory was set up with a devastating opening quarter when they slammed on the first seven goals, in an almost exact replica of this game last season when the Saints kicked ten goals to one in the first term.

But in a sign of the Saints’ growing maturity, this time there would be no comeback by the Roos, who last year ended up only losing to the Saints by five points despite their poor first quarter.

However any hope the Roos had of mounting a strong comeback was ruined through their atrocious kicking for goal, with Drew Petrie (four behinds) and Shannon Grant (1.4) the worst offenders as North dominated the second term for little reward.

But befitting their new-found status as a top side, every time the Roos remotely threatened the Saints – and they did get to within three goals early in the third term – the Saints would simply conjure up a goal.

The best example of that was just before three-quarter-time when Nick Riewoldt charged down a kick from Roos’ full-back Shannon Watt with the ball spilling to Fraser Gehrig.

After Gehrig found his path to goal blocked, he calmly kicked the ball backwards 40 metres to Andrew Thompson, who goaled to give the Saints a five-goal lead going into the last term.

The Roos’ resistance then totally collapsed as the Saints went on a goal-kicking frenzy with Gehrig finishing with four goals and Aaron Hamill and Milne with three, while in total 11 players ended up on the scoresheet for the Saints, again emphasing their awesome firepower.

But it was in midfield that the Saints’ totally dominated this game as they ended the match with a staggering 322 possessions.

The Kangaroos struggled to find an effective target up forward, with Corey McKernan their only multiple goal-scorer with two.

Captain Adam Simpson and fellow midfielder Shannon Grant battled hard, but the Roos were well outplayed and now slip to a win-loss record of 3-2, after winning their first three matches of the season.

Roos coach Dean Laidley said his team's bad kicking at goal defied recent trends, but was costly.

“If you actually had a look at our stats over the first month, we would have been the leading goal-kicking accuracy in the competition, or second.

“It (poor conversion) cost us a couple of games last year, I thought.

“We’ve worked really, really hard over the pre-season and it’s paid dividends. But today, for whatever reason, it didn’t,” Laidley said.

“They’re a very, very, very good side. If we had of walked away losing by five goals, you don’t accept it, but you got beaten by a better side. But then to fall away … look they over-ran us for a number of reasons. They were able to rotate and rotate and rotate …”

St Kilda: 7.4, 8.6, 13.8, 20.10 (130)
Kangaroos: 1.5, 3.12, 7.13, 8.17 (65)

Goals: St Kilda: Gehrig 4, Hamill, Milne 3, Guerra, Black 2, Thompson, Riewoldt, Ball, Harvey, Goddard, Powell 1
Kangaroos: McKernan 2, Rawlings, Grant, Wells, Jones, Harvey, Motlop 1.
Best: St Kilda: Black, Hayes, Hamill, Gehrig, Ball, Powell, Harvey, Jones, Dal Santo, Voss
Kangaroos: Simpson, Grant, McKernan, Brown, Harris
Injuries: St Kilda: None
Kangaroos: Sinclair (concussion)
Umpires: Dore, Wenn, McBurney
Crowd: 38,896 at Telstra Dome