The Saints, in a dress rehearsal for round one of the premiership season when they will meet the Cats again, were led by four goals from skipper Nick Riewoldt and solid performances from Andrew McQualter and Leigh Montagna in the 1.15.7 (106) to 1.6.6 (51) win.
The Cats were missing Jimmy Bartel, Matthew Scarlett, Paul Chapman, Cameron Ling, Mark Blake, Harry Taylor, James Kelly and Joel Corey, and tellingly, Cameron Mooney, James Podsiadly and Mathew Stokes from the forward line.
The result was a misfiring attack that struggled for options other than big Tom Hawkins, who was closely manned by Jason Blake and Tommy Walsh.
By half time, the Saints had pushed 43 points clear and had seven goalkickers to the Cats' three.
Forward Mitch Brown was subbed on for Geelong in the second half to make his debut, and while he didn't make much of an impact the Cats found a few different ways to kick goals and reduced a three quarter-time deficit of 60 points to the final margin as they fought out the match well.
Geelong 0.1.0 0.3.0 0.4.3 1.6.6 (51)
StKilda 1.4.2 1.8.4 1.12.6 1.15.7 (106)
GOALS
Geelong: Nine-point goals: Simpkin Goals: Byrnes, Simpkin, Hawkins, Duncan, Milburn, Motlop
St Kilda: Nine-point goals: Dempster Goals: Riewoldt 4, Milne 2, Goddard 2, McQualter 2, Gamble, Ledger, Dal Santo, Lynch, Ray
BEST
Geelong: Duncan, Selwood, Wojcinski, Milburn, Johnson, Lonergan
St Kilda: McQualter, Riewoldt, Montagna, Fisher, Dal Santo, Archer, Armitage, Gwilt
INJURIES
Geelong: Nil
St Kilda: Jones (cut face)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Kennedy, Wenn, Ryan
Official crowd: 9670 at Etihad Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
