Saints take advantage as wounded Lions fade

A SPATE of injuries, two Maroon-grown Saints and a horror second quarter combined to sink a battered Brisbane at the Gabba yesterday.

A surging St Kilda claimed a 22-point win against the Lions with Queenslanders Nick Riewoldt (four goals, 10 marks) and David Armitage (31 disposals, 11 clearances and two goals) starring.

Brisbane’s casualty ward was bulging post-match, with Ryan Harwood (concussion), Jed Adcock (calf), Claye Beams (knee) and Tom Rockliff (ribs) injured, while defender Darcy Gardiner was a late withdrawal with a calf injury.

The Lions were ultraimpressive as they flew out of the blocks to lead by 28 points at quarter-time but they quickly transformed from dazzling to diabolic as the Saints kicked seven goals to one in the second term.

Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch said sloppy ground level defence, being dominated at stoppages and costly turnovers killed the Lions.

“We had fair control of the game and it didn’t take long for that scoreboard to tick back even … probably only five or six minutes into the second quarter before we lost any advantage we got,’’ he said.

“A few went down and the game became an arm wrestle and they were just too good, basically.’’

He said the 13 goals conceded from turnovers was the critical difference but was happy with the way his undermanned side fought out the match.

“The one thing I’ll say is that I’m proud of the guys. We had to have a bit of a band-aid approach after half-time ... with a patched up team we were able to compete to the end,’’ he said.

Dayne Beams had a gamehigh 38 disposals, while Lewis Taylor had 32. Ryan Lester kicked four goals, while ruckman Stef Martin had 25 touches and 31 hit-outs.