Saints used Dees comparisons as motivation to win: McCartin
St Kilda spoke about the fact they've been judged to have fallen behind Melbourne in their development and used it as motivation to beat the Demons by two-points at the MCG on Sunday.
Heading into 2017 and then 2018, the Saints and Demons were rated as similarly advanced in their list rebuild and premiership quest. However, St Kilda have endured a horror 2018 and Melbourne – up until their past three games – had been considered a top-four contender.
Saints forward Paddy McCartin told The Age that Alan Richardson brought the comparison up during the week, and challenged his team to show the footy world they weren't far behind the Demons, despite 2018's win-loss column suggesting otherwise.
"It's always good to get one up on the Dees. We've had a bit of a rivalry since I have been here. Obviously our season isn't going the way we wanted it to, but we saw from today we want to try and take the chances we can and put a few runs on the board," McCartin said.
"We spoke about it during the week, actually, that there's been that bit of rivalry [because of the list progress comparisons], and I think we'd beaten them for 10 years in a row [between 2007 and 2017] so they always came at us pretty hard – so yeah, it's great to get this win.
"Richo spoke about it [the rivalry] but I think you don't need to say much. You know when there is something going on and they got us pretty good earlier this year and we wanted to get one back on them."
On Sunday, St Kilda exposed Melbourne's lack of run to record their third win of the season. The loss left Melbourne narrowly inside the top eight. Melbourne are known as a strong contested ball side, but once the ball moves away from the contest they struggle. St Kilda knew this, and ran in waves all day, smashing Melbourne on the spread, off half-back and in transition.
"We definitely spoke about it during the week [to run Melbourne off their legs] and I think if you look at our last quarters over the last month they have all reflected that we've got run toward the end of games," McCartin said.
"But what we spoke about is that it's taken us until we are five or six goals down until we start that run, and I think today we said from the start, take the game on and use your legs. It felt like we were ahead most of the game and we used our legs the whole time.
"It's good confidence for us that a plan we put in place worked and that we stuck by it and got the result."
McCartin said it was "brilliant" to be finally enjoying a clear run in the team. He has played 12 games for 2018 with his best coming in Sunday's win, in which he kicked two goals and three behinds, took four marks and had eight score involvements.
He was restricted to 22 games in his first three seasons, with concussion problems ravaging him in 2016 and 2017. Richardson praised McCartin's performance on Sunday.
"Paddy's made of the right stuff," he said. "We know that up until now he's had some challenges. He's had a few knocks to the head and obviously he's had to battle a little bit with his diabetes. But he's getting through that now and he's had some continuity of games.
"We just need our big forwards to give us really big contests so that (Jack) Billings, (Jack) Sinclair and (Jade) Gresham can get to work.
"We're really pleased with the way Paddy's going."
The 2014 No.1 draft pick has been criticised for his lack of athleticism, particularly in a climate where big-bodied forwards seem out of vogue. Even with rule changes being considered to make things easier for big forwards, McCartin said he was confident he could carry out a role no matter how footy was played.
"I don't think about it at all [how game might not be best suited to bigger players]," he said.
"Obviously it's a heavily scrutinised game and I understand that, but I am pretty comfortable with my role within the four walls of the club and I know exactly what I have to do. At the moment I am doing it and contributing where I can."