Inside the 55-second plan that led to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s after-the-siren matchwinner against the Demons
They had 55 seconds to come up with a plan when Melbourne’s 6-6-6 infringement gifted them the ball. Three Saints made a call, the Demons were nowhere and the rest is history. Watch how it all unfolded.
“F--- it, why don’t you just try and get a mark around the 50m arc?”
St Kilda had 55 seconds to come up with a plan when Melbourne’s extraordinary structural breakdown gifted ruckman Rowan Marshall a free kick in the middle of the ground.
And what a plan it was.
Marcus Windhager’s last instructions to his housemate Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera were to charge forward and try to mark a kick in his direction in a gridiron-style play after the Saints realised they would have the ball due to the Demons’ 6-6-6 infringement.
Marshall, a thinking man’s ruckman, had already come to the same conclusion as he scanned the ground ahead of him.
And Wanganeen-Milera put the finishing touches on the play with a final directive as the players were ordered back to their starting positions by the umpires.
“I just told the forwards, ‘get out of my way’,” he told Seven after the siren.
Windhager said the entire display from his great friend, which included the soaring mark and set shot goal to bring the scores level with eight seconds left, had been “mind-blowing”.
“For play to proceed, the umpires were saying everyone needed to get back to their starting positions, I just came back to Rowan and I’m like, ‘f--- it, why don’t you just try and get a mark around the 50, and Nas just bolted for it and it was done to perfection,” Windhager said in the jubilant St Kilda rooms.
“It’s remarkable how talented he is. It’s a credit to him. I’m with him day to day, I live with him, and just the way he goes about it … he’s so laidback, and his mindset is ‘I’m going to come out on game day and just give it my all’.
“That mark – I didn’t even know he had it in his kit bag.
“I think he finished with what? Four goals … it’s pretty special, it’s mind-blowing how good he is.”
The brains trust behind the winning play – Wanganeen-Milera, Marshall and Windhager – are all out of contract and there is no guarantee any of them will remain at Moorabbin next season.
But the Saints fans – those who quite reasonably chose to leave at 46 points down at the final break and those who were richly rewarded for staying – will always carry the memories of Sunday’s final moments.
It was a catastrophe for the Demons, who were in cruise control heading into the last quarter but finished in a state of undeniable panic.
Devastated coach Simon Goodwin said it was a “simple process” his side had failed to get right when it went to the final centre bounce with seven forwards and one short in the middle.
“We’ll have a look at how it happened, why it happened and make sure it never happens again,” Goodwin said.
It was a remarkable own-goal from a team which had Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Jack Viney on the field at the crucial moment.
Viney and Kysaiah Pickett, who had only just made it onto the field after he was stuck on the bench for most of time-on until the score-levelling goal, were caught napping as Wanganeen-Milera charged forward at the final bounce.
“We needed to stay calm, get organised and execute what we needed to get executed under the greatest heat,” Goodwin said.
“We’ll learn from it, clearly, and we’ll grow from it, but it’s unacceptable at the same time.”
Asked if there needed to be internal consequences for any players or officials involved in the 6-6-6 disaster, Goodwin said: “It’s a part of becoming that ruthless team that I’m talking about”, but stopped short of guaranteeing it would be punished.
HOW THE FINAL TERM UNFOLDED
0:00 St Kilda 40 v Melbourne 86 – St Kilda starts the final term trailing by 46 points.
01:15 St Kilda 46 v Melbourne 86 – A Kysaiah Pickett turnover proves costly for the Demons, with Max Hall finding Jack Higgins all alone in the forward pocket. Higgins kicks truly to give the Saints the perfect start.
5:03 St Kilda 53 v Melbourne 87 – Bradley Hill delivers an incredible goal when his team needed it most. Hill had no space to work with in the pocket but managed to curve the ball through for a goal out of nowhere.
6:16 St Kilda 59 v Melbourne 87 – The Saints win the clearance out of the centre and make it two goals in the blink of an eye thanks to a Cooper Sharman banana.
9:06-11:09 St Kilda 59 v Melbourne 89 – The Dees blow two chances to put the Saints away with Clayton Oliver and Jake Melksham missing set shots for goal.
14:24 St Kilda 65 v Melbourne 89 – A Hunter Clark bullet pass finds captain Jack Steele who marks in a pack and kicks truly. The margin is finally under 30 points.
16:21 St Kilda 71 v Melbourne 89 – Max Hall finds Mason Wood with a kick inside 50. Wood kicks straight and the crowd can sense something big is happening.
21:45 St Kilda 78 v Melbourne 89 – With time running out, the Saints nail a much needed end-to-end defensive transition which finishes in the hands of Sharman. After taking a big contested grab he wastes no time and kicks a bomb from outside 50.
22:57 St Kilda 84 v Melbourne 89 – Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera wins a clearance out of the middle and hits Jack Higgins on the chest. Inexplicably, Judd McVee gives away a 50m penalty for a late tackle. Higgins kicks the goal and the Demons are rattled.
24:04 St Kilda 84 v Melbourne 90 – The Demons score a rushed behind to make the margin a straight kick.
26:04 – 28:00 St Kilda 84 v Melbourne 90 – Oliver has two shots at goal with the Demons just needing a point to ice the game. Neither score. The first doesn’t make the distance and the second goes out on the full.
29:50 St Kilda 90 v Melbourne 90 – The Saints win a clearance on the wing. Wood kicks a long ball forward and finds Wanganeen-Milera who takes a screamer in a pack. He kicks truly and the scores are tied.
30:45 St Kilda 90 v Melbourne 90 – The Demons make another inexplicable mistake, giving away a 6-6-6 infringement before the ball can be bounced. It is their second infringement of the match and results in a free kick to the Saints. Confusion reigns as players initially sprint forward before being called back to the middle. They cannot move from their positions until the umpire hands the ball to Rowan Marshall to restart play.
32:38 St Kilda 96 v Melbourne 90 – Wanganeen-Milera marks an incredible pass from Rowan Marshall who found the superstar Saint like a quarterback in the NFL. He kicks the goal and the Saints complete the incredible comeback for the ages.
Match report: NWM leads Saints to biggest comeback win of all time
– Nick Smart
St Kilda pulled off one of the greatest final quarter comebacks of all time to score an unthinkable win over Melbourne after trailing by 46 points at the last change on Sunday.
Superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera kicked two goals in the final 40 seconds – including one after the siren off a centre square free kick – to see the Saints pull off a miraculous 15.6 (96) to 13.12 (90) win.
The Saints kicked nine unanswered goals in the final term to none as Melbourne completely capitulated.
It was biggest win from a final quarter deficit in AFL/VFL history, eclipsing Brisbane’s 45-point comeback against Hawthorn at the Gabba in 1995.
And Wanganeen-Milera proved yet again how much of a sledge hammer it’ll be to St Kilda if he packs up and takes his talents to South Australia.
The Saints had the perfect start with a goal to Anthony Caminiti within the first 30 seconds, but the Demons quickly seized control.
They were able to pile on six consecutive goals – including three in the quarter to an on-fire Bayley Fritsch – to set up a 25-point buffer at the first change.
As part of the early Demons onslaught, rising star Xavier Lindsay kicked the first goal in AFL football while Jack Viney and Xavier Lindsay also hit the scoreboard.
The Saints couldn’t get their hands on it early on, but a badly needed goal against the run of play to Wanganeen-Milera before quarter-time gave Saints fans some hope.
St Kilda started the second term better but it was not reflected on the scoreboard, with poor mistakes in the back half allowing the Demons to skip out to a game-high 43-point lead.
A Jack Higgins goal snapped the run and Alix Tauru’s first goals keep the scoreline respectable at the main break.
The Demons led by 46 at the last change before it started to happen.
PICKETT LEAVES HIM WINDED-HAGER
When, as expected, Saint Marcus Windhager walked up to Kysaiah Pickett at the opening bounce, a the star Demon would’ve known he was in for a hell of day.
The hard tag was immediately on, and why not after Windhager – who has notched up a few notable scalps this year – kept Pickett to 12 touches back in Round 12.
This time Pickett had more of an impact, but the Saints got the last laugh.
‘FLYING VIKING’ GETS HIS FIRST
There has been not too much for Saints fans to get excited about of late, but emerging cult hero Alix Tauru’s first AFL goal provided some joy.
In his sixth game, the teenager was getting beaten down back and was on the phone to the coaches’ box from the bench after a miskick coughed up a goal in the second term.
Coach Ross Lyon responded by swinging Tauru forward to immediate effect.
He quickly bounced back with a soaring mark and goal, which saw every Saints player get to him to mark the milestone.
Scoreboard
ST KILDA 2.1 (13), 4.4 (28), 6.4 (40), 15.6 (96)
MELBOURNE 6.2 (38), 9.4 (58), 13.8 (86), 13.12 (90)
BEST
Saints: Wanganeen-Milera, Sinclair, Higgins, Jones, Macrae, Sharman
Demons: Viney, Rivers, Fritsch, Petracca, Chandler, Pickett
GOALS
Saints: Wanganeen-Milera 4, Higgins 4, Sharman 2, Caminiti, Tauru, Hill, Steele, Wood
Demons: Fritsch 3, Chandler 3, Melksham 2, Langford, Viney, Lindsay, Petracca, Pickett
INJURIES
Saints: Collard (ankle)
Demons: Nil
Nick Smart’s votes
3- Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (St K)
2- Jack Viney (Melb)
1- Jack Higgins (St K)
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