St Kilda back on track against Bombers

St Kilda has returned to normal transmission with a dominant 35-point win over the Bombers at the Gabba.

St Kilda’s Bradley Hill breaks away with the ball against Essendon at the Gabba. Picture: Getty Images

St Kilda’s self-belief is growing with every victory as the club eyes its first finals appearance in eight years.

The Saints bounced back from last week’s demoralising loss to Geelong with a resounding 35-point triumph over Essendon at the Gabba on Sunday.

The win solidified their spot in the top four ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Lions in an enticing battle between two premiership contenders.

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St Kilda coach Brett Ratten said the club was growing in confidence with every win.

“We just have to keep building,” Ratten said. “The half games are going to play a big part in it. Teams have had draws as well. Percentages can be like a win as well. It’s going to be very tight.

“For us though, we want to put ourselves in a position to make finals. We haven’t done it in eight years.

“With each win we get closer, and with each win we get some self-belief so we’ll just keep pushing on. We have Brisbane here next weekend and they’re a very good team.”

Milestone man Zak Jones celebrated his 100th career game in style, finishing the match with 26 disposals, 11 contested possessions and four clearances.

The loss heaped more misery on the 11th-placed Bombers, who now prepare for a tough road ahead with games against Richmond, Hawthorn and West Coast in the next fortnight.

St Kilda ran out to a 22-point lead at the end of the first quarter on the back of great defensive pressure and ball movement. And they came out firing.

The first stanza saw the Saints with four centre clearances to Essendon’s one and 27 marks to the Bombers’ eight. By halftime, their lead blew out to 35 points and they were never really threatened for the rest of the game.

Jones said the side had worked hard on their defensive effort during the week.

“We started really well,” Jones said at halftime. “(Geelong) pulled us apart a bit. We worked hard to close those back kicks so they couldn’t switch it.”

Essendon’s finals aspirations took a massive blow after Sunday’s carve-up at the Gabba.

The Bombers’ four-game winless streak continued after being out-muscled by the resurgent Saints. Following their 73-all thriller with the Suns on Wednesday night, the Bombers couldn’t match it with the Saints in what shaped as a pivotal game for their finals chances.

Essendon coach John Worsfold said Joe Daniher was “tracking well” towards making his return after niggling injuries had kept him out for more than a year.

The Bombers squad have been hit hard by injuries in the past few weeks, including David Zaharakis to a season-ending quads injury.

However, Worsfold was hopeful the cavalry was returning in the coming weeks in what would be a huge boost for the club.

The coach revealed Daniher had returned to full training loads in recent weeks.

“His progression has been good,” Worsfold said.

“He was progressing really well before he did his calf and he’s now back starting to do full training loads which is great.

“That changes where everything is at and we’ll just monitor him as we go. We’ve got quite a few players that are working their backsides off to be available in coming weeks.”

The Courier-Mail