AFL round eight as it happened: Saints thrash insipid Fremantle to end three-match losing streak

The Brisbane midfield masterclass that St Kilda suffered – and learned – from paid immediate dividends six days later.

The Saints “went to school”, as coach Ross Lyon put it, for a refresher course on how a good midfield performs, and put that education into practice to thrash an insipid Fremantle by 61 points at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

Jack Macrae of the Saints kicks whilst being tackled by Caleb Serong of the Dockers.Credit: Getty Images

St Kilda’s victory ended their three-match losing skid and levels their win-loss ledger through eight rounds as they kept the Dockers to one goal in the first half and only five for the game.

Fremantle’s 5.3 (33) scoreline was the equal-10th-lowest in club history, and it took three final quarter goals to avoid being even lower.

“I was really pleased. It was a good response,” Lyon said afterwards.

The vision of a relaxed and satisfied Lyon smirking in the coaches’ box and leaning back in his chair, with arms crossed, spoke louder than his subdued post-match reaction.

Ross Lyon addresses Saints players during the their round 8 match against the Dockers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“We know we’ve got a heap of work to do to improve. We’re not getting carried away,” he said. “We’ve already spoken about [moving on] to Carlton next week. We’re not a get-carried-away group, and I’m not a get-carried-away coach; good or bad. I’ll leave that to the others.”

Ex-Bulldog Jack Macrae starred for the Saints with video-game numbers of 38 disposals, 25 contested possessions, 14 clearances, 10 score involvements and eight tackles.

Macrae was also by Caleb Serong’s side at most stoppages, and with help from Jack Steele and Hugo Garcia, he held the Dockers ball magnet to 15 disposals - his lowest tally since his rookie season five years ago.

Serong entered the night averaging 29.6 disposals and a competition-best 15.9 contested possessions. Garcia (19, 10 tackles) and debutant Hugh Boxshall (16, four clearances) played strong complementary midfield roles.

Steele and St Kilda also limited Andrew Brayshaw to a modest 18 touches, while the third of Fremantle’s three-headed on-ball monster, Hayden Young, exited the match before half-time with what his coach Justin Longmuir said was a “serious” hamstring recurrence.

Lyon hailed, too, Liam Stocker’s job on Dockers recruit Shai Bolton, who mustered only seven scoreless disposals at 43 per cent efficiency.

The raw numbers illustrated the massive gulf between the teams; the Saints dominated disposals (379-286), inside 50s (61-34), clearances (50-22), centre clearances (13-5), contested possessions (151-103) and uncontested possessions (233-175).

Caleb Serong and Alex Pearce of the Dockers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“Caleb Serong is one who’s been a great player over the years, in terms of his contested ball and clearance,” Steele told this masthead.

“We didn’t have a direct tag or anything on him, but we just wanted to make sure we limited his damage around stoppage. That was a big part of the game: win the midfield battle, to win the game – and Andy Brayshaw, too. I thought we did a really good job on him.

“They’re both really great midfielders in their own right, and sometimes it’s very hard to stop contested players, but we were able to just be a little bit harder at the ball on most occasions.”

Steele was pleasantly surprised to learn the context of Serong’s modest output, and said the pressure-filled performance needed to be the “standard” for their midfield group.

Like Lyon, St Kilda’s captain did his best to keep the result in check, preferring not to even broach the topic of finals.

“I know we’re looking at next week already,” Steele said. “It’s a big game against Carlton, but I think if you were to tell us at the start of the year, with the injuries we had, and the young players we had in that we would be four and four after the tough scheduling we had, I’d say we’d be pretty happy.“
The Saints hauled in 15 marks inside 50 to the Dockers’ four, with Cooper Sharman (four) and Mitch Owens (three) combining for seven goals.

Jack Steele of the Saints in action.Credit: Getty Images

At the other end, Callum Wilkie kept Josh Treacy goalless, while both Jye Amiss’ goals came in the last quarter when the game was effectively over.

A disappointed Longmuir said his 10th-placed team’s inconsistency was “not good enough” and that everyone, including himself, should be “questioning themselves”.

They have lost all three of their matches in Victoria this season.

“The first thing I look at after a performance like that, and any good leader should, is, ‘What did I get wrong?’,” Longmuir said. “I’m not sitting here blaming the players. I’ve got to look at my own performance this week, and, ‘Am I contributing to us being an inconsistent team?’. So, of course, I’m going to question myself. You can’t just sit here and say it’s all on the players.”

Fremantle Dockers chief executive Simon Garlick guaranteed coach Justin Longmuir’s future pre-game tonight – before the side was thumped by St Kilda.

Garlick has been a staunch supporter of Longmuir and the club employed him on an “ongoing” position that is reviewed annually.

He was asked pre-game if he could guarantee Longmuir would be coach of the club for round one in 2026, and he said “absolutely”.

“He’s doing a phenomenal job,” Garlick told ABC Sport.

“We’re building. For successful coaches like Mick [Malthouse] and others, who’ve done it for decades, he is still learning and growing, but we have a great team around him, and we are incredibly pleased with the job he’s doing.

“The amazing thing about the ongoing employment arrangement [no long-term contract to Longmuir’s name] – there is no practical difference [to other coaches].

“Every coach in the AFL now has a notice period, depending on the club. The days of signing a five-year contract or a 10-year contract like Mick once did and got paid out – they are over.”

The Dockers walk off after being thumped by St Kilda.Credit: Getty Images

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir spoke to the media post game.

Are you in a bit of shock?
Shock is not the word. Yes, [I’m] disappointed. It was not the performance we wanted to put out there, clearly. [I] thought we had a good week... It was really clear what we wanted to do. Yes, we didn’t get any of those focuses that we went into the game with done. Yes, they played with a higher intensity, which we didn’t deal with. Yes, [it was] really disappointing.

The numbers are extraordinary...
Extraordinary, yeah. Well, they did a good job to lock down Caleb [Serong] and Andy [Brayshaw]. When we supported the contest, their half-backs got involved. I thought they supported the contest well with their forwards, which emptied out our backline a little bit. We didn’t handle the surge game off that. Yeah, we just couldn’t get anything proactive going all night. Yes, we got smoked around clearance, but we got beaten both sides of the ball as well. Ground ball is a key indicator for them. They just beat us at that all night.

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir had a night to forgetCredit: AFL Photos

Caleb had his lowest disposal tally in five years. What did you see from what they were doing? They seemed to be maintaining contact with him at every stoppage...
Exactly, yeah. They did that with Andy as well, [and] shut those two down. Then their key player in there got off the chain in Macrae. Yeah, [it was] disappointing.

Is this team becoming too reliant on Caleb as the star?
You could say that on the back of tonight, absolutely, especially around our clearance work. Youngy went out of the game, and it became a little bit thin in there.

Are you concerned about the emotional rollercoaster they are riding when they are in the game emotionally and starting like that, when they aren’t playing well?
[I’m not sure that’s the way I would frame it. I’m concerned about our consistency, absolutely. Whether it is on [the] emotional... I think it is more on behaviour. Yes, when we get challenged early in games, yes, I’m not sure – yeah, [we’re] up for the fight. Yeah, we can’t be that team. Clearly our consistency has been not where it needs to be in the early part of the season. The main message after the game to the players is: are we up for the challenge that an AFL season confronts? You know, because you can’t be that team that has the high highs and the low lows. We want to be a really consistent team that goes back to zero each week, understands what each team’s strengths are and be willing to, you know, prepare week in, week out to be that consistent team we need to be, and the results show we are not at the moment. So, we have got some work to do, but I’m sure we are up for the fight.

Saints coach Ross Lyon.Credit: Getty Images

Saints coach Ross Lyon spoke to Channel Seven post-game.

It’s great to see you smiling again...
I’m always smiling. Well, not always. Not so much last week, right? Everyone was bagging me. There you go.

You got the response you wanted Ross?
Yes, the players owned it. They owned it last week. You can only coach action. There are some clear things in our system swirling around. That sort of grit piece, grit, really when you have choices to do the harder stuff... I thought we did that all night.

How did you go managing the anger and frustration? The performance was to come. You were clear about that. Turning that into the motivation an execution we saw tonight, the numbers were incredible...
They were really strong. Kudos to our playing group. I thought leaders started at the top with Jack Steele. He needed to lift, and he knew that. I thought he did that tonight. Jack Macrae... I put Wilkie to Treacy, and he got that done. I don’t think he took a mark inside 50. Pressure got around the ball. I’ve said to the group my whole time here, that previous two weeks I wasn’t as agitated about our effort as I was over the last two. So we just sort of dived into it. As always, go back to basics. Just focus on a few simple things. Fortunately, it worked out positively tonight.

Hugo Garcia gets a handball away.Credit: AFL Photos

Ross, there was a bit of commentary around the Garcia subbing last week and then you had a chat to him on the bench. Some people didn’t like it, others said it is fine, that’s football. He responded. He has got character...
Who didn’t like it? I thought everyone liked it.

I liked it. But I’m old-school...
Until you are in the chair and understand it, it is never personal. Never trade-based language, never descriptive. It is action-based, do this and that. You know, the game is going and gone so you need to do something. Why sit on your hands? Hugo said, “I wasn’t playing that well, I’m OK. I get it”. There is just a lot of noise. Everyone can interpret it your own way. Unless you are inside and hearing what has been said, I don’t understand how they jump to the conclusions that they do. But it was all week, all my coaching panel, all our leaders focus on action, what we need to deliver, and they went out and did that really well tonight.

When Hugo did kick the goal though, we saw a big smile on your face. It is nice to see a young player respond and have an impact...
Yes, 100 per cent. We backed them in. We have had a lot of young debutants. Can you have favourites? He is one. [He’s] so competitive [and] trained so hard. We were laughing because he missed the set shot. I said Hugo never misses. That was his third AFL goal. We had a chuckle. It was nice to breathe out and show the human side for two minutes.

Mitch Owens celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos

St Kilda have ended their three-match losing skid in impressive fashion, demolishing – and embarrassing – Fremantle by 61 points at Marvel Stadium.

The Dockers kicked just one goal in the first half and their final 5.3 (33) scoreline was their equal-10th-lowest ever. It took two Jye Amiss goals and another in the last minute from Quinton Narkle in the fourth quarter to avoid an even worse place in club history.

Cooper Sharman kicked a match-high four goals for the Saints and Mitch Owens chipped in with three, while Jack Macrae was outstanding with 38 disposals, including 25 contested possessions and 14 clearances.

Just as valuable was Macrae’s tandem effort with Jack Steele, and later Hugo Garcia, to hold Dockers ball magnet Caleb Serong to only 15 touches, his lowest tally in five seasons.

They maintained contact with Serong at every stoppage and successfully dulled his influence.

Andrew Brayshaw, like star teammate Caleb Serong, had a quiet night for the Dockers.Credit: Getty Images

All of Sharman’s goals came in the second half, including three in a spectacular third term where he spun out of a tackle in the pocket and somehow kicked the ball through the big sticks.

His Jason Akermanis-inspired celebration was just as good, cupping his mouth with one hand and placing the other on his head.

St Kilda thrashed Fremantle’s much-vaunted midfield, headlined by Serong, Andrew Brayshaw and Hayden Young, and strangled the visitors’ ball movement whenever they did get their hands on the Sherrin.

The Saints won nearly 100 extra disposals, almost doubled the Dockers’ inside-50 count, and also dominated the clearances (50-22), centre clearances (13-5) and contested possessions (151-103).

The result levels St Kilda’s win-loss ledger through eight rounds and provisionally propels them into 11th place.

Young’s night ended early with another hamstring injury after the same injury delayed his season start, making for a nightmare trip east for Justin Longmuir’s men.

Fremantle have lost all three matches in Melbourne this season, following defeats to Geelong (GMHBA Stadium) in round one and the Demons (MCG) a fortnight ago.

Rowan Marshall and Caleb Serong wrestle.Credit: Getty Images

Saints ruckman Rowan Marshall spoke to Channel Seven post game.

Q: How pleased were you with the midfield group? Because you absolutely dominated clearance and contested ball...
So good. [It’s] an area we have been beat up in over the last couple of weeks. Jack Macrae… awesome. He really led from the front. Yes, really pleasing result from midfield group.

Q: How did you set yourself for a big one against their one-two ruck combination with Jackson coming back in? It looked as though you were really trying to challenge Darcy with the work you were putting in forward.
Yes, it is hard. Darcy has his short bursts. He is so strong. You are pretty cooked and suddenly Jackson comes into the ruck. Yes, it is definitely a tough task. But [I’m] really pleased with the way the midfield went tonight.

Q: What about Cooper Sharman? Did you think he had that in him tonight?
Yes, he is so good. We see that at training every week. He is becoming a really consistent forward now, and he is a real strong leader down there with the forwards at the moment. Yes, his celebrations are even better.

Cooper Sharman with a Jason Akermanis-like celebration.Credit: AFL Photos

Saints forward Cooper Sharman admitted he was inspired to bring out the “Aker” celebration after kicking one of his four goals tonight.

Retired Brisbane great Jason Akermanis made a similar gesture years ago after kicking a stunning goal.

“I pulled the Aker celie [celebration] – I saw him on one of the footy shows a couple of weeks ago and it sparked my memory,” Sharman told Fox Footy.

“It was a similar pocket, so I thought I’d give it a go.”

Anthony Caminiti of the Saints spoils a mark by Alex Pearce of the Dockers.Credit: Getty Images

The Saint have thumped a hapless, woeful Fremantle at Marvel Stadium tonight.

St Kilda were harder at the contest, better-organised around the field, and far more dangerous in front of goal.

The Dockers were as poor as they’ve been since their earliest years in the AFL.

Their best players look hamstrung, their young players unsure, and their game style looks like that of a bygone era.

Surely, the spotlight has to go to Dockers coach Justin Longmuir after this performance.

This can’t just be travel yips about coming to Melbourne – they’ve been exposed tonight as not playing a style and manner that is competitive in modern AFL football.

They kicked five goals for the match, most of them in the last term when the contest was all but decided.

Hugo Garcia gets a handball away.Credit: AFL Photos

Hugo Garcia has joined the goal-kickers, snapping a goal after a horror kick from Freo was intercepted at half-back.

Ross Lyon has a grin on his face in the coaching box. Last week he was benching the young kid, and tonight he’s kicking a goal.

“How do you like that, Ross?” Anthony Hudson exclaimed on Fox Footy.

I think he likes it just fine.

Mitch Owens has kicked his third goal with a screwing kick that bounced through.

Saints 88, Freo 27 with three mins to play.

The Dockers have finally found a little run and it has again resulted in Jye Amiss taking a mark and kicking a goal.

If only he had some decent supply tonight.

Saints 68, Freo 27 with seven mins to play.