A Saint in heaven

Fanatical is a mild term when it comes to describing the views of Pakenham Real Estate agent and St Kilda fan Peter Deering.
The oneeyed Saint never misses a game involving his team and was again in full voice on Friday night when his team took on fellow premiership aspirants Geelong at the Docklands Stadium. Peter reckons he could write a book about St Kilda, but he sufficed by lauding his side’s solid victory over the shaky Cats.
WITH Arcosteel fourcup thermos, four slices of fruitcake, the walkman, scarf and beanie packed into my red, white and black footy bag, plus two guest passes in hand, Helen and I set off to witness the St KildaGeelong clash at the Telstra Dome.
Being a fully ticketed game, a huge crowd was expected and on arrival we noted the roof was closed and the inside temperature hovered on 17 degrees.
We settled into our seats, along with more than 40,000 other supporters draped in club colours, and after the prematch entertainment the first win came via the toss of the coin with my Saints kicking to the Lockett end.
It appeared on paper to be a onesided event with injuries to many Geelong players, but the pundits were not so sure. The matchup of the Matthew Scarlett on Fraser Gehrig promised to be a feature battle. Matthew Egan started on Aaron Hamill who began in blistering form, marking and kicking goals.
The support of the talls and crumbers saw the game develop into a shootout, with accurate kicking by both sides and a scoreline reading 5.1 to 4.2 in St Kilda’s favour at quarter time.
St Kilda’s midfield had the edge through Lenny Hayes, with Hamill working tirelessly up forward. Both coaches worked the bench, rotating players constantly.
Two goals by both teams saw the second quarter end with a halftime score Saints 7.7.49 to Geelong 6.3.39.
Coming out of the first half we note an umpire impeding the great Justin Koschitzke by running into him and poor Fraser held goalless and showing frustration not a pretty sight.
The third term started with two big marks from Nick Riewoldt, but poor kicking let him down.
A snap from Gehrig resulted in a goal, but his personal stats of one goal, one kick had a fired up ‘GTrain’ not looking happy.
The last quarter saw Hamill take a hanger, resulting in a major and goals to Hayes, Aussie Jones, Riewoldt and via a free, Stephen Milne, sealed the win just on the siren.
That win made it six on end for the Saints with a final score of 13.18.96 to 8.7.55.
Votes must go to Scarlett for holding the ‘GTrain’ to just one goal, while Hamill was BOG for his combination of ability and aggression.
Others who gave a supreme effort included Max Hudghton, who came off with a hammy, Nick Delsanto, along with Stephen Baker and the everreliable Lenny Hayes.
There is no doubt my Saints were supreme and should feature in the big ones in September.
In closing I say: ‘bring on the Roo’s next week’ and a big thank you to the Saints yet again – a great result in the march to my dream of holding the 2005 Grand Final cup aloft and painting the town red, white and black which I last did in 1966.