St Kilda have ruined the last chance Fremantle had to salvage a finals berth, overpowering the Dockers by 58 points at Bellerive Oval this afternoon.
A Fremantle win would have forced Essendon to beat Collingwood in their last-round game to clinch eighth on the ladder, but the Saints have extended the Dockers’ finals drought in a 17.5 (107) to 6.13 (49) victory.
St Kilda, whose finals chances had already been dashed ahead of the game, leapfrogged Fremantle on the ladder to finish in 10th spot, as the Dockers slipped to 11th and fell short of finals footy for the sixth season in succession.
“History would say that when we’ve been in these positions, with finals on the line or when we’re in the eight, we haven’t handled them,” said Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir in his post-match press conference.
“We haven’t handled coming off the back of good wins.
“We haven’t handled playing at new grounds.
“There are a lot of things we haven’t handled this year.”
The Saints kicked the first goal of the game through former Tiger Jack Higgins and never surrendered their lead.
They built on their 33-point buffer at the final change to notch their second-biggest win of the season.
The Fremantle loss dampened the record-breaking 354th AFL match of David Mundy, who moved ahead of Dockers icon Matthew Pavlich on the club’s all-time games leaderboard.
St Kilda captain Jack Steele rounded out his sublime season with another terrific performance, tallying 35 disposals, six clearances and six inside 50s.
Mid-season Saints recruit Cooper Sharman was also crucial to the win, finishing with a four-goal haul.
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