Saints beat Blues in spiteful AFL clash

2 Sep 2012, 7:27 pm   -   Source: AAP
St Kilda beat Carlton by 15 points in Brett Ratten's last game as coach of the Blues. (AAP)

St Kilda beat Carlton by 15 points in Brett Ratten's last game as coach of the Blues. (AAP)

Sacked Carlton coach Brett Ratten and his victorious St Kilda counterpart Scott Watters strongly disagreed after Sunday's incident-packed AFL clash.

Carlton and St Kilda went at each other with feeling from before the first bounce to well after the final siren of Sunday's AFL clash.

St Kilda kicked the last five goals at Etihad Stadium to overrun the Blues by 15 points, giving sacked Carlton coach Brett Ratten a frustrating end to his reign at the club.

There were plenty of physical clashes and spite in the Saints' 16.10 (106) to 12.19 (91) win and while the game was a dead rubber, it will keep Monday's AFL match review panel busy.

St Kilda small forward Stephen Milne and Andrew Walker were booked for wrestling after they tangled seconds before the game started.

Post match, Saints coach Scott Watters and Ratten disagreed vehemently on who was responsible for what.

Watters also had a crack at the Blues for the passion they showed during the match, openly wondering where it had been in some of their previous matches.

"It was probably more emotional than a few games that I've seen them play ... you need to be able to handle that," Watters said.

"But there were some efforts I saw from them today that I hadn't seen from them in a few weeks - maybe that was brought about by the events."

Watters was doubtless referring to Carlton's decision last week to sack Ratten, who decided he wanted to coach the team one last time.

Milne was constantly involved in niggle during the match, especially with Walker, and Watters strongly defended his small forward.

"He's only human, he cops a fair bit of attention ... at times, I question how much he's protected," Watters said.

But Milne had the last laugh, soccering the ball out of Ed Curnow's hands to goal and put St Kilda in front during the final term.

Milne blew kisses to the crowd after the match.

There was a long silence when Watters' thoughts were put to Ratten at his post-game media conference.

"Please - have a look at behind the goals (footage)," an agitated Ratten said.

"Rhys O'Keeffe got picked off the ball 30m away, if he (Watters) wants to talk about all that stuff.

"The review panel will have a very good day at dissecting that."

Carlton paid for poor goalkicking, as was the case in last week's disastrous loss to Gold Coast - the result that sealed Ratten's fate.

They also lost captain Chris Judd and Jeff Garlett before halftime with hamstring injuries.

Once again, the Blues had more scoring shots than their opposition and still lost.

Watters promised a ruthless pre-season after the Saints finished one game outside the top eight, once again pointing out that they have only eight players in the middle of their list who have between four to seven years' experience.

One big issue is whether the Saints will retain Brendon Goddard, who is out of contract.

"The situation sits where it sits now ... he has to make a decision at some point," Watters said.

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