St Kilda lived up to their pre-season hype with a 5-point win over Geelong in a - never thought we'd say this - pre-season classic! Young Saint Jack Steven kicked the match-winner after the Cats led by a point with a couple of minutes to play.

The Brief...

• Both sides fielded evenly matched "B-Teams"
• The Saints were minus co-captains Nick Riewoldt and Lenny Hayes, as well as Matt Maguire, Luke Ball and Robert Harvey
• The Cats were down captain Tom Harley and five of its nine All-Australians, including Gary Ablett and Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel

The Saints

St Kilda were led by Leigh Montana with 84 DT points as 112 SC's. Nick Dal Santo (75,103), David Armitage (80,78), fromer Cat Charlie Gardiner (75,78) and Justin "Kosi" (73,83) also finished at the top of the list.

Some injury concerns came out of the game for the Saints with Fraser Gehrig limping from the ground midway through the second quarter with what appeared to be acalf injury, and Max Hudghton leaving with a hamstring injury in the final term. Koschitzke also left the ground in the last quarter with a right thigh injury that doesn't appear to be anything serious.

Young Saints Jarryn Geary (73,80) impressed us again in the middle while Jack Steven's numbers (39,79)  would have caught the eye of SuperCoaches in particular.

A ruck contest between big Cat Mark Blake and his former teammate Steven King didn't eventuate. The Saints rested King and Blake started off the ground so much of the ruck duel was left to untested pair Trent West (Geelong) and Luke Van Rheenen (St Kilda).

The Cats

Joel Corey played a stunner for the Cats, piling on 112 Dream Team points and 122 in SuperCoach. He was well supported by Cameron Ling (92,100), James Kelly (75,95), Joel Selwood (80,91) and Josh Hunt (72,122) who especially impressed SuperCoaches.

Tom Hawkins (62,91) put together some strong numbers and may be worth another look this year. Several Cats wouldn't have be quite so happy with their return against a B-level opposition, including Corey Enright (52,63), Darren Milburn (51,60), Shannon Byrnes (49,42) and Brent Prismall (35,27).

What's Next?

The Saints will go into what promises to be a great NAB Cup semi-final against the in-form Bombers at the Dome on Friday night.

Geelong head into a NAB Challenge match against the Brisbane Lions next week at Carrara. Coach Mark Thompson has already confirmed premiership players Tom Harley, Jimmy Bartel, David Wojcinski and Steve Johnson will play and Paul Chapman and Matthew Scarlett are probable.

DT