Brett Ratten blasts umpires for holding the ball interpretation during St Kilda's loss to Geelong

Kieran Francis

Brett Ratten blasts umpires for holding the ball interpretation during St Kilda's loss to Geelong image

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has questioned the umpires' interpretation of the holding the ball rule after the Saints went down to Geelong by 21 points at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

The Saints had the better of general play for most of the match, but their woeful inaccuracy in front of goal - kicking 5.17 - proved costly as the Cats kicked three quick goals in the last quarter to run out eventual comfortable winners.

With the Saints making 87 tackles for the match but only receiving three free kicks for holding the ball, Ratten felt the umpires didn't reward his team for their pressure on the opposition.

However, he conceded that their poor kicking for goal was the ultimate factor that decided the game.

"To think you'd have (87) tackles, I thought we out-tackled them, and you get three free-kicks for the day?" Ratten said in his post-match press conference.

"I don't know if it's worth tackling, just set up behind the ball and flood back. I don't think we got reward for our effort in the tackling component of the game.

"That was slightly disappointing, but the players' effort and what they did was quite good, we just didn't do what we wanted to and that was put it through the sticks.

"I feel for the players. To have (87) and get three holding the balls, it'd be interesting to have a look at how those balls got distributed. If that's a handball, (then) jeepers."

St Kilda dominated much of the first quarter but saw themselves go into the first break six points down after kicking seven behinds without a goal - as Max King, Tim Membery, Rowan Marshall and Dan Butler all missed easy shots.

The Saints kicked a further behind before registering their first major through King nine minutes into the second quarter.

After kicking the next two goals, St Kilda got out to an eight-point lead before a Gary Rohan major reduced the margin to three points at the long change.

However, the Saints inaccuracy continued in the second half, kicking 2.6, as the Cats made the most of the opportunities before kicking three majors in the final term to extend the margin to a point where the game was sealed.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.