1. All season the focus for the Eagles has been about pressure around the contest and playing front half football and unfortunately they were a long way off the mark against St Kilda. There were too many decision making and skill errors for them to effectively meet those targets. The pressure from the Saints was one reason for the high volume of turnovers (69-77) while the opposition set up behind the ball was also a factor. Too often the Eagles rushed disposals and consistently broke down as they ventured forward of centre.

2. To play front half football there needs to be an intense level of pressure in and around the attacking 50 metre arc. One damning statistic illustrating the issue for the Eagles was that they did not lay an effective tackle inside the 50. St Kilda led that statistic 23-0 and with no pressure centre forward that meant the defence was trying to prevent free-wheeling Saints from penetrating their attacking zone.

3. With the amount of supply coming at them, the Eagles defence actually did a solid job holding up before the dam wall broke open in the last 40 minutes. Key defenders Harry Edwards and Tom Barrass, along with Brady Hough, repelled countless attacking thrusts as the Saints led the inside 50 count 67-37. Barrass took eight marks (two intercepts) and had eight intercept possessions while Edwards took nine marks (four intercepts) and had six intercept possessions.

4. There were few positives for the Eagles in a 12-goal loss but the performances of Jayden Hunt and Reuben Ginbey were two of them. For the first time in almost two months Hunt appeared unhindered by a foot injury and racked up 35 possessions and sent the ball inside 50 seven times. Indicative that he was pain free was that he gained a team-high 712 metres as the trademark returned. Ginbey played at half-back initially before going into the midfield for the last quarter. He had 22 disposals, two inside 50 entries and nine contested possessions.

5. A problem for the Eagles was again the clearance battle where they were out-pointed 23-31. The centre clearances saw a 7-15 discrepancy and with the Saints moving the ball out of the middle comfortably it created some gilt-edged scoring opportunities. A loss in contested possessions (108-137) was also a critical factor on a dirty day.