Their advantage was increased when the Dockers lost young defender Hayden Young to an ankle injury and ruckman Sean Darcy - who had been their best player up until that point - to concussion, after Saints defender Ben Long was reported for bumping him high and front-on in a nasty incident.

The Dockers were poor around the contest, apparently unwilling to pressure their opponents, missing tackles and allowing the Saints more space than you would give someone at the local supermarket nowadays.

But the Saints, as they did in round one when they gave up a 31-point lead over North Melbourne to lose by two points, dropped their guard against Fremantle.

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King wasted several chances in front of goal and the Dockers took their opportunities, kicking eight of the next nine goals to head into the final quarter with a seven point lead.

Fremantle had the game in control but they could not stretch their lead, kicking four straight behinds from set shots, while they had all the momentum, which kept St Kilda in the hunt.

It took a snap from Bailey Banfield - who had kicked one of the behinds - to break the run of errors and create breathing space for the Dockers. Nat Fyfe pushed the lead beyond three goals when he won a free kick at the top of the goal square and stretched their run of unanswered goals to eight.

But if we have learned one thing during this season it's that nothing lasts for longer than it takes to cook two minute noodles. So, St Kilda, predictably, surged again with goals to Tim Membrey, Jade Gresham and Zak Jones levelling the scores.

However, the Dockers are made of stern stuff under Longmuir, who once kicked a winning goal after the siren against St Kilda in 2005, and Schultz took a mark inside 50 with less than two minutes remaining and kicked a goal.

St Kilda: 7.3 8.5 8.6 11.7 (73)
Fremantle: 1.2 6.4 9.7 12.7 (79)

Goals
St Kilda: Membrey 3, Billings, Kent, Butler, Jones, Lonie, King, Jones, Gresham
Fremantle: Taberner 2, Fyfe 2, Schultz 2, Darcy, Lobb, Bewley, Tucker, Serong, Banfield

Best
St Kilda: Steele, Wilkie, Gresham, Billings, Long
Fremantle: Walters, Lobb, Aish, Fyfe, Schultz, Brayshaw