St Kilda is one match away from a place in the 2008 AFL Grand Final after summarily dispensing of Collingwood by 34 points in Saturday night's First Semi-Final at the MCG.

Best-afield Nick Riewoldt ran Nathan Brown ragged with his relentless presenting and was rewarded with a match-high five goals for the super-accurate Saints in the 17.4 (106) to 9.18 (72) victory.

Nick Dal Santo, another who was coming off a quiet one last week, got the business done around the ground with 32 possessions, four clearances and five tackles, while Sam Fisher and Jason Blake controlled the air down back with 35 marks between them.

The Saints, who will challenge Hawthorn in a Preliminary Final next Saturday night, gave the Hawks plenty to think about with the power and authority of their victory.

The win was set up in the middle stages of the match when they scored 10 goals-to-two in the second and third quarters.

The Magpies won the final-term battle long after the war had been lost, though they had the class to wait to applaud St Kilda great Robert Harvey off the field in game No.382.

Both teams were hit by late withdrawals - Scott Burns and Simon Prestigiacomo for the Pies and Luke Ball for St Kilda - though pre-match queries over the fitness of all three meant there were no surprises.

And Travis Cloke's anonymous night - he had just six touches - suggested he would have been better off seated alongside his skipper in the box and that speculation he was suffering from a virus was spot-on.

Ball's replacement, Jarryd Allen injured a hip in the opening minutes and played no further part in the match.

Another downside for the Saints was the report of Justin Koschitzke, who played an important role with three goals as a foil for Riewoldt up forward, for slinging Magpie veteran Shane Wakelin to the ground in the second term.

It was goal-for-goal in the first quarter with the Saints pulling ahead four times only for Collingwood to level up on each occasion.

Desperate to atone his lame first-up finals performance against Geelong, Riewoldt set the example for the Saints with a huge opening term - three goals, seven possessions and four marks.

It was his third from a free for a push from Brown deep in time-on that gave St Kilda a three-point edge at the first change.

That goal was cancelled out at the very start of the