19/08/2007 12:59 PM
Every year there is one.
The dangerous floater in the finals - the team which has struggled to produce its top form consistently during the home and away season but does enough to squeak into the finals but its best is still capable of scaring the hell out of seemingly better performed teams come September.
Last year it was the Western Bulldogs, in 2005 it was Port Adelaide and in 2003 and 2004 it was Essendon.
All four of those clubs finished the home and away season in eighth place on the ladder before winning their first final against the fifth placed side in the opening week of the September action.
And this year the team capable of frightening the higher-ranked teams come finals time is St Kilda.
After a dramatic round 20 it is the Saints which are in pole position to grab eighth spot with Ross Lyon's new-look team now in control of its own destiny - following its win over Fremantle and the Brisbane Lions' draw with Sydney, which left the Saints with a two point buffer in eighth spot.
Put simply if the Saints now win their remaining two home and away games they cannot miss the finals but they are contrasting assignments with the first being against reigning premiers West Coast at Telstra Dome on Friday night followed by bottom side Richmond at the MCG in the final round.
But on the form the Saints showed against Fremantle on Saturday - when they produced their best performance of an inconsistent season at just the right time - they are certainly capable of beating an Eagles' side that has still has injury concerns surrounding its premier midfielders Ben Cousins and Chris Judd and is also without reigning Norm Smith Medalist Andrew Embley.
The Saints have worries of their own after beating the Dockers with Robert Harvey and Max Hudghton both going down with quad injuries while tagger Steven Baker is set to come under video scrutiny for an off-the-ball incident which left Jeff Farmer with a bloodied nose.
But after a year of transition under new coach Lyon - in which the Saints have had to come to grips with a far more accountable, defensive game plan compared to the free-flowing days under former coach Grant Thomas - they are showing signs of peaking at just the right time.
The Saints have lost just once in their past six matches and in a year in which they have scored only more points than 14th-placed Melbourne, they have finally re-discovered their former potency.
With Fraser Gehrig kicking eight against the Dockers, the Saints helped themselves to their highest score of the season.
And that augers well as Lyon prepares for the biggest two weeks of his brief coaching career to date.
With five teams breathing down their neck, the Saints have no room for error but right now eighth place is theirs to lose and you would rather be in their position than those of Brisbane, Essendon, Adelaide, the Bulldogs and Fremantle who are now reliant on other teams doing them a favour to sneak in.
A finals berth for the Saints would also be their fourth in a row - equalling the club's previous best run of finals appearances from 1970-73 - and that also spells danger for opposition sides come finals time.
The one thing the Essendon sides of 2003