Nice story.
COBURG onballer Nick Carnell was the first person to realise Nick Dal Santo's response to being dropped last year was just as St Kilda hoped it would be. Even though Carnell was tagging him at the time, it pleased him no end. "He worked his bum off all day — he tackled, did the one-percenters," recalls Carnell, 21. "I covered the most ground I've ever covered in a game, and I've done a bit of tagging in the last couple of years.
"The thing that struck me was his work-rate — he didn't go kick-chasing, he just did all the little things, went back to playing basic footy."
Carnell's team got thrashed by Casey Scorpions on that June afternoon, but like St Kilda he could see the bigger picture — or at least, the lifelong Saints fan in him could. "I was rapt the way he approached it, his whole attitude."