Saints post record low in AFLW hiding

The under-strength Saints started brightly and Jessica Matin hit the post from a set shot in the opening stages.

But it was as close as the visitors got to booting a major in the 7.6 (48) to 0.2 (2) defeat at Ikon Park on Saturday.

St Kilda's final score matched the record-low tally posted by Gold Coast against Brisbane last year.

"It was clearly disappointing," Saints coach Nick Dal Santo said.

"At times we showed some signs of how we want to move the football and also how we want to defend.

"But for the majority of the game we didn't do that and the Blues were really good at times and really challenged us, particularly with ball in hand, and they capitalised when they went forward."

It was the Saints' sixth defeat in as many matches during Dal Santo's first season at the helm and a poor return after they went within a kick of beating both West Coast and Brisbane in their previous two outings.

"The message for the group post-game was that we're in this together," Dal Santo said.

"Clearly we're not where we want to be yet, but we need to find ways.

"We have some focus areas that we need to get better on and we can't fix everything at once."

Carlton were dominant in the first half, piling on five unanswered goals to surpass their previous highest score of the season before reaching the main break.

Darcy Vescio and Breann Moody kicked two goals each as Madison Prespakis (20 disposals), Georgia Gee (20) and Mimi Hill (18) racked up touches at will.

Vaomua Laloifi and Gabriella Pound were rock-solid in a Carlton defence that gave little away throughout the match.

"We haven't kept a team goalless in my time here ... so that's a really big effort in any game of footy, particularly at this level, because there's real quality from every team that you come up against," Blues coach Daniel Harford said.

"It wasn't so much a focus. Our focus was on winning the contest and winning more of those than we lost.

"That gave us a chance to get field advantage and made it harder for the Saints to get back to goal."

Tilly Lucas-Rodd (24 disposals and nine tackles) worked tirelessly for the outclassed Saints, with teammates Catherine Phillips (22 disposals) and Bianca Jakobsson (17) winning plenty of the ball.

St Kilda have a chance to bounce back when they take on GWS in a recheduled fixture at Blacktown on Wednesday night.

The Giants, who have managed just one goal in the last two weeks, will host Carlton in Canberra four days later.

Australian Associated Press