St Kilda coach Brett Ratten praised his side’s midfield after their stirring win over West Coast at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.
Trailing by as much as 33 points in the third quarter, the Saints staged a stunning comeback by kicking the final eight goals of the match to run out 20-point winners.
Max King booted a career-best five goals while co-captain Jack Steele amassed 33 disposals and six clearances.
St Kilda’s 69 tackles more than doubled the tally they laid in last week’s 75-point thrashing to Essendon.
Ratten was particularly pleased with recruit Brad Crouch and youngster Jack Bytel who laid 19 tackles between them.
"(Jack) Steele, (Zak) Jones and Crouch got pretty busy around the ball and gave us first use at times. (Jack) Bytel is starting to show some signs as a young player," Ratten told reporters post-game.
"Jack’s trying to cement his spot in the team and really start to get his career going, and ‘Crouchy’ has just come to a new club and he’s trying to make sure he puts an imprint at St Kilda.
"We had a lot of players down last week but for him to respond like he did … it was really pleasing that those three or four led the charge around the ball and put a lot of heat on the opposition."
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Ratten also leapt to the defence of Brad Hill who has come in for criticism over the last two weeks.
Hill bounced back against the Eagles with 26 disposals and 566 metres gained.
“Some of it (criticism) you could say is unfair. I think it was a collective group last week (against Essendon),” he said.
“For people just to pick one player out last week, you could have put a basket of 15 in there.
“I think it was a bit unfair to just put him in there and highlight him. There was a lot of players that played poorly last week.”
St Kilda next face reigning premiers Richmond at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.