While captain Nick Riewoldt stamped his class on the AFL qualifying final, several much lower-profile St Kilda players also enhanced their reputations where it counts most.

Small forward Andrew McQualter and run-with midfielder Clint Jones, in particular, were also outstanding in the intense pressure that comes with September.

Sunday's grinding, bruising 28-point qualifying final win over Collingwood blew away any doubts about the Saints' form after their tepid finish to the regular season.

It gives them the week off ahead of the preliminary final, against the winner of the Friday night semi-final between the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane.

Higher-profile team-mate Nick Dal Santo notes that McQualter and Jones have had to earn everything the hard way in their AFL careers.

The pair have come off the rookie list and McQualter was also delisted two years ago.

McQualter kicked two second-half goals against the `Pies and his hard work off the ball epitomised the Saints concept of "team defence".

"He's probably been a bit of an unsung hero all year, he's had to work for everything he's got now," Dal Santo said.

"He was delisted a couple of years ago, went on the rookie list and went on the senior list.

"His workrate and tackling and pressure, which results in us getting turnovers and goals, doesn't really get credited to him.

"But internally, we love him, he's priceless - his intensity is fantastic."

Jones claimed another impressive scalp in the midfield rotations as Collingwood star Alan Didak could only manage 13 disposals.

"He's had to work for everything he's got, exactly the same - his dedication and concentration on a quality player (is fantastic)," Dal Santo said.

Indeed, it was noticeable that the normally-prolific Magpies midfield was well down on their production as opponents such as Jones and Dal Santo starved them of the ball.

Dal Santo racked up 34 touches and spent time in defence.

"In the middle, they have a lot of rotations, so we had to be on our game," Dal Santo said.

"We were a little bit poor with our transition in previous weeks, from a midfielder's perspective, but we kept them to seven goals and not a great deal of entries.

"We've learnt from that over the last couple of weeks and to be able to put that into practice on the biggest stage is great."

Then, of course, there was the skipper, who took 10 marks and kicked five goals to firmly answer the critics about how he can perform in finals.

But for Dal Santo, it was just another day at the office for his captain.

"It's great to see him marking, but he's been doing it all year," he said.

"We don't ask Nick to do anything extraordinary because it's a final, he's been doing it all year and it's almost expected of him to be able to take those grabs and finish off like he has."

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