Plugger35
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Or in jail.
News 2023 St Kilda Media Thread
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Or in jail.
botts
Premiership Player
- Jun 11, 2021
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Saints on the wrong end of another rule change
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Billings the lowest bid, tied with Oscar Adam’s, Cordy, Matt Allison & Tom Campbell types.
Interesting to see who the fan favourites are. Jack Sinclair is by far the highest bid, followed by Phillipou, Steele, Gresham and Owens in that next rung down
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Outstanding.
One for the true believers: The unflagging Saints
Greg Baum
March 31, 2023 — 11.47am
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St Kilda’s 150th anniversary is a celebration of a particular and perhaps unique form of saintliness.
In terms of what it’s all about, the Saints are a spectacularly unsuccessful club, with one premiership to show for their sesquicentennial labours. Hopefully their eyes were averted in round one as Geelong staff tried to work out how best to arrange four cups behind Joel Selwood on his retirement lap of honour at the MCG.
St Kilda captain Darrel Baldock (right) with the 1966 premiership cup. He had swapped jumpers with Collingwood’s Des Tuddenham.CREDIT:THE AGE
Yet St Kilda command the staunch loyalty of supporters and past players in a way that is nearly mystical. It’s not as if they have even relics to venerate. In the club’s small museum in the foyer at Moorabbin, the premiership artefacts consist of the 1966 cup, the ball and a goal umpire’s scorecard and … that’s about it.
In lieu of virtually annual premiership reunions enjoyed by, say, Hawthorn – who have two this year alone – the Saints past players host a kind of all-purpose get-together every November and in recent times have started to stage dinners by decades. This year, it’s the ’70s.
Yet still they come, and so do the fans. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe. And they are a legion.
Eminent jurist Jack Rush, KC, comes from a family so steeped in Collingwood tradition that a grandstand at Victoria Park bears a great uncle’s name, but he is a lifelong Saint who for the past 10 years has sat on the club’s board.
St Kilda 1966 premiership pillars, from left: Barry Breen, coach Allan Jeans, Ian Stewart and Kevin Neale at a reunion.CREDIT:SHANEY BALCOMBE
Pondering Saintly stoicism, he says: “I look at our history and see we are a bit raffish! Maybe it’s from the old St Kilda, the Junction Oval, the bay, a different lifestyle, a bit mercurial.
“Sometimes hardship forges special bonds and a togetherness that is different, stronger than for those who have not experienced it. That is the way it is for Saints supporters.”
And always has been. In their 150 years, the Saints have rarely been a nose-to-the-winning-grindstone sort of outfit. “Two classes of men play football,” the Australasian reported in 1894. “With one, the pleasure of participating is more than sufficient recompense of defeat; the other class thinks the win is above everything else. To the first class, I think those happy, genial Saints belong.”
St Kilda lost their first 48 matches in the VFL and 99 of their first 101. One day against Geelong, they kicked 0.1, unsurprisingly still a record low. It’s a deadweight history that means that, to this day, the Saints have a better-than-breakeven record against only one other Victorian club; the Bulldogs, which they extended last week.
Coach Allan Killigrew urges St Kilda supporters on at the Junction Oval in 1956.CREDIT:ARGUS COLLECTION
But there’s always been something about them. “St Kilda fluctuated between mediocrity and abject incompetence,” a reporter wrote in 1924, “a mix which paradoxically seemed to endear them to the public.” That year, they collected one of their 27 wooden spoons.
Allan Jeans straightened up the Saints in the ’60s, at last realising that fabled premiership. It was so long ago that although Bill Cannon was at the grand final, all he really remembers was that his grandfather kept producing chocolate bars.
Tony Lockett in his St Kilda pomp.CREDIT:FAIRFAX PHOTOGRAPHIC
“We won the granny, but I don’t have any memories of the game, just eating chocolate,” he said, “and piling into the back of a VW Beetle to go to get the Sporting Globe, singing ‘Oh, when the Saints’. Cannon is from a long line of St Kilda followers. He grew up to play a senior game for the Saints and is now retired from a long career in sports media, all the while carrying a never-guttering candle for the Saints. There are many like him.
One son barracks for Geelong, after his mother, the other is a Saint. “Why?” he asks, as well he might. St Kilda’s drought is the longest in the competition again.
But despite many missteps, the Saints have almost never been threatened existentially as other clubs have. They’d pull games out of hats, sometimes whole seasons, too. This might be one.
Russell Holmesby can map it. Like his father before him, he bit his tongue through a near 20-year stretch without even a single finals appearance and did not waver. He’s St Kilda’s historian, also a past players committeeman, who has written many books on the Saints, including, as co-author, The Point Of It All on 1966, an inspired title (he also was responsible for naming The Animal Cage, a febrile area between the players’ races at Moorabbin).
“Right through history, there’s this thread that St Kilda gets up to win games where you just don’t expect them to,” he said. “There’s always this thing that they can still get up out of nowhere. There’s always a sense that something will happen.”
Midway through last year, they beat Geelong. After that, no-one else did. Last week, with a skeleton team, St Kilda thrashed the Bulldogs.
“There’s another thing,” said Holmesby. “We’ve had stars as good as any club in the competition. There’s always been a Baldock or a Barker or a Lockett or a Riewoldt.” It’s been disproportionately true since way back when. Early in the 20th century, Dave McNamara could verifiably kick the ball 80 metres, and later, Bill Mohr topped the club’s goalkicking 12 years in a row.
Trevor Barker, another Saints superstar.CREDIT:FAIRFAX.
Tony Lockett kicked two-thirds of his league-record goal tally for St Kilda. Ian Stewart was in the AFL’s team of the 20th century, which did not have one Collingwood representative. St Kilda have won the most wooden spoons by far, but also the second most Brownlow Medals. Therein lies their distinctive characterisation. In 1986, Lockett kicked 60 goals and St Kilda won their fourth wooden spoon in a row.
“We have never lacked quality champions,” said Rush, “and St Kilda champions become cult figures.”
That’s the half of it. The other is the born cult figures. Take your bows again Ditterich, Muir, Winmar, Gehrig, even much-loved “Wow” Jones, counterculturalists for football’s Bohemia. You will add your own favourites. Whatever St Kilda have lacked, it’s not characters. There’s always been someone to watch, and isn’t that the point? You see a premiership once a year, but you watch every week. “It’s never been dull, put it that way,” said Holmesby.
So for 150 years, the Saints have bonded in their own way. “Strength through loyalty” is their oft-quoted motto. It has to be; it’s not strength growing out of rampant success. Scoring their devotion always is a kind of wry self-awareness. Other clubs put out premiership videos. In 2004, St Kilda put out one to honour a 10-match winning streak.
St Kilda’s 2023 team has lodged two unexpected wins already.CREDIT:AFL PHOTOS
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The one thing St Kilda people of all descriptions won’t accept is to be patronised. Holmesby begs to be excused for an excursion into philosophy when he says that despite what the ledger may show, permanent subjugation is not St Kilda’s lot. That’s a construct willed onto the club by a cartel of bigger clubs to fortify their own standing.
“I don’t want people saying St Kilda is the second team,” Holmesby said. “That’s bullshit. I reckon traditionally other teams have seen our place as down the bottom. That’s our destiny. But you don’t have to accept your destiny. Ditterich and Lockett didn’t.”
Just a perfect article to show non-Saints supporters what its like to be a Saints supporters.
Holmesby is a great wordsmith. Love his down to earth and honest summation of our situation and our future.
" The one thing St Kilda people of all descriptions won’t accept is to be patronised.... I don’t want people saying St Kilda is the second team,” Holmesby said. “That’s bullshit. I reckon traditionally other teams have seen our place as down the bottom. That’s our destiny. But you don’t have to accept your destiny. Ditterich and Lockett didn’t.”"
sammm
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How a Pies icon brought life to the Saints' 1966 celebration
From a run-in with a Collingwood great at the 1966 Grand Final to an infamous winless streak after WWII, Sarah Olle's family history is littered with St Kilda stories
www.afl.com.au
sammm
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St Kilda or Essendon: Which club is poised for the better season?
The Saints and the Bombers both enter Saturday night's clash riding an undefeated start to the year.
www.sen.com.au
sammm
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Media mania for Saints' milestone 150th
Catch up on a busy week of media appearances for the Saints as the club prepares to celebrate 150 years of history at the MCG.
With you Yawkey. I have never felt like a loser being a Saints fan. Have been disappointed, been fed up, been on the brink of giving up, but they then do Baum wrote, have a winning season, or hire a Lyon out of the blue and get past players back as coaches.
The point of a competition is to win, is that our point? Yes most certainly, however there is something about being a Saints fan.
It's like Europeans trying to understand Russians. They look the same but there is a completely different mindset.
27 spoons, 1 flag in 150 years, we have heard the mocking and barbs for ever, yet, yet, we have 60k paid up members, and the belief and passion of anyone in the league.
I am a Saints supporter and will be until I die, nothing or no one will ever change that.
On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app
sammm
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My kingdom for a coach! The men who instantly make lists look better
The draft, list management and trades are handy, but nothing means more than a competent coach.
www.theroar.com.au
Surely you would have designed a Sharman one
Yeah I did but they were made in China and there have been too many returned for a refundSurely you would have designed a Sharman one
sammm
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Dal Santo, Montagna and Mohr honoured at Hall of Fame
Leigh Montagna and Nick Dal Santo have been inducted into St Kilda Football Club's Hall of Fame, while Bill Mohr has been elevated to Legend status.
- Oct 23, 2002
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Start of our positive media this coming week. Windy on Crunch Time (SEN)
sammm
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‘I knew it! Look what you dished up’: Saints greats hilariously recount classic Ross Lyon spray tale
‘I knew it! Look what you dished up’: This classic Ross Lyon spray tale will leave you in stitches
www.foxsports.com.au
Very funny
‘I knew it! Look what you dished up’: Saints greats hilariously recount classic Ross Lyon spray tale
‘I knew it! Look what you dished up’: This classic Ross Lyon spray tale will leave you in stitches
- Jan 10, 2011
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I actually didn’t mean supporters are losers for following us. I’m a complete winner following a great club. I did say we are a loser club but maybe should have losing club. It’s hard to think we are anything else. That has zero effect on me as a supporter though.
My post wasn't directed at you P66. The club has a loser history, but the club itself, the players and fans are anything but.
On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app
- Oct 23, 2002
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Liam Stocker interviewed on the 3AW Sunday Pregame show 16min-21:55min mark. He continues to speak so eloquently
omny.fm
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Rowan Marshall - 3AW postgame
omny.fm
FULL PRE-GAME: 3AW Sunday Football, April 2 (2023) - 3AW is Football
Hosted by Sam McClure, panel consisting of Matthew Richardson, Jimmy Bartel and Tony Shaw.
omny.fm
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Rowan Marshall - 3AW postgame
Rowan Marshall celebrates St Kilda's big win over Essendon - 3AW is Football
The St Kilda big man joined 3AW after St Kilda won against Essendon on Saturday night at the MCG.
omny.fm
Holy Hunter Clark
Nuggety Forward Pocket
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The only piece of memorabilia I've got is our Indigenous jumper which Nicky designed signed by the great Man himself, have got it framed up and hanging.
Sent from my Pixel 7 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Sent from my Pixel 7 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Turns out Rio Tinto is 5 days older than the St Kilda Footy club
gringo2011
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I was speaking to my Richmond mate today. He grew up in bayside and had family that followed the Saints. We were saying that the Saints might not have been good at winning but they were never boring. The last 10 years are probably the only beige era in my time.
This guy still rates the Richo era at Richmond as his favourite despite not winning much. We came to the conclusion that that was a very Saints like era for them. Huge larger than life characters and a uniqueness that doesn’t exist anymore.
Following the Hawks or one of the big clubs is like watching a soap opera, our history is more horror movie but at least it wasn’t boring.
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Our fans are some of the most successful of all supporters.
Our players have won the second most brownlow medals of any club.
The club needs to get into line and follow our success.
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