St Kilda Saints:
Australian Rules team, in the
Australian Football League.
Joined competition: 1897
Colours: Red, Black and White
Home Ground: Colonial Stadium, formerly
Waverly Park and
Moorabbin
History: The Saints have been the perennial easybeats of the competition, a symbol of failure, in-fighting and mediocrity. Perhaps the only team historically worse than the Swans. Coaches at St Kilda tend to have short careers. Strangely enough though, the Sainters seem to have a very large following, considering their almost total lack of success.
St Kilda were one of the eight original clubs, joining in 1897. They were invited into the breakaway VFL largely because they had an excellent home ground, Junction Oval. The hapless 'Seasiders', as they were then known, lost their first 48 games in the league. In 1897, they didn't score a goal on three separate occasions. It wasn't until the opening game of 1900 that they finally tasted victory. The game ended in a draw with Melbourne, and was awarded to St Kilda on a protest.
St Kilda made the grand final in 1913, losing to Fitzroy. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, St Kilda changed their colours from red, black and white (German colours) to red, black and yellow. They switched back to the traditional red, black and white in 1922.
St Kilda teams up until the 60s mostly occupied the bottom positions on the ladder. They produced some great players, such as Bill Mohr, but onfield success was elusive. Even so, the Saints still enjoyed good support.
Enter Alan Jeans. Jeans took over as coach in 1961, and in his 16 years at the club, the Saints finished in the top half of the competition 13 times. St Kilda moved to Moorabbin in 1965. That year, they finished runers up, losing the Grand Final to Essendon.
In 1966, St Kilda finally broke through, winning their first (and thus far, only) premiership in dramatic fashion. The Saints scraped home, beating Collingwood by the barest of margins, 1 point. The wobbly kick in the dying seconds that won them the game was off the boot of Barry Breen, something for which he will forever be rememberd by Saints fans.
In the next few years the Saints stuck around at the top of the ladder, making more finals series and finishing runners up to
Hawthorn in 1971.
After making the finals in 1974, St Kilda slipped back down the ladder, and stayed there for the next 15 years. It wasn't until 1990, and the appointment of Kevin Sheldon as coach that they had some sort of success once more. With goalkicking legend Tony Lockett in great form, St Kilda made the finals in 1991 and 92. Kevin Sheldon was replaced at the end of 1993 by Stan Alves, and the Saints began to struggle once more.
It looked like it was going to be another typical year at St Kilda in 1997, when they won just one of the first five games. It was expected at this stage that Stan Alves wouldn't last the season at St Kilda. The Saints turned it around though, and breezed into the finals, winning 14 of the next 17 games. They beat North Melbourne and Brisbane in the finals, and went into the Grand Final as favourites against the inexperienced Adelaide. St Kilda built an early lead, but the Crows came back, and stormed home, winning by 31 points.
1998 saw the Saints slip back down the ladder, and 1999-2001 saw them stay there. the Saints of the latter part of the nineties had plenty of talent, but seemed to play without spirit. St Kilda suffers from constant in-fighting in the boardroom, and their players have a nasty habit of getting into alcohol-related trouble off the field.
It's difficult to tell where St Kilda is headed in the near future. They're struggling on the field, but the support is still there, and they don't seem to be in particularly bad financial shape compared to some other clubs. If they could find some unity and spirit on the field, then anything is possible.