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| The Year Of The Saint |
The Year Of The Saint
By InkerSaint
Much has been made in the similarity between St Kilda and Geelong in the years since the turn of the century and the dominance of the interstate teams that threatened the popularity of the game, when these two clubs each emerged from an existential black hole to provide new hope for Victorian football.
If comparisons can still be made, perhaps it is worth looking at the top best-and-fairest vote-getters of each team. On Geelong’s side can be seen an even spread from the 24-year-olds upwards, while the Saints dominate in the 25- and 26-year-olds that came through in the 2000-2002 drafts. Geelong has a greater number of their core group in their late-20s and that maturity and leadership has arguably held them in good stead. If this group’s prime began in 2007 then it can be said that the Saints may be due for something of the same in 2009.
Geelong had their year zero in 1999 with the inauguration of president Frank Costa, chief executive Brian Cook and coach Mark Thompson, among accusations of a selfish culture, poor on-field results and impending disaster in the form of a $5 million club debt. The group slowly pulled the football club out of the quagmire, until by 2006, with the books finally balancing, the playing team finally injected some hope with a pre-season NAB Cup victory. But 2006 was not to be their year, as they stumbled home in 10th position.
For St Kilda the black hole could arguably have been Tim Watson’s tenure as coach, sending the Saints plummeting from the competitiveness of 97-98 to a wooden spoon in two years. With Andrew Plympton stepping down in 1999 as President the vacancy was filled by Rod Butterss, who, along with new board member and director of football operations Grant Thomas, was determined not to let the club revert to type as perennial failures. A high-profile gambit to bring superstar coach Malcolm Blight out of retirement ended in disaster, and ultimately Thomas took the reins as coach.
While the club completed its financial turnaround by 2006, on the playing field things were not going as planned. With such a promising young team great things were expected and disappointing finals losses in 2004 and 2005 were attributed to a high number of injuries. Thomas’ approach to list management drew criticism as he seemed to overly rely on his core group to the detriment of the supporting players, while Butterss insisted on maintaining a low spending level in the administration and football departments. The combination was disastrous as even Butterss eventually recognised that they were “possibly at the bottom of the list in terms of recurring soft-tissue injuries”.
The Butterss leadership lost credibility; his financial enmeshment with Thomas looked corrupt, and when he denounced Thomas’ abilities of judgement by sacking him, his own were questioned. The perceived failure of the playing group in 2006 became his downfall too, as the Footy First group challenged him in a revolt in 2007.
To his great credit, he recognised in the afterglow of Geelong’s premiership victory that the Saints lacked the internal unity boasted by the Cats. What Costa and Thompson had achieved, Butterss and Thomas had not. The two former friends had engaged in swipe and counter-swipe in the media, and between this and a year of escalating rifts within the board that can only have been unwelcome distractions for the 10th-finishing Saints in 2007, Butterss resigned and cleared the way for the new Greg Westaway-led regime.
Where the Saints’ administration had crumbled, Geelong’s survived after a bitter and thorough self-examination at the end of the 2006 season, determining that they had most of the right elements in place. A new football operations manager and injury management staff added the right support for coach Mark Thompson. And in 2007 a tough-love moment was in store for the team, when after a shock loss to North Melbourne in round 5 he held a 45-minute post game session that player Paul Chapman described as “the most honest discussion he'd been involved in for some time”, followed by a scathing post-match press conference. It was the finishing touch, the wake-up call the Cats needed, and they went on to dominate the competition with a 17-game winning streak - the greatest since Essendon’s run of 20 in 2000 - and a Grand Final victory, at last breaking their 44-year drought.
With the win of the pre-season NAB Cup in 2008 the Saints had again raised expectations, but once more these proved to be premature, with a round 3 loss to the Western Bulldogs exposing a side that was clearly outclassed – and after so much hype the criticism came thick and hot. Apparently the Saints had been found out to be “pretenders”.
But a tough-love moment of St Kilda’s own was not far off. By round 12 they had only managed 2 wins from the previous seven matches. Clearly, something was not clicking. So in round 13, coach Ross Lyon gathered his nerve and dropped regulars Nick Dal Santo and Steven Milne to the second division, replacing them with new faces fresh from the rookie list. The move paid off, gambled against a ramshackle Fremantle side playing away from home. A narrow victory was scrapped out and a lesson delivered. It galvanised the team, who powered through to the finals with 7 more wins from 9 games, breaking the club’s all-time record for highest disposals in a game with 418 against a blind-sided Hawthorn in round 16.
It wasn’t the watershed that had graced Geelong the previous year. The 2008 finals series still showed a Saints side that was lacking, soundly beaten by competition leaders Geelong and Hawthorn. This notwithstanding, 2009 still promises an opportunity for the Saints to win the flag. The pieces are in place as well as they have been in a decade, and all it takes is that catalysing “click”.
Prior to Geelong’s 2007 transformation nobody had suspected what was in the works. As Carlton assistant coach Mark Riley commented to The Age shortly thereafter, “Three years ago everyone said Geelong had a pedestrian, moderately skilled midfield. Now they are All-Australians who deliver exquisitely.”
References
From 1999 To The Year Of The Cat
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/from-1999-to-the-year-of-the-cat/2007/09/26/1190486397587.html?page=fullpage
Straight Down The Lyon
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/straight-down-the-lyon/2007/05/03/1177788312058.html?page=fullpage
Butterss Melts In Bid For Unity
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/butterss-melts-in-bid-for-unity/2007/10/02/1191091115104.html?page=fullpage
Geelong Football Club Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geelong_Football_Club
Chappy swipes at Cats
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21642923-11088,00.html
Disposable Football
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/disposable-football/2008/07/11/1215658140354.html?page=fullpage
Why The Saints Have Stagnated
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/why-the-saints-have-stagnated/2008/04/11/1207856837484.html?page=fullpage |
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