HardSaint wrote:F***, coming from Richmond, citing Jack Dyer, and has the temerity to talk about thuggery
Hmmmmmmmmmmm what Did jack do while 10000's of young men were dying in Europe during WWII???? He stayed at home that"s how hard he was
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HardSaint wrote:F***, coming from Richmond, citing Jack Dyer, and has the temerity to talk about thuggery
No offence but their seems to be a natural inclination in team sports to idolise the best players at a club. Gees Richmond and the Pies have blown more wind up the arses of their mediocre crap than they deserve- they even rate Nick maxwell enough to let him have his own trash website.kalsaint wrote:Well everyone, I have been around a long time and experienced much of what that article wrote. A lot of it is true. I see the culture manifesting itself in this way from the individualism displayed by board members and players alike over the years.
I cant comment on the old days pre mid 60's but a lot of the stuff thereafter is fact. I do recall Ian Stewart and Ted Whitten giving me a trophy when they visited King Island for our junior footy "Pie Nights".
In terms of the '60s and 70's player thuggery, my old man used to raise this all the time. Two of the biggest culprits werent even mentioned in the article (Bob and Barry Pascoe). These guys regularly slipped in the boot to players aleady down. No escuses are offerred from me for our history but I will say I also recall a huge amount from other clubs as well. Visit Rex Hunts DVD on bashes and bump. All teams have participated well in this way at times.
I will say since 1970 the blonde, surfie culture spawned and wrecked any chance of recovery to a mature image the club. I will say Lindsay Fox was remarkable and bailed the club out many times.
The one thing that changed St. Kilda's culture to some extent was Grant Thomas's requirement for team effort, KPI's and accountability on the field. GT also became a father figure for many team members but even he managed to have a run in with the president and the sacking ultimately was a reopening of the StKilda culture wound. We had been seen until then as being in repair while teams like Richmond turned over coaches willingly and caught the headlines. They had poorer 20 years of field performance prior to that time.
Enter Ross Lyon. Like him or not now the man made huge in roads to our performance on the field and massive team based performance. A few minor off field excursions still occurred with that young girl who captured some nude photos. Believe it or not, this was a ripple only in terms of the club culture as far as the media was concerned due to her integrity and changing story lines. Unfortuntely Ricky Nixon was involved and was recognised as an ex Saints player despite playing for Carlscum once. They werent although we know they had a party culture developing at one stage.
Still over the last 35 years we have always developed a hero worshipping of talented individuals in the team. This has been our undoing to team based play. Remember Baldock, Stewart, R Smith and Bob Murray of the 60's? These guys took the 66 premiership but the team performance dwindled thereafter only to return wioth the next group including Cowboy Neale, Ditterich, Lawrence, John Mackintosh (who nearly pulled us over the line in the second semi over Hawthorn in 71). We lost that grand final to a full year successful Hawthorn.
The next " Fav Five were; Lockett, Loewe, Winmar, Burke and enter Harvey. The remainder of the team were not at the level to project the team to any finals so we banked on our stars.
We then had Harvey (still), Riewoldt, Koschitski, Ball, Goddard, Dal Santo, Xavier Clarke as 1st round picks. Each decade we have our stars and with them remains huge expectancy. In every decade there have been also runs who have not been managed out and this has cost us finals participation or Premierships while other clubs have developed more even team based performance for better results.
The article highlights lots of this and its damn right. It does fail to recognise the poor aspects of other clubs but the article was meant to be a comparison so I respect that. Perhaps I need to compile memoried from those other clubs. Its amazing what I recall from Rex's Biffs' and Bumps.
We need to now continually show the management expertise within the football department to assist the clubs financial leaders to finally pull this club into a position of pride and performance that is recognised and hated by other clubs for all the right reasons.
Painstakingly, the culture has been changed but still needs to be embedded without fault for many more years to achieve this in the eyes of others. We wont be noted as soft favourites with individualism. We keep giving sponsors second thoughts when our club leaders rattle the tin every year if we keep getting headlines.
We must move on and not be held back by our history. We also need to continue to idolise those past players who were good clubmen as well as the stars as there are so many of these that they never get mentioned except in your Nicknames at times on this forum. I thank you for that recognition. Lets not back those who write or knock our club. Smile and get on with the job knowing that all clubs have their problems. Just look at Carlton in the last 20 years, from money spinners to cheats and below par performance now. I keep this in mind when other bash St. Kilda
Agree. Captain rubbish is dustedEnrico_Misso wrote:2 weeks to Captain Sourpuss.
Season over.
Good Riddance.