Invasion ruined Saints' momentum in 2004 prelim, says Thomas

[TimeToShineFellas]

Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/ ... 42,00.html

Invasion ruined Saints' momentum in 2004 prelim, says Thomas
Jon Ralph | August 14, 2008 12:00am

GRANT Thomas says the ground invasion after Fraser Gehrig's 100th goal in 2004 may have cost St Kilda a Grand Final berth. The former Saints coach said yesterday the frantic rush onto the ground to celebrate a century of goals was a tradition from a bygone era.

The sacked coach is still ruing the savage momentum shift from the 2004 preliminary final against Port Adelaide that occurred 10min 33sec into the first quarter.

Thomas's Saints were 14 points up and totally dominating Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium when Gehrig notched his ton with his second major.

Hundreds of fans swamped Gehrig, forcing him to leave the ground for nearly three minutes.

When play resumed, St Kilda's momentum had evaporated - the Power kicked four quick goals and the course of the game had changed.

Port's Josh Carr said the St Kilda fans had derailed their own team, and yesterday Thomas agreed it could have cost the Saints the game.

"If I can put my excuse hat on, which I can now because I am not coaching, it was unbelievably critical," Thomas said.

"We had 19 inside-50s to four in the first quarter and we kicked four goals to their four goals, and all their goals came after the ground invasion.

"I am sure Port were happy with it, because we were unbelievable, we were playing as good a level of footy as we had played."

In a brutal contest, Port Adelaide eventually outlasted St Kilda by a goal and went on to win the premiership.

As it turned out, one of those crowd invaders was defender Steven Baker's father, Greg.

"I didn't know at the time that he did. I found out after it, which is probably a good thing," Thomas said.

Thomas said it was crazy to think misplaced notions of tradition should affect critical games of football.

"I don't know the big deal. No one is allowed to do it any other time of the game. They are charged and escorted out of the ground. It's pretty simple - get into the 21st century and make it mandatory that no one is allowed on the ground at any point in time.

"It's all about the forum that is created by the AFL. Come out strong and say is is unacceptable. This stuff about it being a great part of the game; I put it in the same category as bouncing the ball. Who gives a stuff?"

St Kilda had appealed to the AFL pre-match to heavily fine any ground invaders, but Thomas said it fell on deaf ears.

"I spoke to the club executive at the time to see what added security we could impose with the AFL but I am not certain we got a lot of extra follow-up (from them)," he said.

"To me, this decision has been made four years too late, especially considering it was in a final and of such importance."

Gehrig later said he hadn't wanted to leave the ground but was forced by a security guard.

"He had his hands all over me,"'Gehrig said.

"I warned him once and the second time said, 'Mate, let go or else you are going to be wearing one'. (But) he was about six foot eight (203cm), so he probably would have taken me."

[bigcarl]

to put it in context it is part of a package on franklin and fevola and possible crowd invasions of the ground when they kick their 100th for the season.

[Bowey Boy]

Does go to show the role of "luck" in making and winning a Grand Final. If anything can go wrong for the Saints, it seems to.

[bigred]

No doubt in my mind it had an effect on the result.

no doubt.

[saint66au]

TIming could not have been worse

If Port had been the teasm with the run-on irt might have been vauable..but cos it was us I have no doubt it cost us the game

Should have been 8 goals iin front at qtr time..we were absolutely smashing them

Having said that. with the game in that state ..if I was in the Port CS Id have made damn sure they all ran on the ground even if no Saints fan did..so the invasion was probably always gonna happen.

[bigred]

Effectively another quarter time break.

We were flogging them at that stage.....

fkn makes me want to cry.

[kaos theory]

Can't believe there are still some saints fans that try to justify that it was ok to run on the ground that day. What a disgrace.

It was a tragedy of our own supporters doing. A tragedy that has become even greater as time goes by, and we realise how hard it is to win a flag..

[Hurricane]

Absolutly cost us at least a hefty lead at 1/4 time plus all the momentum and very likley cost us a Grand Final berth and a probable premership.

The tools who ran onto the ground interupted our momentum and gave Port an absolute gift of a lifetime, a chance to regroup. When play started again Port were composed and calm and we were totally disorganised.

When Port kicked their 3rd or 4th goal I said to myself "Those wankers will cost us a flag"

Still pissed right off about it

BANG BANG

[SENsei]

I still fume when I think of that night. There were pleas from the club in the week leading up to the game "please don't run onto the ground".

Sure enough, at the worst possible moment, the ground gets invaded and our momentum is lost.

And don't give me the crap about Port supporters. They were our supporters leading the charge.

Self sabotage.

And we lost by a kick. Heartbreaking.

I was there that night. Sitting in the member's stand. Yelling at the dh's to get off the ground. To no avail.

There is no excuse or reasoning that will change my mind. Those St Kilda supporters who ran on sabotaged our club.

[older saint]

No doubt cost us a major lead against a team that had a history of choking.
Possibly a little too far to say cost a Premiership as Brisbane had pulled our pants down 2 weeks earlier.

Grand final definitely. Like those geelong supporters who say Nick Davis cost them a premiership - they still had to beat us then WC .

[bigred]

No doubt cost us a major lead against a team that had a history of choking.
Possibly a little too far to say cost a Premiership as Brisbane had pulled our pants down 2 weeks earlier.

Grand final definitely. Like those geelong supporters who say Nick Davis cost them a premiership - they still had to beat us then WC .

Brisbane were cooked in that GF. Absolutely spent.

[degruch]

Sob. Yes, I remember saying I hope G would dish it off to someone else, so he wouldn't kick his 100th, as I was sure some dickheads would run out onto the field. And they did...brainless morons. I know it's been 4 years now, but if anyone knows who they are, I'm still pretty keen to hunt them down and kill them. I remember St Kilda players trying to push them away...it cost us dearly.

[spert]

I think it was bit broader than that incident- a couple of PA players especially Roger James, killed us in the middle when the game was there to be won in the last quarter, also Milne and Guerra who were kicking goals regularly during the season were well held..we needed their forward-line crumbing and it didn't happen.

[degruch]

I think it was bit broader than that incident- a couple of PA players especially Roger James, killed us in the middle when the game was there to be won in the last quarter, also Milne and Guerra who were kicking goals regularly during the season were well held..we needed their forward-line crumbing and it didn't happen.

Oh, there's a number of reasons why it didn't work out...but essentially, there was nothing between the teams at all, so everything was minor. In the end, we were on fire, if the game had gone for another 30 seconds we would have kicked two goals on 'em...shame Guerra missed that kick, as we would have slaughtered them in extra time.

However, I have to say, the St Kilda team that evening was the most mentally focused I'd ever seen a Saints team...an stupid event like a pitch invasion was absolutely the last thing we needed, and the desparate 'get off the field' reactions of players like Roo that night, said it all.

[Spinner]

If we were not good enough because of a little interruption of the play....Then we definitely didnt deserve to play in the Grand Final.

Pretty simply really.

[Russman]

It not only stopped our momentum, and let Port Adelaide re-group , but it allowed Mark Williams time to get get instructions out to employ new tactics to stop our onslaught. For them , it was effectively a timeout to enforce tactical changes.
I have no doubt the ground invasion cost us.

[Superboot]

It allowed Port to regroup.

I was furious as soon as the invasion started, so it's not as if the effect couldn't be anticipated.

I hope the clowns who ran on the ground are pleased with themselves. It may be drawing a long bow, but I think there's a very good chance that they cost us a flag.

[perfectionist]

This is strange coming from the coach - an admission of failure!

Fact 1 - Did we want Fraser to get heaps of goals, and therefore, his 100 that night? Yes.
Fact 2 - Was there ever ANY chance that at least some people would run onto the ground at the time? No.
Fact 3 - Was there any way the it could be choreographed so that it happened when PA had the momentum? No.
Fact 4 - Should the coach had planned for the eventuality by ensuring that the players either kept focus if we had the mo, or talked about re focusing if they had the mo? Yes.
Fact 5 - Did this happen? Well, from what we saw on the night and what has now been 'revealed', the answer is NO! The sight of players trying to shoo people from the ground was ridiculous. They should have sprinted to the dug out - left Fraser to security - and talked about the above - and there is no reason why the coach could not have come down and been part of it.

There are some things that teams, coaches, players can control - and some that they can't. 100% focus on the former is the go.

I might say, having been reasonably satisfied with the performance of Thomas (except for his decision to drop Jason Blake for rounds 11 and 12 in 2004, which did cost us the flag - you idiot), everything that has happened since demonstrates why he was not fit to coach - he over complicates everything and never talks about skills. As to his successor, time will tell, and in St Kilda terms, that's a very short time.

[degruch]

What's with GT and his memoires lately? Must we trawl through every detail of his time at St Kilda whilst the actual team continues to try fight its way to form again? GT...I thought you were OK, but if you could just shut up now, that'd be really great. Thanks.

[WayneJudson42]

Sack the cheersquad

[Saints43]

What's with GT and his memoires lately? Must we trawl through every detail of his time at St Kilda whilst the actual team continues to try fight its way to form again? GT...I thought you were OK, but if you could just shut up now, that'd be really great. Thanks.

It's an issue because franklin is about to kick his 100th goal and there is a general discussion on whether the supporters should be allowed to run onto the ground.

GT is employed by media outlets as an AFL commentator. So he is using his experience of the crowd running on the ground to comment on the issue.

His holiday pay wasn't so much that he doesn't have to work anymore.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

its such loser-ish talk looking at the past from a club that has not won a thing since 1966

[degruch]

What's with GT and his memoires lately? Must we trawl through every detail of his time at St Kilda whilst the actual team continues to try fight its way to form again? GT...I thought you were OK, but if you could just shut up now, that'd be really great. Thanks.

It's an issue because franklin is about to kick his 100th goal and there is a general discussion on whether the supporters should be allowed to run onto the ground.

GT is employed by media outlets as an AFL commentator. So he is using his experience of the crowd running on the ground to comment on the issue.

His holiday pay wasn't so much that he doesn't have to work anymore.

Yes, yes...I realise that. But last week it was Harv's making him cry, the week before it was umpiring annomolies with constant referrence to St kilda...for crying out loud, I know he played for us, he was assistant coach and eventually coach, but does every football experience need to involve St Kilda. Is it convenient that these issues and their St Kilda related content be raised at a time when the club is not travelling as well as it would like?

[WayneJudson42]

It not only stopped our momentum, and let Port Adelaide re-group , but it allowed Mark Williams time to get get instructions out to employ new tactics to stop our onslaught. For them , it was effectively a timeout to enforce tactical changes.
I have no doubt the ground invasion cost us.

I would have thought that Wanganeen's magic cost us.

[spert]

Agree - I forgot about his little cameo in the last part of the game..the champions who find that little bit extra.