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Moods wrote:I love Roo but the premise that professional footballers getting paid very well to do nothing else but play footy, moaning about a further 20 minute drive down the highway is laughable. TBH it's embarrassing and exposes the mental fragility of our group at the time.
Moorabbin was a tip. they've fixed it up and it'll be good to get back there, but fair dinkum. It should have just been an inconvenience rather than 'ripping the soul out of the joint.'
Yep I agree with this post a lot.
I HATED the move to Seaford... moving away from the City just didn't make sense. BUT Essendon play out at Tullamarine (which is only 20 minutes from the CBD so a lot closer) and the Hawks have moved out to / soon to Dingley... No spiritual home whinging from these club... why from us?
To let it affect performance, based on location alone is not good, and slightly embarrassing. If it's the facilities, different story....
St Lenny wrote:I really get tired of the ol Seaford argument. How short memories are. We tried to return to The Junction Oval that didn't work out. We tried to go to Frankston and that burned down. Moorabbin Council did not want us a the time. Not a lot of alternatives at the time. Times change and like everyone else, happy to be back.
JO not 'working out'.
Another stuff up! The most significant moment in our club's history. The game changer! It was all ready to go. Then we had that election result.
But no biggie. The change of government here in Victoria should have been just a hiccup, a speed bump in the road at most.
Our BOM (and we actually had Gestapo HQ backing us for once) should have damn well been able to exert enough influence to get things back on track!!!!
The only issue with your point Dave is that Cricket Victoria had (and have) a long term lease on the Junction Oval. Any move to the JO would have seen us as tenants of the facility, always playing 2nd fiddle to our landlords. This is the same situation that we had with the St Kilda CC... so much of the money we raised over the years up until 1965 went straight into the cricket club coffers and was the main reason behind our move to Linton St.
Using influence to make it happen would be akin to Melbourne Victory deciding to take over Moorabbin... you reckon we would had over our lease to them?
We have a bigger and better facilty than we would have ever been able to build at the JO... with room to continue to add to it as well.
St Lenny wrote:I really get tired of the ol Seaford argument. How short memories are. We tried to return to The Junction Oval that didn't work out. We tried to go to Frankston and that burned down. Moorabbin Council did not want us a the time. Not a lot of alternatives at the time. Times change and like everyone else, happy to be back.
JO not 'working out'.
Another stuff up! The most significant moment in our club's history. The game changer! It was all ready to go. Then we had that election result.
But no biggie. The change of government here in Victoria should have been just a hiccup, a speed bump in the road at most.
Our BOM (and we actually had Gestapo HQ backing us for once) should have damn well been able to exert enough influence to get things back on track!!!!
The only issue with your point Dave is that Cricket Victoria had (and have) a long term lease on the Junction Oval. Any move to the JO would have seen us as tenants of the facility, always playing 2nd fiddle to our landlords. This is the same situation that we had with the St Kilda CC... so much of the money we raised over the years up until 1965 went straight into the cricket club coffers and was the main reason behind our move to Linton St.
Using influence to make it happen would be akin to Melbourne Victory deciding to take over Moorabbin... you reckon we would had over our lease to them?
We have a bigger and better facilty than we would have ever been able to build at the JO... with room to continue to add to it as well.
I agree with this. Was one of the main reasons Fitzroy folded. They never had their own lease on a ground. Were at the Junction Oval, then Victoria Park, Then Princes Park - regardless of where they played they got screwed by the landlord and could never make any money. Would be a huge mistake for the saints to go back to Junction Oval where CV have ALWAYS controlled things.
parkeysainter wrote:Not much point worrying about it anymore. Seaford is no more, but the playing group didn't like the place at all. That is fact and more so for the group around 2011. The place was crap and there was nothing around there. It was like a Mad Max movie.
Anyway, the Saints are back at their spiritual home. It will do so much good for several different areas of the club, much more than people realise.
Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it, but I was also crushed and I didn't buy a house in the area to be close to my employment and have to drive to Seafood every other day, train and then drive back home. Archie and the Greg Westaway may have had a different set of issues to address at the time but they really shat on us I reckon. This page was generally all about how great it was but I was totally deflated. I could always tweak my working hours to get to training at Moorabbin occasionally but very rarely had the time to drive to the other side of the world.
Welcome Back Saints - and thanks all those who turned this nightmare around.
Wasn't the reason we left the JO in the first place in 1965 was our appalling treatment at the hands of the cricket club? Looking at the big picture, I'm with Dave. I made inquiries with some lobbyist types about the chances of us ever getting control of a boutique stadium there and the answer was a blunt no. CV has a stranglehold on the joint and neither side of politics has an appetite to change things, especially after tipping in money to the disaster at Seaford, and now more money into Moorabbin to rectify the mistake. Should never have left Moorabbin.
How's Archie doing now? Farked us up for seven years, failed to launch with Big Clive's Soccer league and left a trail of harrassment and bullying legal action against him when he abandoned us. Apart from all that, he did a bang up job! Why does our club have such a continually poor record when it comes to admin? Remember Nettlefold? Misplaced the second most successful coach in our history and plunged our club into turmoil on and off field. It's been going on since we started. As Yabby used to say, "Clubs with shithouse administrations don't win flags, laddie!"
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The Peanut wrote:... and I didn't buy a house in the area to be close to my employment and have to drive to Seafood every other day, train and then drive back home.
What is it, about another 20-25 minutes past Moorabbin? I know folks who couldn't believe their luck about that commute ...
Really? I reckon Roo and the “crushed” playing group of that era should take a LONG and HARD look at themselves! Plenty of working folk get mucked about in having to travel to their workplace. I said so at the time, and will repeat it: soft soft soft to use the Seaford move as a reason for poor performances. Soft!
"“I’ve heard the last couple of days now that we’re out of Seaford, everyone saying what a great facility it was for us along the journey,” he said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“I mean, that’s rubbish. That’s spin.
“Because it wasn’t a world-class facility and geographically it was tough for the players.”
When asked whether the move had “ripped the soul out of the club”, Riewoldt said there was “no doubt” that was the case.
“For the group at the time, on the back of a grand final in 2009 and 2010, arguably the best list that we’d accumulated in the club’s history, and then to go down to Seaford, away from the spiritual
home — yeah, it crushed the group at the time,” he said."
thejiggingsaint wrote:Really? I reckon Roo and the “crushed” playing group of that era should take a LONG and HARD look at themselves! Plenty of working folk get mucked about in having to travel to their workplace. I said so at the time, and will repeat it: soft soft soft to use the Seaford move as a reason for poor performances. Soft!
"“I’ve heard the last couple of days now that we’re out of Seaford, everyone saying what a great facility it was for us along the journey,” he said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“I mean, that’s rubbish. That’s spin.
“Because it wasn’t a world-class facility and geographically it was tough for the players.”
When asked whether the move had “ripped the soul out of the club”, Riewoldt said there was “no doubt” that was the case.
“For the group at the time, on the back of a grand final in 2009 and 2010, arguably the best list that we’d accumulated in the club’s history, and then to go down to Seaford, away from the spiritual
home — yeah, it crushed the group at the time,” he said."
thejiggingsaint wrote:Really? I reckon Roo and the “crushed” playing group of that era should take a LONG and HARD look at themselves! Plenty of working folk get mucked about in having to travel to their workplace. I said so at the time, and will repeat it: soft soft soft to use the Seaford move as a reason for poor performances. Soft!
I commuted from Frankston to the city for many years and I can say it is mentally exhausting. We moved house a few years ago for exactly this reason, not far from Moorabbin.
For my work, I can get away with being tired all the time, but are we OK with our players feeling this way? Every bit counts I would have thought. Moorabbin to Seaford might not be too far, but what if the players are commuting from St Kilda or Elwood to Seaford every day?
thejiggingsaint wrote:Really? I reckon Roo and the “crushed” playing group of that era should take a LONG and HARD look at themselves! Plenty of working folk get mucked about in having to travel to their workplace. I said so at the time, and will repeat it: soft soft soft to use the Seaford move as a reason for poor performances. Soft!
Please read what Roo said. It wasn’t about the shyte location or eztra travel time, it was about the facilities.
I reckon had Seaford been up to industry standard at the time, then no excuses or whinging
I’d be pretty pissed off if o was an elite sportsman and was presented with a facility that’s new but very much sub-standard
Doesn’t send out a good message does it??
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The Peanut wrote:... and I didn't buy a house in the area to be close to my employment and have to drive to Seafood every other day, train and then drive back home.
What is it, about another 20-25 minutes past Moorabbin? I know folks who couldn't believe their luck about that commute ...
So it’s 25 minutes past that place that’s a long way from town.
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surprised some are even arguing the point. the saints never wanted to go to seaford - their hand was forced. once that was that the spin began. make the best of a bad situation. that some people choose to keep believing the spin is baffling. the move has put this club back a long way in financial strength, player contentment, and likely in trading ability. it never should have happened, but thank god it's over. onwards and upwards.
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I see the whole thing completely different. While Seaford may not have been the ideal move, it nevertheless presented an opportunity. I would have thought the Saints would go all out to capture the whole Mornington Peninsula, considering there is no other club in that area, as a solid membership base, with very aggressive marketing and school visits. Their family day on the Frankston foreshore was a good marketing ploy, as it was open to all and sundry, not just St Kilda members and supporters. They could have been the other bookend – Geelong on one side and Frankston on the other, claiming Frankston as their own. This considering that they already have a reasonable membership base down the coast .
Sadly this did not happened. The whining of the members and players was deafening, which seems to be typical “St Kilda”. What on earth is a spiritual home - Moorabbin, a dreary industrial suburb of Melbourne. What affinity does St Kilda have with Moorabbin, other than they were there for a number of years? St Kilda itself would be their spiritual home, not Moorabbin, but this is obviously not possible for very good reasons as mentioned earlier in this forum.
Hawthorn moved from their “spiritual’ home of Glenferrie Road to Waverly, and now they will be moving to Dingley. Do we hear them moan, grown and whine? I bet my bottom dollar they will go all out to extend their membership base and will successfully encroach on our territory. Had it been Hawthorn to go to Seaford instead of St Kilda, they would own the Mornington Peninsula by now.
Now the Saints a massive debt and got ticked off by the AFL, as apparently they never seen to get it right.
Spin it anyway you like. If your captain and senior players are leading a chorus of whinging they are placing mental barriers that could be an unnecessary hurdle to achieving a winning culture. BJ Goddard's attitude and his motivation was openly talked about as a reason for trading him. Obviously if you have your captain and leaders voicing among themselves a negative attitude it will effect performance. It will permeate throughout the whole playing group. Same with Nicky Dal and the effect on his performance.
WTF does it mean when you spin this bs; "he was just going through the motions" that was one of the reasons for trading him (read carefully- salary cap squeeze was the main reason, but this was also stated as ONE of the reasons). The attitude and psychological state of BJ and Dal was openly talked about.
Maybe the captains attitude was the main problem? I'm not trying to denigrate Nick. He did the best he could, however perhaps he wasn't given the right support. Perhaps he wasn't the best person to lead the club after Maddie was diagnosed. Perhaps Maddies illness had nothing to do with it perhaps Ross Lyon had made a mistake in abandoning the rotating captaincy policy or perhaps Lenny Hayes should have been appointed by Ross. The problem with discussing Nick on here is that the chorus of sycophants will stifle most of the debate about whether he was the best possible option as captain of the club in our GF years or the years after
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