Is anyone else worried?

[Impatient Sainter]

If it meant guaranteed sucess I would be wrapped with the club moving to Tassie, but in 135 years nothing the club has done has handed them continued premierships.

[stkfc1]

I may be off the mark but I think he said that to get any cynical people off his back who think he looked after his boyhood club.
Look at what has happened the last few years:
Sends us key AFL people to help run the club
Strongly supports & helps finance the Moorabbin rebuild with AFL monies & Govt backing
Finalises an Etihad deal that apprently will bring in 2 million a year on current gate numbers...

If ever the AFL has looked after us its been the last few years...

The clip ove rthe ear remark was a bit unfair but I think he did it to ensure no recourse back on him re favoritism etc...

You are right on the mark and only person talking sense in this thread. If the AFL were going to relocate us why spend the money they have and try to ensure our financial success? If we were ever going to be able to get out our current financial position its now.

[parkeysainter]

Saints aren't going anywhere guys. Never will. We are setup for sustainable success like never before - new Moorabbin training facility, new stadium deal, record members, stable footy club, plenty of sponsors. Once the onfield stuff clicks into gear, it will put the cherry on top of those areas and they will even improve further. They just need to get some debt levels down and earn bigger profits which will come.

The AFL wants an 18 team comp and how it looks now. I don't even think North or GCS are a chance of relocating or folding.

[Dr Spaceman]

I was worried through the second half of the 70s and all of the 80s. Early part of the 90s not much joy.

But then in the 90s I was watching us play finals and by 1997 I was cheering on our boys on that last Saturday in September.

Some more depressing years followed as did more years filled with hope. Once again there were finals appearances which were almost becoming the norm. 2009 & 2010; lost opportunities but either or both could've yielded flags with an ounce of luck.

Yes it's been slim pickings since but I fail to see how we've suddenly become the AFL's puppet; a club with no future in Victoria and no hope of ever again competing against the top clubs.

If Footscray can do it as recently as 2016 then I believe we can do it also. If we get things right and things fall our way. Who knows if that will happen?

But if I felt as pessimistic as some on here do; not so much in regards to the strength of our list but as to our inability to defeat the AFL's "agenda", then I would walk away.

Because after 46 years of paying for memberships, and thinking about this club 365 days of each and every year, I would have to say enough's enough.

Fortunately I still believe there's a flag out there with our name on it.

[parkeysainter]

I was worried through the second half of the 70s and all of the 80s. Early part of the 90s not much joy.

But then in the 90s I was watching us play finals and by 1997 I was cheering on our boys on that last Saturday in September.

Some more depressing years followed as did more years filled with hope. Once again there were finals appearances which were almost becoming the norm. 2009 & 2010; lost opportunities but either or both could've yielded flags with an ounce of luck.

Yes it's been slim pickings since but I fail to see how we've suddenly become the AFL's puppet; a club with no future in Victoria and no hope of ever again competing against the top clubs.

If Footscray can do it as recently as 2016 then I believe we can do it also. If we get things right and things fall our way. Who knows if that will happen?

But if I felt as pessimistic as some on here do; not so much in regards to the strength of our list but as to our inability to defeat the AFL's "agenda", then I would walk away.

Because after 46 years of paying for memberships, and thinking about this club 365 days of each and every year, I would have to say enough's enough.

Fortunately I still believe there's a flag out there with our name on it.

Well said and good summary.

I only really got worried in regards to folding, merging or relocating when:
1.) The SOS campaign was around - early or mid 90's I think and Lockett left around this time
2.) The Vic club mergers were talked about in the 90's
3.) The club used that song "Show no mercy, give no colour" and a couple of dodgy cheerleaders in a St Kilda cafe to launch their season in the mid 90's
4.) When Phil Narkle left in the 80's, but I got over that pretty quickly

[SaintPav]

The past is completely irrelevant to our prospects.

There’s also no guarantee that future media right deals will be as lucrative. This is a big assumption.

[Wrote for Luck]

The departure of Phil Narkle's helmet shouldn't be played down, the ramifications have been significant and upsetting.

Read in The Age our QC board member wrote for luck a letter to the newspaper putting Gill in his place saying it's incumbent upon him to mention our shocking stadium deal when putting the pressure on us to turn a juicy profit and stand on our own two feet. I think Gill got on us a bit early doors.

We're poised for a decent assault on finals next few years providing we can a) develop as planned and b) snag a couple of stars (say Sloane, Kelly, Lynch). And glass half full is the new Moorabbin, women's team, and allocation of AFL club zones to have academy player selections.

[parkeysainter]

The departure of Phil Narkle's helmet shouldn't be played down, the ramifications have been significant and upsetting.

Thank you.

[Drake Huggins]

Things can change awfully quickly in the fickle world that is AFL Land.

[Drake Huggins]

Things can change awfully quickly in the fickle world that is AFL Land.

[barneyboyz]

We may have screwed ourselves. Can't think of the phrase, but it’s the opposite to taking a poison pill.

Matt Finnis and Simon Lethlean are not ”St Kilda” people. They couldn't give a s*** about our history.

Therefore might possibly be able to make decisions on emotional subjects, without the emotion??? Either way, I don't reckon they would like to be considered failures. Actually, I would think it's the opposite, in who wouldn't want to be able to turn a basket case like us around?

[samuraisaint]

Saints aren't going anywhere guys. Never will. We are setup for sustainable success like never before - new Moorabbin training facility, new stadium deal, record members, stable footy club, plenty of sponsors. Once the onfield stuff clicks into gear, it will put the cherry on top of those areas and they will even improve further. They just need to get some debt levels down and earn bigger profits which will come.

The AFL wants an 18 team comp and how it looks now. I don't even think North or GCS are a chance of relocating or folding.

I think the Suns could merge with Brisbane if they both continue to struggle and their player retention problems are an ongoing issue. If Tom Lynch does move south as expected, let's be honest, the wheels will really fall off the Suns.
And if Brisbane don't move up the ladder to where we sit currently, ninth-eleventh, then the pressure will really be on them too, because of falling crowds and whatnot. These issues combined could see them merge and with a list made up of the best talent of two clubs they could be successful and play half their home games in Brisbane and half on the Gold Coast, and retain a lot of the supporters from both cities. The AFL won't give up completely on south-east Queensland but it doesn't look great for the Suns or the Lions in the short-mid term. Brisbane have a really promising list full of good, young talent, but they haven't been anywhere near the middle of the ladder this decade, and unfortunately young talent alone won't do it for you.

I have seen a couple of games in 2016 which lead me to believe that North have quite a good latent supporter base. Brent Harvey's testimonial and the game earlier in the year when their members had reciprocal rights at our home game. They had good turn outs at both those matches and another good one in 2017 at their Good Friday match against the Doggies. I think North will be alright. We will know more about their true drawing power on Good Friday.

[Con Gorozidis]

OP is on the ball.
We should all be worried.
We are in rattling cans territory.

[Drake Huggins]

What intrigues me is the depth of response to what happened on Friday. It's as though most of us had kept a lid on our frustrations and fears, until the pressure cooker exploded. It wasn't anywhere near the worst loss in our history, even if the manner was poor. Remember the first three rounds of 1985?

No, what has lit the fire is that all the denial, blue skying and cliches about loyalty were blown away by the stark revelation of our worst fears. We've been driving the bus towards the cliff for years, ever since that idiot Nettlefold lost RL. After the best part of the decade of clawing back respect from the competition, we're back to square one, where we were after the Timid, Blight fiasco . No closer to a premiership and back to the bottom of the hill, like a red, white and black Sisyphus.

We're safe for now, but if we enter another period of sackings, rebuilds, board coups etc. I think the patience of those at the Death Star will be stretched to breaking. A partial relocation is a distinct possibility, if we fall apart completely. I'm more worried than ever. I've seen this scenario too many times. Swamp fox to Jezza to Jewell to Gellie to Doc to Bomba to Stan to Timid to Blight to GT to RL to The burning dwarf to TMBK. 13 coaches in 38 years, tin rattling campaigns, scheme of arrangement move away from Moorabbin to Seaford only to return. If we weren't worried, we should be now.

[bigred]

Here's a sobering thought for you.




North have more money than us.

Do not discount the Tasmania thinking. With the leagues down there struggling to hang onto players and lack of Tasmanian talent coming through the draft, the AFL are at risk of losing what was once an aussie rules heartland. Now with that bulltish out of the way.....

They will most likely want to have a team in Tasmania within the next ten years. Gold Coast is not going anywhere and GWS is the real money sink. Relocating a struggling existing team will be the easy way to do it.

If we keep driving our debt like we are.... At some point they will pull the pin with their support and we will be in a similar position to Fitzroy. At that point the AFL will have their way with us.

The Launceston Saints has a nice ring to it.

Especially if it comes with a bunch of salary cap concessions and draft picks. Plus the actual blatant AFL premiership push like we are seeing with GWS flat out.

Honestly we should have done it fifteen years ago. As much as I would have hated it. Our future would have been guaranteed.

[Con Gorozidis]

If we go to Tassie it will be an all of Tassie side.
Half home games in Launceston and half in Hobart.
Two training bases.
Moorabbin would stay as a reserves side and aflw side.

[SydneySainter]

Saints aren't going anywhere guys. Never will. We are setup for sustainable success like never before - new Moorabbin training facility, new stadium deal, record members, stable footy club, plenty of sponsors. Once the onfield stuff clicks into gear, it will put the cherry on top of those areas and they will even improve further. They just need to get some debt levels down and earn bigger profits which will come.

The AFL wants an 18 team comp and how it looks now. I don't even think North or GCS are a chance of relocating or folding.

Sorry parkeysainter, but I don’t agree. The debt is a huge problem and unless Richo can get the team playing a brand of competitive footy that gets bums in seats, sells more memberships and attracts further sponsorship, that debt is only going to grow.

The AFL is a business and each footy club is a business and as it stands, St Kilda is just not running it’s business properly. 12 months ago we had two top ten picks and a war chest full of cap space and after knocking off the Giants, we all thought the superstar free agents would coming banging our door down. Six months later, we got snubbed by every out-of-contract star and had to take our picks to the draft because it was the ONLY option we had left. St Kilda has a real bad smell about it at the moment.

Yes, it’s an 18 team comp but 10 of those are Victorian teams and the AFL’s long term interest is to further nationalise the competition, not continue to prop up the Vic teams that keep failing to implement a sustainable business model.

Our debt wont have to get much bigger before the creditors roll in and then we really will be at the AFL’s mercy. The club needs to start winning games of footy and fast. We may not be able to survive another rebuild.

[The Recruit]

The silver lining

A move to tassie puts me out of 37 years of stkilda misery

[cwrcyn]

Didn't Richmond rattle the tins 5 years ago?

[prwilkinson]

Didn't Richmond rattle the tins 5 years ago?

Yep. Get things right on and off the field and fortunes can change pretty quickly in footy. Richmond also only had around 30,000 members in the late ‘00’s too.

[bigred]

Ha

Richmond didn't so much rattle tins...

They basically got some loaded members to take care of their debt.

They put together a plan very similar, yet more ambitious than our very own "road to 2018"....

And they hit pretty much every milestone required. Wiped out debt, won a flag....one thing left is 100k members and they are not far off that.

Shows how much we suck in general.

10000 members in NZ gimme a break.

[stonecold]

Ha

Richmond didn't so much rattle tins...

They basically got some loaded members to take care of their debt.

They put together a plan very similar, yet more ambitious than our very own "road to 2018"....

And they hit pretty much every milestone required. Wiped out debt, won a flag....one thing left is 100k members and they are not far off that.

Shows how much we suck in general.

10000 members in NZ gimme a break.

Richmond Rattled Tin's!!!!!

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Ha

Richmond didn't so much rattle tins...

They basically got some loaded members to take care of their debt.

They put together a plan very similar, yet more ambitious than our very own "road to 2018"....

And they hit pretty much every milestone required. Wiped out debt, won a flag....one thing left is 100k members and they are not far off that.

Shows how much we suck in general.

10000 members in NZ gimme a break.

Yes, the NZ games.

Another failed experiment.

Would have helped if we'd actually won a game there, of course. But hey, there was a lot riding it on it.

[DJ Higgins]

we get beaten in one game and we are moving interstate? calm down we are bad but we are not going anywhere especially after moving back to Moorabbin this year.
Just ride it out for the rest of the year

[Premium89]

What intrigues me is the depth of response to what happened on Friday. It's as though most of us had kept a lid on our frustrations and fears, until the pressure cooker exploded. It wasn't anywhere near the worst loss in our history, even if the manner was poor. Remember the first three rounds of 1985?

No, what has lit the fire is that all the denial, blue skying and cliches about loyalty were blown away by the stark revelation of our worst fears. We've been driving the bus towards the cliff for years, ever since that idiot Nettlefold lost RL. After the best part of the decade of clawing back respect from the competition, we're back to square one, where we were after the Timid, Blight fiasco . No closer to a premiership and back to the bottom of the hill, like a red, white and black Sisyphus.

We're safe for now, but if we enter another period of sackings, rebuilds, board coups etc. I think the patience of those at the Death Star will be stretched to breaking. A partial relocation is a distinct possibility, if we fall apart completely. I'm more worried than ever. I've seen this scenario too many times. Swamp fox to Jezza to Jewell to Gellie to Doc to Bomba to Stan to Timid to Blight to GT to RL to The burning dwarf to TMBK. 13 coaches in 38 years, tin rattling campaigns, scheme of arrangement move away from Moorabbin to Seaford only to return. If we weren't worried, we should be now.

I’m pretty “blue-sky” in general, but the conspiracy theorist in me does get a little worried about the significant role our very own Saint Nick is playing in driving the tassie conversation.
Could he be a spoonful of medicine to help make a switch to Tasmania more palatable to saints followers???... nah I felt silly just typing that out!