Is Nick Riewoldt the latest victim of the dreaded St Kilda culture? As the season unfolds, it would appear as though the answer would be a resounding yes.
Let’s be totally honest here and say Nick Riewoldt is having a shocker. So are his teammates, as is his football club. For years now Riewoldt has been the glue holding the entire St Kilda footy club together. His on field brilliance, his work-rate and his leadership almost second to none.
The problem, however, is not Nick himself. He has led the Saints with distinction in every area since being the No. 1 pick in the 2000 draft. You simply don’t win five best and fairests and four All Australian gongs – twice as captain – for nothing. So what’s happened?
St Kilda’s heavy reliance on Riewoldt has started to take its toll with devastating effect, and it’s showing not only in his stats but his body language, an area never before in question.
His frustration at his teammates becoming more evident each week as they continue to butcher the footy in spotting up the captain. He continues to work tirelessly around the ground only to be let down by his teammates, again and again.
But if we delve a little further into his extraordinary decline, the immediate concerns are somewhat more alarming than just a drop in form. At the risk of being controversial, one would be forgiven if they thought that regardless of personnel in both the coaches’ box and on the paddock, the Saints will always struggle.
St Kilda has a history of mediocrity and a losing culture. Simple. Still, over the years they have played finals, even grand finals, but with no silverware since their one and only flag 45 years ago.
I know, I know, they were only a kick away from glory in GF1 last year and lost by a couple of kicks in 2009, but the reality is the Saints have a reputation as perennial underachievers, much of this attributed to their record of finishing last more often than any other club in history.
It seems though, that despite players of the quality of Nick Riewoldt and others, the potency of the club’s culture will over power even the best personnel available. Over the years the Saints have been blessed with some of the best players in history, too many to name here.
Great players, like Riewoldt that toil away week after week, year after year in an attempt to end the drought and deliver the Saints a long awaited second flag. That flag yet again seems miles away. It’s hard to imagine them ever adding a second trophy to their very bare cabinet.
Nick Riewoldt is showing his frustration, and why wouldn’t he? He has spilled an inordinate amount of blood for that football club and it seems now that even he knows that his magnificent performances will forever be quashed by the overriding culture that has engulfed his club for far too long.
It’s difficult to know what’s going on in his head but if, god forbid, he is starting to question the legitimacy of the Saints ever being a premiership force, heaven help them. For many years, great players have come and gone from Moorabbin and yet their premiership window seems forever closed.
As a neutral supporter at the ’09 grand final, I sat in the Saints members area on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I remember several of their fans leaving the ground in the third quarter saying, ‘We won’t win anyway so we’re leaving.’ And therein lies the problem.
The Saints as a club, their fans and now the captain himself appear to have succumbed to a couple of near misses, unsavory off field incidents and years of heartbreak that has brought them to the realisation that premiership success may forever elude them.
Culture is hard to change, maybe even impossible, but when an organisation has an inbred and deep seated view that regardless of effort, failure will preside, the drought may never end.
I suspect it may have dawned on the skipper, too.
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