Turbulent. It’s the most appropriate word to summarise St Kilda’s season. Riddled with controversy throughout the season, the St Kilda Football club’s public unity had been rattled behind closed doors, in what must be labelled a disappointing year.
Ending the season on a sombre note after entering the match as fancied favourites, the Saints looked far from the reckoning force they were of yesteryear.
Controversy rampaged across the club since before the season started, with the allegations of rape against ex-Saint Andrew Lovett, followed by shallow allegations of a St Kilda player impregnating a schoolgirl.
Later in the year, several high profile players were drawn into the headlines again, courtesy of Ricky Nixon, as the club looked further unsettled.
Entering round nine with just one win, the club looked to have fallen victim to the scandals and media backlash.
Nick Rewoldt, Sam Gilbert, Zac Dawson and Jason Gram, all central to one of the scandals, struggled with form and questions over their football mentality came into question. The culture had been rocked with the leaders having to face constant media attention.
The ‘truth’ eventually prevailed.
The schoolgirl proved no more than an attention-seeking Machiavellian, Ricky Nixon was banished from the football community, and Andrew Lovett was found to be not guilty.
Police questioning, court appearances and AFL investigations were done away with, but each had taken their toll on the St Kilda Football Club.
With each case finally closed, football was the only topic on the agenda and St Kilda barnstormed home to win eight of the last ten matches, to finish sixth on the ladder with 12 wins.
Well down on production, Rewoldt finished the year with only 36 goals.
Not once drawn into the media hype, he was admirably the face of solidarity in the public eye, saying all the right things.
Unfortunately this was not translated on the field.
With the stress of an impending court case, the players linked to the Andrew Lovett trial faced court preparations but denied any suggestions that the matter had detracted from their focus of football.
Testifying their accounts of the night in question, Andrew McQualter, Adam Schneider and Jason Gram have all struggled to meet their standards of last year.
Of the players involved in one of the scandals, only Sam Fisher and Nick Dal Santo bucked the trend proving to be unaffected and consistently performing on the field, culminating in All-Australian nominations for both.
Labelling Saturday night’s loss as “the end of an era”, Ross Lyon has been unable to reinvigorate the team he took to three grand finals, suggesting he feels too many senior players have played their best football already.
Although steadfast in the club’s unity and culture, it is reasonable to conclude that the demons of the off-season have taken their toll on both the players and the club.
At a time when leading teams look to have set the precedent on how to build a winning culture, teams just slightly distracted from winning cannot succeed.
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We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
