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.
brendan
Guest
I remember reading an article about Rod Owen when i think he was jailed by an official at Stkilda.The gist of the article was '' he came to us as a schoolboy champion (first played at 16) and left us as a drunk.If you went into the social club and Rod wasnt leaning on the bar it felt like there was something wrong"".Maybe this year many players have been wrongly accused of things but the culture of the club has always tolerated off field misdemeanours.To lay the blame at a child (the stkilda schoolgirl) is a bit rich as the players involved met her at a school clinic so common sense should have told them to be wary.What they have been doing hasnt worked so they need to change it too something that does.
Bayman
Guest
Yep, the Saints are yesterday's team. I put their recent minor round loss to the Swans down to the flu which had apparently hit the team. In Melbourne I expected them to beat the Swans and at least survive one more week. I doubted, however, they would survive round two of the finals. Not really good enough. Unfortunately for the Sainters, when it came to the first final not even the home ground could help. On reflection the Swans belted them and never looked like losing. The irony is that, as of now, the Swans look a chance to beat Hawthorn this week. The Hawks failed to impress (after quarter time) against the Cats and the loss of Buddy will not help their chances. The Saints, though, are missing something. Nick's goalkicking has not improved and his output worsened by the fact he no longer gets the ball as much. Maybe he's been injured. Milne is great amongst the also-rans but falls short against the quality. Kosi simply never does enough. Goddard seems to be the only player on which the club can truly rely when the heat is on. Hayes was sorely missed all year but he's now a year older and is not young for starters. The termination of those Saints players after the final now seems to be a little less than unanimous prompting rumblings of mismanagement or player unrest. Ross Lyons seems a little unsure or maybe just not committed. Perhaps they all need a good rest over summer. Whatever happens I suspect we've seen the last of the Saints as serious contenders for awhile. On the other hand, at least they've been there.
chris day
Guest
l dont think st.kilda will ever win a premiership with Lyon as coach, far to defensive, each week we kick between 8-12 goals, cant win matches with scores like that. A few players have to go eg Blake, (played almost 200 games without a brownlow vote, l think that says something), Kosie is a waste of space,l think he has been knocked out to many times, there are others too, but these two stand out. If you have been at a club for 10 years & havent improved, either resign or hopefully the club will sack them.
Swampy
Guest
Was never on the bandwagon to start with. As for milne, good character plays an important part in clubs now and if a team picked up milne now they might inherit a law suit that potentially lurks in the background from a corrupted former investigation.
Shane Richardson
Guest
Alfred C.. I got the feeling Ross Lyons let his emotions take over retiring the players he did combined with the disappointment of the loss. If there was some thought behind it the way GWS are throwing money around like they are despite how little the players would be worth in the open market getting something in the way of a trade is better than nothing. I agree with the comments about being a smart man, in the same mould as his mate Paul Roos who I was convinced would take up the job at Carlton once they got beat by the Bombers on the weekend, so much for that prediction, or was it?
Cam Larkin
Roar Guru
I have held the opinion of Riewoltd for several years.
Shane Richardson
Guest
Why not throw out the whole team and start again! Can't believe how people want to put the boot into Milne and Riewold now the window has been slammed shut. Like to see other forwards like Riewold and the attention he gets by double teaming him every week and still carry the team to three Grand Finals in two years? As for Milne he is what he is and I am sure despite there detractors if they where traded into your own teams you wouldn't say no. Come over to the Swans boys, the window is just getting open :) Oh by the way Nick bring Lenny across with you :) :) Amazing how one bounce of the ball at the end of the drawn grand final has come to this.
Swampy
Guest
Not just Kosi overated. Milne and Riewold have yet to proove themselves in finals and just fail full stop. Lyon's post game antics smack of bitterness and revenge, a true passive agressive at work there.
Justin
Guest
Kozi is the luckiest footballer in AUS. He is a dead set hack who has played about 5 good matches to justify his pay packet during his career. But he is important to their "structure"!!!
Alfred Chan
Expert
The Baker thing was a complete farce. Although, I have a feeling Ross Lyon is up to something. It may have been an elaborate ploy to distance himself further from the club so that he can exercise his option of leaving St Kilda in order to take up the job at Melbourne. He is a very clever man and I wouldn't put it past him to have come up with the plan. Not sure if Kozi has any real value beyond St Kilda. At best I think they could get a third round draft pick. Similar to Josh Fraser going to the Gold Coast. Similar age, similar talent, both a third round pick at best.
Cam Larkin
Roar Guru
It was a terrible year for the Saints. St Kilda need to implement great change throughout the entire organisation. Riewoltd is a terrific player who is a 'club champion' but no where near the league such as Goodes, Judd and Ablett. Kozi also needs to be traded - he has yet to deliver for the Saints and is in my opinion, highly overrated. To top if off, what happended on Saturday night which forced Baker to come out of Twitter saying that he did not retire was a disgrace.
Shane Richardson
Guest
Barry, I'm only 45 so the wait wasn't as long :)
Beny Iniesta
Guest
72 years! Please no, 2038 is a long long way away you know Shane.
Shane Richardson
Guest
I am not a Saints supporter (Swans) but feel so sorry for the players and the long suffering supporters who would know no matter what happens with Ross Lyons the team is going to go backwards until it can get a new group together which will take time. They really deserved a premiership both in 09 and 10 but as luck would have it you don't get them handed to you and I suppose when it does happen again the wait would have been worth it. Remember the Swans waited 72 years!!!!!!
Tiger
Guest
Not sure about calling it a dissapointing season. For everything that team went through as well as a horror start to to season, they did alright. Yes, they didn't beat anyone of substance or when it mattered, but they could easily have bottomed out like th Bulldogs and people wouldn't have blamed them. A number of their star players are on the decline and they did lose Lenny Hayes at the start of the year. With no Ball or Hayes, they had no hard man at the stoppages and still did alright. Jack Steven looks a 200 game player. They don't have the ammount of superstar youngsters as others after being up there for so long but Big Mac had a breakout year and is now one of the best in the competition. As with all clubs, they had both good and bad in the year but a club so heavily scrutinised for their off field activity, they proved the media wrong by winning games.