Analysis Where are we actually at as a club?

PlayerNumber9

Number 9
Mar 6, 2017
183
638
AFL Club
St Kilda
My dream is for a dynasty side too....but that said I'd take the Bulldogs style lucky win. It would take the monkey off our backs and probably release the pressure to do it all in a more systematic way....which is what the Dogs have done.

Moorabin isn't what it was, it's a great facility but it doesn't feel like the same place other than being in exactly the same place as the old club was. We need a modern professional set up but even at the time I suggested we try to incorporate some of the old place into the new place. If I was a young player coming into the place I'd be confident that I was playing for a professional set up but I would have no idea about anything of the past except for a few pictures of ex players.

I get we haven't got much of a past as far as a awards and premierships but the connection to the club is why I buy my memberships. It's a really hard balancing act to bring in new people while keeping the old people feeling part of the place. The Dogs do it very well coming from a similar place.

I agree it isn't soulless because it's a good environment but it's more Chadstone than Brunswick Street.

The thing that I miss, that I think could have been kept, is the old scoreboard. If that was still standing over in the outer, it would provide a wonderful sense of connection to old Moorabbin.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

moirae42

Club Legend
Oct 5, 2020
1,694
5,440
AFL Club
St Kilda
Match day should be for match day.

Piss off the music. Especially piss off the music after a goal.
Piss off the countdown before the first bounce.
Piss off the noisy, yabbering clowns talking crab over the PA during the qtr and half breaks.
It does not work and detracts, distracts and annoys the crap out of most.
Get rid of the flashy crap.

Just win the damn games. Turn the place into a fortress.
We had a period at one point at the dome where we didnt lose a Saturday night game in many, many outings. Thomas era through Lyon. We could expect to at the bearest minimum to be absolutely competitive.

No gimmicks. Back to basics.
Players in attendance in the social post game. Two or three of them. Sign a few caps for the kids.
Be great one day if the coach would get up and take a few questions.
Be great if the CEO or Footy manager did the same.
 

Ephemeral Hope

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 24, 2021
11,119
18,830
AFL Club
St Kilda
Just off the top of my head:

Have a Jack To The Future camera: Play the vision of The Boy Who Would Be Snags in the crowd of that epic match against Brisbane where we beat them by 120 pts and Milney scored 11, then switch to some highlights of the current day Snags as a Saints player, then switch again to a live roving camera picking out really young Saints fans in the crowd. What kid would not want to be the Snags of the future?

Have a Saint Killing It! Busking Competition outside the stadium, Battle Of The Buskers, each doing their very different version of our club song, and inside the ground play videos of the different versions at half time and get the crowd to vote on the best version with their cheers. Winner goes into the comp for the next home game, winner at the end of the season gets video uploaded onto club website. Live roving camera picks out someone cheering for the winning busker each week, that person wins a signed T shirt.

Academy pre-match Scratch match, look to the future kind of thing, live interview from Academy head talking about the most promising players.

Play that awesome membership ad from a couple of years ago with Eric Bana narrating, and update it a little. You know the one:



In fact, play a selection of different membership ads from different years, the retro feel and old cult heroes should entertain people.

When we score a goal, have an animation of our cartoon mascot (St Trevor?) ascending to heaven, which I guess would be a big premiership cup or RSEA park with a 2022 premiership flag proudly flying. The crowd has to make a noise (a "Whoa!" or just screaming or yelling), and the mascot goes higher and higher depending on how loud the noise is. The power of prayer, innit ;)

Get Ed "Sherrin" Sheehan to record a song for us, play it while the team comes out. Not a massive fan of his music but it's very popular and its a shitload better than Weddings Parties Anything.

That fat bogan YouTube comedian with the mullet who's a Saints fan, get him in for a bit of stand up before the game starts, bit of comedy loosens everyone up and makes for a happier night.

G-Train's Arm Wrestling Competition with a non-playing player or coach and an adult Saints fan from the crowd. If the fan wins, they get a t-shirt signed by the elusive Fraser Gehrig.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Saint. Choose a kid from the crowd; play a video of the grandfather of one of the current players who was a Saints fan when they were young, grandad is talking about his grandson, how he was as a kid and how he came to be a saints fan, no names or identifying elements. The kid has 4 possible choices of players to choose from. They use the information and what grandad looks like to help them guess. If they get it right, they get a photo taken with that player. EDIT: although we do have a handful of players who were Saints fans, would probably have to extend this to all players, regardless of their previous allegiances.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Saint Vintage edition. Have photos of some of 4 of our less famous players from long ago, choose an adult from the audience, if they can identify all 4 players, they win a $100 voucher at the Social Club restaurant or something like that.

I'm sure you guys could think of more ideas too.

Just don’t show the academy kids. With the further rule changes we need them to slide to PICK 40!! We only want them in the public eye if they’re going to purposefully play like s**t until draft night
 

Ephemeral Hope

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 24, 2021
11,119
18,830
AFL Club
St Kilda
Match day should be for match day.

Piss off the music. Especially piss off the music after a goal.
Piss off the countdown before the first bounce.
Piss off the noisy, yabbering clowns talking crab over the PA during the qtr and half breaks.
It does not work and detracts, distracts and annoys the crap out of most.
Get rid of the flashy crap.

Just win the damn games. Turn the place into a fortress.
We had a period at one point at the dome where we didnt lose a Saturday night game in many, many outings. Thomas era through Lyon. We could expect to at the bearest minimum to be absolutely competitive.

No gimmicks. Back to basics.
Players in attendance in the social post game. Two or three of them. Sign a few caps for the kids.
Be great one day if the coach would get up and take a few questions.
Be great if the CEO or Footy manager did the same.
Yep. I feel fantastic when we win. I feel miserable when we lose. That’s essentially all match day comes down to. I can barely remember what songs came on at half time or before the match by the end. If they could throw in a discount on the food I’d appreciate that though
 

austinnn

Veteran GOP
Nov 7, 2012
9,448
30,890
France
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Bristol City FC, Urawa Red Diamonds FC
Match day should be for match day.

Piss off the music. Especially piss off the music after a goal.
Piss off the countdown before the first bounce.
Piss off the noisy, yabbering clowns talking crab over the PA during the qtr and half breaks.
It does not work and detracts, distracts and annoys the crap out of most.
Get rid of the flashy crap.

Just win the damn games. Turn the place into a fortress.
We had a period at one point at the dome where we didnt lose a Saturday night game in many, many outings. Thomas era through Lyon. We could expect to at the bearest minimum to be absolutely competitive.

No gimmicks. Back to basics.
Players in attendance in the social post game. Two or three of them. Sign a few caps for the kids.
Be great one day if the coach would get up and take a few questions.
Be great if the CEO or Footy manager did the same.

I get your point of view. I partially agree. But then you are making the atmosphere reliant on the team's performance, so supporters won't know if it's going to be a good time or not. I mean that's what we're doing already. Even before COVID, it wasn't bringing in decent enough crowds.

Of course the club's first task is making us unbeatable, but do you really think we can afford to just wait until then? Maybe getting the crowd will inspire the team to play better, even influence the outcome of umpiring decisions, as it does for interstate teams. Yes we want a fortress. But as good as the team become, there will always be plenty nowadays that would still prefer to just watch it on TV instead, who won't make the trip in. We have historically had low gate numbers, even when we were a good team.

I'm talking about the club doing something for the fans ON TOP OF making the team stronger. Something that better ensures they'll have a good time, or at least provides incentive for adults and kids to want to spend hours travelling, sitting in a cold stadium eating and drinking expensive rubbish and get home late when the same match is free to watch on TV from the comfort of your home, or even on your phone.

These ideas could be fun, but I understand there will always be people who don't like that sort of thing, who just want the footy. Maybe do what I did when I went and take headphones and listen to music and block the rest of it out. You don't have to participate. Go and get a pie, read a book.

Just recognise that the era of pure sport is over. The AFL is competing with so much more than it did pre-internet. In fact it's an outdated entertainment model that worked when most of the population had the choice of that, 3 channels of TV and the radio etc. Nothing wrong with giving people a good time if they've bothered to turn up.
 

austinnn

Veteran GOP
Nov 7, 2012
9,448
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France
AFL Club
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Other Teams
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Another idea:

Quarter Time/3 Quarter Time Drum performance: You know like the drum groups that created the warrior sounding drums in the 2020 membership ad I posted before. The sort of group that you see in parades. The St Kilda Drum Army. 40 fierce drummers decked out in red white and black, making an intimidating racket, stirring up passion. Make oppo teams wet themselves. Like the haka, but better. It'll annoy the oldies but it will be awesome.
 
...but are we talented enough to get away with it? Old Keith is a handy guitar player...St. Kilda is the club handed a set of clackers and told to hide behind the curtain opposite the ding dong with the feckin' triangle.


That reminds me of an old guy that used to get around the back bars in St Kilda back in the 90s claiming to have been the drummer from Max Merrett and the Meteors. I bought the old bastard a lot of beers over the journey and he had a good scam going but someone caught him out and blew his cover. He made up some Pete Best story but it was no good so he had a short hiatus and was back claiming to have been the bass player from the Coloured Balls. Still bought him beers though, I could see a potential future coming that may require his creative endeavours so it was like paying it forward.
 
When you say normal, you mean the 2002 draft, which is not normal.

I would say the time honoured rebuild would be to build through the draft for a few years and play a lot of kids every week, they bond and know each others game and then grab 4 or so players from other clubs to patch the obvious deficiencies as you're about to rise. If an absolute gun turns up you get them on top of that if it could be the difference between a premiership and 5th.

I think we thought we were there when we grabbed Hanners. Hill I think was already into the Lethlean list cull period so he makes a lot less sense to me. I think that may have been a publicity stunt for memberships more than a strategic signing. I think it looks like we wanted to move on pretty much everyone other than Steele and Marshall when Lethlean had done his review and only really contracts kept most of them here. So picking up an older outside runner with no real history of leadership was a weird one.
 
Sep 28, 2016
6,625
21,646
AFL Club
St Kilda
Yes I was. I did go to a training run the week before GF, not sure which day. I remember it being big though. That was my first full year of properly following the footy, went to quite a few games, didn't really have much experience to compare it to though, so perhaps didn't appreciate how big it was at the time. Don't remember the haka, but i've heard about it since. Not sure if the players would expose themselves like that nowadays. Great idea from Stan, but it didn't end up helping the '97 team much in the end.
I would hate for something as intense and culturally meaningful as the haka to be met with derision and indifference by the fat beer-swilling peanuts in the crowd, tittering away at their funny faces and whatnot.
Yes, that’s the risk.
But if implemented correctly, do it every time before training, do it every game to the same area of the ground, it will become part of the tradition.
Stan made them do it before every training session I believe.
They were well practiced by GF that’s for sure!
Haka is a uniquely Kiwi tradition, what Stan did had it’s roots in the Marines.
I agree, we wouldn’t want to be disrespectful.
 
Sep 28, 2016
6,625
21,646
AFL Club
St Kilda
How could you not? I guess they saw it for what it was, a rare opportunity for international Reds fans on the other side of their planet to actually watch a live match. I doubt the players took the actual match itself seriously but they must have loved the crowd!
See the video George posted.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
It was a special welcome, but Gerrard indicated it was just a part of playing for Liverpool.
 
Yes, that’s the risk.
But if implemented correctly, do it every time before training, do it every game to the same area of the ground, it will become part of the tradition.
Stan made them do it before every training session I believe.
They were well practiced by GF that’s for sure!
Haka is a uniquely Kiwi tradition, what Stan did had it’s roots in the Marines.
I agree, we wouldn’t want to be disrespectful.


The danger is that it becomes an embarrassment if you fail though.

 
If you were, did you get down to Moorabbin for the last training run?
Thousands were there.
That was a magical evening.......as you say,a massive crowd there.

I remember sitting in the stand at the South end of the ground watching them walk off at the finish.......the only cloud hanging over everything was will Peter Everitt play.......he was absolutely crucial to the team structure.

We'd already lost Vidovic to that so so successful duo.

He didn't and the rest is history.
 
See the video George posted.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
It was a special welcome, but Gerrard indicated it was just a part of playing for Liverpool.
Yes it is a part of playing for Liverpool but some would be more special than others. Reckon he thought a pre season version before 95,000 fans was 'special' as he said himself than the one playing Stoke on a mid winter night at Anfield.
 
Last edited:
Oct 2, 2010
19,482
69,914
AFL Club
St Kilda
Just off the top of my head:

Have a Jack To The Future camera: Play the vision of The Boy Who Would Be Snags in the crowd of that epic match against Brisbane where we beat them by 120 pts and Milney scored 11, then switch to some highlights of the current day Snags as a Saints player, then switch again to a live roving camera picking out really young Saints fans in the crowd. What kid would not want to be the Snags of the future?

Have a Saint Killing It! Busking Competition outside the stadium, Battle Of The Buskers, each doing their very different version of our club song, and inside the ground play videos of the different versions at half time and get the crowd to vote on the best version with their cheers. Winner goes into the comp for the next home game, winner at the end of the season gets video uploaded onto club website. Live roving camera picks out someone cheering for the winning busker each week, that person wins a signed T shirt.

Academy pre-match Scratch match, look to the future kind of thing, live interview from Academy head talking about the most promising players.

Play that awesome membership ad from a couple of years ago with Eric Bana narrating, and update it a little. You know the one:



In fact, play a selection of different membership ads from different years, the retro feel and old cult heroes should entertain people.

When we score a goal, have an animation of our cartoon mascot (St Trevor?) ascending to heaven, which I guess would be a big premiership cup or RSEA park with a 2022 premiership flag proudly flying. The crowd has to make a noise (a "Whoa!" or just screaming or yelling), and the mascot goes higher and higher depending on how loud the noise is. The power of prayer, innit ;)

Get Ed "Sherrin" Sheehan to record a song for us, play it while the team comes out. Not a massive fan of his music but it's very popular and its a shitload better than Weddings Parties Anything.

That fat bogan YouTube comedian with the mullet who's a Saints fan, get him in for a bit of stand up before the game starts, bit of comedy loosens everyone up and makes for a happier night.

G-Train's Arm Wrestling Competition with a non-playing player or coach and an adult Saints fan from the crowd. If the fan wins, they get a t-shirt signed by the elusive Fraser Gehrig.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Saint. Choose a kid from the crowd; play a video of the grandfather of one of the current players who was a Saints fan when they were young, grandad is talking about his grandson, how he was as a kid and how he came to be a saints fan, no names or identifying elements. The kid has 4 possible choices of players to choose from. They use the information and what grandad looks like to help them guess. If they get it right, they get a photo taken with that player. EDIT: although we do have a handful of players who were Saints fans, would probably have to extend this to all players, regardless of their previous allegiances.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Saint Vintage edition. Have photos of some of 4 of our less famous players from long ago, choose an adult from the audience, if they can identify all 4 players, they win a $100 voucher at the Social Club restaurant or something like that.

I'm sure you guys could think of more ideas too.

This stuff is just cringe worthy.

Vast majority of people who go to the football just want to watch the game and in the breaks, talk to their mates/family who they are attending with.
 
Apparently yes, then no.
That was a special welcome, hence my question, and I am no wiser after that video.
Ok. Part of playing for Liverpool was the support they'd received in other countries. He said he and the team were blown away by the crowd / overwhelmed by the atmosphere. So yes, the welcome was appreciated and understood.
 
Sep 28, 2016
6,625
21,646
AFL Club
St Kilda
Ok. Part of playing for Liverpool was the support they'd received in other countries. He said he and the team were blown away by the crowd / overwhelmed by the atmosphere. So yes, the welcome was appreciated and understood.
Look I don’t deny that.
But he said that it was simply part of playing for Liverpool.
Understating the whole thing.
I have since YouTube’d Gerrard interviewed and the best description for him would be taciturn. Quite sparse with his words. So you are probably quite correct in that the video displays high praise from the taciturn Gerrard.
It just is lost on someone like me who doesn’t know him.
 
Look I don’t deny that.
But he said that it was simply part of playing for Liverpool.
Understating the whole thing.
I have since YouTube’d Gerrard interviewed and the best description for him would be taciturn. Quite sparse with his words. So you are probably quite correct in that the video displays high praise from the taciturn Gerrard.
It just is lost on someone like me who doesn’t know him.
Think you are misinterpreting it, when he said it's part of playing for Liverpool he was referring to having support wherever they go.

95,000 attendance is not normal for those players. Anfield holds 55,000. There is no stadium in Europe that holds more for football games than the MCG. Camp Nou is the closest (99,000) and Liverpool players would only play there on the odd occasion they play Barcelona in European competition.
 
Match day should be for match day.

Piss off the music. Especially piss off the music after a goal.
Piss off the countdown before the first bounce.
Piss off the noisy, yabbering clowns talking crab over the PA during the qtr and half breaks.
It does not work and detracts, distracts and annoys the crap out of most.
Get rid of the flashy crap.

Just win the damn games. Turn the place into a fortress.
We had a period at one point at the dome where we didnt lose a Saturday night game in many, many outings. Thomas era through Lyon. We could expect to at the bearest minimum to be absolutely competitive.

No gimmicks. Back to basics.
Players in attendance in the social post game. Two or three of them. Sign a few caps for the kids.
Be great one day if the coach would get up and take a few questions.
Be great if the CEO or Footy manager did the same.

Least no-one is singing
Brooce ..Brooce Brooce Brooce any more.
 
Feb 16, 2012
533
1,201
Brunswick East
AFL Club
St Kilda
Remember sitting with my Carlton mate watching a home saints game when Parker kicked a goal and that “Matty Parker… matty parker” jingle bellowed out of the speakers. Mate looks at me with embarrassment and asks if our club is kidding themselves with this s**t. I respond by saying “I don’t give a flying fcku” what they play just kick the goal win the game. He said yeah fair enough and pretty sure we lost anyway.
 
Least no-one is singing
Brooce ..Brooce Brooce Brooce any more.

Brooce is a forward
Was a backman then got moved to goal
But there was something a bit untoward
He was kind of an average one

And he's missing those goal line shots
And he's triple handling those marks, you just know it
But since he holds some marks, and kicks some goals
You know that we had

Broocie forward
I wish that we had Members instead
Where can I find a forward like that?

Jessie's Girl - Bruce version for those playing at home

Imagine if that was at the ground during his set shot routine...
 
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