- Moderator
- #1,901
So back to the original conversation? Great. You'll be delighted to know that St Kilda will pay off their debt and return to profitability, although how it affects you I'm f’ed if I know.
But seeing as you love history so much... Are you old enough to remember Carlton initiating merger talks with St Kilda? We knocked you back. What a whore of a club Carlton is.
"The Blues, one of the league's biggest players during the 1990s under Elliott, were keen to do a deal after an initial attempt to merge with North failed during the early part of that decade.
And with champion players like Tony Lockett, Nicky Winmar, Stewart Loewe and Robert Harvey lining up for the Saints at the time, Elliott said he was trying to create a football powerhouse.
"North wanted to merge with us and Bob Ansett stymied that," said Elliott, referring to the former Kangaroos president.
"We then went on and talked with St Kilda 'cause we could see that by merging two clubs, you're really going to put yourself in a position where you win a few premierships.
"Anyway the St Kilda one fell away," he added.
"We spent most of the season talking with the St Kilda president (Andrew Plympton), I did, very quietly and It wasn't going to be a takeover, it was going to be a merger."
I think "biggest players" means "cheats" in the context of the '90s.
Elliots entire plan for the VFL was centred around mergers and club rationalisation in Victoria while expanding interstate - and he tried to practice what he preached. He tried with the Saints, but that fell down when the Blues won the flag, he famously tried to buy Norths shares, and even in 1999 he was trying to get North into bed, but the fact both teams made it to the granny that year put the kibosh on that. After that the league had stopped supporting mergers and such and moved on and so did he.