Saint Watto
Premium Platinum
- Oct 24, 2016
- 5,502
- 13,138
- AFL Club
- St Kilda
I was just thinking about this a few weeks ago....for those of you that were too young at the time or for those who haven't given it a thought....here's a quick summary.
The year is 1981.....a few years before the dark,dark years descended on us in the mid 80"s.
We recruited a player named Doug Cox from an Adelaide club(he was originally from South Mildura)
From memory,about 1/2 way during the season Richmond lodged a protest to the VFL that the trade was illegal due to a zoning issue/rule at the time(Mildura was Richmond's zone in those days).....Protest upheld YIKES !!!!
Somehow...amazingly we had won 2 games at this point(our usual quota per year during a lot of the 80's)
The AFL stripped us of the 8 points.....and we "plunged" to the bottom of the ladder(sound familiar)all at St.Kilda and supporters were stunned.
And fined 5K to rub it in !!!!
We played Richmond a little later at VFL Park and the tension everywhere was at fever pitch....you could just feel it in the stands(I was about to explode).....it was billed as the "Grudge match"......over 40.000 were that day and we took it up to them but they ran over us in the last 1/4.
Later in the season the AFL amended those rules and our 8 points were reinstated.
I tell the story to Saints Supporters who weren't following us back then and they look at me and say.."NAH...your making that up"...they are amazed when they realize it really did happen.
The year is 1981.....a few years before the dark,dark years descended on us in the mid 80"s.
We recruited a player named Doug Cox from an Adelaide club(he was originally from South Mildura)
From memory,about 1/2 way during the season Richmond lodged a protest to the VFL that the trade was illegal due to a zoning issue/rule at the time(Mildura was Richmond's zone in those days).....Protest upheld YIKES !!!!
Somehow...amazingly we had won 2 games at this point(our usual quota per year during a lot of the 80's)
The AFL stripped us of the 8 points.....and we "plunged" to the bottom of the ladder(sound familiar)all at St.Kilda and supporters were stunned.
And fined 5K to rub it in !!!!
We played Richmond a little later at VFL Park and the tension everywhere was at fever pitch....you could just feel it in the stands(I was about to explode).....it was billed as the "Grudge match"......over 40.000 were that day and we took it up to them but they ran over us in the last 1/4.
Later in the season the AFL amended those rules and our 8 points were reinstated.
I tell the story to Saints Supporters who weren't following us back then and they look at me and say.."NAH...your making that up"...they are amazed when they realize it really did happen.