St. Kilda Football Club

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**St. Kilda**

Full name	St. Kilda Football Club
Nickname	The Saints
Strip	Red, white, and black vertical panels on guernsey; black shorts; red, white, and black hooped socks.
Founded	1873
Sport	Australian rules football
League	Australian Football League
Ground	Telstra Dome
Club song	When the Saints Go Marching In
President/Chair	Rod Butterss
Coach	Ross Lyon
Captain	Unknown (TBD)
2006	8th of 16

The St. Kilda Football Club, commonly known as The Saints, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League. While the club was originally founded in St Kilda, Victoria (its namesake), it was moved to its current location of Moorabbin in 1964.

With its only premiership in 1966 (beating Collingwood by one point) and a league record 26 "wooden spoons" (awarded to the team finishing last), St. Kilda have been the perennial strugglers of the competition. In the absence of team success, its fans have idolised many Brownlow medal winning star players.

Club history

The club, formed in 1873, was initially based out of the Junction Oval in St Kilda. The Saints' motto is Fortius Quo Fidelius, a Latin phrase meaning "strength through loyalty". The club was one of the founding members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, before joining with other clubs to break away to the Victorian Football League in 1896. In 1964, the club moved to Moorabbin Oval in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

During the First World War the club felt so embarrassed at accidentally having team colours which matched the flag of Imperial Germany that its players pinned Union Flags to their jumpers. Before the next season began in 1915, the club decided to change their colours from red, black, and white to red, black, and yellow — the colours of Australia's ally Belgium. However the war forced the club into recess. After three years in recess St. Kilda resumed in 1918, but did not return to the original colours until after 1920.

St. Kilda's shield logo as it appeared in the 1980s.

Champion player Darren Baldock captained the Saints to their first and only premiership in 1966, defeating Collingwood by a solitary point. Baldock returned to coach the Saints between 1987 and 1989, lifting them off the bottom of the ladder. In the 1980s, St. Kilda seemed to become the perennial wooden-spooners and did not perform well right through the early to mid 1990s.

The team came close to success in 1997, losing the AFL Grand Final to the Adelaide Crows after leading by 13 points at half-time. The club fired then coach Stan Alves after losing both finals in 1998. In 2000, the Saints moved to their new playing home at the Telstra Dome, whilst maintaining their headquarters at Moorabbin.

After a period of rebuilding, in 2004 the Saints signalled promise for the future with a win in the pre-season competition, the Wizard Cup. Following this was an unprecedented ten game winning streak in the home-and-away season. Unfortunately injury and inexperience meant that the Saints only finished third at the end of the season, and were eliminated in an epic Preliminary Final by eventual premier Port Adelaide Power, going down by just one goal.

Full-forward Fraser Gehrig won the Coleman Medal for the most goals kicked in the 2004 season (103), and again in the 2005 season with 74 goals. The Saints went in to 2005 with high expectations and arguably the best list in the competition. They looked set to fulfill them when they defeated Adelaide in the Qualifying Finals at AAMI Stadium but were then beaten by Sydney in a home Preliminary Final.

Since the inaugural Australian Football International Cup in 2002, St. Kilda F.C. have sponsored the Japanese national Australian rules football team. Also known as the Samurai, the team members wear the St. Kilda colours when representing their nation.

In 2006 the Saints were stripped of two competition points gained from a controversially drawn match against Fremantle after a four-hour investigation handed the win to Fremantle. The Saints had scored a behind from Steven Baker well after the siren went.

On September 12, 2006, after losing their Elimination Final against Melbourne four days previous, coach Grant Thomas and the club mutually decided to "part ways". On October 11, 2006, former Fitzroy forward Ross Lyon was appointed as the new coach for the Saints. [1]

Supporter base

Year	Members	Finishing position¹
1997		2nd
1998	23,204	6th
1999	20,793	10th
2000	17,855	16th (last)
2001	22,248	15th
2002	17,696	15th
2003	23,626	11th
2004	30,533	3rd
2005	32,043	3rd
2006	32,327²	8th

¹ Following finals matches.
² As of July 13, 2006.

Club records

Win-Loss Record:	Played: 2097	Won: 789, Lost: 1287, Drawn: 21 (to end 2006 & Finals)
Highest Score:	204 points (31.18)	versus Melbourne Football Club, Round 6 6 May 1978
Lowest Score:	1 point	versus Geelong Football Club, Sect. Round 3 9 September 1899
Greatest Winning Margin:	139 points	versus Brisbane Lions, Round 22 27 August 2005
Biggest Loss:	178 points	versus Collingwood Football Club, Round 4 28 April 1979
Longest Winning Streak:	10 games	Round 1 27 March 2004 to Round 10 30 May 2004
Longest Losing Streak:	48 games	Round 1 8 May 1897 to Round 14 12 August 1899
Most Games Played:	335	Robert Harvey 1988–Present
Most Goals Kicked:	898	Tony Lockett 1983–1994
Most Best & Fairests:	4	Bill Cubbins 1921, 1923, 1928, 1929 Robert Harvey 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998

Premiership

Senior

1966 - St Kilda 10.14 (74) defeated Collingwood 10.13 (73) - by 1 point.

Reserves

1942, 1943, 1961

Under 19s

1957

Runners-up

1913 - St Kilda 5.13 (43) defeated by Fitzroy 7.14 (56) - by 13 points.
1965 - St Kilda 9.16 (70) defeated by Essendon 14.21 (105) - by 35 points.
1971 - St Kilda 11.9 (75) defeated by Hawthorn 12.10 (82) - by 7 points.
1997 - St Kilda 13.16 (94) defeated by Adelaide 19.11 (125) - by 31 points.

Night Series/Pre-Season premierships

1958 - St. Kilda 16.13.109 defeated Carlton 15.11.101 - by 8 points.
1996 - St. Kilda 20.10.130 defeated Carlton 10.12.72 - by 58 points.
2004 - St. Kilda 15.8.98 defeated Geelong 11.10.76 - by 22 points.

McClelland Trophy

1997

Wooden spoons

St. Kilda F.C. have won a total of 27 wooden spoon awards for coming in last place in the following years:

1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1909, 1910
1920, 1924, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1977
1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 2000

Individual awards

Sean Brauman Footballer 2006

Leigh Matthews Trophy winners

Coleman Medal winners

Called the Leading Goalkicker Medal prior to 1955.

Charlie Baker (1902)
Bill Mohr (1936)
Bill Young (1956)
Tony Lockett (1987, 1991)
Fraser Gehrig (2004, 2005)

AFL Rising Star winners

Justin Koschitzke (2001)
Nick Riewoldt (2002)

Current squad

For 2007 season, list yet to be finalised.

See also St Kilda Football Club 2006 playing list.

Famous Fans

Players of note

Team of the Century

St. Kilda's official Team of the Century.

St. Kilda Team of the Century
B:	Barry Lawrence	Verdun Howell	Kevin Neale
HB:	Trevor Barker	Neil Roberts	Daryl Griffiths
C:	Nicky Winmar	Ian Stewart	Lance W. Oswald
HF:	Stewart Loewe	Darrel Baldock (Captain)	Bill Mohr
F:	David J. McNamara	Tony Lockett	Nathan Burke
Foll:	Carl Ditterich	Robert Harvey	Ross Smith
Int:	Barry Breen	Allan Morrow	Robert W. Murray
	Jim A. Ross
Coach:	Allan Jeans