IT WAS three days short of 19 years since the Saints had won a final. A period of off field upheaval and on-field underachievement had the loyal supporter base restless. Allan Jeans was coach in 1973, Waverley Park was just three years old, and a handful of Saints 1966 premiership players were still playing.
By the time September 1992 came around, Waverley Park was nearing the end, Ken Sheldon was 68 games into his coaching career and St Kilda’s only premiership had morphed into an historic day rather than a recent memory.
This was a significant day in the rebirth of the St Kilda Football Club.
In 1991, the Saints stormed into the finals, averaging 21 goals per game in the four weeks leading into September before Geelong edged them by seven points in the second elimination final.
It was a similar story (aside from the result of the game) 12 months later, except this time St Kilda’s opponent was Collingwood at Waverley Park. The 1990 premiers were brimming with confidence after winning their last three games of the home and away season to finish third on the ladder, percentage the only thing separating Leigh Matthews’ men from the minor premiership.
The Saints had the bye in the last round of the year, meaning that if Carlton beat West Coast the Blues would leapfrog Ken Sheldon’s men into sixth spot – the last finals spot.
The Eagles, in what would be their inaugural premiership year, comfortably accounted for Carlton by 33 points at Subiaco in round 24, allowing St Kilda to hold onto sixth position on the ladder, purely on percentage.
St Kilda was led by defender Danny Frawley, while 21-year-old Robert Harvey had established himself as one of the competition’s elite ball-winners after 80 AFL games and Tony Lockett was a constant threat at full-forward.
Earlier in the season the Saints defeated Collingwood by a point in a thriller at the MCG, and from the outset this contest looked headed for a similarly tight climax.
St Kilda led by a solitary point at the first break, and nine points at half-time. Jamie Shanahan was nullifying Peter Daicos in the back half for the Saints, while Harvey was tearing Mick McGuane and Mark Fraser apart in the engine room.
St Kilda booted four goals to the Magpies three majors in the third term to take a 13-point lead into the final quarter. Frawley was on the bench with an Achilles injury, allowing occasional Magpies forward Ron McKeown to assert himself on the contest without the Saints skipper tracking his every move.
At the three-quarter-time huddle, Robert Harvey instructed his teammates to ‘do it for Danny,’ a message that was upheld in the early stages of the final term.
Lockett’s two goals immediately followed Craig Devonport’s major in the first minute of the quarter. At the 12-minute-mark, St Kilda led by a seemingly unassailable 29 points.
Collingwood clawed their way back however, getting within two goals before a decisive Sean Ralphsmith pass set-up the sealer, St Kilda holding on to win by eight points in front of over 74,000 fans.
23-year-old Mick Dwyer, who had earlier won the 1992 Gardiner Medal for the best player in the reserves competition, had a fantastic second half and finished with 27 disposals and two goals.
Eight of Lockett’s nine disposals were shots on goal, the power forward finishing with five majors. He was aided by the presence of Stewart Loewe, who collected 27 touches at centre-half-forward, while Harvey was best afield, amassing 34 possessions.
After the game Lockett paid tribute to Frawley, who was sorely missed the following week against Footscray.
“It was such a shame that Frawley wasn’t out there,” Lockett said. “We all owed it to him [to win].”
Frawley deflected the attention away from his misfortune, instead praising the work of full-back Shanahan on Collingwood star Peter Daicos. “He destroyed him,” Frawley said.
In the days before media managers, 32-year-old coach Ken Sheldon ushered reporters away from certain players in the rooms after the game, asking the media not to make heroes of them.
One of the great stories of the day was that of 25-year-old Ralphsmith, the handy ex-Hawthorn defender stoked to have played in a winning final after years of watching his teammates in the brown and gold.
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I was good enough to play in a team that was good enough to win a final,” he said.
The Saints lost the following Saturday by 29 points and didn’t win another final until the 1997 Qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions.
Ken Sheldon was replaced by Stan Alves at the conclusion of the 1993 season, finishing his coaching career with a win/loss percentage of 55 per cent in 86 games.
You can follow Tom Morris on Twitter: @tommorris32
