The much anticipated book “Strength Through Loyalty” will be available from the club from this weekend.

 “Strength Through Loyalty” tells the inside story of our fascinating and often frustrating club over the past half century. Following the ground-breaking move to Moorabbin, the book tracks St Kilda’s rise to a premiership, the perilous depths of the mid 1980s, through to the Grand Finals of 1997 and more recent years. Told through the eyes of players, coaches and officials it examines the drama and delights that have enthralled Saints’ fans. It is illustrated by magnificent images – some of which have never been seen before.

Over 100 interviews give an unprecedented insight to everything from the club’s culture through to the infamous local showers at Moorabbin.

The third St Kilda book to be written by acclaimed author Russell Holmesby tackles the major issues head-on, starting with the much discussed club culture.

In this excerpt some of the famous names give their views:

The 224-game wingman Geoff Cunningham is another who fires up on the subject of the oft-quoted era of the 1980s. “There are two things that really irritate me when people talk about them. ‘Culture’ is one and the ‘party boys’ label is the other. We had Barks (Trevor Barker) and all that down there but they never partied harder than any other clubs in Victoria at the time. When it came to training they trained as hard as anyone. I was there in the late 1970s when we just missed out on the 1978 finals. We lost a lot of players and we just weren’t good enough to win games because we didn’t have that second tier of players if you lost a few with injuries. Most clubs could lose six players and still be competitive and win games. Probably the players got a lot of blame for a lot of things the administration did. A lot of the administration played a lot harder than the players! When you are losing it’s hard, but the players gave everything they had.”

Former centreman Greg Burns agreed: “There were stories that got around about players but that happens in any footy club. Barks and Robbo (Michael Roberts) highlighted the stories because the women were supposed to be crawling over each other to get to them. Barks did a lot to promote the place. People underestimated how hard he worked around the club He said to me one day, “You Ballarat blokes take this club for granted.” I thought about that for a while and realised that we only used the club but he was actually part of the club, if you understand what I mean. That probably changed me a little bit.”

The Saints Disco always rates a mention at this point. “There was a fair old disco at Moorabbin on Saturday and Sunday, and most clubs had that,” said Cunningham, quickly adding that often there were more players from other clubs at the disco than St Kilda footballers. “I remember after my 200^th game, Darren Millane, we had to kick him out! He was a top bloke and wanted to keep going when everyone wanted to go home.”

One interesting sidebar can be viewed either as evidence of a poor internal culture or as an example of a senior figure exerting a moral influence. In the last game of 1999, St Kilda travelled to Perth to meet West Coast. Popular rover Luke Beveridge had announced his retirement and was recalled to the side for a send-off. Although the Eagles were safely ensconced in the finals, St Kilda’s men fancied their chances and were keen to farewell Beveridge in style. The extroverted Peter Everitt, a man always on the lookout for an opportunity, discovered that the West Australian bookies were giving St Kilda no chance and a Saints win would pay handsomely. Everitt wanted the players to place a bet on the Saints and boost the trip away funds, but insisted the plan be run past skipper Nathan Burke.

“That’s true,” said Burke, taking up the story. “It was at a hotel in Perth and ‘Spider’ said let’s chip in 50 bucks or 100 bucks and we will have a real good crack at winning this because we will get real good odds. I cracked it and said there was no chance of doing that. If you are going to have an extra crack in a game just because you have 50 bucks on it, what have you been doing the rest of the year? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. We got up (for the win) and after the game we had a bit of a joke about it.”

Everitt expands on the tale and reveals that Burke did not manage to deter every punter. “We were $4.30, and $21 to win by over 39 points. I said if everyone puts in $100 – $80 on the head to head and $20 for over 39 points – we would put the bet on. We had players, officials who were in. We had the bloke ready to run down and put it on. Nathan Burke had cracked it and said you shouldn’t have to bet on yourselves to win. Everyone pulled out and we had to give the money back. But five of us got on and we won by 43 points. The five of us were pumped! At the ‘wake’ after the game the five of us were celebrating. Guys were filthy on Burkey! I do hate when people get excited when they are not winning games during the year and celebrate winning the last game as if it’s a Grand Final. I hate that because they should have done that in rounds 1, 2 and 3. But the five of us couldn’t hide how excited we were.”

“Strength through Loyalty” will be available from the Saints Shop at Linton Street Moorabbin from Monday May 6 (RRP $49.95) and can be ordered on line here