ST KILDA has got a rich and fascinating history. Certainly I would say it would be the most unique history of any club in the VFL/AFL.

While we may not have had as much of the ultimate success that most other clubs have had, we have still left a strong imprint on the game.

I have been fortunate enough to be a part of that history and shared my time at the Saints with some of the legends of the game such as Tony Lockett, Trevor Barker, Robert Harvey, Nicky Winmar, Nathan Burke and Stewart Loewe.

But when I look back at my time at the Saints, I can’t help but feel that there is one man whose contribution doesn’t receive the acknowledgement it should.

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Ken Sheldon was the last man in VFL/AFL history to go straight from being a player to a senior coach at the same club. It is not uncommon even these days for players to coach former teammates but guys like Nathan Buckley, Michael Voss, James Hird and John Worsfold at least had some time away from the clubs they captained before returning as coach.

Ken retired as a player at the end of 1989 and was immediately appointed as senior coach replacing Darrel Baldock.

He had the respect of the group as a player but he could also enjoy the other side of footy as well. He was a master of getting the right balance.

We went on the footy trip at the end of 1989 and Ken came over with us. He had the ability to hang around the players but then switch off when he had to. While we were having a good time on the trip, we would still be up at 6am and run for a couple of hours. That was a big shift for us to still have a focus on training on an end of season trip.

Ken’s first game as coach was a night game out at Waverley Park and we got beaten. I was the first to admit I didn’t play that well. Ken made four or five of us train that bit extra over the next couple of weeks after that game. He didn’t make different rules for more experienced players and we quickly learnt that reputations didn’t count for much with Ken.

We played another night game over in Perth and didn’t perform too well. We got home and went straight from the airport to Moorabbin and ran up and down the stairs for two hours.

He just would not accept a heavy defeat, which may have once been the case for the Saints. We got into a rut in the 80s and would brush over a loss but it was a different mindset under Ken and we became more competitive.

He quickly turned the club around from an easy beat to one of the more respected teams in the competition.

Ken’s off-sider was Peter Hudson and the two of them added a whole new level of professionalism which was something we perhaps didn’t have throughout the 80s. They got the whole group together and got a lot of talent together.

1991 was just Ken’s second year as coach but he took us all the way to fourth position at the end of the home and away season. I still believe that with a bit of luck we could have gone on with it. We had everything going for us but were unlucky to cop the worst of a flawed final six system that was immediately changed at the end of the year.

To put this achievement in context, St Kilda had not made the finals for the previous 18 years. A club legend in Trevor Barker had played his entire career without ever running out in September so it is fair to say there was a bit of excitement making the finals.

We did it again in 1992 and looked promising at times in 1993 but a few off-field dramas got in the way and we missed out. Ken was sacked at the end of that year, which still seems strange when you consider what he had achieved with a 55 per cent winning record and two finals campaigns.

I always found Ken’s experience and knowledge to be a great resource, especially for myself when I was appointed captain at just 23 years of age. At that same time, Ken and several other players like Peter McConville and Alex Marcou had come over from a successful Carlton team and they were big influences on me.

But I wasn’t the only one who has Ken to thank for their development

Harves and Burkey were two of our bright young players when he was appointed as coach and he played a big part in developing them into the players they became.

Ken instilled a lot of belief in those guys. He played a lot on the ball at Carlton so he imparted a lot of knowledge to those guys on where to run and position yourself.

Perhaps the memory of Ken’s coaching that lingers most for Saints fans came in our Queen’s Birthday clash with Collingwood at the MCG.

There were more than 80,000 at the game which was the biggest crowd I ever played in front of.

It was a heavy ground and plenty of contests. Craig Devonport did something that didn’t conform to Ken’s idea of the team thing. So instead of just dragging him and telling him over the phone, Ken ran down from the coaches box, grabbed Devo by the scruff of the neck in front of a few surprised fans and said it wasn’t accepted. He finished his spray by reminding Craig that he had another opportunity.

Lo and behold, Craig ended up kicking the winning goal which I guess vindicated Ken’s unusual motivational approach.

He was a quality coach and someone whose contribution to the St Kilda football club should be remembered fondly.