Every sportsman dreams of the day when everything falls into place and they are totally in "the zone".
Steven Sziller and the Saints of 1998 had one of those perfect nights in a memorable game against Sydney.
St Kilda’s rampage was a record-breaking 101-point humiliation of Sydney at the SCG, and Sziller was an unlikely goalkicking hero.
The tough nut from South Australia booted six goals and burst open packs with monotonous regularity.
“It was one of those nights I suppose,” he told club historian Russell Holmesby this week.
"I don’t know whether the wind was blowing the right way with a few snaps. It was a big win.”
In a 156-game AFL career spread across six seasons at St Kilda and two at Richmond, Sziller never scored more than two goals in any other match. His 29 possessions that night was also a career high.
“That year I was playing a bit across half-back, I remember Stan Alves chucked me up in the forward pocket and on the ball, then the next week he chucked me down the half-back flank again," he said.
"Back to reality! I think was swapping with Harves on the ball that night. I kicked a couple early, and I think I said to Harves, 'I don’t want to go on the ball, I want to stay up forward'! But I think I only got one after half-time. Everything kept going our way.”
It wasn’t as if the Swans were a struggling team at the time.
They were sitting in second place going into this game, and St Kilda was fifth. But Sydney’s biggest ever loss to the Saints lopped a whopping 15 per cent off their percentage.
Players such as Jason Heatley and Tony Brown had been struggling for consistency up until this stage of the year, but they struck form with a vengeance.
In addition, rugged pair Rod Keogh, until injured, and Barry Hall, in a new role in defence, were also prominent.
St Kilda built a commanding 62-point half-time lead, and showed no signs of taking the foot off the accelerator with a seven-goal-to-two third term.
The Saints were brilliantly led by champion midfielders Robert Harvey and Nathan Burke, but it was Sziller who stole the show in his one-off goal-kicking spree.
“It was a good celebration afterwards. I don’t think I ever kicked that many in any other game (at any level)," Sziller recalls.
After his big night in 1998, he remembers suddenly finding himself in the media spotlight.
“I do remember at training they made me put a Godzilla mask on for a photo”
ST KILDA 5.2 13.5 20.7 24.10 (154)
SYDNEY 2.1 3.3 5.4 8.5 (53)
GOALS
Sziller 6, Heatley 4, Brown 3, Sierakowski 3, Brown, Burke, Everitt, Harvey, Healy, Jones, Mitchell, Winmar
BEST
Harvey, Sziller, Burke, Winmar, Everitt, Hall, Hudghton, Brown, Young
