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Saints better than '97
Andrew Thompson was one of only three present-day Saints who knew before Sunday what it was like to win nine games on the trot. He also knows it is folly to start talking premierships. Thompson, the 31-year-old late bloomer who started his AFL career at 24, has 157 games of wisdom and the burning memory of defeat in the 1997 Grand Final to measure the 2004 Saints. Seven years on Thompson, along with the other two survivors Robert Harvey and Aussie Jones, rates the Saints a better side. "There's no doubt this team is better equipped," Thompson said after a pool recovery session following the Saints' 101-point demolition of the West Coast Eagles on Sunday . . .
The Article - Michael Horan - Herald Sun - 25May04
We can keep going: veteran - Emma Quayle - The Age RealFooty - 25May04

Can Saints keep winning?
With each passing victory, St Kilda is becoming more adept, not only at dealing with hungry challengers but at answering the increasingly inevitable question: "How long can you keep winning?" For weeks now, Saints coach Grant Thomas has been trotting out the familiar lines about process equating to results and about not wanting to 'manufacture' a loss. His senior players have the routine down pat, too, Andrew Thompson yesterday repeating a line he'd used a few weeks before - that there was no rule that the team was obliged to drop a game at some stage. Fair enough, too, given the sort of form the Saints are in at the moment. And fair enough, given the recent precedent of Essendon's mighty 2000, in which the Bombers racked up no less than 20 consecutive victories before the Western Bulldogs broke the streak in the second-last home-and-away game of the season. Until then, popular opinion suggested, every extra win merely took a team closer to an inevitable loss. But the Dons re-wrote the rules, in the most dominant season since Carlton had stormed through 1995 losing only two games, and winning the last 16 (including a grand final) on the trot . . .
The Article - Rohan Connolly - Herald Sun - 25May04

Milne and his bag of tricks
Small forwards add some much needed flair to the modern day game that has its shortages of cult figures. Newcomer Aaron Davey is such at Melbourne while 'Neon' Leon Davis fits the mould at Collingwood. But of all these little pocket dynamos, none create more excitement for their fans than Stephen Milne. Perhaps this is why a small forward of days past, Richmond legend Kevin Bartlett, cries out, 'Pull the rabbit out of the hat' when Milne shoots at goal . . .
The Article - Luca Giacobello - saints.com.au - 25May04

Thommo bolts lid on flag favourite
St Kilda's streak has taken another step into history-making territory, but coach Grant Thomas last night slammed the lid shut on any celebrations. Thomas stressed history was irrelevant and made no apologies for not allowing his players a moment to sit back and suck in their achievements. "We've been through far too much pain to start enjoying anything yet," Thomas said. "There's been no mention about winning streaks, there's been no mention about evaluating our performances against past history." . . .
The Article - Mark Stevens - Herald Sun - 24May04

Saints win with a bit of all that is best
AFL football has been witness to numerous strategic fashions over the past 15 years. There was Malcolm Blight's beautiful delirium of the early 1990s, then Michael Malthouse's suffocating physical assault that followed. There was Denis Pagan's territory-over-possession game, Kevin Sheedy's speed-of-light counter-attack in 2000, Terry Wallace's Lilliputian vision and, more recently, Leigh Matthews' incredibly potent power and endurance combination. What, if anything, Grant Thomas and St Kilda leave behind will only be known in retrospect, but right now they are playing football in a way that is theirs alone . . .
The Article - Stephen Rielly - The Age RealFooty - 24May04

A big hit from the start
At the under-18 championships in Brisbane five years ago, a stocky, unfashionable-looking kid from country Victoria made an enormous impact. By the end of the carnival, every AFL recruiting officer in Queensland was aware of him - and that was not because of his scorching pace, high marking or magical touch. It was because Brent Guerra, playing for Vic Country against Vic Metro, had broken one of the unwritten laws of junior football, stunning the assembled audience. Shortly after half-time in a keenly contested match, Guerra sprinted off the half-back line for Vic Country and collected an unsuspecting opposition midfielder with what was later described as a 'sweet hit' right down the middle. The player was left writhing in pain on the ground. An altercation ensured between the two Victorian sides, with the goodwill shared by the navy blues and whites severely strained. No one had been too concerned when he had collected a boy from Western Australia in similar circumstances in an earlier game, but this was different. High up in the stands, the judges of fine footy flesh reached for their pens, circling the name Guerra before adding an asterix alongside the words 'tough' and 'aggressive' . . .
The Article - Tim Watson - The Age RealFooty - 26May04

Guerra plays it hard and straight
You might have thought after logging a career-best six goals a few minutes into the final quarter yesterday, life couldn't be better for Port Adelaide reject Brent Guerra. Hard habit to break: Brent Guerra snaps one of his seven goals yesterday. But the best was yet to come. Eight minutes later, as the ball bumbled about in a pack in the goalsquare, Guerra was on his back on the turf and seemingly out of the battle. But opposition defenders this season have learned the hard way that it's a dangerous thing to discount Guerra from a contest. Somehow, he managed to flick his boot at the ball and guide it through the goals, leaving Saints' fans to gasp in amazement at his ability to keep finding new ways to goal . . .
The Article - Trevor Grant - Herald Sun - 24May04


Nick Roewolds MX newspaper Article
Food for Thought - saints.com.au

Saints Chat Transcripts
Brendon Goddard Chat Transcript (19 May 2004) - saints.com.au
Fraser Gehrig Chat Transcript (12 May 2004) - saints.com.au