2005 Post-Season Articles
Page 4
The complete overhaul of training services at Moorabbin is what many supporters of the Saints have been calling for all year. Now that it is happening we have to accept the consequences.
Guerra out as Saints sacrifice youth
In a football time characterised by an obsession with youth and renewal, St Kilda broke with convention once more yesterday by delisting Brent Guerra, in part so that veterans Andrew Thompson, Justin Peckett and Stephen Powell could be retained. The departure of the 23-year-old, who kicked 44 goals in 31 games for the Saints over two seasons, is expected to be accompanied by those of Nick Stone and Dylan Pfitzner, who is to return to the rookie list. In effect, coach Grant Thomas and his staff have, for one season at least, opted for age over youth. While the release of Stone and the demotion of Pfitzner was not unexpected, Guerra's exit was a surprise, given his regular place in the seniors over the past two seasons. Last year, his first after crossing back east to Victoria from Port Adelaide, Guerra played 18 matches and kicked 29 goals to finish fourth on the St Kilda goalkicking list. This year he played 13 matches, including both St Kilda finals, but tellingly finished the season with only 15 goals.
The Article Stephen Rielly/TheAge/29Oct05
Saints old boys sign for one Scott Gullan/HeraldSun/29Oct05
Big six stick with Saints
St Kilda has re-signed six players for 2006 - including dual Coleman Medallist Fraser Gehrig and dual Brownlow Medallist Robert Harvey. The Saints have also penned new deals for Aaron Fiora, Justin Peckett, Stephen Powell and Andrew Thompson. During the 2005 season, Gehrig suggested that it could be his final season, but the reigning back-to-back Coleman Medallist will saddle up again next year. Although he has battled groin, foot, hand and back problems in recent years, the key full-forward remains an integral part of St Kilda's make-up. Gehrig will turn 30 in March next year. St Kilda will have three of the top four oldest players in the competition next year, now that Harvey - the oldest player in the AFL, Peckett (third) and Thompson (four) have agreed to terms for 2006.
The Article Matt Burgan/Sportal/saints.com.au/28Oct05
Saints sign fitness guru
St Kilda has snared Craig Starcevich, the fitness mastermind behind the Brisbane Lions' premierships.
The Saints, cruelled by soft-tissue injuries this season, have appointed Starcevich to head up a new-look training services department. Chris Jones has resigned as head of St Kilda's fitness team. Jones's deputy Adam Larcom has also quit. St Kilda coach Grant Thomas last night described Starcevich as an outstanding recruit.
The Article Mark Stevens/HeraldSun/06Oct05
Saints cut Guerra
St Kilda has officially delisted nuggety forward Brent Guerra, who played 31 matches in two seasons after crossing from Port Adelaide. The 23-year-old is one of three players released by the Saints after the first list lodgment with the AFL, while veteran midfielder Austinn Jones has retired. Dylan Pfitzner and Nick Stone are the other two players delisted. St Kilda secured key position player Fergus Watts during the trade period. St Kilda announced last Friday it has re-signed six players, including dual Coleman Medallist Fraser Gehrig and dual Brownlow Medallist Robert Harvey. The Saints have also penned new deals for Aaron Fiora, Justin Peckett, Stephen Powell and Andrew Thompson. The delisting of Guerra - who had previously played 65 matches for Port Adelaide after making his AFL debut in 2004 - was partly because the Saints had opted to retain several of their senior players such as Peckett and Thompson.
The Article Scott Spits/Sportal/saints.com.au/31Oct05
Forewarned by silence of the Saints
It wasn't what Brent Guerra was hearing about his future at St Kilda that alerted him to his departure from Moorabbin but the opposite, what he had not heard. "Everything had been a bit quiet on a new deal and after a while I figured the silence wasn't good," Guerra said yesterday. So when he met St Kilda coach Grant Thomas last Friday, he was disappointed but not surprised to be told that because the club had decided to retain all of its senior players, the likes of Andrew Thompson, Justin Peckett and Stephen Powell, he was being released after two seasons and 31 matches. "That was sort of it. There wasn't much more of an explanation," Guerra said. "Thommo thanked me and wished me all the best and said he thought a few clubs had interest in me, which left me with some hope." Even so, Guerra felt the need to get away for the weekend, to consider, as he put it, "starting over for a third time".
The Article Stephen Rielly/TheAge/31Oct05
Harvey in new deal with Saints
St Kilda yesterday announced the re-signing of six players, including veteran midfielder Robert Harvey and Coleman medallist Fraser Gehrig, for next season. The other players to sign new deals are midfielders Justin Peckett, Stephen Powell, Andrew Thompson and Aaron Fiora. The finalisation of their contracts means the only big-name player to exit Moorabbin next season is Aussie Jones, 29, who made the surprise decision to retire last month. Harvey, at 34 the AFL's oldest player, had contemplated retirement, as did 29-year-old back-to-back Coleman medallist Gehrig.
The Article AAP/TheAustralian/29Oct05
Harvey, Gehrig stay Saints TheAustralian/28Oct05
Thompson stays at Moorabbin
St Kilda veteran Andrew Thompson last night agreed to a new one-year deal to stay at Moorabbin. Thompson, holidaying in Queensland, has spent the past few weeks anxiously awaiting a phone call from coach Grant Thomas to see whether he was needed next season. "Certainly I'm relieved and thankful to Grant and the club for showing faith in me again," Thompson said. It's believed fellow Saints Justin Peckett and Stephen Powell have been offered new deals. Peckett is understood to be considering an offer similar to that of Thompson.
The Article HeraldSun/27Oct05
Broadcast rights still up in the air
The battle for the AFL broadcast rights beyond 2006 will remain in the court of Channels Seven and Ten until early next month following a legal hitch that forced the league to redraft its first offer to the free-to-air networks. Channel Seven and Channel Ten have persuaded the AFL to rewrite a key paragraph in their broadcast-rights offer in the belief that the league's first draft had compromised their exclusive last-bidding right to match any rival offer. As a result, today's deadline - where Seven and Ten were expected to refuse the AFL's opening offer of close to $130 million a year over five years for the broadcast rights - has been put off until late next week with both the league and the networks suggesting that a deal might not take place until the new year. The two networks officially joined forces in March with Channel Ten switching allegiances from the Nine to the Seven network - a move that upset the AFL. Channel Seven is suing the AFL and the league's current broadcast consortium for damages of more than $1 billion, claiming those parties colluded to wipe out Seven's former pay TV network, C7.
The Article Samantha Lane/TheAge/27Oct05
Players push for free agency
The divisive issue of free agency will be back on the agenda when the AFL negotiates its next collective bargaining agreement with players' association head Brendon Gale. Gale met the heads of the American National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League player representative bodies in America last week and believes restricted free agency is the future for the AFL. AFL players already have indicated majority support for restricted free agency and, after the recent trade period in which there were only 13 exchanges between AFL clubs, industry support is growing. The current agreement expires at the end of 2008. Free agency was one of several issues - along with drug codes, licensing programs and injury protection schemes - Gale discussed with his international counterparts, whose uncontracted players can sign with any team after a set period of service to one club. Gale's predecessor at the association, Rob Kerr, pushed unsuccessfully for the introduction of free agency when the agreement was negotiated with former AFL boss, and free-agency opponent, Wayne Jackson in 2003.
The Article Samantha Lane/TheAge/23Oct05
Daniher to join Blues
Terry Daniher is headed to his fourth club on his rocky ride through AFL coaching boxes. The Essendon champion is expected to be one of two additions to Carlton's coaching panel for 2006. Daniher, an assistant at St Kilda this year, and Footscray's Brownlow Medal ruckman Gary Dempsey will join the Blues in part-time roles. Carlton chief executive Michael Malouf said last night discussions with the pair had progressed "pretty well", but could not confirm appointments at this stage. Daniher spent the past two seasons with the Saints after a similar period at Collingwood. He previously was an assistant at Essendon.
The Article Mike Sheahan/HeraldSun/21Oct05
Saints look to Chinese frontier
St Kilda coach Grant Thomas visited China this week, heightening speculation the Saints could head there as part of their pre-season program. Thomas and leading athletics consultant Maurie Plant spent three days in Guang Zhou watching some of China's most promising athletes. They studied closely the country's most elite sporting college . . . A Saints trip to China could be followed by an exhibition match in that country . . . Thomas is expected to report to the St Kilda board this week with a recommendation on the Saints' pre-season training plans.
The Article HeraldSun/16Oct05
Saints Major Raffle Winner saints.com.au/14Oct05
Time called on measuring time-on
A Radical overhaul of timekeeping being considered by the AFL could lead to timekeepers automatically stopping the clock whenever a bounce is called without umpires needing to separately blow the whistle to signal time-on and off. Such a change would likely add minutes to quarters, meaning the AFL could also look at cutting the length of quarters from 20 minutes before time-on is added. The proposals stem from a broad-ranging review by the umpiring department and has included a study of the time lost in two games during the recent finals series. A separate timekeeper sat with the official timekeepers during the matches and measured the amount of time the clock was ticking but no play was under way. It was found that about three minutes of playing time a game was lost just in the period between an umpire calling for a bounce and actually bouncing the ball.
The Article Michael Gleeson/TheAge/21Oct05
Ted Richards
Image source: hamptonrovers.com.au
Ted Richards
Height 194m
Weight: 86kg
Drafted: 2000
Debut: 2002
DOB: 11Jan1983
Stats stats.rleague.com
Former Clubs:
Sandringham Dragons
Hampton Rovers
East Sandringham
Xavier College
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Aurora boost in 2006
A record five AFL matches will be played in Tasmania during the 2006 season including a round 12 blockbuster between Hawthorn and Richmond, the AFL announced on Thursday. It is the most number of games ever staged in a season in the Apple Isle with all the games to be played at Launceston's Aurora Stadium, formerly York Park. In recent seasons Hawthorn and St Kilda have each staged two home matches in Tasmania but the Hawks will play an additional home match at the ground this season - in round one against Fremantle - because its home ground the MCG will be unavailable early in the season due to the Commonwealth Games.
The Article Paul Gough/Sportal/saints.com.au/29Sept05
Saints to assess China camp
Itinerate St Kilda is planning to hit China for an eight-day training camp that, for a third successive year, would have the club's playing and coaching group travelling to foreign athletic headquarters in the pre-season. Coach Grant Thomas will this week make a rapid dash to Guangzhou, a manufacturing centre in the south of China with an urban population of about 4.05 million. A proposal for the trip will then be put to St Kilda's board for approval. The Saints have become the AFL's training camp trendsetters under Thomas. The team travelled to London in 2003 and to South Africa at the end of last year. In an effort to find a competitive edge on their football rivals, the players have worked with world-class athletes in both years. The expensive exercise was reviewed by the St Kilda board this year and club president Rod Butterss told The Sunday Age in June that the camps were becoming difficult to justify. However, a third successive international trip appears to have been all but finalised. This year's camp would be considerably shorter than the 2004 version, which cost an estimated $200,000 and lasted 20 days.
The Article Samantha Lane/TheAge/02Oct05
Fergus Watts!
The Saints might take the offer of pick 17 for Adelaide's Fergus Watts off the table if a deal doesn't happen soon. The Crows have told several clubs that they want a homecoming South Australian, rather than a draft pick - the likelihood is that Adelaide will trade the pick it gets from the Saints.
Stephen Rielly The Age 04Oct05
Ted Richards!
Essendon big man Ted Richards has told the club he wants to move to a new home, bemoaning a lack of opportunity in recent years. The Swans have flown him to Sydney, and it is believed Melbourne, St Kilda, Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs are all interested in the 22-year-old.
Damian Barrett and Jim Wilson HeraldSun 04Oct05
Richards vs Watts saintsational.com
Trade Options - What's likely
Don't expect too many headlines, unless Fraser Gehrig retires. With the G-Train expected to go on, there's not much room to move. Given former Crow Fergus Watts is keenly eyeing Moorabbin, he could end up there - but only if the deal is right. Some clubs have major queries on Watts' pace.
The Article Mark Stevens, Scott Gullan, Damian Barrett and Jon Anderson/HeraldSun/30Sept05
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