St Kilda Football Club is a professional football team based in Melbourne. It plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). In this article, we learn everything about the St. Kilda Football Club.
History
St Kilda Football Club was founded in April 1873, in the early years, the club was known as the Seagull. The first match of the club happened near the St Kilda Railway Station. In the early years, the club had a rivalry with neighboring Prahan. At the end of 1996, the club entered the VFL/AFL.
In the beginning, the club suffered and performed very poorly. In the first season, they had 14 losses and finished last. The next season was slightly better, but they were last once again. After three long years, the club saw their first victory against Melbourne.
They had their best season since joining the VFL in 1903. In that season, they won 7 matches and lost 9. In 1906, the St Kilda Club reached the semifinals; it was their best effort since joining.
After the Great War, a new era began in the VFL, In 1913, they performed very well and took fourth place. After the war in 1918, the club made the finals.
Before the Second World War, St Kilda had a pretty successful period, in 1939, they made the finals. In that season, they won 8 matches in a row after 1907.
During the period of 1956-1965, the team was very successful, it was said to be their golden age. In that era, they are proving themselves as a worthy contender to be a premiership team. In 1966, they became the premiership team, and their golden age continued.
Uniforms
St. Kilda’s home Guernsey features the club crest on the left side. It has red, white, and black colors on the front. It has three vertical panels. The back is black with white ribbing and white numbers.
In contrast, the Clash Guernsey has two extra white panels on either side of the red and black panels. It has a white back and three colored panels under the jersey number. It’s white with black numbers, and it retains the white ribbing from the other guernseys.
Home Grounds
Over the years, St Kilda Football Club has had a couple of home grounds. The first home ground was Junction Oval from 1897–1964, later Moorabbin Oval from 1965–1992, then Waverley Park from 1993–1999, and from 2000 – till now, Docklands Stadium. Let’s learn about them:
Junction Oval
It was their first home ground for the VFL, and it was used until 1964. It was actually built for the St. Kilda Cricket Club in 1856.
At the end of the 1950s, the St Kilda Football Club decided that it wanted to move its playing base from Junction Oval to their own stadium. They didn’t want to continue to be tenants of another club, they wanted to continue to operate in their own venue.
A number of discussions began in 2014 between St Kilda and the Victorian government in order for them to rejoin Cricket Victoria as co-tenants at Junction Oval. According to the proposals, a small oval at the site would be used for St Kilda’s training and administrative purposes.
Moorabbin Oval
Since 1965, Moorabbin Oval was the training and administrative base for St Kilda Football Club. During the month of March 1964, the club negotiated a deal to move its playing, training, and administrative base from Frankston to the Moorabbin Oval.
As a result of a lease agreement signed by the club in August 1964, it has been granted access to all facilities of the Moorabbin Oval for the next 75 years.
In 1992, the club stopped using Moorabbin Oval as a home arena and retained it as an administrative and training facility.
Waverley Park
Originally known as “VFL Park,” the Victorian Football League opened it in 1970 in what is now Waverley Park. A number of reasons led the VFL to build the stadium, including the fact that they would eventually become its owners.
This approach led St. Kilda to enter into an agreement with Waverley Park that transferred their home games to Waverley in 1993. The club decided to use the Moorabbin Oval for training, administration, and social events.
In 1999, the Australian Football League (AFL) made the announcement that it would not schedule any more matches at Waverley Park.
The stadium would be sold to provide money for the development of Docklands Stadium, which was then in the planning stages to become the home ground for St. Kilda Football Club.
Docklands Stadium
Docklands Stadium became a new home for St Kilda following the discontinuation of Waverley Park as a scheduled ground in 2000.
This multi-purpose stadium was designed to accommodate Australian rules football, soccer, rugby, and other general entertainment events.
It cost approximately $460 million to construct the stadium. The AFL acquired exclusive ownership of the ground in October 2016.
Current AFL Squad
Here is the list of senior players, rookies, and coaches of the St Kilda Football Club.
Senior List
- Jack Steele (c)
- Dougal Howard (vc)
- Tim Membrey (vc)
- Ryan Byrnes
- Jack Billings
- Dan Butler
- Marcus Windhager
- Rowan Marshall
- Nick Coffield
- Zak Jones
- Jade Gresham
- Brad Crouch
- Sebastian Ross
- Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera
- Bradley Hill
- Mitch Owens
- Hunter Clark
- Max King
- Zaine Cordy
- Jack Higgins
- Jack Bytel
- Mattaes Phillipou
- Josh Battle
- Oscar Adams
- Jimmy Webster
- Matthew Allison
- James Van Es
- Ben Paton
- Tom Highmore
- Jack Sinclair
- Daniel McKenzie
- Leo Connolly
- Tom Campbell
- Olli Hotton
- Isaac Keeler
- Callum Wilkie
Rookie List
- Jack Peris (B)
- Angus McLennan (B)
- Anthony Caminiti
- Max Heath
- Cooper Sharman
- Liam Stocker
- Jack Hayes
- Mason Wood
Coaching Staff
Head Coach
- Ross Lyon
Assistant Coaches
- Robert Harvey (Forwards)
- Lenny Hayes (Midfield)
- Corey Enright (Defence)
- Jake Batchelor (VFL coach/development)
- Brendon Goddard (Development coach)
- Damian Carroll (Head of development & learning)
Administrative Board
President: Andrew Bassat
Vice president: Russell Caplan
Chief executive officer: Matt Finnis
Director: Dean Anderson
Director: Jennifer Douglas
Director: Paul Kirk
Director: Jack Rush
Director: Danni Roche
Director: Adam Hilton
Sponsors
Principal partners
- CMC Markets
- Pepper Money
Major sponsors
- Red Rooster
- RSEA Safety
Elite partners
- AIA
- AVJennings
- Furphy Beer
- Jayco
- Mosh
- New Balance[
- Opal
- Webcentral
Apparel sponsors
- Puma (1997–2001)
- Sekem (2002–2003)
- Piping Hot (2003–2006)
- Skins (2007)
- ISC (2008–2016, 2020)
- BLK (2017–2019)
- New Balance (2021–present)
Conclusion
St Kilda Football Club is a historical football club, the club got it’s premiership in 1966 and has always been the underachievers. This article is interesting, as we have tried to give every possible piece of information regarding St Kilda Football Club.
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