Saints gain at Tigers' expense
By Greg Denham
May 26, 2004
ST KILDA's new on-field resurgence will be rewarded with "blockbuster" status from next year.
It appears increasingly likely that the AFL will feature the unbeaten Saints in some of the biggest games next season, at the expense of Richmond.
St Kilda's form could lead to them playing Collingwood twice, starting with an Easter MCG blockbuster.
St Kilda's rise could end the recent annual fixturing of Collingwood and Brisbane at the Gabba the night before Good Friday and the popular Easter Monday clash against Richmond at Telstra Dome.
The Saints' latent supporter base has been stirred this year with the club averaging almost 44,000 at Telstra Dome, just 400 less on average than Collingwood.
The swell of St Kilda's popularity is so great that they have so far this season averaged attendances of almost 5000 more per game than Essendon.
The biggest hurdle the AFL faces in fixturing a St Kilda-Collingwood opening-round game next year is from Channel Nine, which wants to maintain the Brisbane-Collingwood match at the Gabba.
That annual pre-Easter match in Brisbane has been the most popular national free-to-air home-and-away game two years running.
In 2003, a national audience of almost 1.3 million saw the Lions-Magpies game. It has been the most-watched Channel Nine match in Victoria this year.
The biggest losers next year will be cash-strapped Richmond, who not only appear set to miss out on their annual opening-round game with Collingwood, but the Tigers will lose their Easter Monday match against the Saints, which ensured they played each other twice a year.
Last month Richmond sought a $3.5 million bank redirection of its annual AFL dividend to meet day-to-day requirements, including monthly player payments.
It is understood Collingwood have objected to playing Richmond to start the 2005 season after the Tigers opted out of their gate-sharing agreement at the last minute this year.
The Magpies were angered by the Tigers' lack of respect for accepted football protocol when they demanded all the round-one match receipts because of their cash-flow crisis.
St Kilda, too, has had enough of Richmond after the Tigers attempted to hijack a proposed Good Friday game this year against Carlton, squeezing out the Saints.
St Kilda president Rod Butterss last year declared his club was on the verge of blockbuster status with two games a year each against Collingwood, Essendon and Carlton.
"Our objective is to share a partnership against another club in the long term. We thought we had an arrangement with Richmond, but that appears to be off the table," Butterss said.
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