Stephen Phillips

THE SAINTS FROM 1897 TO 2003 St Kilda – the name alone brings to mind the very passion of the game. This is a club that has tasted just a brief touch of heaven and more than its fair share of hell. From the glory of that famous 1966 premiership through to years in turmoil, Heaven and Hell traces the story of one of the AFL’s great football clubs. On field heroes, off field battles. The great players like Baldock, Stewart, Ditterich, Smith, Barker, Lockett and Harvey playing against a backdrop of political tension. Originally released in 1997, this is an updated version produced for DVD. It now contains Harvey’s Brownlows, the 1997 finals campaign and the coaching crisis that saw Stan Alves, Tim Watson and Malcolm Blight leave the club.

It was the decade to change the face of football as we knew it. There would be three new teams: Adelaide, Freemantle and Port Adelaide. We would farewell Fitzroy and watch others like Footscray, Richmond, Melbourne and Hawthorn battle for their existence. For the first time non-Victorian Clubs would take premiership honours. The West Coast winning twice and Malcolm Blight's Adelaide doing the seemingly impossible by winning back-to-back flags against the odds. It was a decade in which the feats of goalkicking maestros Jason Dunstall and Gary Ablett were overshadowed by the record breaker Tony Lockett. We marvelled at the great champions. Robert Harvey sealed his greatness with a pair of Brownlow medals. Wayne Carey was named All Australian captain three times and Carlton's veteran Craig Bradley just got better and better through the nineties.

It is said that Robert Harvey is the hardest running man in AFL football. A ruck-rover with a work ethic that defies belief.