The Saints and the Swans are playing for Pride this Saturday night, but once upon a time they fought it out for the Lakeside Premiership.
St Kilda and South Melbourne (who relocated to Sydney in 1982) were originally based on opposite sides of Albert Park Lake, which led to the press coining their matches as the battle for the “Lakeside Premiership”.
The reference to the Lakeside Premiership first appeared in the 1920s, and eventually an actual pennant to mark the fierce neighbourhood rivalry was established.
A picture taken in 1957 shows Saints players Brian McCarthy, Allan Jeans, Geoff Feehan, Brian Gleeson, Harold Davies and John Coffey drinking a toast to the flag after they defeated the Swans for the first time in seven years.
Relations between the two clubs were usually cordial, and that was most evident in 1939.
World War II had been declared and there was press speculation that St Kilda may change their colours for the first semi-final, so as to avoid any association with Germany’s red, white and black.
St Kilda had previously changed to red, yellow and black in World War I, ironically to avoid a clash with the then Imperial German colours, which were red, white and black.
South Melbourne, who weren’t in the finals, offered the Saints a set of their own jumpers, but in the end, St Kilda decided to stick with its traditional jumper.
In 2018, AFL clubs compete for all sorts of themed matches, from the Anzac Day clash to Sir Douglas Nicholls Round and the Country game. But the old Lakeside Premiership pre-dates them all.
Today, the pennant’s whereabouts are unknown, and attempts to locate it in recent years have so far proven fruitless.
Maybe it sits somewhere in the corner of a garage or cupboard, and hopefully, it will eventually resurface as a part of our clubs' joint history.
