48,588.
Let that number sink in.
It’s an unprecedented show of support in an unprecedented year.
It’s a new membership record, but it’s so much more than that.
It’s 48,588 people financially committed to the cause, 48,588 people willing to stick by our club through thick and thin.
The words to thank you don’t exist.
Our motto, Strength Through Loyalty, is the essence of what your support as members means to our club.
As the country shut down and the world went into self-isolation, all those who bleed red, white and black were faced with a choice.
And how you chose to respond would likely write the next chapter for our great club.
You were challenged in a way nobody could have foreseen, told you could no longer attend games, and told the season was postponed with no promise of a return.
It would have been easy to simply throw in the towel and give up on 2020.
But this is St Kilda, and we don’t do ‘easy’.
In greater numbers than we’ve ever seen in 147 years, the red, white and black army rose as one, united under one banner.
We chose to stand behind our club from afar, to raise our flag from the South.
We chose the hard road, because the rewards will be worth it.
We chose unity over division.
And our fight isn’t over yet.
We need to rally around this young side as we look towards something special.
Internally, our belief is building.
You can see it in the way Nick Coffield grows in confidence each week, or Hunter Clark continues to dazzle opponents.
You can see it in Zak Jones, the boyhood Sainter, who leaves nothing on the field and simply hates to lose.
The hardness of Jack Steele, the genius of Dan Butler, the rise of Max King.
The class of Bradley Hill, Dougal Howard, Jade Gresham, Jack Billings and Ben Long…the future of our footy club looks bright.
Most importantly, believe in the part each one of you has played in Season 2020.
Every single member has made a difference.
Together, as an army of nearly 50,000, we’re stronger than we could ever hope to be without you.
Together, we’re all in. For this club, for this team, for that second Premiership.
Together We Rise.
