The whole football world knows that St Kilda won its first premiership in 1966 with a one-point victory over Collingwood.

But the two teams had played an epic encounter 12 months earlier which also saw the Saints get home by the barest of margins. It was the first finals win by St Kilda since 1939. The Saints had lost their first semi-finals in 1961 and 1963.

St Kilda topped the ladder at the end of the 1965 home and away season for the first time in the club’s history.

Played before a then record semi final crowd of 98,395, the 1965 second semi-final was a game that had every ingredient that set finals apart from ordinary games. Sadly no video still exists of the game, but at the time it was considered such a classic that Channel 7 altered its programming to replay it on Sunday afternoon following the iconic World of Sport.   

In sunny, spring conditions, both sides threw everything at each other and either team would have been a worthy winner. Collingwood controlled the rucks early with Ray Gabelich beating Carl Ditterich, but the blond youngster’s boundless enthusiasm gave him the edge at the boundary throw-ins. In the last quarter he was exhausted, but battled on relentlessly. Perhaps the picture of him being scragged by a Collingwood defender, yet still getting his kick which brought up a goal, best describes the herculean performance.

Collingwood jumped the Saints in the first quarter as Magpie full-forward Ian Graham got away from Saint full-back Bob Murray. Murray had taken over the key defence post in mid-1965 when Saints coach Allan Jeans controversially decided to shift the competition’s best full-back Verdun Howell to full-forward. After Graham’s dynamic first quarter, Jeans resisted the temptation to move Howell to the back line and it paid dividends as the champion kicked 4.6 and was a constant threat in attack. Famous Age writer Percy Beames praised Jeans for holding his nerve and believed it was the main reason St Kilda won the match.

Ian Stewart took control of the centre for St Kilda, but this was offset to a large degree by Collingwood's ascendancy on the wings. The situation worsened for St Kilda when Ross Oakley, who had been troubled all day, left the field with a knee injury in the third term. St Kilda never challenged on the scoreboard until late in the second term when Ditterich sparked them with a magnificent mark.

In a titanic third quarter the lead changed seven times. Collingwood began the last quarter with a desperate lunge into attack for David Norman to goal and reduce the leeway to six points.

Darrel Baldock was being covered as Ted Potter relieved the pressure and got the ball to the other end where Graham regained the lead for the Black and Whites with a goal.

St Kilda looked to be in dire straits as John Henderson increased the lead to eight points. Verdun Howell punted a desperately needed goal. Then Kevin Roberts marked a kick-off and kicked high to the square where Ditterich flew high, missed the mark then grabbed the ball and booted the goal that returned the lead to the Saints. In a tiring struggle both sides were starting to feel the pinch.

The two biggest men on the field - Ditterich and Gabelich - were summoning all their reserves of energy. Collingwood crept closer with a point by Graham. The Magpies kept attacking until the final bell sounded to give the Saints a hard-fought victory by a solitary point and a place in the Grand Final for only the second time in VFL history.

Carl Ditterich’s superb game ranked with Ian Stewart and Ian Cooper - Saints who became two of the club’s greatest big game finals performers.

Twelve of the 20 players that day would also be part of the ’66 premiership team. Carl Ditterich (suspended), Ross Oakley (knee), Kevin Roberts (collarbone), Des Kennedy (hamstring) missed out on as did Ian Rowland who had been part of the senior team throughout 1966.

GOALS: Howell 4, Ditterich 3, Morrow 3, Smith 2, Kennedy, Rowland
BEST: Stewart, Cooper, Ditterich, Griffiths, Howell, Morrow