It was the day when the world’s headlines centred on the tragic death of Princess Diana.
It was also the time when St Kilda and Port Adelaide went into the last round of 1997 knowing that the winning side would claim a place in Aussie Rules chronicles.
St Kilda needed to win to finish on top of the home and away ladder for just the second time ever, while Port was seeking the four points to secure a finals berth in their AFL debut season.
The Saints were chasing their seventh win on the trot, but Port had been near impregnable at Football Park with eight wins from 11 outings throughout the year.
The Saints’ 8.1 to 7.8 scoreline at half-time was indicative of the tight first hour and at the final change St Kilda had edged to a six point lead.
Then a familiar pattern which had been a feature of St Kilda’s year unfolded again, as the Saints ran over the top of the home side to win by 33 points.
Leading the charge was Robert Harvey, crowning a magnificent home and away season with a relentless display of non-stop football, as he notched up 40 disposals and secured three votes toward what would be a Brownlow medal.
St Kilda thus finished on top for only the second time in its history, a stunning result for a team who had been rock bottom 17 weeks earlier with only one win from its first five games.
There was major downside, however, as Lazar Vidovic suffered a season ending knee injury.
“I was going alright against their ruckmen Primus and Lade. I jarred it in the third quarter then tore the ACL. They were very hard grounds in WA and SA. Remember Shaun Rehn doing his knee in that disk in the middle. I might have had a compo claim, but I missed it by five inches."
Famous trainer Ken Whiffen taped up the knee as Vidovic desperately tried to continue, but it was to no avail.
“I remember the president, Andrew Plympton talking to us in the rooms and he was crying. A week later Spider Everitt went down in the first final with a broken collarbone”.
The two-pronged ruck set-up had been a major part of St Kilda’s advance in 1997, as Vidovic’s strength in the ruck contests enabled Everitt to spend more time in attack.
It hadn’t been a great start to the year for Vidovic, but the man regarded as a cult favourite with fans turned it all around.
“I’d had a bit of a blue with the match committee when they said that my bum was too fat after the off-season, and that I would have to start in the seconds.
Ironically, the knee he injured at Adelaide was not the one which had taken a big chunk out of the early part of his career.
That encounter against Port – his 80th match - proved to be his last game in a nine year career with the Saints
“The club kept me on the list and looked after me. Stan Alves said that if I didn’t come back I would still get paid for 20 matches (because of injury provisions in the contract). If I played and could only play four games, that would be all I would get paid for”.
At 32 the ever-popular ruckman had to pull up stumps, but for years afterwards he would always be approached by Saints fans in the street who reckoned he could have made the difference in a Grand Final.
He admits it took him years to get over missing the ’97 play-off.
”We could have won it that year. Our club has pretty staunch bloodlines and I loved nothing better than playing at Moorabbin.”
ST KILDA 2.1 8.1 11.5 17.15 (117)
PORT 3.3 7.8 9.11 12.12 (84)
BEST
Harvey, Burke, Heatley, Thompson, Peckett, Brown, Shanahan, Winmar.
