Opinion: Ashley Browne

What I’m thinking

with Ashley Browne

No tropical wonderland for Saints

The selling of homes games to Cairns could again come back to haunt St Kilda in the race for the finals.

If St Kilda had not kicked 4.18 to lose by a point to Port Adelaide at Cazalys Stadium in Cairns a fortnight ago, we wouldn’t be writing this column.

Nor would we if Riley Thilthorpe’s schoolyard-perfected kick over his head in the goalsquare in round 13 last year had not floated across the line, handing Adelaide a one-goal win over the Saints at the same venue.

When it comes to excitement, you can’t say the footy community in northern Queensland hasn’t received its money’s worth in the past couple of years as its annual AFL game has gone down to the wire.

But Cairns’ gain has been St Kilda’s pain. The Saints finished a game and percentage out of the eight last year, but are right in the mix this season, among that bunch of teams that will be fighting to join Melbourne in the top four come the end of the home and away rounds.

Port has found some form again, but having won its previous five games and with its confidence sky-high, St Kilda probably would have won had the game been played on its home deck at Marvel Stadium.

The likely water cooler discussion between the Saints football department and the commercial team the following Monday has been widely speculated upon already.

“Why did you sell our home game?” the football guys would have asked. “Why can’t your blokes kick straight?” would have been the immediate – and obvious – reply.

But when a club is carrying a near eight-figure level of debt as the Saints are, there is no choice but to accept an offer to relocate the game.

At $650,000 a game, it would have been fiscally irresponsible for St Kilda to knock it back. And besides, the AFL, which keeps a forensic eye over the clubs’ financial accounts, would have forced St Kilda to take the deal if there was any pushback.

The Saints arrived in Cairns several days early and immersed themselves in the local community with clinics, ‘meet and greets’ and the like.

It was tiring and hardly the ideal preparation for the game, so little wonder that the informed punters switched their money to the Power in the lead-up. This was no flying visit.

St Kilda has had little joy from its second home grounds. It went 4-4 at UTAS Stadium between 2002-06 and was 0-3 in Wellington (2013-15).

The club’s ill-advised departure from Launceston left a void that Hawthorn gratefully filled, creating the ‘home away from home’ template that has become the benchmark for the competition.

By doubling their commitment to four games a year, the Hawks secured a lucrative sponsorship deal from the Tasmanian government and were given a ‘clean stadium’ in which every cent of match-day revenue went into their coffers.

It has been a huge reason why the club has become one of the most financially powerful in the land.

Perhaps even more significantly, they established the ground as a genuine fortress and since becoming the sole tenant there in 2007, have won 75 per cent of their Tasmanian home games.

North Melbourne has borrowed from the Hawthorn playbook when it comes to establishing its foothold in southern Tasmania with four games a year at Blundstone Arena.

But it took the Kangaroos some time, after unsuccessful dalliances with Sydney (as the second team at the SCG), Canberra and the Gold Coast.

The Bulldogs are making headway in Ballarat, while like Tasmania, the Northern Territory is positioning itself as the second home for two teams – Gold Coast in Darwin and Melbourne in Alice Springs.

The Saints say they are ‘reviewing’ their Cairns arrangement.

A game staged later in the season than in soggy April would be a welcome start – if not for the tight finish, there was little to recommend the recent game as a spectacle as the players slipped and slid everywhere – but otherwise the trip needs to be all about high performance.

Save the clinics and the school and hospital visits instead for pre-season community camps, another secret of why the Hawks and the Kangaroos have come to be the kings of Tasmania, albeit probably not for too much longer.

COSTLY LOSS: St Kilda is yet to win at its ‘home away from home’ at Cazalys Stadium in Cairns, after going down to Port Adelaide in round seven.