Premiership Success, Then Burnout
The 1965 season and the move to Moorabbin was a huge success. Starting with more than 51 000 at the opening game, the Saints packed them in at their new home. In Round 9, in front of more than 72 000 at the MCG, St Kilda seized top place from Melbourne with a big win, then held on for the remainder of the season to win the minor premiership for the first time. The momentum continued; two days after the last game, Stewart was a surprise winner of the game's highest award, the Brownlow medal. He had tied with North Melbourne's Noel Teasdale, but the medal went to Stewart on a countback (Teasdale received a retrospective award 24 years later). Then St Kilda won into the Grand Final in a thrilling semi final against Collingwood decided by only one point. The medal win did not deflect Stewart's concentration – he dominated. His team were into only their second Grand Final, the first for 52 years. As St Kilda had not won a single premiership in its 93-year existence, it looked like history in the making.
Essendon surprised by also beating Collingwood to advance to the Grand Final. Anticipation got to the inexperienced St Kilda players and coach; they got a bit too "up", overtrained during the week and were floundering come the big day. The Bombers, finals veterans, made them pay dearly and had the game won by three quarter time. Stewart went down fighting and was named his team's best player. He had shown a distinct liking for the big game during his finals performances.
The following season, the Saints jumped out of the blocks and after winning the first eight games there was speculation that they could go through undefeated. Naturally, talk like that precipitated a slump, and by the last game, they were in danger of sliding right out of the finals if they lost. Thanks to Baldock, the Saints pulled a tight game out of the fire and went into the finals as equal favourites for the flag. Meanwhile, Stewart, after another brilliant season, was favoured to win a second Brownlow. On the night, he polled 21 votes, winning by four from Carlton star John Nicholls. However, in the semi final rematch (from the previous year) with Collingwood, Stewart was blanketed by Colin Tully and the Saints went down by ten points. Stewart bounced back with a best afield performance the following week, guiding his team to a revenge win over Essendon and keeping alive the dream of a first flag.
The 1966 Grand Final stands as one of the celebrated games of Australian football. Two evenly-matched teams went at it for 100 minutes and the forever-mythologised result – a one-point win by the least successful club over the most successful club – retains its dramatic impact to this day as the Saints have yet to win another flag. Stewart was brilliant, a driving force all day, cementing his reputation as the best player of his type in the game. To cap the year, he also won All-Australian selection and a second club best and fairest. Aged 23, Stewart had achieved everything worth achieving in just four years in the VFL.
After reaching the summit, it was a lot harder to go back up. St Kilda suffered a premiership hangover and missed the 1967 finals, then battled into fourth place for the 1968 finals. They only got there thanks to an eight-goal win over Geelong in the final round but, facing the same opposition in the semi final, lost by 44 points – a 92-point turnaround in a week. On the day, Stewart lowered his colours to West Australian Dennis Marshall, who dominated the game. Stewart was made captain for 1969, but the team could manage only seventh place and tension arose between the captain and his coach, Allan Jeans. Stewart resigned the position at season's end, then went missing for pre-season training.
Although Stewart returned to play the 1970 season, and the Saints made the preliminary final, he was clearly unhappy. Struggling with injury, his relationship with Jeans was still strained and he was sometimes played out of position at half-forward. He had no impact on the only final game he played, and made it clear he wanted to leave the club. Some thought that Stewart was finished at 27 years of age.
Read more about this topic: Ian Stewart (Australian Rules Footballer)