When the Saints go marching on

By Sarah Schwager
THE City of Casey is in shock after losing the St Kilda Football Club to Frankston.
Casey Fields was previously considered top of the list of training venues that the Saints were considering moving to.
Mayor Colin Butler said the news came as a great shock to him when he was rung at 7am yesterday by a radio station.
“We knew nothing about it. It was a bit surprising,” Cr Butler said. “We expected it would still be a few more weeks until they made a decision.”
The Saints yesterday confirmed they had signed an agreement with Frankston Council to move into a high-tech training facility in 2010.
The AFL footy club will train at its Moorabbin base – its home of 42 years – for the 2008-09 season before moving into a $10.25 million elite training centre at Frankston Oval, which it will share with VFL side the Frankston Dolphins.
St Kilda’s decision to leave arose earlier this year after a disagreement with the City of Kingston over poker machines.
However, St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser ruled out the club installing poker machines at its new base.
Negotiations had been held this year between Casey Council and St Kilda, with the two CEOs and councillors first meeting in June.
At the time Casey chief executive and self-confessed St Kilda fan and club member Mike Tyler said the most likely options were that St Kilda would stay in Moorabbin or move to Casey Fields in Cranbourne East with its VFL affiliate the Casey Scorpions.
At the time Frankston had only just thrown itself into the mix.
Cr Butler said the decision to train with the Frankston Dolphins meant the Scorpions risked losing their affiliate with St Kilda.
He said it was also surprising to hear Frankston was putting all its money into St Kilda’s training facilities.
Casey planned to put its money into a whole community facility, with funding for other sports besides football.
Casey deputy mayor Kevin Bradford said he was glad St Kilda had chosen to go to Frankston.
“Now hopefully the (Casey) CEO and council can concentrate on looking after local (football) teams and not focusing on pet projects such as St Kilda,” Cr Bradford said.
“I imagine Mike Tyler will be upset, especially as council has just spent $220,000 in putting in lighting in anticipation of the AFL club moving in.”
Cr Butler said the lighting was partly funded by the Scorpions for night training and so would still go ahead.