Timely reunion for St Kilda's 1966 premiership side

WHEN Allan Jeans posed for a photo with 17 of the men he led to St Kilda's 1966 premiership, he was asked to smile for the camera.

WHEN Allan Jeans posed for a photo with 17 of the men he led to St Kilda's 1966 premiership at their last reunion two years ago, he was asked to smile for the camera.

Jeans did his best to oblige, then offered a classic one-liner that brought grins to those around him: "I don't smile all that much."

Football was a serious business to Jeans, and so too was getting together with the players who were a part of St Kilda's one and only premiership side.

The last time it happened officially was in August 2009, at the Launceston Country Club, when the players decided to bring the group together, particularly as their captain Darrel Baldock was in poor health.

Baldock had crossed Bass Strait to carve out his legend at St Kilda decades earlier. And his teammates and his coach repaid the favour by heading down to Tassie for an emotional reunion.

At that stage only one member of the team, Travis Payze, was dead.

Now, 23 months on, it is hard to believe the two spiritual leaders of that great St Kilda side of '66 - the captain and the coach - are both gone within five months of each other.

Jeans and Baldock had achieved something special together, and now they have gone in the same year after battling health issues.

Kevin "Cowboy" Neale, who organised the 2009 reunion, said he was pleased the event went ahead because it gave the group a chance to meet as a team one last time.

"It was a great night; we'll never forget it," Neale said.

On the night, as stories were shared and memories merged and multiplied, the players spoke about the passing of time and how they needed to make these reunions count. And the Doc, sampling some of Boag's finest, and Yabby, chatting away to some of the boys he had turned into men, had as good a time as anyone.

Listening to their conversations, it was like time had stood still. But it hadn't.

As full-back Bob Murray said: "There was a realisation, especially when Travis passed away, that we are fallible ... everyone thinks at times that we are infallible, but we are not. That's why it is so important that everyone comes together again."