How the world looked when St Kilda won the flag in 1966

AS the Saints take it to the Pies today, we take a look back to when they won the flag against them 50 years ago, at the start of decimal currency and the first Aussie car with a seat belt.

COPY PICTURE of the 1966 St Kilda VFL Premiership team. Back L to R: Jim Read, Roger Head, Allan Davis, Jeff Moran, Kevin Billing, Ross Smith. Certre L to R: Daryl Griffiths, Travis Payze, Bob Murray, Brian Sierakowski, Ian Synman, John Bingley, Alan Morrow, Ian Stewart. Front L to R: Kevin Neale, Barry Breen, Verdun Howell, Allan Jeans, Darrel Baldock, Brian Mynott, Ian Cooper. 1966 Grand Final.

ROBERT Menzies had just stepped down as Prime Minister, we had a new currency and Australians were fighting in Vietnam.

Plenty has changed since 1966, but one thing hasn’t: St Kilda still only has one premiership.

This week the Saints line up against Collingwood, the team it beat 50 years ago to claim that solitary flag.

Here’s how the world looked when St Kilda last tasted victory.

An image from the animated 1965 film 'Dollar Bill', used to introduce decimal currency to Australia in 1966.

AUSTRALIA HAD JUST SWITCHED TO DECIMAL CURRENCY

When the VFL season started in 1966, admission could have been paid in two different currencies.

The Australian Pound was making way for the new Australian Dollar at an exchange rate of two dollars for each pound.

Although PM Menzies had been keen to call the new currency the ‘Royal’, the Dollar was settled upon and coins began mixing in circulation on February 14.

A 1966 HR Holden Premier. Holden introduced seat belts in 1966.

HOLDEN STARTED PUTTING SEAT BELTS IN THEIR CARS

When Holden released the HR model in 1966, a follow-on from the HD model, Australians were introduced to the seat belt.

The move came three years before law changes required all registered cars to have front seat belts.

Other new safety features included in the HR model were shatter-proof rear vision mirrors, exterior rear vision mirrors, reversing lights and windscreen washers.

Carlton coach Ron Barassi, pictured in 1966 with American footballer Colin Ridgway, helped introduce the centre square rule.

THE CENTRE SQUARE MADE ITS DEBUT

Coaches Ron Barassi of Carlton and Bill Stephen of Fitzroy were among many sick of a flood of players in the centre circle during the bounce.

During the Blues vs. Lions match in Round 14, 1966, a rectangle measuring 50 yards by 30 yards was trialled. It limited the number of players from each team at the centre bounce to four.

The centre square was eventually introduced as a permanent rule change in 1973.

Also in 1966 the ‘flick pass’, a type of hand pass that used an open hand instead of a fist, was banned.

The rules change meant the ball must always be struck with a clenched fist when handballing.

Sir Robert Menzies shakes hands with Hawthorn City Pipe Band drum major Bob Semple during his farewell celebration.

MENZIES WAS RETIRING

Having served in the top job for 16 years straight, having previously been PM in a separate term for two years, Sir Robert Menzies hung up the boots and handed over the Harold Holt in early 1966.

Holt beat Labor leader Arthur Calwell in a federal election in November and served as PM until his disappearance in December 1967. The initial public support for the war in Vietnam helped Holt to victory.

Menzies died of a heart attack in his Malvern home in 1978.

A wounded Australian is treated by mates after the battle of Long Tan.

AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS FOUGHT AT LONG TAN

In 1966 the 1st Australian Taskforce was stationed in the Phuoc Tuy region of Vietnam near a major North Vietnamese supply route.

In response, about 2000 Vietcong troops were dispatched to the area.

A confrontation occurred at a rubber plantation near Long Tan. In the course of the battle 18 Australians were killed and 24 wounded. About 250 Vietcong soldiers were killed and hundreds more injured.

Earlier in the same year the first national service conscripts flew from Sydney to Vietnam to begin operations.

An illustration from the documentary Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery.

A UFO LANDED AT WESTALL

More than 200 people from two schools in the Clayton area believed they had a close encounter with a UFO when an object came down from the sky at 11am on April 6, 1966.

Witnesses say three metallic objects landed in a paddock near the schools before flying away, leaving large circles of flattened grass.

It is now believed that the mysterious object was an errant high altitude balloon used to monitor radiation levels after the controversial Maralinga nuclear trials.

State and federal governments declined to comment because of the sensitive nature of the tests.

Singer David Bowie in the late 1960s.

DAVID BOWIE RELEASED HIS FIRST RECORD

Little-known musician David Robert Jones released his first record as David Bowie in January 1966, and it was a total failure.

The single ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ didn't’ make the charts and a lavish launch party was paid for by a large loan that took several years to pay back.

In the same year Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sounds of Silence’ reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as did the Beatles’ ‘We Can Work It Out’.

The Brunswick St Oval where Fitzroy played until 1966.

FITZROY WAS STILL PLAYING AT THE BRUNSWICK ST OVAL

At the start of the 1966 VFL season, Fitzroy was still playing at its founding home ground, the Brunswick St Oval at the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, where matches had been held since 1897.

In the final game at the ground in August, Fitzroy lost to eventual premiers St Kilda by 84 points.

After leaving Brunswick St, the Lions played at Junction Oval. They later merged with Brisbane in 1996.

It’s been a while: The 1966 VFL Premiership cup, won by St Kilda.