Inside the pain of St Albans’ 1442-day, 43-game losing streak and the path ahead after breakthrough win

Tears flowed as St Albans broke a 43-game losing streak. What caused it, how many close losses did they suffer and how are things looking into the future? Here is the inside story.

Inside St Albans' losing streak.

1442 days and 43 games.

That’s how long St Albans’ nightmare losing streak lasted in the Geelong Football League, failing to taste victory for close to four years.

That was until their drought-breaking 26-point triumph over Lara on Saturday, which was one of the sweetest tasting victories imaginable with the monkey finally off their backs.

There have been many tears shed since their last win on August 24, 2019.

The playing group had their “heads kicked in” by opposition sides on a regular basis, coaches and players departed and instability reigned supreme.

Coach Alex Tortora said tears spilled out after the final siren – but this time it was for a different reason.

“I look around and see my wife and daughters in tears, I see supporters, mums and dads, brothers and sisters in tears. That sums it all up, we go out to play but we forget how much it means to so many people and the volunteers and coaches who put so much effort in,” Tortora said.

“You keep turning up and you keep getting your head kicked in and it goes your way so the emotion spills out. So it’s just really special to see those people happy, footy replicates life in a number of ways and you shouldn’t be down all the time – there should be highs and lows and everything in between. It was nice to get a high on the weekend, it was very special.

“There is a core bunch of boys who have been there probably since 2019 and haven’t experienced a victory, there has been so many games where we have gone close or not done well at all and they have had tears in their eyes after the game and it’s almost, ‘how do I deal with this?’ You’ve got to console these young men who are giving everything and can’t work out why it’s not happening for them.”

One of the highlights for president Craig Osborne was seeing Saints Hall of Famer Cliff Grinter — who was club president for close to two decades – in the middle of the circle singing the song after the breakthrough win.

He commended the resilience of the Saints’ players and supporters and described the win as a “shot in the arm” for St Albans Football Netball Club.

Cliff Grinter sings the song in the rooms with St Albans players. Picture: St Albans FC Instagram

“The resilience of the playing group and actually all our supporters as a total club – it would be easy after four years to walk away and turn your back on things. This was a shot in the arm for the whole club – netball, to the junior football program to the 22 guys who played on Saturday and our reserves having a win too,” Osborne said.

“It was a long time coming but we celebrated it… We had Cliffy Grinter who is a Hall of Fame member and a life member – was president for 18 years in years gone by and was in the middle of the circle signing the song. That’s what it meant to the club. He is an 87-88 year old in the middle of the group singing with the boys. There was a lot of tears, there was a lot of relief.”

REASONS FOR DISMAL SLUMP

The lack of success and instability at St Albans left them vulnerable to rival clubs.

The Saints have had a revolving door of coaches in recent years, with Nick Daffy, Justin Carey and Paul Nigro, Chris Carlon and Ben Patrick departing after short stints at the club.

This compounded the constant losses, which made the Saints an easy target as BFL and GDFL clubs circled with the promise of success.

Osborne is first to admit that they got it wrong, and they have put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Tortora, who became coach at the end of 2021 with the coach on its knees, is locked in until 2025, and Osborne expects almost every player to recommit to the club

Alex Tortora after joining as new coach in 2021.

“During Covid we had a bit of a revolving door of coaches so we are first to acknowledge that instability, we have got that stability now, signed Alex on a long-term deal which gives us that nice strong platform,” Osborne said.

“When you are on the bottom of the ladder you also become a target for other clubs knocking on your door, an easy target for rival clubs, especially in the Bellarine and GDFL looking at players to bolstering their playing stocks so they focus on the easy targets and at that time we were an easy target. That’s not having a go at those clubs, that’s just what happens.

“Everyone wants to taste success and there was a lot of people wanting to get that success quicker than hanging around and doing the hard work. Success is not overnight and some of the younger guys were impatient in wanting to taste it sooner rather than later.

“There were a lot of players who went out to GDFL clubs – East Geelong, Bannockurn and Belmont were all recipients of a lot of junior players who went out there.

“When you get that stability of coaching on a longer term tenure you get performance and that’s what we’ve lacked so we are first to put our hand up and admit that we got it wrong, and we are doing things now a lot differently about creating those strong foundations of stability from every part of the club around leadership.”

CLOSE CALLS

Since that 20-point win over Lara in the final round of 2019, there have been plenty of close calls.

In between the countless thumpings were four games where they led at three-quarter-time and lost as the Saints had seemingly forgotten how to win.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking of those was the defeat to North Shore a month ago, where the Saints hit the front in the final quarter in horrendous conditions before the Seagulls kicked the last three to consign them to their 40th consecutive loss.

“I just go back to the North Shore game this year, that was only about five weeks ago in horrendous conditions,” Osborne said.

“Again we got our nose in front and I think not knowing how to win cost them that game and not knowing how to protect a score, I think that cost us. And that happened a number of times where we got our nose in front and weren’t able to go on with it but this time was a little bit different, the belief and to not accept another defeat drove them to this victory,” Osborne said.

Now the Saints have the chance to stun the GFL by claiming two-straight victories with a winnable clash against North Shore this weekend.

“We go into this week with North Shore – we owe them something back given their win on their home deck last time but I think we go in knowing we can win a game, we know how to go about it now,” he said.

St Albans has had some close calls against Lara. Picture: Mark Wilson

THE FUTURE

This win means so much more than just the four points to St Albans.

Tortora believes it will instil the club with belief that they are going in the right direction and help sell the club to potential recruits.

But landing recruits and improvement from their young group will also be pivotal in ensuring they can create something substantial.

“It gives you a sense of we are on the right track and the direction is where we need to be, but we are under no illusions – one win – we still we need to improve and keep developing but we also need some players in to support our current group,” Totora said.

“We need players to come in to support the current crop so we think winning a game like on the weekend can serve us really well in that regard, in terms of selling our footy club and showing the path and direction that we are on.

Osborne said the club is in talks with several star recruits who they are hopeful of luring, and stars that were sidelined during the 2023 season will give them an extra boost next season.

“We have started our conversations with our playing group now and they are progressing quite nicely,” Osborne said.

“I’d be very surprised if we don’t sign everyone and we already had some positive discussions wth some big name recruits that I can’t name now.

“We have been talking to a lot of recruits since last year so we have established some strong connections with some key players but we are also getting some injured players back. They almost become recruits within themselves.”

The future is looking brighter for St Albans. Picture: Mark Wilson

CELEBRATIONS

And just how rowdy were the celebrations?

In the words of Tortora, St Albans is top of the celebrating ladder.

“To be honest it was pretty epic back at the footy club. It is exactly what you think it might be. If there was a ladder for knowing how to celebrate, I think our boys would be on top,” he chuckled.

“They can certainly nail that aspect of football there’s no doubt about it.”

Originally published as Inside the pain of St Albans’ 1442-day, 43-game losing streak and the path ahead after breakthrough win