BARRY Breen, one of St Kilda's legendary figures, has described the challenge to the board of president Rod Butterss as a needless "Machiavellian manoeuvre" that is certain to perpetuate the image of the club as volatile and unstable.
Breen said he was opposed to the hostile takeover proposed by the challengers and warned St Kilda members to be wary of their commitment to greater spending.
Breen, who famously kicked the winning behind in the 1966 grand final but later, as a former player in 1984, agreed to forgo more than $50,000 of match payments to help the club avoid slipping into bankruptcy, felt strongly enough about the looming election to write a private letter of support to Butterss last week.
Yesterday, though, he bought into the election by going public with misgivings about what he described as a casual attitude from Footy First about the financial realities of the AFL and the sad history of upheaval it was repeating.
"I've followed St Kilda since I was five years of age and I don't need to be told that its history is littered with coups and takeovers and arguments, which has never been conducive to building a strong football club. The last thing we need when things are stable is another coup or election battle," Breen said.
He said he found it curious for the Footy First ticket, given St Kilda's precarious history, to dismiss the work it took the Butterss board to erase $3.5 million of accumulated debt and, in recent years, produce million-dollar profits.
"Without the commitment to debt reduction, there was a real chance that St Kilda would not exist today in its present form," he said.
As Breen was lending his support, Butterss tried to negate the popularity of Nathan Burke and Andrew Thompson by favouring their candidacies, recommending they be elected unopposed once a spill of the board occurred. When this will take place was in dispute last night, with Footy First arguing that under the club's constitution, an extraordinary general meeting can be held on October 23 and Butterss claiming that by law, it cannot be held for 60 days, or until November 26.
Burke dismissed the idea last night as a tactic designed to confuse the voters. "It doesn't sit well with me, favours," he said. "We started out as a team and I want to see it through as a team."
■St Kilda is counting on the power of advertising in an attempt to find a new major sponsor. The Saints have placed a full-page advertisement in the news section of today's edition of The Age. The ad, which will run again on Saturday and also in The Australian Financial Review, offers potential sponsors an opportunity "to be associated with the AFL's most dynamic and exciting brand".
St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser said last night the club wanted to be seen as innovative in taking its sales pitch to a wider market. "We think we're innovative with what we do," he said.
With ROHAN CONNOLLY
