THIS is a story about Moorabbin in the days when footy in Melbourne was still played on wet grounds. Normally that implies rain, but at Moorabbin, this was not always the case.

In the decades when the going wasn't great, the Saints often relied on a wet track for salvation and the hose was brought out accordingly.

Or that was the story and while this was a club that didn't have a lot of success, then as now it always had a lot of stories.

George, as in George Laurie Drysdale, was a St Kilda barracker. His son Laurie, as in Laurie George Drysdale, is still one. George was a plumber. Laurie lectures in education at the University of Melbourne and has the seriousness of one who has put a large part of his life into study.

When he was 10, George took Laurie to his first game, St Kilda versus South Melbourne, at the Junction Oval. What Laurie remembers vividly is Eric Guy shirtfronting South's rover, triple Brownlow medallist Bob Skilton, right in front of them.

One imagines Laurie as a bookish lad. Before that game, he didn't barrack for the Saints, but after it he certainly did. Laurie seems a reserved man but, at the footy, he admits he likes to have his say. So did his father.

They were at the very first game played at Moorabbin in 1965. Against Collingwood, 50,000 people in. "It was chockers," says Laurie. Wild game, as he recalls. "Big Carl's elbows were everywhere."

With time, George and Laurie found their favoured place within Moorabbin from which to watch games. If I say this was the Animal Cage, anyone with any familiarity with the post-war history of the St Kilda Football Club will know what I mean.

The Animal Cage was to football what Africa was to mid-19th century European explorers, a place of savage and exotic passions. Laurie would come with his mates, George would come with his, and the two groups would sit as one, united in their raucous passion for the Saints.

George and Laurie saw some good years. They were at the MCG in '66 when the Saints won their only premiership. George got a seat, Laurie stood on cans at the back of the outer. People were so crammed in, they couldn't move and peed in their beer cans. The Saints won. George and Laurie met up that night back at Moorabbin.

Two things, it seems, distinguished George Drysdale as a barracker. One is that he didn't swear, nor did he appreciate it from others. The other is that he took particular exception to opposition supporters being rude about St Kilda players at Moorabbin. At St Kilda's home ground. At St Kilda. "Just remember you're a guest," he'd tell them.

He'd also get involved in other people's arguments. Laurie describes his father as an "interventionist". "He'd stick his bib in." George's garage door, which faced the Nepean Highway, was painted red, white and black.

George was a returned servicemen, having seen action in New Guinea during World War II. As far as the war was concerned, Laurie says George was part of "the silent generation".

After he retired, when he wasn't at Moorabbin in the social club with his footy mates, he was at the Mentone RSL where, as a Labor man surrounded by Liberals, he also had his say. "He'd have brawls with them but they'd always welcome him back the next day."

George was proud of his family's tradition as builders. When Laurie was younger, he laboured on sites with his father and saw the standards he exacted from himself and his apprentices.

In later life, if George had a job in the vicinity of where Laurie lived, he would always drop in. "We were mates," says Laurie. In 1995, he was conscious of his father's pride when George took him to the 50-year reunion of his war-time unit, the 10th Field Ambulance.

They went to the footy together for 35 years. In the course of that time, an understanding emerged between them.

After his death, George was to be cremated. He then wanted his ashes held until the Saints won their next premiership, whereupon he wanted them sprinkled over Moorabbin. At the time of George's death, in June 1997, this seemed a realistic request.

The Saints reached the grand final that year with a team that included Nathan Burke, Robert Harvey, Nicky Winmar and a young Barry Hall. Alas, history records that Adelaide stole it from them in the way that magicians steal objects from people's pockets.

Malcolm Blight coached at his brilliant best, Darren Jarman was mesmerising and, when the match had to be unmade and made to a different plan, Andrew McLeod produced one of his greatest performances.

That was 10 years ago. Notwithstanding the Saints' brave win in the West last weekend, they are not favoured to win the 2007 premiership. There is also the additional complication of the continuing row between the club and the local council over the future of Moorabbin.

I say to Laurie, somewhat blithely, given that it is 41 years since the Saints won their premiership, I'd just wait for them to win the next one and then go and sprinkle them. He says: "But what if it's a housing estate by then?"

He is the son of a St Kilda barracker whose wish at the time of his death seemed quite straightforward. He contemplates for a moment, then says: "It's a dilemma."

A Season of Flanagan appears every Wednesday during the footy season.