What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

The Decade Before They Called Us St Merge

ouryear

Juniors
Messages
780
Not making judgements on Illawarra or St George, but interested to get some thoughts
These are the years leading up to the great merge of 1999 and the forecast of creating a SUPER CLUB
If it was top 8 every year which it was not, five each
Super club?

Competition table year end.

1990 Saints 12th Illawarra 9th
1991 Saints 9th Illawarra 8th
1992 Saints 2nd Illawarra 3rd
1993 Saints 2nd Illawarra 7th
1994 Saints 11th Illawarra 6th
1995 Saints 7th Illawarra 12th
1996 Saints 7th Illawarra 14th
1997 Saints 10th Illawarra 6th
1998 Saints 8th Illawarra 12th
 
Last edited:

Willow

Assistant Moderator
Messages
108,132
These are the years leading up to the great merge of 1999
It is a Joint Venture. When the trolls say 'St Merge', I always think they can't even that part right.

There is a difference. A merger is the combining of two companies into one. A Joint Venture is when two companies cooperate on a specific project, usually for set period of time.

FTR, the St George Illawarra Dragons Joint Venture was signed off in late 1998. It gets reviewed every 5 or 6 years.
 
Messages
2,866
It is a Joint Venture. When the trolls say 'St Merge', I always think they can't even that part right.

There is a difference. A merger is the combining of two companies into one. A Joint Venture is when two companies cooperate on a specific project, usually for set period of time.

FTR, the St George Illawarra Dragons Joint Venture was signed off in late 1998. It gets reviewed every 5 or 6 years.
Your absolutely right but in the real world managers and board members of mergers are accountable and can be fired and replaced.
In our case the Merger has resulted in club run by the same people with self imposed accountability which only supports their personal agendas.
The result is a poorly managed club that is happy to accept mediocrity ad infinitum.
The merger back in 1998 may have seemed to be a good idea at the time but it has been underwhelming except for brief Bennet's involvement.
Personally, St. George should've stayed independent and privately owned.
 

grouch

First Grade
Messages
8,393
1996 Saints 7th Illawarra 14th ( Saints went to GF . Note- Super League clubs ran own separate comp)
You post a lot of wrong stuff but this is the wrongest. The separate Superleague comp was in 1997.
 

Saintsified

Bench
Messages
3,558
We married Illawarra and all she ended up being is a nagging wife, she doesnt let us go out with our mates anymore showcasing how hard we party, how we want to still be chick magnets, splash cash and occasionally pick up a trophy chick to show off, but all we can do is reminisce how good life was when we were single.

These days we just stay at home, hope the postman doesnt deliver bills, and when the postman doesnt deliver we think it was a great day. We dream about how one day we might get rich again, splash & flaunt cash, and that we might become player magnets.

Rubbish, standalone again would get my vote, not that we are allowed to vote either, thats another issue all together. It's like a communist run club..
 
Last edited:

Datramp

Juniors
Messages
1,007
Pretty sure I can speak for the Illawarra fans that we would have preferred to keep our on club too. Only difference is we are not on the forum being dicks blaming everyone and their dog for our clubs failures both as a separate and merged entity. HURR DURR The club is doing poorly 18 years after a merge.... MUST BE ILLAWARRA'S FAULT 100%!. Even though the club was doing poorly prior.

BTW 1992 semi was an absolute robbery.
 

Datramp

Juniors
Messages
1,007
Might also add. From a fairly conspicuous 2010 Grand Final winning team....

Morris - Illawarra junior
Cooper - Illawarra junior
Hornby - Illawarra junior
Scott - Illawarra junior
Creagh - Illawarra junior
Prior -Illawarra Junior

Clearly Illawarra was the problem
 

merahputih

Juniors
Messages
922
One of the justifications for the merger, I seem to recall that a big driver for the marriage was that the Illawarra was such a big nursery for emerging talent, which had been tapped by St George and would see the joint venture thrive on this resource. The Kogarah club was starting to stagnate with changing demographics and the Steelers were also struggling. I suspect the mental scars of losing the 1999 grand final lasted until 2010 whe Bennett brought in a few tough forwards like Jeremy Smith and Neville Costigan plus a talented young fullback in Darius Boyd. I doubt they would have won with the squad Nathan Brown left him. The bottom line is that neither club would have survived on their own given the changes happening around them.
 

JohnnoMcJohnno

Juniors
Messages
2,360
I'm a long time St George supporter who had no issue with the merge. It seemed the best way to ensure our future at the time and looked like a good way to squeeze Cronulla out of the comp. I still think it has merit.

I've never considered the concept of the merge to be the problem, but the lacklustre management certainly is. Even if St George had gone down the stand-alone path, Craig Young would probably be CEO by now so we would be no better off.
 
Messages
2,249
One of the justifications for the merger, I seem to recall that a big driver for the marriage was that the Illawarra was such a big nursery for emerging talent, which had been tapped by St George and would see the joint venture thrive on this resource. The Kogarah club was starting to stagnate with changing demographics and the Steelers were also struggling. I suspect the mental scars of losing the 1999 grand final lasted until 2010 whe Bennett brought in a few tough forwards like Jeremy Smith and Neville Costigan plus a talented young fullback in Darius Boyd. I doubt they would have won with the squad Nathan Brown left him. The bottom line is that neither club would have survived on their own given the changes happening around them.

We still might not survive. Over the next decade (maybe sooner) the whole issue of "too many Sydney teams" is going to rear it's ugly head again and us and Wests Tigers will be the first ones on the chopping block.
 

SaintPauli

Juniors
Messages
1,179
The illawarra region is a great haven for NRL players and as a supporter am happy with St George illawarra BUT
Our training base should be at jubilee oval. Reasons as follows

1. The St George area is perfectly located to maintain existing st george emerging stars and also poach sydney stars from surrounding rival clubs such as bulldogs, Roosters, sharks and souths. Many st george locals stars are now going and lost to sharks and bulldogs juniors. Why? Because travelling to the gong is too far.

Luke Keary chose Roosters because of travel.
Bunji drive to the gong to train every day and that surely impacted his fitness with the long drive. Cooper Cronk buys in Mosman. He wouldn't consider driving to gong everyday but to the st george area ofcourse would be a bether option to consider. We are really limited by our strategic base being at the gong.

Our priority would be to encourage the 30k St George Stadium at Cooks river /Barton park to benefit both football and nrl games.Stategically this will benefit st george illawarra as a viable club for a very long time.

Also the Taj needs a major revamp to be something like the revesby workers.
 
Last edited:

hazzbeen

Bench
Messages
4,617
Your absolutely right but in the real world managers and board members of mergers are accountable and can be fired and replaced.
In our case the Merger has resulted in club run by the same people with self imposed accountability which only supports their personal agendas.
The result is a poorly managed club that is happy to accept mediocrity ad infinitum.
The merger back in 1998 may have seemed to be a good idea at the time but it has been underwhelming except for brief Bennet's involvement.
Personally, St. George should've stayed independent and privately owned.
Dennis for me it was let's go all out to win the Premiership in 2010 , and then who give a f**k we have done our job and who cared after that .... Doust and Co bought themselves a few years of cruising in their jobs ....
 

True_Believer

Juniors
Messages
1,691
Your absolutely right but in the real world managers and board members of mergers are accountable and can be fired and replaced.
In our case the Merger has resulted in club run by the same people with self imposed accountability which only supports their personal agendas.
The result is a poorly managed club that is happy to accept mediocrity ad infinitum.
The merger back in 1998 may have seemed to be a good idea at the time but it has been underwhelming except for brief Bennet's involvement.
Personally, St. George should've stayed independent and privately owned.

Didn't Willow point out that it's a Joint Venture and not a merger? Or am I missing something here?
 

Willow

Assistant Moderator
Messages
108,132
Your absolutely right but in the real world managers and board members of mergers are accountable and can be fired and replaced.
In our case the Merger has resulted in club run by the same people with self imposed accountability which only supports their personal agendas.
The result is a poorly managed club that is happy to accept mediocrity ad infinitum.
The merger back in 1998 may have seemed to be a good idea at the time but it has been underwhelming except for brief Bennet's involvement.
Personally, St. George should've stayed independent and privately owned.
But it isn't a merger.

I agree we have plenty to complain about when it comes to the lack of onfield success and management decisions. The so-called 'structure' is an issue we have covered repeatedly in these forums.

And FTR, we were not privately owned as such. Originally the St George Football Club and St George Leagues Club were more democratic with the members having a greater say in affairs. For what it's worth, that part of the old structure is still there. Technically speaking, menbers can still vote at the St George Club AGMs and board elections.
 

grouch

First Grade
Messages
8,393
Joint venture? Merger? Hmm. Considering the same cabal have held dictatorial power with no accountability since this deal went down, perhaps we should call it what it really was:

A coup.
 

Latest posts

Top