I can remember the time Graham Kennedy quoted on his Coast to Coast show how his beloved saints had finally hit a winning streak, winning one in a row. Back then, the saints were the cooks of the AFL with more wooden spoons than a wooden spoon wood shop and a game against them was like a 4-point bye for the opposing team.
My how times have changed and the red, white and black has been transformed into a powerful force of the AFL over the past few years. Who would have thunk it, but in 2003 they showed some promising potential and every fan of Aussie rules was secretly wanting them to succeed after all the years of being the laughing stock of the national game.
2004 held high expectations for the Sainters and for the first half of the year it was duly fulfilled with an unbeatable winning streak of 10 games. This 10 disc collectors box set houses ALL 10 games from round 1 to round 10 in their entirety. Not content with just winning by a solitary kick, these games produced some demolishing performances against the likes of Geelong, Essendon, West Coast and Collingwood (runners up from the year before).
We're talking some 50-point or more wins here but the highlight of the entire pack is the 1 point thriller against the current three time premiership winners in the Brisbane Lions. Leading by a decent margin at three quarter time, the saints saw their lead dwindle as the reigning champions fought back and took the lead by 6 points into the final stages of the game. Fears that the saints of old were going to surface again could be seen on the faces of the capacity crowd at Telstra Dome but those who were there were witness to one of the greatest games of the year, if not the decade so far. When the crowd cheering is enough to drown out the commentators screams, you know the roof was lifted off the Dome.
It's not often that sporting events are compressed properly on DVD because of the amount of movement throughout the entire 2 hour duration but these DVDs would have to be the best looking AFL games captured onto the medium. The picture is as sharp as a tack across the 10 games with nary a hint of macro-blocking common to other grand final DVDs. If I could fault the image at all it would have to be the source itself and even then i'd be reaching.
All 10 games are presented in 16x9 widescreen format for your full enjoyment. If you've got a widescreen TV but no digital tuner, then you're about to experience these games in their original glory and I must say it's a damn site nicer. Pit about the placement of the graphics overlaid on the screen which have been positioned for the cropped 4x3 presentation. You'll certainly notice that.
Audio is your standard 2 channel stereo encode which is more than adequate for what you're viewing. Whilst a nice enveloping 5.1 channel soundtrack would be the icing on the cake, for the general round by round games it's totally unnecessary. As mentioned earlier, round 6, final quarter, with a few minutes to go as Schwarze kicks 'that' goal, you'll get chills run right through you; saints fan or not.
Don't expect any extras here other than some nicely suited 16x9 formatted menus and screens showcasing the quarter by quarter scores. One gripe here though is the VEG promo piece at the start of all of their DVDs. Please make them skippable, it gets annoying VERY quickly.
On a better note, the entire package is presented in a cardboard slipcase housing five DVD cases with 2 discs each, hence the 10 rounds. Colour coded red, white and black, fans will appreciate the subtleties here.
For many a saints fan, this little collection of games is a testament to what Grant Thomas has been able to mould from his new breed of warriors. The likes of Gehrig, Riewoldt and Milne are on show with recruits such as Hamill and veterans in Harvey rounding out a team of stars that can and will improve over the next few years to be a powerhouse of Victorian football.
And all this from a Fitzroy supporter. Go the sainters.
