PETER KOHN

WHAT is it about red, white and black that makes so many Jewish pulses race when the Saints make it into September, never mind a grand final?

I’ve been a St Kilda supporter since school, when my European-born mother, unfamiliar with Aussie Rules, bought me a red, white and black beanie because she liked the colours.

The kids at Clayton South Primary declared me a Saints follower and it stuck. A teacher congratulated me when St Kilda won its first and only flag in 1966. What did I have to do with their victory?

I’m a Saint because of that beanie, but also because it was St Kilda’s welcoming tranquillity that gave my family hope after all they had been through in Europe.

And because there’s something worthwhile in hoping against the odds -– and let’s face it, historically our form has been as fickle as Melbourne’s spring weather.

September 24, 1966. I remember that Yom Kippur Shabbat afternoon, at Moorabbin Town Hall, where Bentleigh Temple was holding its yom tov services, and kids stood in the foyer during Yizkor, transistor radios in hand.

Reluctantly we came inside for Ne’ilah. Fervent prayers must have been heard because Rabbi Stuart Lasher soon announced from the bimah the Saints had won, if only to refocus restless worshippers on the service. What jubilation! I’ve been pining for that elusive second flag ever since.

Watch highlights from St Kilda’s 1966 Grand Final win

Before live TV coverage, I followed on radio as our efforts evaporated in the 1971 grand final against Hawthorn. The Hawks supporters at Melbourne High were merciless on the Monday.

It was another 26 years until our next grand final, when our hopes were dashed by Adelaide. The long faces in the inner south-east that night in 1997 said it all.

In recent years, more than one preliminary final has ended in tears.

But then came 2009 and that 19-round winning streak, and now a grand final. As St Kilda and Geelong prepare to clash at the MCG, I’m allowing myself to hope again.

I’m one of those Saints Jews that Rabbi Fred Morgan of Temple Beth Israel quipped about last week in a Rosh Hashanah drashah on hope.

I’ve waited more than 40 years in the wilderness and I say we will rise to the occasion on Saturday.

It won’t be hunger pangs that will make me quietly delirious this Yom Kippur Monday. It will be a new flag for a new generation of Saints.

Peter Kohn is the AJN’s Features Editor based in Melbourne and the author of two novels, Rachel’s Chance and View From A Sandcastle.