Ken Sheldon, Craig Devonport and Shane Warne’s wild Queen’s Birthday Monday at the MCG, 30 years ago

St Kilda coach that day Ken Sheldon remembers with a laugh.

“Eighty thousand eyes were looking at the forward pocket where the ball was, but one cameraman wasn’t.”

That camera showed Sheldon leaving the coach’s box midgame and rushing down to the fence where benched St Kilda youngster Craig Devonport waited.

Sheldon started to give instructions before leaning over the fence and grabbing the scruff of Devonport’s guernsey to bring their eyeballs together. More animation and gesticulation occurred before Sheldon trotted back up to his position.

In the commentary box, Bruce McAvaney summarised with: “It was an extraordinary scene.”

The day ended with a twist that Saints fans recall fondly and for which Devonport’s career is best-remembered.

And left some partying with a soon-to-be superstar.

*****

The 80s weren’t kind to St Kilda. Five wooden spoons, six coaches, endless off-field dramas and financial disaster. Looking back, Devonport says it was not the ideal environment to be forging a league career, but when Ken Sheldon stepped directly from the back pocket to St Kilda’s coaching box in 1990, he was excited.

“He’d come from a premiership club (Carlton) and he was a great player for us. Then when he coached he changed the culture of the club,” Devonport says.

And there was a personal connection, too.

“While he was still playing he used to employ me a few days a week in his business, when I was 17 or 18, so he was someone that looked out for me.”

Under Sheldon, the Saints were finally on the incline. Devonport says they should have made the finals in 1990, but they booked their first finals spot in 18 years in 1991 instead.

The resurgence spawned a series of classic matches with Collingwood during the era. The Magpies would win by a point in 1990 at the MCG on the way to a drought-breaking flag, while in 1991 they fought out a heart-stopping draw at Moorabbin.

With both teams looking like premiership contenders in 1992, the stage was set for another epic on the Queen’s Birthday holiday Monday.

Devonport says the legend of St Kilda’s only premiership – won by one point against Collingwood – was present in this new rivalry.

“Once both sides got good, that memory of 1966 was always going to come up. They were always great games.

“We were without Plugger (Tony Lockett) that day so it was going to be tough, but we still had Loewe, Winmar, Burke and Harvey. It wasn’t easy to get a game by then.”

The 80,060 that turned up that day was the biggest crowd St Kilda had played in front of since the 1973 finals series 19 years before.

Devonport recalls the day clearly.

“It was a pretty big thing for the club to have 80,000 people, coming from where we were, when we’d be lucky to get 15,000. We weren’t used to it, so it was a nightmare to get in. Warney and I drove in through all the traffic.”

Hang on a minute … Warney?

“Yeah, I remember driving to the footy with him that day, we were best mates in the early 90s and he’d come to every game with me,” says Devonport.

Yes, the Warney in this story is indeed the late, great cricket legend Shane Warne. Warne and Devonport had played Under 19s together at St Kilda and the two blondes were inseparable at the time.

Warne had two Tests and one international wicket under his belt but by the end of the year he would be on his way to superstardom. On this day he was just another face in the crowd watching his mate play footy.

And his mate was about to take centre stage.

*****

Thirty years on, there are differing recollections as to what prompted Sheldon’s ‘instructions’ to Devonport.

“It was about the need to be front and square at the drop of the ball. We’d been training at that for some time in the lead-up and it just wasn’t happening prior to that point of the match with Craig,” Sheldon says.

Devonport remembers an incident where he “didn’t go hard enough at the ball. Craig Kelly was running right at me the other way. It looked worse than what it was, but it looked wrong. And I was taken off.”

On the broadcast McAvaney references two mistakes, he didn’t handball to Robert Harvey and then gave away a free kick.

Most likely all of these recollections have truth to them and were compounded by the Saints wasting opportunities during a tense second quarter.

Devonport was dragged by the runner and expected a stern word from his coach on the phone; instead, something else happened.

“While I’m running off, I saw Ken and thought, ‘Hang on a second, he’s come down from the coach’s box at the MCG, that doesn’t seem right to me’,” he recalls.

“He was down behind the fence, and Kenny has these massive eyes that can yell at you. All I could see was two big eyes, and I thought, ‘I think he’s there for me!’

“The next thing you know, he’s grabbed me by the collar and said, ‘If you want to play like that, you’ll be with me up here. We know what you can do’.

“It looks worse than it was. At the time it was just me and him, not the 80,000. Were they watching? I think it was only on TV later that everyone saw it.”

Sheldon says the instructions were a reminder about what they’d been training.

“Luckily Craig was able to adapt later in the game,” says Sheldon dryly.

*****

With 10 minutes to go, St Kilda looked beaten. They were 11 points down and had fluffed their lines in front of goal, 16 behinds and just 8 goals. A goal to Nicky Winmar breathed life into the game and a few minutes later Devonport was about to show he had listened to his coach.

Loewe and Kelly contested a ball in the forward pocket. Devonport had been streaming forward but held his ground and waited for the moment.

When it spilt he was in the right spot, just as Sheldon had been drilling into him at training. There were options inside but it was Devonport’s moment. He curled a left foot snap from the boundary, and raised his arms to the Southern Stand. Thirty years on, a stand that is now named after his car passenger on the day.

“It was a fantastic response,” Sheldon says.

It was to be the last goal of the game as the Saints hung on by a point.

“Just as well I kicked the winning goal, otherwise I would have just been the guy who got dragged to the fence. That would be a lot worse,” Devonport laughs.

“After the game Ken put his arm around me and said, ‘Well done son, you stood up and did what I asked’. For me that was awesome.”

The Saints would go on to repeat the dose on Collingwood in the elimination final, Devonport among St Kilda’s best, kicking a crucial long goal in the last quarter.

“Just to win a final was great back then,” Devonport says.

*****

In the aftermath there was speculation about the nature of the Sheldon-Devonport relationship. Was the player difficult? Or was he an unfair whipping boy of the coach? Devonport says that was a long way off.

“We had a great relationship, I only ever missed three senior games other than for injury under Kenny,” Devonport says.

There’s no question he played his best football under Sheldon, injury-free seasons of 1990 and 1992 his best in the AFL. His other high-point was a purple patch of five goals in the first quarter of a game against West Coast.

But for many footy fans the Queen’s Birthday incident and response is what he is remembered for.

As for Sheldon, in the modern game, coaches talking to players on the bench is the norm.

“I was a trendsetter, well before my time!” he chuckles.

*****

McAvaney summed up the game after the siren.

“They produced a game that everyone here today will remember for a long, long time,” before crossing to boundary-rider Tim Watson with Sheldon.

“It feels pretty good Tim,” the coach said.

Meanwhile, Devonport and Warne were off to celebrate. They weren’t shy about checking out the Melbourne nightlife in 1992. That night they headed to a pub in Prahran.

“It was packed and he drank Midori and lemonades and I had a few beers. Then I got told I had to go to a footy clinic in the morning with the AFL in Werribee, so I was getting a wake-up call,” Devonport says.

It was on another night out earlier that year at the Depot in Richmond that helped Devonport trigger a wake-up call for his mate.

A contingent of Australian cricketers were at the Melbourne pub as well when Devonport sidled up to ask about his mate who’d recently debuted in their team.

“I got talking to Allan Border, Geoff Marsh and Craig McDermott. Tom Moody was floating around too. We were talking about how Warney was a good friend of mine.”

The topic of conversation turned to what Warne needed to do to make sure his career took off.

“Allan Border said to me, ‘I know you play footy and you’re fit, if you can get him fit he could be anything, this kid has more talent than I’ve ever seen’.”

A training regime started.

“I used to stay at his parents’ house, we’d get up at 6am and I’d train him before I went to footy training. Then he’d bowl to me in the nets every day.

“We trained every day, we got him on a proper diet, and he lost 15kg that winter.”

Things started to turn in more ways than one.

“At that point I’d have to introduce Shane to people,” Devonport laughs.

At the end of 1992 a slimmed-down Warne spun Australia to victory against the West Indies in the Boxing Day Test, on the same stage that Devonport had starred on earlier that year.

A legend was born.

“From then on it was him introducing me!”