Former St Kilda president Andrew Plympton, the man responsible for helping the Saints avoid a merger with Carlton in the 1990s, has died at the age of 74.
Plympton passed away in a Melbourne hospital on Sunday after a battle with lung cancer.
The man fondly dubbed "Prez" became president of St Kilda in 1993 and faced a massive task in resurrecting the club’s financial and playing positions.
Initially intending to occupy the president’s chair for two or three seasons, Plympton stayed at the helm for eight, until the end of 2000.
Along with Stuart Trott and Gerry Ryan, Plympton launched the "Save our Saints'' campaign in 1995 in a bid to help the cash-strapped club avoid a merger, most likely with Carlton.
The aim was to raise $1.5 million to survive, and enough money was raised for the Saints to continue on.
“The move of doing the ‘SOS' enabled myself as president to say to our members in a very open and honest manner that I couldn't guarantee our future,” Plympton told Zero Hanger in 2022.
“Behind closed doors, this was a time when the AFL was very much suggesting that there were too many teams in the competition.
"The bottom line was that we were vulnerable.
"My memory is clouded, but we probably raised about $600,000 overall, and with the hard work of a lot of people, thank God, we got it done because it saved the Saints."
Plympton was also a key player in the move of home games from Moorabbin to Waverley, and then to Docklands.
Along with Plympton's stint at St Kilda, he also served as an executive member of the Australian Olympic Committee for eight years, was president of Sailing Australia Inc for seven years, and served as a Sport Australia Hall of Fame board member from 2020 up until his passing.
In his younger years, Plympton was a world-class competitive sailor who won the world championship in the Etchells class.
