Former St Kilda stars Nathan Burke and Andrew Thompson believe more money must be assigned to the club's football department for the Saints to turn AFL potential into a drought-breaking premiership.

Burke and Thompson are two members of a ticket promising to address on-field results as their priority if successful in ousting the incumbent board led by president Rod Butterss.

The ticket, St Kilda Footy First, is headed by Gregorys Transport owner Greg Westaway and lodged a notice calling for an extraordinary general meeting in early November, where it will call for a board spill.

The rebels claim Butterss' board failed to provide the football department with the adequate resources to seriously challenge for a premiership, and instead was too focused on posting club profits.

They claim the Saints rank last in the AFL in football spending, last in staff numbers and second-last in recruitment spending, and have not addressed the injury problems which plagued St Kilda in recent seasons.

Despite one of the most talented playing lists in the league, St Kilda failed to progress beyond preliminary finals in 2004-05 and fell to eighth in 2006 under Grant Thomas, before they missed the finals in 2007 under Ross Lyon.

Burke, who played 323 games from 1987-2003, said it was unacceptable for the Saints' board to be stripping back on football spending to improve the balance sheet given the funds rivals were allocating to training facilities, injury management, recruiting and football department staff.

"It's a matter of prioritising. Do we prioritise making a $1 million profit or do we prioritise giving our players the best chance of getting out there on the park?" he said.

"They're not mutually exclusive ... it can be done in conjunction."

Thompson, who retired a fortnight ago after 221 games, said the Saints might have won a second premiership since their sole 1966 triumph had they addressed their football department problems earlier.

"It'd be very hard to say, but if the players had been out on the ground and we didn't have the injuries we had we may well have won a flag," he said.

"You can put the money in and see what happened from there.

"If we do make the decision to give the players every opportunity to succeed, then I think that's a good thing."

The Footy First ticket aims to replace six of the St Kilda board members with its candidates but have current director John Gdanski re-elected, after he defected to the challenger.

If elected, the group will send a football sub-committee - comprising Burke, Thompson, former player Mordy Bromberg QC and Olympic swimmer Michael Klim - to meet with Lyon to determine what is needed to make the Saints' football department competitive.

While the challengers insisted football results were their priority, they said some off-field issues needed addressing.

They cited four coaches, five chief executives and four chief financial officers under Butterss' presidency as a sign of instability.

Westaway said Butterss' feud with Thomas, whom he sacked last year and resulted in legal action, was also an unwelcome distraction.

St Kilda must also decide whether to remain at their Moorabbin base, which is due for redevelopment.

Westaway was "extremely" confident the group would gain support.

"I think there's a groundswell in the members of the club that they are frustrated and they're disappointed and we would like to take that away for them," he said.

St Kilda said it would seek talks with the rebels, but a club spokeswoman said Butterss would not comment on Tuesday.

© 2009 AAP
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