Watching St. Kilda dismiss Scott Watters gave me a sense of déjà vu.
Yes coaches have been sacked for hundreds of years, but I was sure St. Kilda sacked a coach in a similar fashion to Watters in the past.
And then it clicked – Malcolm Blight.
Obviously they are not cut of the same cloth as players and coaches, with Malcolm being a legend of the game and Scott Watters being a battler.
But when it comes to their respective stays at Moorabbin, Scott Watters charted a similar path that Blighty went down in 2001 with the only major difference being the length time each spent at the club.
Blight if you remember, penned a two year deal with St. Kilda in 2001 that had just experienced two miserable seasons under Tim Watson.
He inherited a club with a lot of youth but also a lot of ageing stars who were on the cusp of retirement.
After a positive start, the Saints fell apart by Round 15 which culminated in receiving a 97-point hiding from Adelaide.
Prior to that Blight, had become publicly incensed about the culture of the club while the club became riled at his seemingly ‘lack of interest’ in the job.
A few weeks prior to his sacking he sprayed the team out on the Docklands pitch moments after a loss to Melbourne (they lead by 19 at ¾ time before conceding 10 goals in the final quarter to lose by 31).
Even more infamously, he was quoted on Adelaide radio saying that the culture at St. Kilda was a ‘500 percent worse’ than he had experienced at previous clubs.
He reportedly was also planning a clean out of players and staff he thought were either too old or were too linked to the ‘old ways’ of the club.
Sound familiar? It is eerily similar to the Scott Watters era.
Scott Watters came to St. Kilda when it was heading into a rebuilding phase.
After a reasonably positive 2012, the wheels fell off in 2013 with club winning just five games.
Watters’ became subject to question by players and staff at the Saints for his ‘lone ranger’ approach to the job.
Watters was told by the board numerous times that football manager Chris Pelchen was his boss and contrary to his belief, he reported to Pelchen.
He also expressed a Laissez-faire attitude to describing where St. Kilda was as a club.
One week he was quoted as saying St. Kilda was a top contender while the next week he would say the club was in rebuilding mode without consulting the players.
The final straw in my mind was the allowance of rampant speculation that club greats in Riewolt, Montanga and Dal Santo would be traded in a rebuild the club.
Not once did Watters quell the speculation, rather it was left to Pelchen to raise the denials.
The coaches voice was only raised on the day of his sacking to deny speculation he would lose his job.
Much like the Blight situation thirteen years ago, the trust between players, coach and staff broke down over cultural and management issues.
It means now that just weeks out from pre-season, St. Kilda will disrupt not only their pre-season but another club’s to start the process of rebuilding.
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