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St Kilda is again in crisis and has sharply divided AFL opinion after Friday’s shock decision to sack coach Scott Watters.
Commentator Dermott Brereton, who counts Watters as a good friend, savaged the club and their football department boss Chris Pelchen over the sacking.
But former Saints player Brett Peake said it was the right call.
St Kilda hope to have the new senior coach in place by the November 21 national draft.
Robert Harvey, one of the most famous players in St Kilda history and now an assistant coach at Collingwood, is one of the favourites to take over.
The other is Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams, currently development coach at Richmond.
Watters sacking comes two years after Ross Lyon’s dramatic decision to leave the Saints.
At the same time, Fremantle ruthlessly axed Mark Harvey as coach and Lyon took over.
Then, the Saints were coming off a period under Lyon where they nearly won two premierships.
Now they are in full rebuilding mode, with only five wins this season and three first-round picks in the draft.
“We have had a tough few years,” said Saints president Peter Summers.
“In announcing today that Scott is moving on, I want to acknowledge our club is going through a considerable period of change.
“The decision of the board … was not an easy decision.
“It has been the result of a significant and considered process.
Watters’ sacking follows weeks of speculation about his future and massive turnover of key figures at the club.
Chief executive Michael Nettlefold is about to leave and Summers is only weeks into his tenure as president.
High performance manager Bill Davoren and senior assistant coach Dean Laidley resigned this month, while key players Nick Dal Santo and Ben McEvoy went in the trade period.
Summers and Nettlefold would give no details about why the Saints board decided to sack Watters, who had a year left on his contract.
Friday’s decision came only a few weeks after a club review effectively indicated Watters would stay.
“We went through a period where other things became clearer,” Summers said.
“In terms of the actual issues … they will remain confidential between Scott and ourselves.”
Summers’ comments followed a bizarre morning, with Watters going on Melbourne radio station to discuss the club’s fortunes.
He asked for the radio interview and the Saints did not approve it.
At the same time, the board was meeting to decide Watters’ fate.
“When a (club) president sits with you and says we see you as long term coach, that’s enough for me,” Watters said in the interview.
A couple of hours later, the Saints told Watters he was gone.
Brereton described the decision as pathetic and went on SEN to savage Pelchen.
“There are a lot of myths in footy and we’re talking about one of them,” he said of Pelchen.
But Peake, who only played one game under Watters last year before being delisted, said the club made the correct decision.
“Something wasn’t right in the last year I was there,” he said.
“It wasn’t because I wasn’t playing – I probably wasn’t good enough, I can cop that on the chin.”
Watters only managed 17 wins from 44 games in two seasons at St Kilda, his first AFL senior coaching role.
But clearly his mandate was to rebuild an ageing list, not keep the club near the top of the ladder.
Off-field issues, rather than the lack of on-field success, sealed his fate.
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